Fixed Internally Healer Mercs are not working right

Discussion in 'Resolved' started by Sostenes, Feb 22, 2020.

  1. Endorek Lorekeeper

    I'm running out of gas, I can only do so much old content before I quit.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  2. Vitaulic Apprentice

    I honestly had no idea so few people used merc healers. I guess people run in like circles, everyone I know depended on them and the game is unplayable. But from the lack of response and outrage from most people I can only assume very few people depend on them. I would of wagered huge sums of money this was not the case.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  3. Nennius Curmudgeon

    I use one, but my play time makes getting a RL (better) healer difficult. I also have had no issues with their healing at level 115.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  4. Qbert Gallifreyan

    I use them, two of them, all the time (one reactive, one balanced). While I certainly acknowledge the missing/improperly used spell as being problematic, it has in no way hindered my ability to play. I am exclusively group-geared and I have finished all of ToV less a couple of achievements (and raids, since I don't raid . . . but mercs are irrelevant for raids anywho).

    Part of the issue of your perceived lack of support/uproar may be that more players are like me, in that I don't parse anything (ever), I don't watch what spells are/are not being cast (ever) and I don't block any mercenary spells (ever). If this issue had happened in an expansion the difficulty of TBL, the problem may have been more evident. Since this occurred during a relatively easy expansion, the difference (while clearly noticeable to some) is certainly not game-breaking for everyone.

    I hope they fix it, but meh . . . the powers-that-be are planning to implode my server by merging it into FV so I seriously doubt I will be playing the game much longer anyways.
    eepok and OldCa61 like this.
  5. Ngreth Thergn Developer

    I started some research on this Tuesday. (Yesterday I had to do scheduled hospital stuff with a family member)
    So far the data is looking correct, but I want to look further back, I was only looking at 105+
    If the data is correct, then the issue is in the logic which is MUCH more problematic :( The AI "brains" are super difficult and beyond the designers :/
    Just wanted you to know that someone is looking at it.
    Khrizen, swerves, Waitwhat and 10 others like this.
  6. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    My own experience with mercs has been that any & all of them can become inactive at any time.

    My experience has led me to believe that something with the way they select and use spells is not quite right, but I also believe there are issues around them connected to geometry & pathing problems.

    When I notice a merc become inactive I make an effort to drag the mob to a different location - far enough that the mercenary will change where it is stood, this often fixes the inactivity situation, though on occasion it does not & I can move a very long way while they stay in an inactive state, this can necessitate suspending them, swapping to another merc, and on one occasion I ended up dismissing the merc & using another race as no matter what I did the merc was locked into an inactive state even after relogging & trying to play that character/merc form an entirely different PC.

    All told I think there is something odd happening due to multiple moving parts of the Mercenary having some issues, spells, logic & geometry factor into their behaviour.
    eepok, OldCa61 and Vexana_Lanys like this.
  7. Wulfhere Augur

    All that and I sometimes think that the merc silently fails a confidence check as their behavior in those cases seems the same.
    Skuz and OldCa61 like this.
  8. Vitaulic Apprentice

    Thank you !!!
    OldCa61 likes this.
  9. Ngreth Thergn Developer

    The data is looking okay :( So, I'll be passing this on to the code team.
    Khrizen, Briney, Eaiana and 2 others like this.
  10. Scila Augur

    I noticed quite a few xpacs ago that if you are too close to any type of geometry (hills, rocks, tree clusters, etc.) the merc of any type will ignore anything going on until all parties are away from the geometry. I simply adapted and worked around it.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  11. Skuz I am become Wrath, the Destroyer of Worlds.

    I have seen that, one fairly repeatable case is when you place a campfire very tight in a corner, zone out & back in via campfire (like you went to sell your trash loots & return), until you move out of that corner they will do absolutely nothing.

    I also had some serious problems in certain zones with geometry, Fear itself had some small & large elevations of geometry just outside of the ring of fire, some of these would send your mercs crazy & they'd run a really long way away from you & then get stuck there, forcing you to have to move that long distance to them to get them back into following you.
    Sometimes you could be on a fairly flat space & the Mercs would go inactive, particularly where you had ground deformations, like small cracks / small sections of missing ground to make the ground look battle-scarred etc & these has tiny Z axis differences to the rest of teh ground & it could make your merc not react to anything you were doing, my theory is these areas would hide your feet & if mercs can't see your feet they stop reacting to whatever is happening to you, be that a mob beating on you - so tank fails to engage, or Mercs fail to heal you.
    So I think there are definitely some geometry X/Y axis problems with mercs especially around objects but the Z-axis terrain ones are the most common.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  12. Endorek Lorekeeper



    Really appreciate you taking a look at this and passing it on. If they can look specifically around the first 10 days of February for some thing that might have changed, that's where I would start, I was 115 for a while before that and it was like my merc fell off a cliff doing the same exact mobs and content. I wish I had logs, but my experiences match the logs posted by Vitaulic on the first page of this thread.

    Cheers
    Briney, Vexana_Lanys and OldCa61 like this.
  13. OldCa61 Augur

    I agree on your timeline as that was exactly the same time period I noticed this issue erupting. Glad it's finally getting looked into :)
    Briney, Vexana_Lanys and Endorek like this.
  14. DCPD158 Elder

    Any updates on this? I know it was being send to the code, but crickets since.

    Making sure it doesn't get forgotten.
    Marton and OldCa61 like this.
  15. forum troll Elder

    Just adding my like to the first post and upvoting this
    OldCa61 likes this.
  16. Marton Augur

    Over 4k views .... How are we doing on healer mercs?
    OldCa61 likes this.
  17. yepmetoo Abazzagorath

    Yes, tanking against a wall or hill has always led to possible issues because the merc doesn't see the distance between you and it, they act like you are on the other side of the zone and can't "see" you being hurt. This has been the case from the very beginning.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  18. Wolfei New Member

    /bump....

    Healer merc - seems to cast 1 heal and goes AFK to have a coffee party with the next door neighbors mercs.

    Rogue merc - seems to decided to beat the matrix and always stays in complete full burn, even when placed on passive.... think the merc has gone on strike.

    Caster merc - No idea, but I'm sure once pop, it'll probably port itself out.

    Tank merc - /shrugs, me hit taunt and dies....

    But on a serious note, healer merc needs attention.
    OldCa61 likes this.
  19. Zinth Augur


    So uhm... You are saying the Merc AI is smarter than our Devs? That is a scary thought, maybe it is time to hire new devs then?
    OldCa61 likes this.
  20. DCPD158 Elder

    When I was lvl 111, I could solo ghouls near the zone in with little issue, but when I hit 113, it seemed to get MUCH harder.

    My merc casts only two spells during combat now(I have blocked the HoT spells), Sincere Light and Dire Renewal (3s cast and 30s recast). Does cast a group heal once in a while too, but so few and far between, I wouldn't bother to list it.

    Has to be merc now casting Sincere Light starting at 113. It is a:
    Casting Time: 3.75s
    Recast Time: 1.5s

    And Sincere Remedy (111) is:
    Casting Time: 0.5s
    Recast Time: 4.75s

    We are missing a quick, single target heal that Sincere Remedy gave us. Need something to bridge the time gap, because that 3.75s is an eternity.

    With over 4k views and 5 pages of comments, maybe we need to get a developer and/or coder to respond on where we are on this.