Very annoying aspect of the monsters A.I.

Am I the only person here who is really annoyed by the way that monsters seem to crawl their way from all the way accross the map (just guessing) to where you are, even half a minute after you have cleared the nearest area?

It's not a minor issue, in my opinion, for several reasons:

1. This game is online and there is no pause. So the closest to a pause without using a portal scroll is to run back with your character to a cleared area and leave it there for a minute or two, while you can attend important things like giving your family member attention for a minute, or picking up the phone, or taking a stretch!

2. If you want to do any of these, because of this silly AI, you pretty much have to teleport back to town, no matter how much you have cleared around you. Now I have been on the browser as I type for 5+ minutes and no more creatures appeared, but one did after the first 30 seconds or so, and the point is you just CANT tell whether it's safe or not.

3. You don't want to portal to town because the portal will time out!!

This is not a minor issue, imho. It's very important for games to cater for health and allow players to take small breaks without detriment in the game (with reasonable expectations, as when I am playing in a solo game).

Thank you for your consideration.

I'm doing another test in the Coves.

I kill a bunch of crabs, walk back a little bit.

Everything is quiet.

For what seems like 20-30 seconds later a Vagabond appears out of nowhere from the north. Kill it.

Half a minutez or so later, a Grimy Scoundral comes from the east... I have not moved at all.

A bit later two more vagabonds come at me from where the hell I have no idea.

And now yet more time later, I still haven't moved and I had to alt tab again because I was attacked by a crab.

....

So I'm not saying change the AI.

I'm just trying to show that the portal timeout issue cascades into more issues like this. Causing unnecessary tension and stress to players whom can not take a break at the appropriate time.

Thank you.

As I have suggested in another thread, the real issue here, more so than the time limit on the portal, I feel is that I have no clear visual feedback in the game about the lifetime of the portal.

Things would be better if there was, for example, a timer displayed in the portal "label":

Soandso's portal - Vaal Ruins (10m30s)

I've lost soo many characters to this.

I have twins. And they are learning to crawl / walk. Tend to fall or do things like eat daddys bills or the cat..

I run over.. thinking I am safe anyway.. or just plain forgetting to portal.

One time the screen was clear for over 3 minutes. So I thought I had time to go for water. Get back I am dead. Some archer had moved in from god knows where.

Not quite sure I'd want it changed though. In the clear quests it's nice to get them moving towards you.

I have to disagree here, I love the wandering monsters. It adds reality to the area - monsters that stand in one place until your proximity starts them moving is nasty.

I like the idea of a timer on the portal.

However, when you think about it, if you portal back to town and the portal times out, all you have to do is take the nearest waypoint to where you were. Playing the game is supposed to be fun. Each monster you kill on the way back to where you previously got to has a chance to drop that awesome unique or handy currency item. You can just quit the game if you don't want to use a portal scroll.

They don't home in on you from halfway across the map they just randomly walk rather than stay in a set position.

this is very easily tested by running a through a few rooms in a dungeon killing the mobs as you go. then after a few minutes go back through the rooms and you will find some mobs have migrated there.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

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Grizdale wrote:

They don't home in on you from halfway across the map they just randomly walk rather than stay in a set position.

this is very easily tested by running a through a few rooms in a dungeon killing the mobs as you go. then after a few minutes go back through the rooms and you will find some mobs have migrated there.

This is true, but also, if you go far enough back into a part of the level you've cleared, it's possible to be actually safe there - monsters a certain distance from your player are all 'asleep' and not acting at all - no movement, no AI, nothing. If you have actually fully cleared part of a level, then backtracking into that area can make you safe to stop for a while.

Tell that to my old hardcore templar lol

My guess is that portals don't stay open for long because of the additional server resources used per instance.

Well, if that's the case, then why not add a microtransaction portal gem which opens portals of a different color (let's say green) that stay open indefinitely, but only one such portal at a time? The price of the item could cover the extra server resources used.

+1 for a timer information on portals.

could be done as a little tooltip on mouseover the activation area. would also help to find the right point to click it...