Improving Pet AI

**Adam** · 05-03-2008, 12:55 PM

Posted at Stratics, but not UOHerald

Hello Everyone,

We've been reading over your feedback on the recent Crystal Ball of Pet Summoning changes. Some of you have expressed concerns about Pet AI, and that the crystal ball was heavily relied on due to the inadequacies of the Pet AI.

I believe I have internally improved Pet AI.

Here is how the new AI should behave:

Commands:

Guard – The pet should guard as it does currently.
Follow – The pet should follow. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked.
Come – The pet should walk to. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked.
Kill/Attack – The pet will attack its target as it does currently.
Stop – The pet will stop attacking. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked, and may wander.
Stay – The pet will stay where it is currently, and will not attack anything, even if it is attacked.

QA is currently reviewing these changes internally. Once the changes pass internal review, they should appear on a public Test Center for an upcoming publish.

Once these changes are on Test Center, please be sure to send us your feedback on these changes.

Thanks!

abracadabra · 05-03-2008, 01:08 PM

Leurocian, in regards to pet AI changes, will the owner's taming and lore levels influence pet control as before, or will the new commands supercede skill factors? I think I am going to miss the old commands of a guard and stay combination where the pet will sit in a spot, yet still attack anything that agro's on it. Is there some way to keep that in effect with the new commands? Any changes to a bard's area peace and provoke skills affecting the pet's AI as well? Provoking something onto my pet's foe presently has my pet calmly walking back to me, oblivious to the monster it was attacking. A big thank you for your proactive stance to our concerns.

**DiP** · 05-03-2008, 01:21 PM

There should be a command for it to not just sit there and be attacked (unless "Guard" doesn't just make it attack anything that attacks the Tamer).

tnynyn · 05-03-2008, 01:39 PM

yay!! looking forward to this fix

Deraj · 06-03-2008, 10:21 AM

Some enhanced control over pets would help. Frankly, I think there's enough options now but it could definitely stand to be expanded. Here is my biggest gripe about taming commands: whenever I was trying to "get away" and get my dragon to follow, there was only one time I noticed when he would break that command; this was when something... anything... cast a spell on it. Not sure if they've fixed that (somehow, I'm thinking not), but it drove me up the wall having to spam "all follow me" relentlessly just to get my damn pet to follow me after a spell had been cast upon it.

**Silverfoot** · 06-03-2008, 11:13 AM

**hmm wonders if QA can look at Customer Service AI**

**kitiara** · 06-03-2008, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverfoot

**hmm wonders if QA can look at Customer Service AI**

:ROFL

I'm glad to see these changes. Looking forward to them!

Kiminality · 06-03-2008, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silverfoot

**hmm wonders if QA can look at Customer Service AI**

Are you sure you want the CS AI included in these changes?
These changes are to make pets less responsive to calls for attention (aggro) from third parties.
Makes you wonder if the CS AI was the first stage of testing for the new pet AI

**Silverfoot** · 06-03-2008, 11:02 PM

eewww, touche Kim!

elffyb · 07-03-2008, 08:30 AM

I have a follow up story for customer service that may interest you.

I had a snow day this week and 'worked from home'. I'm bad I know, just bear with me.

While 'working from home', I noticed I had an 'Accelerated Skill Gain' on my buff bar. I hadn't used an alacrity scroll in weeks, so I paged a GM. 11 AM CST.

Got the message back 6th in line. Cool, i'll go change the laundry. You know that feeling that you'll be waiting hours.

I walked back upstairs (elapsed time 10 mins maybe). And a GM had been in and removed the stale buff and was asking if there was anything else that could be done for me. I was amazed, I could only utter the reply 'Thank You'.

I think the time of day coupled with how I worded the request got this done quickly.

11 am, I realize that most of us work and can't submit at 11am but it's interesting to note if you NEED something done.

The way I worded my request ' i have had accelerated skill gain on my buff bar for weeks. I would like it removed so that I may use alacrity scrolls again.' Stated clearly what the problem was, what needed to be done about it, and why I needed it done.

