Attention! All pet owners plz add your comment.

[Ripley67]

I am playing an lvl 159 Engineer. I have some consideration about the class in general which i would like FC to look into.

1) Pet path and sync problem.

Why this so important? lets give me example of 3 situations.

a. Indoor fight, i order my pet to attack, the fight starts and if the pet get stuck in fight in furniture and you get add's into fight which target you, u are practically dead unless u can hit the exit in time. Or even worse, the pet get stucks b4 reaches the target due all these perspective errors and pet locks himself between mob and yourself how to get back your pet without being forced to leave the area.

b. Outdoor fight, i cannot often not at all order my pet without getting attack at Mort due all dunes makes the pet stuck on the ground. Fight at all outdoors should be the paradise for pet owners according to those read the stats and study the pet classes without playing it. THIS is a MYTH, it sux!

c.If i have to retreat many times the pet get stuck and i become ALONE with the mob. Or when u attack with pet u end upon alone with mob since the pet is WARPED back.

d. In team mission i sense that sync+path problem increases so we pet owner slack behind other which must be tedious for other and this creates a smaller tension between player. "WHY shall we have Engineer they always get their pet stuck when we really need em, we cant rely upon them". This can be solved if all ppl moved in same slow way we do. This becomes VERY acute problem when u get speed buff, even tried move a pet with u indoors while with speed 1000+? Its pure disaster.

2) Why cant taunt trimmer work in PvP as well?

Well about this we can debate for ages but in my opinion the following concepts should work,

a. Engineers should be the only class to have such shields that gives them an advantage to compensate for their loss in damage output.

b. Crat should have pvp nanos that makes the bodyguard to protect them with a chance of failure, working like a) but in different perspective.

c. MP have their pets. They might get some kind of taunt nano to ensure some smaller chance for pet interfere but in less amount as a & b.

I am disappointed to see that Engineers and crat have same nano lines for their pet that give NO charactaristic and flavor to the pet, just a difference in name/skins. Then its much better to put crat and ENG to same class since now we have the situation that a crat is what engineer can do as best but little more.

3) Give pet class clear functionality in game.

In what perspective? Well in my humble opinion i would like to see

a. MP to have more connections to the upcoming dark expansion, to be the manipulator of the dark side. MP should be the master of NP and should have tools (MP only ) tha ensure ppl need em for making items connected to nano-science.

b.crat should affect political situation, like being able to manipulate gas in certain area, being able to draw attention to nearby "guards" ie use em as pets that is. To draft vehicles from official areas. Fighting vehicles etc.

c.Engineer should be able to MAKE pets, preferable same and DIFFERENT from those given by nano lines. Above all i would like to see an differentiation so we can talk about nano-Engineer or robotbuilder-Engineer. We should be able to create vehicles/sentinels to sell them ( with a temp flag ie they last for a certain time preferable more than 1 hour and be lost when u log off). I want to be able to use different type of pet to have little more tactic while playing but please no kamikaze robots, that sounds so bad. Why cant we make pets which can shoot?

Well i have more ideas, but lets rest at these points. Lets be constructive and add comments about stuff what uwould like to see in coming patches.

[_________Blackraven2]

The pet pathing sucks badly. Since the start of the game and never fixed properly. Must not be a issue ao wants to fix since they can still collect the same money on the account. I started with mp now 151 and gave up him. He just builds imps and stuff now. Started a trox ma now 139 and now he is gimped to. Do not understand why they keep gimping one prof then nerf another. Few patches later they flip flop the nerfs and gimps. Maybe they want you to re-roll. That way they dont have to worry about game content cause you keep rerolling then still pay month after month. I was on beta testing of notum wars and did not think it was enough of a patch to pay for. So I am in search of a new game for me and my wife to play. We give up on AO.
Yes you are fully right just wish it was taken care of. Wow an exploit on the org banks. Instant shutdown to get to bank and fix that. Still there is issues with the game like I said the start. They will stop features and make a instant patch if you benifet from the goof up. But no dont fix something that makes the player of the game more enjoyable. It is all about the money and not the player. I do think it is very good game, one of the best, but not like this month after month doning missions over and over. Then came Notum Patch. Something that was suppose to be in the game before and not have to pay for it. Keep your new yalms to a joke in air vehicle. Atleast 485 in it. The sad thing is a ql 30ish yalm is faster still. Towers yeah ok once in a very few times the pvp battles go on. Not enough though i think.
Well enough. Hopefully somebody will do something about pet pathing. Maybe a patch you have to buy to get it lol.
Blackraven

