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Why Minions, Why? An explanation, if you please.

AuthorMessage
Dread Pirate
Jun 17, 2013
2743
I always thought that our summoned/doubloon minions could use a little crash course in 'how to behave properly in battle...101', but last night they more than reminded me of this very thing.

I was in the Tower of Moo, facing off against that evil mastermind when my silly ol' minions decided to misbehave. Throughout the battle, I had five doubloon minions show up in the 2 tiles adjacent to Moo Manchu, while I occupied Moo's own minions...clear across the battle board. Three out of the five summons proceeded to kindly leave Moo alone so that he could collect his thoughts.Not only did they leave but they proceeded to pass right through the gauntlet of 'statues whose blades fall and go boom'-- nearly ending their fun, before it even began. They all could have just stayed and at least directed their initial attack against him, until his Nefarious Defense came into play.

My question for Ratbeard, is why do our summons leave an enemy that is in the tile adjacent to them, only to try to find or target enemies that are clear across the board. In this case, is it simply because Moo Manchu is just so dang nefarious? Or should the summons at least be attacking an adjacent target when there are no other targets within 8-10 tiles in any direction? One doubloon minion did stay and attack Moo right away and then later in the battle one also stayed in the adjacent tile it spawned in, and had at Mr. Manchu. Why do some summons stay and attack, and some leave a target and walk through a minefield in search of a different target? Is it just that there is a bit of randomness to their programming as well? Or do they just miss us and can't wait to run over and give us a hug?

These are just some curiosities that I had to help me better understand our summons', sometimes backwards 'way of thinking'. Ratbeard, if at all possible, could you offer up a bit of programming wisdom in regards to this?
Commodore
Feb 02, 2013
838
another question, why do my terrors all reduce the same companion when they can reach others as well, like seriously, them having 30 accuracy is enough i dont need them having 1 accuracy
Admiral
Jul 07, 2013
1124
Maybe because in battle there will always be factors you can't control. That's what makes it exciting. If it was predictable you'd be perfectly ready all the time how dull.

Virtuous Dante Ramsey
Dread Pirate
Jun 17, 2013
2743
DuranteRamses87 on Jun 19, 2015 wrote:
Maybe because in battle there will always be factors you can't control. That's what makes it exciting. If it was predictable you'd be perfectly ready all the time how dull.

Virtuous Dante Ramsey
Yeah, I agree Dante. I'm not really complaining or wishing everything went according to plans. That would be pretty mindless indeed and we'd be the ones reduced to being mere minions. I ask these kind of questions because I truly want to learn the how and why-- because I enjoy learning about things I know nothing about.

I'm more curious as to how it all works and how the AI programming 'thinks'. I find it interesting that 1 summon will work one way and 10 others will seem to work completely different ways. It's pretty fascinating to me that they actually do seem to have their own 'brains' and ways of operating. I, quite mistakenly, always think about programming code following a similar set script, yet instead it always seems to be rewritten and editing it's own script....and I am blown away by that-- #s that think, WOW! Programming has always amazed me and it's pretty darn cool to see things that are 'supposedly the same' (in regards to programming), seemingly take on their own personalities and behave in a variety of manors. Even though the minions appear to be 'so dumb at times', I am shockingly intrigued out how very smart and unique they, in truth, appear to be. The mere fact that they behave differently, makes them seem more 'real and evolved', almost exhibiting human like qualities. It's cool to me, very cool!

So consider this thread more of an inquisition as to 'how they heck do they do that?' and could someone feed my fascination and curiosities. And besides after re-watching Despicable Me (&2).......it all makes perfect sense and I understand completely why minions are a bit out of control.