Guild Wars 2

One quick solution to one of minions biggest problems could be solved with a flying mechanic. Not visually flying but just have them walk over any terrain to get to their target. Just like lava at the Megadestroyer doesn’t effect minions terrain shouldn’t effect them at all.

It’s not quite that simple. Minions still need to draw a path to their destination. The lava isn’t really an obstacle, since it doesn’t pose any pathing issues. It is simply a transparent sheet that creatures walk through, rather than step onto.

To solve minion pathing, they would probably need to change the way AI moves. This means allowing creatures to more easily step-onto things. But pathing also demands a route to the destination. You can’t really have minions walk through a mountain or wall. They have to go around it. They have to calculate a path around obstacles in a reliable way.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

To solve minion pathing, they would probably need to change the way AI moves. This means allowing creatures to more easily step-onto things. But pathing also demands a route to the destination. You can’t really have minions walk through a mountain or wall. They have to go around it. They have to calculate a path around obstacles in a reliable way.

This. What people don’t realize when they talk about minions is that the reason they bug is pathing. Essentially, what happens is when you give the minions a target through aggro rules, it has to figure out how to attack that target. For ranged minions, they simply need to get within 900 range of your target, this allows them a lot of flexibility when it comes to HOW they get in range, which is why Bone Fiend/Blood Fiend bug out much more rarely. Flesh Wurm doesn’t move, so he can’t have pathing issues.

Melee minions on the other hand have to get right onto your enemy, which means they need to find a way to walk to their target. But this shouldn’t be a problem right? I mean mobs can always get to their target. Wrong. The problem is the minions are tied to a certain idiot who has a habit of jumping off of cliffs right in front of them and then expecting them to figure out how to path all the way around the cliff to the target while dealing with ANet’s awful terrain mapping, all while never getting outside the max leash range.

One of the biggest mistakes ANet made is having mobs that do not follow the same movement rules as players, yet being expected to keep up with them. Minions can’t jump or fall, meaning they can’t even follow their player up/down. But yeah, it isn’t a simple fix, realistically ANet needs to completely redo how they treat AI in the game, which hopefully thye have with HoT.