[Ripley67]

I want to add 1 thing more to enlight ppl my view on how in what perspective classes differ in master of same discipline namely nanotechnology.

I regard

MP to be the master of nano-creation, manifistation of time-space, creating strange creatures from thin air. They should have the fine-attuned knowledged in how to infuse their knowledge into common items like armor, weapons, plants, life itself. But they are specialized upon manifestation knowledge.

So with this i would like to see MP being able to,

a.crafted items ( which they partly have but more permanent effects and tradeable with other classes )

b.being able to transform mobs into meta-species.

c.being master of cluster technology.

NT should be the master of physical manifestation, earth/fire/water but not life associated. They are the master in knowledge of warp, teleportation. I am content with NT class apart some feature bugs. However i am disappointed that so many other classes have NT feature, its in my opinion that NT should be able to teleport themselves/team by entering coordinates or click on map which would give them a powerfule position in team work.

Doctor should be the master of life aspect with nano technology. I think doc is way to powerfule in combat aspect and i dont understand why they should be able to fight with other than pistol. To see a doc with shotgun rule in pvp kinda violate the picture of pvp is meant to be. How shall then doc be able solo xp? well in that aspect i regard that DoT shall compensate for that matter, why should for example DoT only affect hp why not create stun effect, attribute effects etc.

I could ramble on. What i essentially wanna say that i am tired to see FC make all class more and more alike. I would love to see more differentation that increase each class functionality in their role of storyline.

[Skyhigh]

Level 126 Engi here.

a. Indoor fight, i order my pet to attack, the fight starts and if the pet get stuck in fight in furniture and you get add's into fight which target you, u are practically dead unless u can hit the exit in time.

I rarely die even when i get aggroed. I use the bad pathing to my advantage. What i do is run in and out of a room quickly doing sharp turn very close to the door frame. Most of the time the mobs chasing me get stuck in the door frame and i'm safe waiting on the other side for my bot to come helping me.

If i have to retreat many times the pet get stuck and i become ALONE with the mob. Or when u attack with pet u end upon alone with mob since the pet is WARPED back

This is one of the most annoying thing. It happen inside and outside. You see the pet next to you and 5 sec later he's warped back in the door where he was stuck. I swear to god they put magnet into walls, chairs and table.

d. In team mission i sense that sync+path problem increases so we pet owner slack behind other which must be tedious for other and this creates a smaller tension between player.

True we are totally useless in team. Like you said unless they want to wait for us all the time there is no way we can go as fast as the other players.

even tried move a pet with u indoors while with speed 1000+? Its pure disaster

For most peoples having a run speed buff is cool. But for Engineers is the worst thing you can put on them. It's absolutly unplayable above 400 run speed. Your pet who was getting stuck now and then, is now getting stuck ALL THE TIME.

[gwend]

as a crat death isnt an issue i snare calm slow what ever floats my boat when i hit lvl104 got my ql200 imps in got my ql200 bot made went and soloed some ql180ish missions getting 100k a kill ^^ was great slow but great after joining teams the pets were too slow to help manuver around obsitcles so i stopped using the sexy bot now im an nt with weak nukes woo

as for outdoor hunting maybe my bot is trying to tell me something when i tell it to attack a mob 20 feet in front of me and he takes off running out of sight in the other direction for no apparent reason :>

[__________armbreaker]

147 MP here.

Pat pathing is a tremendous problem and the only legitimate use of an MP is as a buff mule now. Nobody wants us to use pets in missions. Anyone who's worked on a high level mission with 140+ players know these missions go fast and nobody tolerates the slow MP. I spend most of my time trying to get the pet to correctly follow me through doorways on those occasions where I cast them.

