Solution proposal to hunter vs. traveler controversy concerning guard towers

[Guest Noiram]

On JK-Home, there has been quite some controversy about guard towers lately. The hunters are complaining that it spoils their game, while the travelers and crafters claim that they are dependent on the towers being placed at the public highways, and their home locations. This issue is likely to become worse when server population grows in the future.

I would like to propose a few changes to the tower guard AI that might solve the problem for both:

1. If the tower foundations are paved, have guards only random-move on paved terrain. Movement due to aggression is unaffected.

2. Furthermore, with paved foundations, have guards only respond to aggressive MOBs on paved terrain.

3. Otherwise, with non-paved foundations, have tower guards behave as before.

4. Paved behavior does not apply to non-MOB opponents, like players or pets.

Since I have no wild experience, it may be best to limit these changes to JK-Home if possible. That's currently the only continent experiencing this controversy as far as I know.

The choice of tower foundations to determine behavior has several reasons:

1. It does not require any client changes to add a management dialog.

2. For passers-by, it is immediately apparent what the current behavior will be.

3. Many existing towers will already have the appropriate setting automatically. And if not, it can be easily changed.

Please give your feedback on this.

Cheers,

/Noiram

[wwiiol 0]

easy to see exploiting on wild

EDIT: re-read your post, and you recommended home-only

[Guest Johnnyonoes]

+1

[Iulianx 90]

Yeah, guards should protect the road, not to in the middle of the forest to kill everything, as a traveler is very annoying to find a bear in the middle of the road, and when i went hunting i cursed all the guard towers i found in my path.

the guards should patrol the roads and their suroundings (5-6 tiles on each side) in the tower's range.

[Guest Noiram]

[...] the guards should patrol the roads and their suroundings (5-6 tiles on each side) in the tower's range.

Yes it might be already sufficient to just change the pathing. With the aggression range added in, it may already have the desired effect. Less risk in fouling up other aspects of the guard and tower features.

I forgot to mention one major benefit from deciding behavior on foundation tile: it does not need extra database space. And the tile type has to be loaded with the area anyways.

[Guest Ephemeral]

I liked the idea somebody posted a while back about guard towers not spawning guards, but just repelling all hostile animal spawns within a 50 tile radius by not allowing mobs to actively 'wander' into them. If something did, a TG spawned - killed the mob, then despawned, damaging the tower slightly

[Lunn 235]

+1

[MadWallaby 1]

Sounds like what's needed on JK-H is not so much Guard Towers but safety buildings.  Ie, every 50 tiles or so along a road there's another building that you can duck into if you're pursued by something that wants to eat you.  Heck, you could even throw a bed in it at low rent.

That way you can beat on the animal some, retreat to bandage your wounds and regain stamina, come out again and whack the animal a bit more... and if it all gets too much you can have a little lie down.

[Guest Noiram]

Sounds like what's needed on JK-H is not so much Guard Towers but safety buildings. Ie, every 50 tiles or so along a road there's another building that you can duck into if you're pursued by something that wants to eat you. Heck, you could even throw a bed in it at low rent.

That way you can beat on the animal some, retreat to bandage your wounds and regain stamina, come out again and whack the animal a bit more... and if it all gets too much you can have a little lie down.

[Zcul 303]

Time for some AI code which make the nasties lurk in the

shadows out of reach for the tower guards.

When the innocent traveller come close, they appear and get a feast!

/Zcul

[EliasTheCrimson 348]

Time for some AI code which make the nasties lurk in the

shadows out of reach for the tower guards.

When the innocent traveller come close, they appear and get a feast!

/Zcul

Indeed, I think improving the AI to make beasts a little more clever is the real answer.

For instance, have some aggressive creatures favor grass and tree tiles, and be less prone to stand for long periods of time on or close to pavement. There wouldn't be any need to be any advanced "thinking" AI code, just code bits that, for example, causes animals to move around more often and longer distances when it detects pavement beneath itself, until is reaches grass (which would logically cause them to not camp near roads and settlements).

[Dashiva 14]

If you want better AI, the most obvious improvement would be to make it less suicidal. Creatures, especially aggressive ones, should avoid civilization.

[Arcanist 0]

Yeah, for some reason the already avoid deeds, just extend this, and add for towers aswell (maybe deed/tower range + 10 tiles)

[Tosti 1]

Speaking of AI. Having options for deed on how they engage enemies would be awesome aswell. To give a few examples to see what I am talking about.

-Passive: Deed guards only stay ondeed, and does not cross deed border when attacked upon.

-Aggressive: Deed guards follow enemies off deed xxx tiles when attacked upon.

Blablabla, and options like, how much guards should be minimal ondeed, or the maximum outside. Or having an option for guards to back off when hurt/wounded/bleeding etc.

I always ought deed guards dumb as a monkeysarse and suicidal.