Enemy troops DO prioritize the Player

[rlilewis]

Personally I would just put it down to awful AI programming. Sometimes enemies will single you out when you are obviously the worst target to attack and other times I can be behind their line cutting down a whole bunch of them and none will turn to fight me...

 

[Cenequus]

Since you're the commander of the troops I find it pretty normal and realistic that they kill you in sight,specially by range units.
As many said sometimes they go straight for you sometimes they totally ignore you.I actually haven't experienced nothing extreme actually like a bulk of enemy troops just passing by you in a siege or I don't know 30 troops chasing you.The most i had chasing me were like 4/5 cavalry.
As for how the AI might work might be related to the armour you're wearing(in the highest difficulty atleast).So based on what you're wearing they send all the troops that counters that to you and those that would be weak ignore you.Just sayin',I'm playing on average combat AI and they act pretty nice,they don't do stupid thing nor outrageous impossible things.

 

[Northern Mameluke Empire]

what about Alt-F5ing yourself at the beginning of the round and seeing what happens?

For the record, what's ALT-F5?

I think that knocks you out.

 

[zimbabwe]

Since you're the commander of the troops I find it pretty normal and realistic that they kill you in sight,specially by range units.

Me too TBH, but they really don't. With battle size 150 I've fought many 5-round battles against 10-1 or worse odds. I'm pretty good, but after the first 2 or 3 waves I'm just too hurt to be an active participant (not that good ) so I have to stay at spawn and play the bureaucrat general. I can tell you for a fact that once my troops have moved away from the spawn point, the enemy reinforcement waves do leave me alone. I sometimes leave my surgeon alone at the spawn point for the same reason (not recommended for Khergit or Sarranid fights - sorry Jeremus ).

The initial wave does tend to single me out for their ludicrously long-range attacks until my forces have engaged them. As I said, I've always figured this was just an artifact of the way my army spawns.

 

[corey43]

I've never really felt singled out by the AI, but if I did, I wouldn't disagree with it unless it was to the point where the enemy was suicidally going for me instead of my troops. I mean, it does make sense for them to prioritise the leader of the enemy, as killing you essentially makes them win the majority of the time as well as the fact that you are the biggest threat to them also. Even in mods when you don't retreat when knocked out in combat, the troops have no orders and therefore are much easier to defeat.

So I don't really see the problem in the AI doing so.

EDIT:  I realise now that what I've just said has already been said.

 

[Da-V-Man]

what about Alt-F5ing yourself at the beginning of the round and seeing what happens?

For the record, what's ALT-F5?

I think that knocks you out.

No, it puts your character under AI control.

 

[Lord Brutus]

I've noticed that sometimes during castle assault I feel prioritized by enemy archers, but other times, once inside the castle, newly spawned enemy troops bypass me headed for a larger group of my allies. They will run past me, single file, letting me whack about every third one, then I can chase them and whack them in the back without drawing a response.
Of course, other times, every archer draws down on me and my shield ends up looking like a hair brush without a handle.
But I can't really discern a pattern.

 

[Archonsod]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked or a higher threat opponent comes within attack range. Since you spawn alone at the start, it means the enemy will target you - it'll be a problem for ranged troops solely because they're unlikely to come within range of your own infantry to be forced to retarget.

 

[Rephikul]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked or a higher threat opponent comes within attack range. Since you spawn alone at the start, it means the enemy will target you - it'll be a problem for ranged troops solely because they're unlikely to come within range of your own infantry to be forced to retarget.

Will all due respect, dont repeat what I have already said.... just kidding, thanks for confirming both what i wrote and that most people dont read before posting 

 

[Rookfrjosa]

What I always see happen is that they will hound you until a [more immediate] threat pops up to irritate them, same goes vice-versa, if they are going after your team and not yourself, you can swing around them for some laughably easy kills, but after a few moments of you hacking down their allies, the ones immediately closest to you will start to come after you.

The way I always looked at it was this:
-they start off targeting based on proximity,
-then they go after immediate threats (like if you attack them, they take notice)
-after that they seem to pick targets as a group if fighting has already started and if they are not directly threatened/involved in it (newly spawned enemies in the midst of prolonged combat, perhaps this is why you can circle behind them and get a few easy kills before the nearest ones start to react as a group after you kill off a few of them)
-then they get pulled away by more threatening targets (your allies charging in doing more damage than you, often pulling them away.)

I've seen all of these things happen numerous times, mostly in castles/towns because I like to flank the enemy when they are climbing stairs and ramps or something, and I'll cycle through all of these occurrences repeatedly with large groups of enemies.

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked

But this part is weird. I use all ranged army, so they should be "attacked". Although it's quite possible my entire ranged army is focusing on few enemy troopers and leaving most untouched and "not attacked". But I didn't really notice sharpshooters focus fire that much, bolts fly everywhere.

