Hireling AI Improvements

[archest]

what would you like to see in improvements to hirelings?

I like the selection for weapons attack and defend but think it can be improved on.

I would like to control them like an arty pet. add armor weapon and select buffs.
possibly a permanent rental hire of some sort which would retain the settings but need to be contracted after timeout to have usable access.
one which could level as the arty pet does.

[ElrondElfKing]

How about we don't let them stand in a pit of acid or in front of a fire blast

[Yamani]

Or better yet, remove them from the game.

[Seph1roth5]

I wish they would give cleric/fvs hirelings the AI of archer skeletons, so they back away from danger instead of standing RIGHT ON TOP OF YOU and melee-ing.

[ssgcmwatson]

I would love to see a setting: "Hirelings will/will not heal charmed mobs"

Also, some hirelings seem to be unable to cast spells if told to not move.

[Wizard1406]

/sign!


Even reverting their AI to the short time it actually worked pretty decently would be a big help. (3-4 years ago?)


Stand your ground = stay put on the flag and don't move more than a few feet (to hit levers for ex.)

defensive = when a healer, only heal, nothing else. When other class, attack close mobs only, don't run off

aggressive = attack mobs but don't run halfway across the map!

Guard = stay right next to guarded player / NPC. Heal them if needed or intimdate & attack mobs near them as tank

Rez should work even when in "stand your ground mode"

Also, get rid of the cooldown before actions when teleporting. At least out of combat.

[Smokewolf]

That hires have an AI tab where you can select and de-select behaviors? Obviously, if you have a healer disabling the melee options generally tends to keep it out of harms way. (Mostly)

Anyways the point being, that if a hire is misbehaving, it more likely user-error / negligence then anything else. Yeah I know, hires are about as smart as a bunch of rocks. Thus requiring some fitness, care and situational awareness to use correctly. Otherwise, why bother summoning one when doing so kills off your daily experience bonus?

Don’t believe me? Enter into any mission alone, press “X” check the full experience amount both before and after summoning a hire. You may never summon a hire again as a result.

Edit: if I were going to complain about anything, it would be about the lack of “ranged” hires available. Not sure if this was an dev oversight or if hires are just too stupid to attack a mob within visual range to be effective enough worth having. Still, it would be a nice option to have a hire support a melee with ranged attacks… assuming they’d work.

-Smoke

[JOTMON]

Hirelings dying in enemy aoe trying to pathetically heal themselves instead of moving out of the aoe and doing their job.

non melee/tanking hirelings have a tendency to position themselves in damage range between me and a mob forcing me to prance around repositioning myself to keep the hireling out of the way

Flag plant that actually keeps them tethered to the flag .. they have a tendency to break tether and run off to do something stupid even in passive mode.

Hireling rogues walk into and activate identified traps to try to disable them when being in the damage aoe of the trap when it was not necessary to do so.


a toggle stance that keeps the hireling 20 feet behind me and not attack or aggro anything.. heal me/buff me/cc if necessary and stay the f out of danger.

a mode to have hirelings path where I path, not run off and cut their own path to wherever they think they are going.

[cdbd3rd]

... why bother summoning one when doing so kills off your daily experience bonus?

Don’t believe me? Enter into any mission alone, press “X” check the full experience amount both before and after summoning a hire. ....

I think you may be falling prey to a display bug that drops off the... <don't recall exactly which bonus>... from the XP display, but is actually given when it comes reward time. Compare display with actual reward given in chat log to check.