Just an interesting note.

**Tabbitha** · 10-03-2008, 10:01 AM

UPDATED DEV POSTS.

love2winalot asks

Hail: When you are testing this, please test the following distance, :ie how far ahead or distance between you and your pet", for it to keep following you, and not stop. This is important since the pet will not attack anything, or counter attack, This leave the pet defenseless.

Also, test if multiple things attack a pet that is following you, will it break the follow command?

~~~~

Thanks for the feedback on this. I'll be sure to let QA know so we can monitor this.

Quote:

Also, test if multiple things attack a pet the is following you, will it break the follow command?

Yes, it should ignore all attacks.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

And give us pet balls and powders so we can test on TC

says Lord Drakelord

Good suggestion.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

Kiminality was next to take Leurocian to task

Quote:

Firstly. Are there any plans to update the AI beyond pets responding to commands? In effect, making monsters and pets smarter than the average mana-dumping automaton.

No immediate plans here, but it is something we'd like to do.

Quote:

Secondly. If you order a pet that's fighting to come/follow/stop, then it damages the monster with the delayed damage of a spell, or kitsune rage attack, will that kick it back into fighting?

It shouldn't. Definitely want to test this thoroughly though on TC. I'll remind QA to test for this.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

JCBuilder also had questions.

Quote:

So what happens if you have a pet following you and a player begins attacking it? Is it going to ignore the attacker completely until the tamer tells it to attack back?

Yes. However, if you tell the pet to follow you, then guard you. It will follow you until it is attacked or you are attacked, then it will autodefend as normal.

Quote:

Also, what happens if a pet kills a target. Currently it will revert to following you. So does this mean if you tell it to attack something, it will kill it and then just follow you again, ignoring anything else that is hitting it?

Once the kill/attack command is initiated, it should behave how it does currently.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

FrejaSP's question

Leurocian when you are done with the Pet Balls and he Pet AI, would it then be possible for you to tweak RoT on Siege, we really need our new players to stay after they hit RoT.

and Gwendar-SP,

Quote:

Are you going to fix the guard wacking bug(s) that makes it dangerous to have your pet guarding you in a guard zone?

@FrejaSP

I'll mention this to Draconi and the Live Team.

@Gwendar-SP

I'll pass this on to QA.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

Lariat wants her pet to use more sense

While you're looking at pet AI in relation to the Summoning Ball changes, could you give the pets with magery enough common sense to teleport if they get stuck on a ledge? One of the ways pet balls compensate is pulling the pets (usually a nightmare or rune beetle, in my case) off a ledge after they teleport up there to attack something. If they're smart enough to teleport up there to attack, they should teleport back down if I tell them to come or follow.

~~~~

JCBuilders reply taught me some thing I hadnt heard of before

If you say all come three times (successfully) a pet with Magery will teleport to your location. This has been around for as long as I can remember.

and Petra Fyde replying to the same question told us

This is already possible. A magic casting pet told 'come' will teleport to the owner. I've used it often when my pet has teleported at cyclops beach into the rocks, sometimes I have to ask more than once, but they always come to me.

Hopefully that won't get broken in these changes.

~~~~

Leurocia reassured Petra

Those changes should remain unaffected.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

Melciah didnt have as much luck with his 'tongue in the teeth ' question

Any changes with the Fetch command? It's not quite as necessary, but having a dragon bring me my boots sounds like an interesting concept...

~~~~

Not at this time. Just the commands listed in my original post for the time being.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

Petra Fyde wasnt convinced by Leurocian though,

Interesting, but I'm not totally convinced.

It will be lovely to take my mare to fight poison eles in Shame and not have her trying to fight the elder gazers through the wall. It will be lovely to have her attack the monster nearest to us, as I've told her to, and not the one just past it so that she ends up with both of them attacking her.

But I forsee problems if the pets don't autodefend at all.
I'd like to see the tamer's commands over ride autodefend, but not eliminate it.

