Bad AI on ranged enemies

[Jawaj]

I'm playing Avernum 2 right now, and this really does annoy me. If any enemy has a ranged attack, such as a Giant Slug or a Cave Giant or a Fire Lizard, it will almost always hang back and just use that attack without attacking me in melee, no matter how good their melee attack is. It's pretty stupid to see a group of six giant slugs spit acid on the same two characters a bunch of times instead of acid-ing and then attacking me, or giants throwing rocks at me when they could run up and kill my characters.

 

It does make the game easier and lets me take on enemies that would clobber me if they weren't so dumb. But it feels almost like I'm cheating when I take advantage of this by hanging back and just killing them slowly with arrows and spells. The enemies should be smarter and get close for Melee.

 

Was it like this in Exile too? Does it improve in A3?

[Lilith]

It was like this in Exile, but in Exile a monster's ranged attacks were almost always more dangerous than its melee attacks.

[Randomizer]

The game AI has a search radius when it looks for targets. It goes after the closest ones.

 

Later AIs went after the last character to do damage to a monster. Delicious Vlish used a pincer attack on melee attack only monsters where his ranged attacks would force the monsters to run back and forth and never have enough AP left to hit in Avernum 4.

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

Also, in Exile, monsters would not use physical missile attacks (arrows, rocks, javelins, etc.) if they were adjacent to something hostile toward them, and would instead use melee attacks. If they had no melee attacks, they would stand there and get killed without fighting back.

[Jawaj]

Well they use Melee attacks if I'm adjacent to them in Avernum, but they never move up for Melee.

 

I'm not sure if Avernum has any monsters with no Melee attacks besides some spellcasters.

[Lilith]

Originally Posted By: The Almighty Doer of Stuff

Also, in Exile, monsters would not use physical missile attacks (arrows, rocks, javelins, etc.) if they were adjacent to something hostile toward them, and would instead use melee attacks. If they had no melee attacks, they would stand there and get killed without fighting back.

Actually, this is only true of some missile attacks. Shoots Spines works in melee as well as at range.