Should a Mob be Able to Run so Far Away it Unleashes Itself and Forgets About You?

[loramin]

While doing the Tainted Aqua Goblin camp for my Druid's epic I dragged a couple of PHs to the island above the underwater tower. I DoTed them both below 20%, but then I had to deal with something IRL, and when I came back both their roots had broke and they'd ran off into the lake.

It's virtually impossible to cast or hit them in the water (which seems like a bug), so I just sat and waited for them to heal up enough to come back ... but they didn't.

Instead one completely unleashed himself from me, and went back to his spawn point (and full health). The other tried to do the same thing, but I was able to catch him just before he got back to the spawn point, so he still had low health.

On live I don't remember a fleeing mob ever just forgetting you and going back to its spawn point, so this seems like a bug. But, my memory of classic isn't perfect, and I have no evidence to file with the bug, so I thought I'd ask for some wisdom from the crowd on the topic.

[Izmael]

It is unclassic and should be removed, or at least limited to zones like PoF or ToV etc.

[Swish2]

https://i.imgur.com/LdCm8tR.gif

[Dolalin]

Mobs aren't supposed to run away forever. In classic they ran a certain distance away and stopped until you started chasing them. This is a documented bug on the bug forum. But no bugs can be fixed until whatever is stopping the devs from patching the server is resolved.

[Hibbs]

I was always under the impression that if a mob was to hit their run threshold that they would run a certain distance but would eventually stop, and then if their HPs ever got back above the run threshold they would return to you and start attacking you again.

[Izmael]

This ^

Mobs* should run away as long as they are low HP, and if/when they regen enough HP back, they should immediately start chasing you again (unless fear/blind/etc), regardless of how far away they are or how long ago they have been aggroed initially. It's that simple.

Leashing on P99 is a like a big zit on the face of an otherwise pretty girl.

* who aren't flagged as non-fleeing such as some undead etc.

[Jimjam]

What is the first time on live anyone remembers leashing?

I remember discovering on my berserker at wall of slaughter that if I snared a mob then hit sprint I would make enough distance that the mob gave up chasing. I used this to reduce adds.

Obviously this anecdote is far past classic. Who knows how long I had overlooked this trick or when it was first implemented?

[Kesselring]

This ^

Mobs* should run away as long as they are low HP, and if/when they regen enough HP back, they should immediately start chasing you again (unless fear/blind/etc), regardless of how far away they are or how long ago they have been aggroed initially. It's that simple.

Leashing on P99 is a like a big zit on the face of an otherwise pretty girl.

* who aren't flagged as non-fleeing such as some undead etc.

This is definitely how it happens, i let a fleeing mob regen some hp to see what happened and it came back to fighting me after getting up to 30%. Not sure if level affects it but the mobs that flee 100% come back when they regen enough hp unless they ran over 1000 locs from the player that would make them leash.

[Legidias]

Either make leash range ridiculously small so you cant pull dragons in ToV, or get rid of leashing altogether.

[Teppler]

The underwater bug really is frustrating to me. Stops me from doing some camps I'd like to do.

Have a hard time with dragons in WW because they often flee into the water and become impossible to loot some times.

[Cen]

The underwater thing is classic as hell at least.

[rictus204]

I noticed this getting seb keys for people the other day. Tagged a frog and ran back to the EJ zoneline, waited around.. no frog. Thought to myself no way would p99 put leashing in.. Those pixel madness driven raid freaks have brought this on us, haven't they?!

[lctucker2999]

Like most, my memories are from 18 years ago and foggy at best, but I remember in KC having mobs flee and eventually would heal up to about... 35%? Then eventually return to take another beating and attempt to flee once more.

[loramin]

Thanks for all the feedback! I will file a bug for this, and link to this thread for "evidence".

The underwater thing is classic as hell at least.

I don't remember it being like that. I remember it being really hard to stay close enough to melee a fleeing mob in the water, but if you actually managed to get yourself close enough when you attacked you were able to hit. And as far as casting goes, I remember being able to cast on something in the water if I was in the water, but not if I was on land.

Again, I think both might be because of that weird glitch where mobs appear to fall out of the sky constantly, because A) they're too far to hit, and B) they're out of the water when I try to cast on them (from in the water).

I do remember seeing glitch happen sometimes on live, but not to the extent that "every aqua goblin in Lake Rathe is impervious to all harm when fleeing in the lake". Still, before I file a bug for this, how do others remember attacking/casting on mobs in the water working?

[lctucker2999]

I don't remember it being like that. I remember it being really hard to stay close enough to melee a fleeing mob in the water, but if you actually managed to get yourself close enough when you attacked you were able to hit. And as far as casting goes, I remember being able to cast on something in the water if I was in the water, but not if I was on land.

This is how I remember it too. Can't cast from land into water or vice versa, but I certainly remember being able to be in the water, within standard casting range, and able to pull mobs. Again... 18 year old memories, but I remember pulling (swimming) crocs in oasis while in the water from regular spell range and I also remember pulling mobs in KC moat from standard spell casting distance.

[Barm McLir]

I'll add to the confusion. I started on live in Sept of 2000. I remember old world mobs would chase you forever but Kunark mobs had 'lazy aggro'. If you got so far away they would give up chasing you but you would remain on their hate list. If you got within something that was like three times normal aggro range they would give chase again.

OK, I found a mention of it on this page from 2002:

Lazy Aggro

In Kunark and Velious, if you are beyond a certain distance from a mob, it will lose interest and no longer pursue you, though will still maintain you on the hate list with an increased aggro radius.
http://youngsdojo.tripod.com/Pulling.html

On P99, lazy aggro seems to wipe the hate list.

[Cen]

This is how I remember it too. Can't cast from land into water or vice versa, but I certainly remember being able to be in the water, within standard casting range, and able to pull mobs. Again... 18 year old memories, but I remember pulling (swimming) crocs in oasis while in the water from regular spell range and I also remember pulling mobs in KC moat from standard spell casting distance.

This is how I also remember it and how I interpreted the water "problem" in the original post. Water can cast on water, land on land, cant from one to other. I only played eq till luclin and it never changed as of me moving on. Maybe other xp changed it but I dont even know what the legendary "plane of knowledge" even looks like so all my Eq brains is in this era.

[Zekayy]

we can talk about this all we want and it wont do any good without any proof of what was classic and what isn't

[Eukaryotik]

Admittedly this is from 2004:

In a way some mobs do give up if you get far enough away but you will stay on there hate list and as soon as you get in chase range again they come after you.

ARCHIVED-Nastar_Shadowsoul, Mar 4, 2004

https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/do-mobs-ever-give-up-the-chase.28270/

Could the issue have been that the mob simply just got too far away from you, not necessarily from the spawn or pull point, and then de-aggroed?