Not sure I can explain what I mean clearly........an analogy. If you were walking your dog and another dog growled at it, it would continue to follow you (probably towed along by the lead, I admit) but it would also growl and snap at the other dog, yes?

~~~~

So she was asked

If you can Petra, test out the changes once they hit public TC and give us your feedback. I'm hopeful that what we have slated will be a big improvement to the existing command AI.

which she agreed to do.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

Another 'thought' from Petra

A further thought.

Will the pets have the potential to ignore these commands if the tamer's lore is insufficient?

I'd rather the changes didn't form a substitute for skill levels, or indeed, players' competence.

Yes. the commands have to be successful, have sufficient lore, etc. Nothing changes there.

Patrick "Leurocian" Malott
Lead Designer, Ultima Online
EA Mythic

~~~~

**Ally** · 13-03-2008, 02:07 PM

MORE DEV POSTS -- Every orange text is from Patrick "Leurocian" Malott, Lead Designer, Ultima Online, EA Mythic unless stated otherwise...

Quote:

Shouldn't the pet still get a swing in as a monster follows him when I tell him "all follow me"...

I don't want my pet to auto go into peace mode, and me ALWAYS tell him to kill something and re-tell him to kill something.

You can tell your pet to guard while it's following you. This will put it in autodefend mode for itself and its master.

To turn off guarding, tell your pet to stop or kill/attack.

So for passive follow, you could do 'pet name' stop, 'pet name' follow me, and it will ignore attacks on you or your pet.

For autodefend follow, you could do 'pet name' guard, 'pet name' follow me or 'pet name' follow me then 'pet name' guard. It doesn't matter what order you initiate the guard command. While your guarded, autodefend should work as normal. The pet will follow you in this case, but will fight whatever attacks you or itself.

Hope this clarifies that.

----------------

Yeah one more clarification. If the players dies while the pet is in passive mode, the passive mode will be removed, and it will defend itself if attacked as normal.

----------------

Quote:

While I have reservations about the proposed changes as is, I don't see this happening. Wouldn't it more likely go

* all guard me, all follow me
* 2 monsters spawn
* all kill monster 1
* monster 1 dead,
* all kill monster 2,
* monster 2 dead.
?

Correct. The previous example would not revert to a passive state. That would only happen if a passive command was initiated such as follow. In the previous example, after it killed something, and if it wasnt commanded, and the pet gets attacked, it would act normally and attack the aggressor. Then, of course, the tamer can decide to command it however she desires after that like normal.

Quote:

That’s a good point about how this might effect monsters. I had not thought about monsters.

That may also answer the question of why Leurocian does not want to fix auto-defend itself; pets and “monsters” probably share the same auto-defend code so changing pet behavior would also change monster behavior.

Correct. Monsters and Pets share this same code. At this time, we'd prefer not to make adjustments to that.

Quote:

For me, right now, the 'guard' command does not result in the expected behavior when more than 1 pet is out of the stable at a time. When I say "all guard me", and a monster attacks me, only one of the pets will attack the monster back. That one pet will consistantly be the one confronting monsters that attack me, while the other one does not respond to such attacks. When I was looking into this a while back, I found that it didn't matter if I used 'all guard me' or selected 'guard' from the context menu on the problematic pet, the behavior remained the same (my pets names at the time prevented using "petname guard me" because the pets' names all contained spaces).

Yeah, there were other internal things with guarding that were not working properly. I won't get into the technical details of it, but I just tested having two pets guarding me and getting attacked. Both pets immediately attacked my aggressor, so that appears to be working correctly.

Quote:

Just last night I was hunting with one of the new dragons, had issued a kill command and then managed to get myself whacked. With the existing logic my pet continued to defend itself until I could get myself rezzed. With your new logic my pet would have stood there and died to the next monster that spawned. That would not be very bright behavior for a creature that, by it’s intelligence stat, is about five times smarter than it it’s master.

