Enemy troops DO prioritize the Player

[Yoshi Murasaki]

I mentioned in one of the threads that AI prioritizes player and others said that's not true.

But please, play a bit on foot and you'll see that enemy troops clearly prioritize player.


There is no chance that I'm often randomly picked, regardless of where I am on the battlefield - behind all of my troops, even half behind the hill.
Just now all enemy ranged troops were targetting me, even though I was behind the shield and Nord recruits were not. In custom battle I was heavily armored on a horse, placed my troops a lot ahead of me, and I still had to hide behind the hill because some bolts/arrows were flying on me.

The "don't charge first, enemy locks onto someone and doesnt let go fast" does not make sense, because at no point am I ahead of my troops. And still get "lock on".



Anyway, just wanted to say that I definitely don't think I'm being targetted randomly. Perhaps it's not a player, perhaps it's some of my stats that make enemy target me - I don't know.

 

[vota dc]

And I prioritize the enemy's lords!
However I noticed that when the enemy is pursuing another target they take a lot of time before they notice you. In this time you can kill an entire group of archers. I think there is something about spawning: in custom battle they will attack you while in battles it is more difficult that they attack you.

 

[Henk]

I dunno who've told you that the enemy doesn't lock onto the player, but that's not true. The enemy has always locked onto the player whenever he could.

The "don't charge first, enemy locks onto someone and doesnt let go fast" does not make sense, because at no point am I ahead of my troops. And still get "lock on".

Well, if you send like a group of Cav to flank the enemy from the left whilst you go right, the enemies on their right flank will try to chase those cavalry. All the rest of the army will go after you though. If you make sure you're away a bit from the army they will try to concentrate on the army, because that's the closests and most dangerous threat to them at that moment. If you're in the main army yourself they will target you out of all the others next to you.

In other words; If the enemy get's to choose they will always pick you.

 

[zimbabwe]

The "don't charge first, enemy locks onto someone and doesnt let go fast" does not make sense, because at no point am I ahead of my troops. And still get "lock on".

Actually you are. When you first spawn you're the only one on the battlefield. It's (usually) not long enough for you to notice, but the computer can. If you stay at the spawn point and let your guys charge, you'll see that any enemy reinforcement waves totally ignore you.

 

[Hidziro]

I noticed that too, when i played my knight character no one have time to prioritize me cuz they all die very fast, but i started my new character whose fighting on foot and 90% of enemies bolts and arrows are flying to me, even if i run away from battle to long distance

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

The "don't charge first, enemy locks onto someone and doesnt let go fast" does not make sense, because at no point am I ahead of my troops. And still get "lock on".

Actually you are. When you first spawn you're the only one on the battlefield. It's (usually) not long enough for you to notice, but the computer can. If you stay at the spawn point and let your guys charge, you'll see that any enemy reinforcement waves totally ignore you.

So you're saying that once computer locks onto target it doesn't change it for next 5 minutes? Come on, that's just not true.

 

[AWdeV]

I've usually seen them do exactly that though.

Bit odd however; I just went with a new character and a bunch of merc. crossbowmen against some looters. It almost looked as if the group split up and one half tried to flank off but the moment I ran out of the tiny little shooting line, the flankers turned and went after me, leaving the crossbowmen in their flanks/behind them.

 

[Dayve]

I really can't decide whether this is true or not. Sometimes it feels like I'm being singled out, sometimes not. However, I'm talking about only mounted combat here. When on foot, it absolutely is a different matter. On foot, it seems you become the highest priority target, no matter where you stand, and even when you let your troops go in front of you.

When mounted, it's completely random. Sometimes I've told my entire army to hold position and charged at a group of 30 sea raiders, and it's been 30 seconds before ANY of them have begun to bombard me with arrows and throwing axes. Other times I charge ahead with my cavalry and they target everyone. I see companions take javelins to the face, and I am being hit by projectiles too.

When mounted, I would say they don't prioritize you. On foot however, I can wholeheartedly say that they absolutely do single you out.

 

[tyrannicide]

So you're saying that once computer locks onto target it doesn't change it for next 5 minutes? Come on, that's just not true.

