Merc AI Rework?

Diablo II: Resurrected General Discussion
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I’m sure a lot of people know how frustrating it is for your mercenary to jump right into his death when you just resurrected him, but this thread is about something a bit different

Merc AI makes it possible for it to get stuck behind obstacles and be useless for quite a lot of time, it can be detrimental to your gameplay and even more so when we start talking about auras coming from your merc

lets say I’m an assassin, using a hybrid kick deathsentry build, I do not require an act 2 merc for infinity or insight, instead I like to use an act 1 merc with Harmony which give me Vigor(Movement speed!)

but as you might know, as an assassin with burst of speed and a few speed charms and items I zoom right through my act 1 merc leaving her only my dust, which means I constantly lose the affect of her Vigor aura

I would be open for some Mercenary AI tweaking in general and to make sure no matter where your merc is, you are always affected by their aura

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I think this was fixed, or an attempt was made anyway (Merc AI Pathing) in alpha, whether it will be final or not is undetermined. My friend had tested it back in april when he had tech alpha access.

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oh that sounds interesting, can he confirm if he experienced any aura outage of any kind?

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It was mainly just a fix to the pathing, I don’t think it was for the aura though, but I could ask.

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oh I see what you’re talking about, yeah that wasn’t even a thing in OG D2, sort of skimmed my bad, it would be nice though if the aura stayed on you, I thought you were meaning to ask about the delay before the merc’s aura coming on if it wasn’t previously active, which I can confirm is still a thing in the alpha.

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Merc AI is bugged so is damage. It should be fixed. And act 3 merc improved.

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I always think that the mobs are more intelligent than our mercenaries.

Mercs stuck on walls, don’t follow you precisely and can activate / deactivate auras (When we are speaking of the act II mercenary) at random times.

Mobs are faster to avoid obstacles and came to attack you.

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Don’t you love when they get stuck and start rapidly rubberbanding? They’re basically vibrating like a kid the morning after Halloween. Sugar rush!

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Yes this very much needs addressed.

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Merc AI getting stuck is yet another thing that Enigma fixed when it was added to the game.

#Hashtag - Leave Enigma The Way It Is

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Nothing is happening to the Enigma.

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Probably true, but I’ve seen Blizzard’s ideas of what ‘fun’ is in their last diablo title.

Better safe than sorry trying to make our voices heard.

I loved 1.09 but we need to let it die. Long live Enigma.

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I’m trying very hard to understand how what you just said has to do with the topic, it seems you are starting to follow my posts to tell me you don’t want the game to change, I also have a feeling I found the person trying to attack me

if I’m wrong please correct me and tell me how I read what you said wrong so I can respond accordingly

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Not only this, the mercs need a complete AI rework. The act 1 merc for example thinks she is a melee character, standing most of the time directly right in front of a monster’s face to shot him with a bow while dying all the time cause she gets so freaking close every time.

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Yeah, this is actually what I was referencing when I mentioned Merc AI Pathing seeming to be fixed (or attempted to be fixed) in the tech alpha in my first reply. Probably why they asked about it in the Blizzard survey that went out after the tech alpha ended.

The survey I reference : https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/comments/muc13c/diablo_2_remastered_survey_419/

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ill need to see video example of that to understand the scope of it

might prove difficult to make her move like the corrupt rough archer if shes based on your location she might constantly move and stray out of sight but I agree that the general AI needs a rework but i would firstly like for them to find an issue for the auras, keeping it always on can be a pretty easy though

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Was replying to Afura with that one, but I could try and find tech alpha footage of the behavior on YouTube.

The easiest way to tell it’s different, is when you see the A1 merc walk back (rather often) before shooting her arrow at a target, or when she is trying to facetank mobs, in the tech alpha it seemed she wasn’t doing that as much, and just shooting at monsters that immediately came into range seemingly properly, as well as going into run state properly when the player is distant.

Another way to tell, is to see if the merc is getting caught or stuck around or behind obstacles often.

Original A1 Merc AI: https://i.imgur.com/hHGFwx1.mp4
D2:R Tech Alpha A1 Merc AI: https://youtu.be/tG6ReB129ds?t=2280 - I found the footage, lol.

It would be more accurate to say the A1 merc pathing is seemingly improved rather than fixed I guess.

A2 mercenary seems to also have that improved pathing as well, and run state being properly active when the player is distant. https://youtu.be/tG6ReB129ds?t=10865. However there is still a delay before the A2 merc’s aura is actived.

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It does look different but I want to test and also see about the auras as well

Thank you so much for the effort :heart:!

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It’s definitely nice to have teleport to help with merc, I like having it to force him away from suiciding too.

The pathing desperately needs to be updated, or at least make them teleport to you more quickly. I was running an insight merc to help a sorc friend through nightmare and the aura was constantly going out.

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