Petition: Bring back mob AI!

I miss mobs "sensing" you before they aggro'd quite a bit - and the fleeing mobs made the world feel a little more real. I'm all in for seeing those again... just... really stressing the "keep the nanny herds off of me," thing.

@Azu: most likely because people complained about AoE agroing the curious monster types. But even then, I liked it; danger + risk factor. You never know when a goat may be looking over your shoulder.

~Signed. I miss my pet dodos.

During OB, I once had an ewe follow me all across the map when I was making my way down to the lighthouse. It brought such a smile to my face when I kept trying to outrun it then slowly saw it appear again in the distance.

Signed!

I don't even know why they took this off it give more life to FFXIV now the mobs are boring just like the NPCs.

I'm so sad that the Doblyns don!t look at me with their googly eyes anymore :( I loved how the monsters interacted with us and now the game just feels so lifeless without it.

Totally signed. Honestly, this was one of the only things that really disappointed me about 1.18.

I'd at least like to hear why it was made the way it was. Were the Japanese players unhappy about the mob AI or something?

No. The problem was that people used AOE's in Behests and the like, which inevitably aggroed some nosy Aldgoat.

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Originally Posted by Rinsui

No. The problem was that people used AOE's in Behests and the like, which inevitably aggroed some nosy Aldgoat.

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Yep, and I say so what? People who aren't careful gotta pay the consequences.

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Originally Posted by Rinsui

No. The problem was that people used AOE's in Behests and the like, which inevitably aggroed some nosy Aldgoat.

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So thats why Efts needed to be nerfed too? Curious AI is another beast but don't just flip the switch for everything.

Yes.
But only if the AI quirks are designed around the battle system.

Part of the original problem was that certain attacks and abilities did not mesh well with how the enemies behaved.

Signed.

Agree. Just fix the curious system a but. I like the quick when draw weapons method

If they really want to make the game feel a bit more alive, they can take some hints from their 2 previous FFs. Certain enemy types will attack other enemy types if they are in the vicinity and taking a cue from FFXII, get stronger upon defeating the their prey (and give us more SP if we kill them). The fact that we wouldn't be the only thing hunting mobs would definitely add a bit of life to the game. Even using XIII as an example, you can sneak up on mob that is preoccupied with it's own battle. It wouldn't be easy to implement though, otherwise we'd be competing against our own prey.

The eft changes really suck btw. Several of the nodes in the Black Shroud instantly became harder to attain.

I agree with OP and other posts up to here.

Also bring back sneak/invis/etc

Signed.

I really miss having my random pets.

Now the creatures are just lifeless punching bags, when before I actually felt a slight tinge of guilt for slaying one of them.

Please bring it back SE!

Signed, too!

Lord knows I missed the enemy behavior quirks, I honestly can't believe they pulled them. I mean it was a fun feature that development time was actively spent on and some of the things they removed weren't even problem for anyone.

Sure, some of them could be annoying, but even those added flavour, and there is no way that anyone could argue, so far as I can figure, that removing the behavioral quirks made things more interesting. I think the only thing I would have changed would have been to make enemies that followed you keep a few feet away instead of zeroing on you.

So yes, please, re-applying the behavioral quirks of certain enemies would go a long way to restoring my presently somewhat eroded faith in the development team's interest in creating a world just as much as they want to create a good game.

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Originally Posted by redmage

Yeah Vydarr, they should have had it where curious mobs will then be afraid if you draw a weapon or are engaged in battle. I'm hoping that they will implement mob behavior once again in later patches and this was just temporary whilst they fine-tune it.

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Yep. And it can be played off of any kind of reaction really.

They sense a quick, possibly aggressive motion and they flee.. just like some animals in real life.
They hear one of their own in danger, letting out cries that clearly indicate "something's harming me", then they would move away, rather than become curious and approach. Or, if they're a social creature, they might come to them instead.

100% behind this idea, I wish they'd stop simply removing things instead of trying to fix them.

Signed! But please don't let the goats follow me for as long as they did

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Originally Posted by Zahak

Signed! But please don't let the goats follow me for as long as they did

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You don't like goats!?!?!

But yeah mobs that react to your presence is a plus even if it's just for show.

Bring them back! :) And I like the idea of following monsters not following you if you have your weapon out

+1 this!! Was so sad to remove this.

I'm all for this idea!

I do miss the mob ai. the curious ai was very problematic though. not so much when you only had one mob following you, but when you turned into the second coming of goat jesus it was hell. But it was really fun to exploit mob behavior to dodge them. Will have to go test but it use to be possible to dodge raptors in the same manor that you dodged efts.

Fun fact in closed testing before they turned alpulkus into agro mobs it was possible to trigger them into following you around by emoting at them they would not leave there leash range though.


I do wonder how much server performance factored into the removal of mob ai though.

Signed! Maybe I came in too late to have seen that feature, but it sounds great! I want it in.

Please bring it back! I really enjoyed moving around the world and having to learn the different ways mobs reacted to your presence... even the curious ones, although annoying, would make it interesting.