Quoted from my original post:

Note: The pet will revert out of passive mode if the pet's owner dies, if the pet is stabled, traded, player character transfers, player and pet log off, etc.

Quote:

However, there have been times when, after issuing a kill command, I was attacked but did not die. Often that is the case. As I think I mentioned in another post, I am sometimes forced to beat a hasty retreat to avoid that dirt nap and some amount of time might pass before I can work my way back to my pet. In that situation wouldn’t the pet drop out of guard mode so that it can not defend itself?

Ok. In your example, you told the pet to kill something. In that case, it would function as normal, auto defend, etc. It will not become passive unless you tell your pet to follow you, stay, stop, or come. If you want it to auto defend while following you, simply tell it to guard in the same macro.

Btw. There is absolutely nothing to be sorry about. I really appreciate you all hammering this stuff out. Once these changes go on public test center (no promises, yes I have to state that), then we will further evaluate them. I can't stress enough how important your feedback is.

Thanks!

Quote:

If I understand the rest of your command structure correctly, the only mode that the pet would auto-defend in is guard mode.

So, putting those two points together, it seems that, after issuing a kill/attack command, your pet would no longer be in guard mode and would, therefore, no longer auto-defend. Am I missing something here or misinterpreting the actual functionality that you are proposing?

The kill/attack command removes the pet guarding like it always has. It also removes the new passive behavior functionality for the pet as well.

Quote:

Since we still haven't had a straight answer to this, I'm going to ask in a very clear manner, for Leurocian to answer.

* I order my pet to guard and follow me, it will now autodefend itself.
* I tell my pet to attack monster A, pet now in attack mode, autodefend mode is off.
* Pet kills Monster A, Monster B spawns and attacks pet, I DON'T give my pet any commands.
* What does pet do? Will it just stand there ignoring Monster B chewing it to death?

No. The pet will attack monster B.

Quote:

When you are improving Pet AI, is there a chance to change how pets and summons act to provocation?
Its anoying when you for example provoke Monters at the Dark Father and all summons and pets stop attacking him until you give the attack command again.

Today on my sandbox, I tested a fix for this. I'm going to submit my fix so QA can verify it. We'll keep you posted.

05-03-2008, 12:55 PM	#1 (permalink)
Adam Owner Join Date: Oct 1990 Posts: 5,652 Thanks: 12 Thanked 112 Times in 38 Posts My Mood:	Improving Pet AI Posted at Stratics, but not UOHerald Hello Everyone, We've been reading over your feedback on the recent Crystal Ball of Pet Summoning changes. Some of you have expressed concerns about Pet AI, and that the crystal ball was heavily relied on due to the inadequacies of the Pet AI. I believe I have internally improved Pet AI. Here is how the new AI should behave: Commands: Guard – The pet should guard as it does currently. Follow – The pet should follow. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked. Come – The pet should walk to. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked. Kill/Attack – The pet will attack its target as it does currently. Stop – The pet will stop attacking. It will not attack anything, even if it is attacked, and may wander. Stay – The pet will stay where it is currently, and will not attack anything, even if it is attacked. QA is currently reviewing these changes internally. Once the changes pass internal review, they should appear on a public Test Center for an upcoming publish. Once these changes are on Test Center, please be sure to send us your feedback on these changes. Thanks! __________________ Question: If you can't say anything nice should you really say nothing at all? Answer: If you weren't asked for your opinion then keep a lid on it. But if asked, be tactful as possible but be honest.

05-03-2008, 01:08 PM	#2 (permalink)
abracadabra Mindless Muse Join Date: Jul 2005 Posts: 328 Thanks: 1 Thanked 7 Times in 5 Posts	Re: Improving Pet AI Leurocian, in regards to pet AI changes, will the owner's taming and lore levels influence pet control as before, or will the new commands supercede skill factors? I think I am going to miss the old commands of a guard and stay combination where the pet will sit in a spot, yet still attack anything that agro's on it. Is there some way to keep that in effect with the new commands? Any changes to a bard's area peace and provoke skills affecting the pet's AI as well? Provoking something onto my pet's foe presently has my pet calmly walking back to me, oblivious to the monster it was attacking. A big thank you for your proactive stance to our concerns. __________________ Just a Mindless Muse meandering about! Last edited by abracadabra; 05-03-2008 at 01:12 PM.

