New Grid Wander type Spook

[unicorn97211]

Was thinking while going through the movement code that it might be interesting to add a grid wander type so that mobs assigned this new grid type will switch from walking to running to their next waypoint if something they con indiff or worse and green to comes near it.

The effect I am looking for is if as a lvl 70 toon I walk up to a roaming lvl 10 unicorn and I don't have good faction with that unicorn, I spook the unicorn into running to it's next waypoint(s) until the unicorn has run out of agro range of me.

I was thinking also to implement this for blue/lt blue cons that are indifferent so that I could have an indifferent animals roaming the map that would avoid hunters by running when they get within agro of one. This could even lead to pushing instead of pulling where mobs are spooked into an ambushing group rather than pulled to it.

I think this would add more value to the tracking skill since a ranger would have to actually hunt down a mob that is actively avoiding him.

Perhaps also implement a timer to quit running while spooked after awhile so that it appears as though after chasing the mob for awhile he got tired. Maybe base this on the mobs stamina?

Anyways just getting the thought out there and I thought it would be cool that when you run by green cons that used to attack you when you were a n00b now get spooked by your presence haha!

[fathernitwit]

This is an interesting idea, not sure how easy it would be to get the state changes right to only run for a while... anyhow, I would say if you are going to do this, then you should really do it as a "special attack" (aka special attribute) so you dont limit the regular pathing code.

[fireclav]

tho i find it a neat idea, what if someone wanted to hunt these mobs... would be kinda hard with them runnin all over hte place when u got close.

[unicorn97211]

And that is where invis, sneak and ranged attack come into play. I've got this prototyped on my test server and mobs with their Special Attack 'K' attribute set True will spook instead of aggro when you come within the mobs aggro radius.

I set a mob to run at 1.75 speed when spooked to make sure he could outrun me. In order to catch this mob I could do the following:

• Use Sneak/Hide/Invis and get close enough to take a swing at the mob or shoot an arrow at it.
• Use Sneak/Hide/Invis and get close enough to cast on the mob before it spooks out of casting range.
• Predict the mobs path and get between the mob and it's next waypoint so that it runs towards you when spooked.

It's interesting having to camo up before going out to pull.

At the moment this only causes mobs on grids to run to their next waypoint. I would like to see if I can get them to run in a direction away from the puller off the grid until no longer spooked at which time the mob would return to wandering the grid. This would require something like... hmmm.. fear pathing, so I'll see what evolves with fear pathing to see if I can hook into it at some point.

Keep in mind, the purpose of this feature is to make hunting mobs with this flag more lifelike. Deer hunters don't run through the forest until a deer aggros them and if a deer sees a hunter before that hunter takes a shot at it, that deer is gonna spook and run away.

[fireclav]

couldnt u set a bunch of paths it could take and have it randomly choose one so you cant predict where it will go? like give the mob the ability to randomly go left right up down or in a diag direction