Please BRING IT BACK!!!! I do not like walking around Dodos (as an example) and seeing just big feathered statues who move every 2 minutes.
Please please please !!!! Bring back that sense of reality which made most of us be amazed during fights.

Signed! Especially if they male the changes to the "curious" AI like you suggested. :D

No thanks .......Do not want goats to follow me or any other mob. Bring back the eft thing maybe but it made it to easy to avoid them. I would rather have mobs fighting each other like FF 12 and 13

I'm 100% in, why they removed a good feature i'll never understand.
The game needs more depth/lore/atmosphere (a lot more) not less of it.
Darker zones (black shroud its a deep old forest not a small woodland) and a more evil mob AI :D

I would rather see lots more mob AI added aswell, like some animals moving in packs, Ewe's following a ram and so on.
You attack one of the ewe's the ram attacks you but all the Ewes make a run for it..
Monkeys throwing their nuts at you as you pass (ok doing like 5 damage and not pulling you into combat or something but its to try get you to fight them).
Maybe even mobs chasing other mobs off an area! :D

Yeah it was a great feature although some things got a little annoying, when you had like 5 nannygoats line up behind you when you doing leves and thus block your ability to aoe.

This is a game changer. perfect 10 for immersion. Its all about being aware of your environment rather than oh hey I just purely need to look out when (insert situation here) happens.

I've always thought it would be hilarious for monster's aggression to be somewhat related to emotes. It was commonplace in XI for example for people to use /slap on particularly annoying monsters (because they were in the way or something) and I always thought it would be reallllly funny if the monster picked up on the slap and charged at the person who used the emote.

In XIV we have a lot of emotes that could work well like /beckon for example.

Signed, and I am truly glad to see the FFXIV community get so strongly behind a petition. What Griss says bothers me a bit, however. The possibility that they turned this feature off on all monsters because it was sapping too many cycles on the server is actually relatively high. If that is indeed the case, the likelihood of them re-adding it any time soon is extremely low.

In fact, given that several reports of improved performance coincide with the removal of several of these behaviors does lend weight to the possibility.

Voted with a thumbs up!

YES DO IT NOW

I am really half and half on this. I wouldn't mind seeing the pre agro animations but I hated the curious mobs that would follow you around and cause you to get killed because you would accidentally hit one when you was doing a leves where you had to hit multiple mobs. Next thing you know is you hit it which is 10 levels over you and got 4 mobs beating your face in.

Honestly I haven't noticed it was taken away besides the curious animals, I guess it is because I really don't care either way. I don't find this aspect of the game important right now when I would much rather the team work on something that actually benefits the game instead of something that seems cool based on appearance.

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Originally Posted by Razor

I've always thought it would be hilarious for monster's aggression to be somewhat related to emotes. It was commonplace in XI for example for people to use /slap on particularly annoying monsters (because they were in the way or something) and I always thought it would be reallllly funny if the monster picked up on the slap and charged at the person who used the emote.

In XIV we have a lot of emotes that could work well like /beckon for example.

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/beckon kinda like a taunt? lol thatd be sweet.

I miss dodo's cocking their heads and staring at you through vacant eyes. I supposed this creeped out the Japanese players and was removed. :(

Curious mobs never bothered me. It was sort of cute to unintentionally collect a flock of sheep. Or a monkey taking up curiosity in your gathering actions. Goats didn't make much sense though to being a curious creature. They should make some sort of AI where you can feed apples to the mobs and have them follow you around a tad, or go away if they get fed.

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Originally Posted by Jynx

Personally I miss the days of being able to farm among efts as long as I watched my step and didn't move around them.

I miss when crabs would raise their claws at you if you came too close before attacking.

I miss when Deer would flee in my pressense.

Yes I also miss "Curious" monsters to an extent.

Personally I think SE removing these unique features "And who knows what else" from some monsters was a very bad move. I hereby declare this post to be a petition for Mob AI to be put back into the game, and for more monsters to have unique quirks.

Feel free to post what AI you know of, and what you think some awesome ideas would be, or great ways to tweak the system.

Known AI "Quirks"

• Funguar wont use Queasy cloud, or (not sure on name) Mushroom whip if you don't attack them when they inflate or deflate.
• Mice mobs tend to flee after you weaponskill and cower for a few moments
• Red crabs "Used to" Raise their claws instead of flat out agroing until you got closer to them
• Drakes will warn you before they agro
• Efts "Used to" Become "Aware" of your presense via sound, and if you stopped moving during this phase where they appeared to be listening for you...you could avoid agro!
• Many mobs used to follow you around Monkies, and Aldgoats being a prime example.
• Deer and Quqirn would run away from you.

What do you guys think? I personally wish efts were the way they used to be, it's sad to see them just flat out agro now.

As for the "Curious" monster I do think they need to have a short follow radius, only do so for a short time, and perhaps flee when you enter battle mode. "Not sure of many goats who would be curious about me after I started swinging"

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Signed.

For curious monsters, they could just tone it down or tweak it a bit so it's not such an annoyance after a while.

signed. besides curious mobs, id like to see all that back.
those damn goats and following....