I’ve been feeling that the enemy behavior is pretty bland and uninteresting. As it is now every enemy will run straight at you and then stand still and attack, but I think it wouldn’t be too complicated to fix.
Having simple, unique behavioral actions for each enemy type could help mobbing feel more dynamic and interesting and force more moment to moment decision making. It goes a long way to making enemies feel like real creatures that are also making their own decisions on how to fight you.
Take for example some enemies in Diablo 2:
Fallen at times hang back, unsure whether to actually fight you and upon killing one it could make some of them flee in fear
Zombies were very slow with low aggro unless you got really close or attacked them
Vultures could fly up making them unattackable
Spear cats would sometimes walk away from you to get back at max throwing range making you chase them
Blood hawks have bursts of speed then flap around slowly, would retreat after an attack, and might lose aggro
As an added note I think it could help to change the context in which enemies spawn. Again looking to Diablo 2:
Fallen are often in groups around a burning building (implying they just ransacked it) or are in large groups at a campsite they made
Corrupted rogues are in tightly packed small groups as if in a hunting party
Zombies wander aimlessly alone
Wild animals are spread out in a large area as if all foraging
This could help the world feel much more real and like things are happening when you’re not around, instead of everything standing around, waiting until you are in aggro range.
I think for the arena it would be good to have enemy behavior stay as it is currently, though. I don’t think it would be fun to have to run around the arena constantly trying to find all the mobs. For the campaign, monoliths, and dungeons however I think this change would help the game feel a lot more engaging and fun!
I agree it feels a little stale at times. But I don’t think it’s quite as easy a task for them to take on with their relatively smaller team. I’m sure though it’s something they want to work towards, they got a lot to learn and figure out, this being their first game and all.
Personally, I would not like most of these behavior suggestions. They sound like they’d be way more annoying than they would be interesting. I especially hate enemies running away from me.
I’d agree I certainly don’t want things running from me. Unless I feared them, but… I don’t interact with that mechanic at all bc why do I wanna chase things. But I’d not mind more dynamic behavior.
Edit: On that note. Exiled mages teleporting around every 2 seconds? Least favorite part of Exiled Mages.
Yeah with the launch of the game I know they are working on a lot right now. The team that made D2 was pretty small too so I though this might be something that could happen down the line!
Let’s start with the statement that I generally like variety. But not all variety is good variety. This is, of course, highly subjective.
If you increase the number of enemies that avoid proximity to players (there are a few in LE) or make them less aggressive in general, you mess up the game experience for melee characters (even more), while ranged characters don’t care. You would need to give melee characters more opportunities to close the gap quickly - Lunge with .5 seconds cooldown for example. A grappling hook to pull enemies in. Stuff like that.
That’s a really good point, thinking about how enemy behavior could affect skill balancing.
I definitely don’t think every behavior should be centered around avoidance of the player, the examples i gave were just the first that came to mind.
I don’t think it would be completely negative to have some of that though, as I think it would make the use of movement skills mid fight more of a strategic choice (what mobs to engage or when to retreat). Right now I feel like they are used more just to speed up movement around the map and less as a combat tool.
Definitely more complicated than I originally thought!
