(Loyal) Sidekicks' pathfinding AI breaks when they come across obstacles

avianos

This is something I wanted to bring into discussion long time now since the retirement of sidekicks from Lootboxes and the Limited Sidekicks put in the store
and because I posted this meme and everyone got confused WTF was I talking about

and before you say it, PETS have a long running History of broken AI, that's why i included them too in this object labeling meme

So let me explain!
My experience with Loyal and Limited Sidekicks is that their Pathfinding AI will always break when they get knocked behind a hedge, standing there staring at the enemy from afar instead of jumping and walking to close the distance gap!



For your visual aid I have provided plenty of animated gifs to help you understand what I'm talking about

I first noticed this anomaly in warzone, and more specific in the WORMs' Territory where the ground is everything but a flat surface!
You move fast from one platform to another and they get stuck, or when the WORMS knock them with they TK Waves down the platform

As you can see here, the Sidekick is in offensive mode but cannot jump neither fly to get on the small platform, leading to it awkwardly standing there staring at the enemies, despite having so many enemies close to him!, it won't even walk around the platform to use the stairs
After combat mode is done it will suddenly remember, OH HEY I can jump and fly


Another case I noticed during High Noon and tried to replicate, stuck behind a Hedge


Best case scenario, the Sidekicks will use only their range attack!
OK Even the Player's character model with stop the sidekick

However, while testing this bug I noticed that OLD SIDEKICKS which never got their flight taken away, they can move perfectly during combat and dodge all the obstacles with dexterity



TL;DR: The Flight toggle broke Sidekicks' AI and they cannot jump neither fly during combat, leading for them to get stuck for the entire combat


OH NO! OW A HEDGE! WHATEVER SHALL I DO? I guess I will just stand here doing nothing while my player is killing the mobs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯​​

avianos

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://youtu.be/PGNiXGX2nLU​​

flyingfinn

Remove all the Sidekicks/Henchmen.
And Pets.

avianos

Keep this thread in mind since I'm going to post every gif when a Sidekick's AI goes bananas
Especially an odd bug with the Robot Spider which cause it to clip on the floor and constantly jump!

flyingfinn wrote: »

Remove all the Sidekicks/Henchmen.
And Pets.

That's an Extreme solution which I oppose, not only it will make many people angry but it will also remove content instead of fixing it (...Eidolon doesn't count)

The truth is, PETs' AI is so BROKEN in CO I believe DEVs gave up trying to fix it!
I now realize why they retired Sidekicks from Lockboxes and Z-store, they cannot fix the AI due to the spaghetti code in the engine so Abandon ship​​

avianos

And here is the thing, since DEVs removed travel and movement from sidekicks during combat, they became completely brain dead
A lot of people told me that their Sidekicks just stand there doing nothing when they come across the tiniest obstacle

AGATE! IT'S A 3 FEET TALL PAVEMENT or whatever this is called in English! You could JUMP!
But oh wait, jumping during combat is banned from you


Please give back Combat Flight and Jumping to Sidekicks! This is just sad
The out of combat flight toggle is worthless​​

jebidiahbeetus

True, whenever I have to hop over the rail to face Warlord my sidekick always stops on front of it and stands there until the glowing wall appears so it can't get in even if it figured out how to jump 3 feet.

spookyspectre

I hadn't heard of this change until this thread. It sounds like combat flight and jumping was intentionally removed? If that's so, was an explanation provided?

avianos

spookyspectre wrote: »

I hadn't heard of this change until this thread. It sounds like combat flight and jumping was intentionally removed? If that's so, was an explanation provided?

I can't find the original patch notes due to the search system, but if I remember well there is a long running bug to this day with PETs'/Sidekicks AI which will cause the to switch flight toggle on and off constantly and never attack! so they removed it entirely which lead to more buggy behavior​​

spookyspectre

Ahhhh that does sound familiar now that you mention it. I didn't realize one caused the other.

avianos

avianos wrote: »

Keep this thread in mind since I'm going to post every gif when a Sidekick's AI goes bananas
Especially an odd bug with the Robot Spider which cause it to clip on the floor and constantly jump!

This happens way too often

? ? ?​​

avianos

Haven't updated this thread in a while. I was planning to showcase newest Sidekick's AI as well
RAY-ZAR has been really flexible moving during combat but he suffers from Broken AOE arc
I need to do more research on him but due to his broken AOE Arc he is annoying to bring in Qzone

In General, PETs' AI has been brain dead as ever, and I noticed during Nightmare Invansion that my Summoner's and Necromancer's Pets and Sidekicks would get Borked and stop attacking!

So how is Chaos Imp doing in terms on AI...?

As you can see the A.I can't jump to get to the target and spams Lunge
Who would win? A Loyal Sidekick VS A tiny ledge

Would it seriously HURT Making Sidekicks being able to JUMP during Combat? this is embarrassing​​

mordray001

I'm curious about the AI they use on LadyHawke... she seems capable of navigating some rather cluttered environments... at least I've never ran into a situation where she seems to lock up... unlike blaze and that pistol girl.