Additionally, in most Boss areas, I have to run up close to the mob before the pet will attack. Otherwise, I get the "no line of sight" error.

Lastly, I wonder why the AI seems to work fine with the mobs navigating missions. Mobs seem to be able to move through the same obstacles my pets get caught on. What if-- yes it sounds revolutionary-- but give our pets the same AI as the mobs. Otherwise, give us a 1/2 second cast duration pet warp nano which allows us to quickly pull the mob to us.

I would love to threaten to quit and throw myself around. But, I'm an AO addict and I'm gonna play. Keep people like me happy and I'll keep buying your monthly service and I'll buy your expansion packs.

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

The funny thing is, whatever new netcode they are using now makes it 10 times worse than the last patch. Indoor solo missions are about as much fun as a root canal. I really don't use my pet for much anymore, it's just to pathetic and frustrating.

I don't think funcom knows how to fix these problems anyway, it's beyond their control and knowledge.

[Okatek]

You just add Envelope space and then you have pet pathing..

[____________Lochlann]

haha this is just too funny...
ive been away for about 4 months... and last night i started thinking about making a pet class... like a meta or a engie.
So then i started thinking about pet pathing... lol.. what a joke.... its (i guess) been the #2 priority since december '01.

why can they just make the pet retrace its owners exact steps?

NOT beamline a straight line to him. retrace his steps.

its just sad they cant seem to fix this.

Anarchyonline hits YOU for 1.5mil petpathing damage.
YOU try to hit Anarchyonline But it DODGES your question!

[Toxinator]

Pet pathing hasnt worked since day one. It was posted by a MP professional a while back (X?) that it was a top priority that was like back in june. SOOO i don think this will be changed any time soon mabye is someone writes the code for it then they will understand.

[Cboath]

umm i guess i will be another player that requests a /pet warp command or pet warp nano that has a cast req of being a MP, true prof only not just visual with no more than 5 sec use/cast time. Have it check pets for roots and snares before it will work.

Oh sorry make one for each pet class with only req of being that class. Make it an Item that is sold in the startup terms that cost 1 credit. OH another idea. Make it an item that is part of pet prof startup gear, is Nodrop and Unique. If its made as part of startup gear it still needs to be put in startup gear terms so that existing pet profs can buy it.

I think i would prefer it be an item so that a pet user can still warp there pets to them even if they are effected by OE rules because a weapon user doesnt just drop their weapon if they are OE.

I have listed several workaround ways of jury rigging pet pathing. No it doesnt fix pet pathing. FC seems to like nanos or items is why i am not pushing the /pet warp command, which i would really prefer. I like the idea of an item better than nano.

So for easy viewing:

1. /pet warp command that checks pets for roots and snares before warping the pet/s.

2. pet warping item that can be purchased from startup gear term for 1 credit. Has use req of being a true pet prof, not visual (sorry agents you have to deal with MP pet pathing). Is nodrop/unique even though for every other proff except the one the item is made for it has no use. Can even make it a part of startup gear for pet profs but still must be in startup terms to purchase for 1 credit. Still have a check to see if pet/s are rooted or snared, if it/they are t doesnt warp the pet/s. Use time of no more than 5 secs.

3. pet warping nano that has a skill requirement of 1 in MC/TS. Make the nano true prof only. I know FC can do that as agents cant FP to use Trader term and several lines of nanos like GA. Oh and a cast+recharge time of no more than 5 secs at ZERO nano cast init.

I am just a 139 MP that is getting really annoyed with pet pathing.

[Highorbit]

Level 176 Engi...

Pathing is currently the most frustrating thing about my profession after buff begging.

[_____________Debussy]

hmmm...

