These forums have been archived and are now read-only.

The new forums are live and can be found at https://forums.eveonline.com/

Missions & Complexes

 
  • Topic is locked indefinitely.
 

Mission Triggers and Aggression
Author
Previous Topic Next Topic
Liang Vasten
Solar Cycle
#1 - 2011-12-26 09:46:28 UTC
Can someone please explain how the game determines aggression when mission triggers are set off?

When an npc spawn group is triggered by the destruction of a ship do they shoot at the closest thing or the ship that had the killing blow on the trigger ship? Or is it both and it just depends on that specific spawn group? Or is it random? I've seen both cases occur and there doesn't seem to be any discernible pattern.
Anya Ohaya
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#2 - 2011-12-26 23:20:03 UTC
It depends on the mission. Some mission rats will target drones and fleet members. Others will target the first ship in the pocket. Some will target the ship that hit the trigger. Some will only aggro if they are shot at.
Liang Vasten
Solar Cycle
#3 - 2011-12-27 14:41:07 UTC
Thanks for the info.

Do you know if any of the aggro mechanics are random? Like if a new warp in will randomly select between the ships on grid and shoot one?

I'm hoping it isn't random, since in that case at least I'll have some method of guaranteeing that my tank ship is the one being shot at (warp in first, shoot trigger, closest).
Flakey Foont
#4 - 2011-12-27 16:38:04 UTC  |  Edited by: Flakey Foont
I would doubt any aggro is random. In my experience, most non-attacked aggro is proximity based.
ValentinaDLM
SoE Roughriders
Electus Matari
#5 - 2011-12-27 17:11:47 UTC
There is certainly a mechanic for NPCs to target switch randomly. While this is implemented in POS and gate guns, I don't think this is implemented in any l4 missions. However, target switching does occur.

One example of this is in the mission Smuggler Interception l4, after about 10-20 minutes the rats will switch targets to my drones. Now this is almost never observed, because the only way this mission will ever take that long is if you are doing it in a t1 cruiser or frigate, however I do have it on video, but I don't think it is random target switching. I think the rats move to a certain area that resets their lock, and then they attack the closest thing, which by and large would be drones.

Rats do this pretty frequently in other missions when they "warp" within the mission, I.e. you pull them 200km from their spawn zone and all of the sudden they instantly appear where they first spawned, breaking all locks in the process.

Personally I wish rats had the new AI on all missions, there is really no reason to make missions AFKable at all. Though, sleepers are pretty dumb too, because you can put up some t1 drones, and tell them to attack someone 100km away, and the sleepers will actually do stupid things like leave you alone letting your passive tank recharge to go chase down some tracking disruption drones on a friendly drake. I guess they really care about drones and ewar, but that is pretty silly IMO, since an Acolyte TD-300 isn't a threat to anyone or anything.
Firestorm Delta
Aphotic Machina
#6 - 2011-12-28 20:28:05 UTC
For missions aggro is almost always, who arrived first, and who shot first. There are some missions that will auto-aggro the second guy in, or whoever gets too close, but shooting a group almost always pulls them in. Would be interesting if they put the sleeper ai in missions, at least to some degree.
Anya Ohaya
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#7 - 2011-12-30 07:24:11 UTC
In the first room of the Serpentis version of worlds collide a couple of the battleships will switch targets to drones.
Vaerah Vahrokha
Vahrokh Consulting
#8 - 2011-12-30 08:31:02 UTC
When it happens, most target switching is not really due to some AI function but by triggers.

Ships will target drones if they happen to be closer to them than the ship (solution shoot ship first).

Many ships change targets and switch to drones because they have a lock on the maximum range they can move away off their spawn point. Once they reach that range they quicky reset (like in other MMOs).
Often you happen to engage some ships, then send drones, then 1-2 NPC ships reset, their proximity trigger senses your drones and then they start shooting at them (with the reset their lost their aggro on your ship even if you were hitting them previously).

EvE Online portal | EvE markets tutorials