Are you sure it isn't? It's what I've been told, too. Well, except that five minutes would be an exceptional case, say if they had to run towards your troops for five minutes...

 

[Lord Rust]

It's real easy to abuse you know.

Just circle round the enemies back and watch your own guys pummel into his rear as they all turn to oogle at you, it's hilarity itself.

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

It's real easy to abuse you know.

Just circle round the enemies back and watch your own guys pummel into his rear as they all turn to oogle at you, it's hilarity itself.

One you find out you're their priority it's easy to abuse it except for one little fact... I play to FIGHT not to be an observer.


To be honest, with all the difficulties that go along with playing on foot, I really disagree with this design choice of "all charge player!".

 

[Lord Rust]

It's real easy to abuse you know.

Just circle round the enemies back and watch your own guys pummel into his rear as they all turn to oogle at you, it's hilarity itself.

One you find out you're their priority it's easy to abuse it except for one little fact... I play to FIGHT not to be an observer.


To be honest, with all the difficulties that go along with playing on foot, I really disagree with this design choice of "all charge player!".

As long as some of your troops come in before you, they'll immidately swap priorities to the closest target leaving you free to fight.

 

[EdwardWellcraft]

In most battles I'll be singled out pretty quickly, but I've also had it happen where I've charged into a group of enemies who were running at my main line of troops, and none of the enemy even bothered attacking me for about 5 seconds. I killed 2 or 3 before the rest of that big group turned and started trying to kill me.

Edit: Hmm, this was mounted as well. It really most have to do with being infantry. Here is my wild ass guess as to what is happening.

The A.I. prioritize first on distance. They'll always start turning to fight the nearest enemy after no short time.
Next they prioritize foot soldiers first, because they know they can catch up with the foot soldiers eventually even if they are running away.
Next they prioritize mounted soldiers.
Finally they prioritize you, in whatever category you fit.

So if you are mounted they only try to attack you when you are within range, this way you don't have a big army of foot soldiers all trying to chase you down. However, this range seems pretty big so you can hover at it and drag a big group of enemies with you wherever you want.

If you are on foot they will always prioritize you unless they are being engaged by another troop.

 

[Rephikul]

You spawn first on the battlefield and usually toward the front when your men spawn. Thus, Enemies, especially bandits, when spawned will either see only you or see you being nearest will charge toward you.

As some people have mentioned, they take awhile to change target. If you play Rhodok, get a huge line of archers, hug a hill and stand a few yards in front of your archers you'd notice that they'd usually just ignore you and run past to the archers because they have attracted their aggro. This is not the cause when you play as nord because nord units have very little time to draw enemy attention from you, especially lower level nords cause they lack ranged weapons of any kind.

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

As long as some of your troops come in before you, they'll immidately swap priorities to the closest target leaving you free to fight.

Unfortunately that's not true at all. While *melee* enemy troops target me less frequently enemy ranged troops just lock on to me, regardless of my position. Enemy melee won't try to circle around my troops to get to me, but all the arrows, javelins and even looter rocks will lock on me. Ok not all, but I'm by no means the random target.

 

[Da-V-Man]

I don't know if this would prove anything, but what about Alt-F5ing yourself at the beginning of the round and seeing what happens? So long as your not the only mounted person in the group, it might show if there is a priority or not on the player.

However I doubt that the AI is hardcoded to single out the player. I would think it would be more because of the player's moving about and not holding a position like your other troops that would cause it. I don't usually feel singled out at all, but then again I stick close to my troops.

 

[manekemaan]

while in sieges the npc's simply ignore me slashing their backs...

 

[Yoshi Murasaki]

That's the problem, I simply don't know if they target player as a player, or if there's something unique to the player that draws AI to it, but that can be influenced.

 

[tyrannicide]

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

For the record, what's ALT-F5?

 

[Northern Mameluke Empire]

I've noticed this too, only in my case, I always end up with hordes of Mamelukes chasing me around, though infantry isn't as susceptible to following when I'm mounted. Of course they hit my line of infantry and get p0wned, but sometimes they break through. Archers are really my main source of losing health though, I get hit by a LOT of Javelins and bows while riding around. bastards.