I noticed Eng pets get stucked more often than Crats'. Does pet's size got to do with it? If yes, hell, give us "Shrinking Nano" to shrink our pets Little tiny pet that hits like a train
Now I like that But of cause, I always prefer a /pet warp cmd

I noticed another thing that pet pathing that FC patched works like a dice, a gamble in short. Most of the time, pet will retrace my step even from 2-3 room away with furniture. Well not most of the time, more like 50/50 A gamble

[Highorbit]

Hehe... slayers used to be unable to fit through doorways... I believe wardroid pathing to be better.

I believe size is important Wardroids seem to path better, but have half the HP.

[Vdpmeat]

An ideal world....

Push the attack/heal button and the pet is on the target.

Push the follow/behind button and it's there, right behind me.

Does it really need to path in order to do that?

Sure it looks cool to see it try to navigate around tables and through doorways, but would it be so bad if it just walked through walls and stuff in order to do what I want?

Maybe there is some potential exploit in that, I don't know, like maybe there should be a line of sight/range checks. I do like to the ability to send it into the first room to clear it out while I wait in the relative safety of the entrance when soloing (if I can get it to find the door).

Outdoor hunting has changed recently for pet classes. At least I've noticed that the pets seem to have a range limitation now. I'm thinking that 40m is the magic number.... too far away from your target and the pet looks to be stuck on nothing untill you get it within rage. If you move out of range and it has multiple targets, it will wait until you are back in range before it starts to do damage again. Silent nerfs(er... corrected to work as intended) happen.

No other imrovements to pet classes will make much of a difference until pathing issues are resolved.

Fix the pets, it's been too long.

[_____Real Kinky Ityn]

Yep seen that too, don't even bother with mine in PVP anymore, if someone is agged by it all they have to do is run out of my range and the pet de-agros them, doesn't even chase them.

Let's see. Pets are useless in:

Solo missions, unless you want to waste several hours trying to get your pets from room to room (always wanted to make a movie about this and slap it up on my web site) pet pathing is so comical.

PVP, other than roots, calm, snares, fears, and ini debuffs of which every class in the game but Soldiers have, now if they are out of visual the cease to attack. In places like trasque this is great, you can just back-pettle 50m and the pet stays stuck there, in a coma. Doesn't matter in there anyway because it will get stuck on the environment anyway, in the stair well, on a box, in a doorway. Outdoors, same deal even easier to leave visual range because of the wall of defenders on both sides. If a player doesn't want to run they are easy to confuse and get stuck on some object, then the player can go after you and leave the pet stuck.

Team missions, same as solo missions, easier to put a gun on and do some damage. Pathing is worse in team missions for some reason, the ele trips freak pets out.

Outdoor hunting they are somewhat useful. as long as there are no hills, sand dunes, pebbles, trees.

And then the new bugs, if you plane up without doing a pet follow before you plane up as soon as you leave visual range of your pet, if it is trying to follow you on the default guard cmd, it will just stand where it loses visual range, and will not warp to you or even attempt to move.

[Dreams]

A bump for pet pathing...

I won't even start one pet class after seeing my newbie eng's bot move So bump bump and triple bump for fix

[______________Romble]

what is weird also is when i have 2 or 3 pets as a crat the bot pet becomes more dumb than usual and gets stuck in spots where the charmed mobs are not.

Somtimes it willl just stop listening to commands and wait there while charmed mobs will follow me. This always makes me nervous if i have a high pet chrmed.

[SmenGromit]

<quote>
And then the new bugs, if you plane up without doing a pet follow before you plane up as soon as you leave visual range of your pet, if it is trying to follow you on the default guard cmd, it will just stand where it loses visual range, and will not warp to you or even attempt to move.
</quote>

One even stranger and sometimes really weird and funny effect:

If you plane up, and get aggroed while in plane, the bot will say "Entering idle state..." and follow *the attacker* around as if the attacker is somehow it's new parent :P

Smen

[NutsnBolts]

/pet warp /pet warp /pet warp /pet warp /pet warp /pet warp
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