05-03-2008, 01:21 PM	#3 (permalink)
DiP Ronin Join Date: Jan 2006 Shard: Black Water Raiders, Azeroth Posts: 9,328 Thanks: 41 Thanked 25 Times in 18 Posts My Mood:	Re: Improving Pet AI There should be a command for it to not just sit there and be attacked (unless "Guard" doesn't just make it attack anything that attacks the Tamer). __________________ Thanks again Maddux! Adri: women don't discuss men while in the bathroom, we sacrifice small animals and smoke tampons rolls eyes

05-03-2008, 01:39 PM	#4 (permalink)
tnynyn Join Date: Dec 2007 Shard: Atlantic Posts: 25 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Improving Pet AI yay!! looking forward to this fix

06-03-2008, 10:21 AM	#5 (permalink)
Deraj Join Date: Mar 2006 Shard: Napa Valley Posts: 413 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Improving Pet AI Some enhanced control over pets would help. Frankly, I think there's enough options now but it could definitely stand to be expanded. Here is my biggest gripe about taming commands: whenever I was trying to "get away" and get my dragon to follow, there was only one time I noticed when he would break that command; this was when something... anything... cast a spell on it. Not sure if they've fixed that (somehow, I'm thinking not), but it drove me up the wall having to spam "all follow me" relentlessly just to get my damn pet to follow me after a spell had been cast upon it. __________________ Still we loom in the mists as the ages roll away, And we say of our folk, "they are here!" That they built us and they died and you'll not be knowing why, Save we stand on the bare plains of Wiltshire.

06-03-2008, 11:13 AM	#6 (permalink)
Silverfoot Mith'quessir Join Date: Mar 2005 Shard: Siege, Chesepeake Posts: 2,022 Thanks: 15 Thanked 14 Times in 8 Posts My Mood: Blog Entries: 1	Re: Improving Pet AI hmm wonders if QA can look at Customer Service AI __________________ "Careful what you wish for, You just might get it all.... And then some you don't want"

06-03-2008, 11:02 PM	#9 (permalink)
Silverfoot Mith'quessir Join Date: Mar 2005 Shard: Siege, Chesepeake Posts: 2,022 Thanks: 15 Thanked 14 Times in 8 Posts My Mood: Blog Entries: 1	Re: Improving Pet AI eewww, touche Kim! __________________ "Careful what you wish for, You just might get it all.... And then some you don't want"

07-03-2008, 08:30 AM	#10 (permalink)
elffyb Join Date: Jan 2008 Shard: Lake Superior Posts: 117 Thanks: 4 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts	Re: Improving Pet AI I have a follow up story for customer service that may interest you. I had a snow day this week and 'worked from home'. I'm bad I know, just bear with me. While 'working from home', I noticed I had an 'Accelerated Skill Gain' on my buff bar. I hadn't used an alacrity scroll in weeks, so I paged a GM. 11 AM CST. Got the message back 6th in line. Cool, i'll go change the laundry. You know that feeling that you'll be waiting hours. I walked back upstairs (elapsed time 10 mins maybe). And a GM had been in and removed the stale buff and was asking if there was anything else that could be done for me. I was amazed, I could only utter the reply 'Thank You'. I think the time of day coupled with how I worded the request got this done quickly. 11 am, I realize that most of us work and can't submit at 11am but it's interesting to note if you NEED something done. The way I worded my request ' i have had accelerated skill gain on my buff bar for weeks. I would like it removed so that I may use alacrity scrolls again.' Stated clearly what the problem was, what needed to be done about it, and why I needed it done. Just an interesting note. Last edited by elffyb; 07-03-2008 at 08:31 AM.