 

[The Dominator]

AI is weird sometimes it targets players other times it don't

 

[Rookfrjosa]

Sometimes I like to pretend that the enemy AI is prioritizing me because I'm THAT special...

...Then I wake up.

I really don't think they come after you unless you give them a reason.

 

[alcibiades]

Sometimes I like to pretend that the enemy AI is prioritizing me because I'm THAT special...

...Then I wake up.

I really don't think they come after you unless you give them a reason.

And it just so happens spawning on the same map as them is a reason.

 

[Krald]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked

But this part is weird. I use all ranged army, so they should be "attacked". Although it's quite possible my entire ranged army is focusing on few enemy troopers and leaving most untouched and "not attacked". But I didn't really notice sharpshooters focus fire that much, bolts fly everywhere.

Well, melee attacks obviously are more likely to give more "threat" to an enemy, if you're being pummeled in melee you're going to want to respond to it, if you're being hit by arrow fire, well, you may well still keep shooting whatever you were shooting before.

So really, if you want to fight and take part, you need some melee infantry to send in while your archers stand back and rain arrows or bolts at the enemy. Just to occupy the enemy enough.

I wills say though, the AI does seem to prioritise you, when I start a new game I always go into the arena to get some early exp and a little bit of money in the melee fights, yet without fail, every single time, even if I try to stay near the middle and kill anyone and everyone, there will be a time where suddenly, three to four enemies will stop attacking each other, even though they're right next to each other and this is a free for all, and they'll run and try to attack me, they're arm to arm, right next to each other in a free for all melee fight, yet they stop swinging and team up and go for me. I have to say that was very frustrating as I was just starting out on a new character and I got robbed three times of a victory before I finally won one.

It was strange behavior really, I know in a melee fight, they want it so it's not a viable tactic to sit back and do nothing and let everyone kill everyone else while you sit pretty, but it seemed like they ganged up on me even when I was out there killing.

 

[Rookfrjosa]

Arena is weird, they seem to act in groups (teams even) where a bunch of them will close in on one guy for no reason, then they'll all go after you after a short skirmish, but if you pay attention to what they're doing, you'll notice that they don't attack each other even after you get taken out, they just stand there.

I play with Custom Commander now and it lets you chose which weapons to start with (Bow FTW!!!), but if you're good with the bow, you'll almost always see that at some point a bunch of the guys will ignore you completely and fight among themselves then come after you, but they don't fight to the last man, they just take down one or two amongthem and thenthe rest group together and chase you as a group.

Because of all this weirdness, I think that they just are on hidden teams and onlycome after you because it's actually you (team red) vs. them (team blue) and there's no team green/yellow around to pull aggro. I think it's just like a lopsided one-stage tournament

 

[zimbabwe]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked or a higher threat opponent comes within attack range. Since you spawn alone at the start, it means the enemy will target you - it'll be a problem for ranged troops solely because they're unlikely to come within range of your own infantry to be forced to retarget.

Will all due respect, dont repeat what I have already said.... just kidding, thanks for confirming both what i wrote and that most people dont read before posting 

And here you are repeating my point without reading my previous post (yet somehow nearly word for word), and being a jerk about it to boot. Thanks for playing.

 

[Rephikul]

The AI will select the closest target and move to attack. It won't re-target unless it is attacked or a higher threat opponent comes within attack range. Since you spawn alone at the start, it means the enemy will target you - it'll be a problem for ranged troops solely because they're unlikely to come within range of your own infantry to be forced to retarget.

Will all due respect, dont repeat what I have already said.... just kidding, thanks for confirming both what i wrote and that most people dont read before posting 

And here you are repeating my point without reading my previous post (yet somehow nearly word for word), and being a jerk about it to boot. Thanks for playing.

Your point is noted 

 

[ragamer]

If you really want to evaluate how AI picks up targets just play a bunch of sieges with a ranged weapon and you will get familiar with the "tricks" on what the AI perceives as a menace and how long you have to be "untouchable" for them to look for another target.

Range is the default policy, true, but if their primed target is not attacking back or they cannot harm him, they will swap... If their primed target attacks, they will keep on chasing... This also applies on foot, sadly, but there once you are picked up, your limited mobility will prevent you to get out of range/sight so your best bet is ALWAYS having a bunch of soldiers labeled as "Guards" that you can command to follow you closely while the rest of the army just do their Job (On the Campaign I use the 1st 6 Party members as they are also the ones that follow you when cleaning Bandit Lairs, so I have them configured as Good "On Foot" Soldiers). With this "personal escort" close you will see that if you backpedal through them, the "stream of melee" that typically pursues you will get distracted by them.

Against Ranged "locking" my advice would be to block LoS (Another character doesn't count)... Needs to be a natural obstacle like a Rock/Wall/Tree and after 10-15 seconds they will aim to another of your NPCs (Usually an archer).