Stop off-screen range attacks

No, the problem is not being 1-shot from off-screen as alluded to in another thread, but the number of things that will throw rocks at you from off-screen can get excessive.

This seems to be an all too common problem in ARPGs. is it really that hard to do a check to see if a monster is visible ?

What prompted me to write this is a ranged attack thing (crits enemies at range void thingy) which literally followed me through 4 full screens of environment, attacking the entire time and not for 1 second was it visible.

it’s just irritating…

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2 mobs can attack from offscreen, the elemental from Lagon’s area & the siege golem, both have big circles to allow you to avoid their attacks.

Mobs following you through the entire zone is an entirely different issue.

I think there are no mobs that literally attack you from off-screen.

Most of those cases are mobs that the player ignore and are pulled.
That can lead to projectiles seem to come from offscreen, while it’s basically only the player running away from those attacks/projectiles.

Once you get a hang of all the different mob types you will better evaluated which mob types can be ignored and which should be dealt with asap.

The mob types you referring here are particularly nasty, because the the have homing projectiles, which makes them even worse, when stacked.

Apart from the 2 I mentioned that will reliably attack from off-screen. Honourable Mention for the Meruna Golem that can hit you with it’s wave attack if it’s targetting a closer minion & you’re in line with it.

The Lightning Elementals and siege golems attacking from off-screen is technically correct, but
A) they only use telegraphed attacks with such a range, which IMO is totally fine, because you don’t get “surprised” by projectiles.
B) they only attack you when you pulled them, which is approx 1 1/2 screens

The Meruna Ogres you mentioning can hit you via targeting minions, that’s true.
But I think their wave only has range approx 1 entire screen (depending on your resolution).

Speaking of resolutions:
This is probably also a thing to consider, when giving feedback.

People using non-widescreen resolutions will have a much harder time.
While people using UWS will have literally a game advantage.

So you agree that those two mobs can & will do a “first strike” on your character while they are off screen before you are aware of them, thanks. 'Cause that’s the opposite of what you said earlier:

Apart from the two that do exactly that…

I don’t have a problem with it since it’s only 2 mobs & they have big telegraphs that you can avoid. But your two quoted comments directly contradict each other & we both know which one of them is correct!

I don’t consider telegraphs “attacks”.

For a telegraph it does not matter where the mob that is casting is located.

My comments were more about mobs like the Skeleton Javelin Throw and similar attacks.
Like literal projectiles that can “catch you off-guard”

Well, that’s on you, but I’m pretty sure a)they can damage you & b)they’re coded as attacks (or possibly spells) in-game. There is no “telegraph” as a separate type of thing that mobs can do.

Stop being strange!

I think the original topic may needs to be split into projectiles and telegraphs coming from mobs located off-screen.

I can agree that having several mobs casting telegraph stuff at you can be a bit frustrating. For example having multiple Light ages pulled, that cast the Meteor can be very stressful because you constantly need to dodge.

But in general mobs throwing telegraphs at you is not an issue for me personally, even if they are slightly off-screen.

And those mobs that do such things from off-screen are usually still within 1 1/2 screens.

BUT

Mobs throwing projectiles from off-screen at you should not be a thing.
And I think LE does a good job with that.
There are very few mobs that have so much range that their projectiles can come from off-screen

I feel it’s OK for enemies to attack from off-screen as long as they have been on-screen at some point (i.e. the player knows they exist). After all, the player’s attacks can murder things off-screen so seems fair enough.

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yeah, well i shouldn’t be able to kill things off screen, because, they are off-screen.

as for mobs which telegraph, yes i’ve seen the big yellow circles. that’s not an issue.

and no, i was not "pulling " a mob along.

i would stop. and the void slinger or whatever it was would sit, off screen, invisible, and throwing projectiles at me.i move, it follows. repeat. i didn’t keep “good notes” because it happens so often i find it surprising that i’m seeing comments implying that it doesn’t actually happen that often. so maybe it is a screen resolution issue (i’m using 1920x1080)

I’ll try and keep better track of what is happening and report more detail.

Maybe it’s an issue from which direction the attack takes place.

We have an isometric perspective that let’s us see a bit more what is on the top side of the screen.

Also the aspect ratio makes us see better what is left or right.

You will be more aware of what is coming from the top left or right corner than what is coming from the centre bottom.

Its relative obvious when you take the example of acid flask with the rogue. Just try to throw them to the corners of your screen and see how different the range seems to be because of the isometric perspective.

I’m using a Ultra Wide Screen with an aspect ratio of 32:9. Theres nothing that can surprise me if it is coming from left or right. Top and bottom is another story. I dislike areas where I have to walk down because I don’t see shit :laughing:

This would cripple a lot of builds and/or abilities (e.g. Rain of Arrows marksman). What about ailments like poision and bleed? Just because something has walked off screen doesn’t mean it isn’t there any more, so the player suddenly being unable to damage it makes no actual sense. In the original Torchlight 2, anything that walked off screen ceased to exist and could not be damaged, and it was a serious problem that completely wrecked the gameplay for ranged classes (until they fixed it).

That swirly boys from imperial area , that look like a (one eyed) bone squid and fire a slow moving beam also tend to have a huge aggro or chasing range where their projectiles follow you relentless (more than one screen).

They don’t have any more aggro range than any other mob, also the “chase range” for every mob is the same as far as i know.

But yeah if you pulled them and ignroe them they can be very stressfull, like all other mob types that have homing projectiles.

The farther away you are from them, the harder it is to evade they projectiles.

But i think it’s fair, if the player ignores them.

The fact they don’t lose aggro when you’re multiple screen away confirms the aggro radius is huge. Should be toned down by a lot. Anyways glad i can provide some important information to a community tester.

Adjusting the initial aggro/pull radius is definitely an important thing.

But IMO once you pulled a mob, if they follow you indefinitely, that is a good thing, because it puts alot of pressure and decision making on the player :“Should i deal with this mob now, or run through and risk it coming from behind on the next dadngerous pack”.

Actually i am not sure if mobs lose aggro in normal/story maps.
In MoF you literally can pull the entire map, since mobs don’t lsoe aggro at all.

I guess while that can be OK in normal monoliths, it is probably a real problem in empowered. I only did two empowered timelines, the first one was smooth and easy, but on the second one (60->100) I felt the difference and I fought more often instead of running to the objectives.

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I don’t think any other ARPG game implemented it this way, probably because it’s frustrating and not fun. Void cultists throwing always crit projectiles from off-screen while you’re trying to retreat doesn’t promote any decision making - it’s just annoying.

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Seems that we have to disagree here than.

I think it’s great decision making to have mobs that are very “annoying” or strong in some regard.

The Voud cultists are super squishy and easy to deal with, so once you pulled them there is great decision making involed IMO.

There was one similar discussion about the Meruna Sirens if you are interested. They are also very annoying because they jump away when you engage them, but i think mob behaviour like this is very intersting, because i don’t want mobs to brainlessly run into me to get slaughtered.

Here is the other thread is was talking about:

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