Game Mechanics: Green NPCs should flee at 50%

[Rygar]

I was doing some research into this mechanic and tested it yesterday on P99, I could not get any green NPCs to flee at 50% health. I tested in Beholder's Maze and RunnyEye. I was able to get them to flee below 20% health, but not below 50% health. I even verified they weren't social rooted via FDing at say 40% and they would not go to flee mode, yet when I stood and whacked them again they would flee when dropping below 20%.

I should note that fleeing 50% mobs should be true 'runners' and not walk, as evidenced by the old over-powered bard snare that could stop green runners when compared to normal snare (I do not know what their actual speed should be, such as runspeed * 90% or 95% or whatever).

I saw that TakP has enabled green mobs to flee at 50%, so not sure if some of those devs can offer additional sources / mechanics info. But here is what I've found:

08/23/00 Evidence:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010822...ve/arc60.shtml
Player question/comment:

Bard Chains
[Quote from original post: Prior to your patch of the level 54 AE Snare song, the lower level Chains song (level 23), for high level Bards, was able to stop a SINGLE damaged MOB dead in its tracks at 50% health. In order to do this, considering the high resist rate and the early break problem, Bards had to devote ALL of their casting to doing this one thing and this one thing alone.

We know that green MOBs that run run at 50% health, and that blue MOBs that run run at 25%. After the change, the song does not stop MOBs dead in their tracks until 20%. This means that, prior to the level 54 patch, Bards could stop ALL runners. Post the level 54 patch, Bards can stop NO runners. We CAN'T STOP TRAINS now. ]

Developer response:

The change that was implemented about two months ago placed a cap on the maximum amount that a creature can be slowed prior to the addition of damage. At the time, the people making that change didn't think that it would affect any other spells or songs than the 54th level song. After it did, and due to the complaints here, we tested the song in depth, and determined that the way it was working before was far too powerful. The current functionality that you are describing is the correct functionality for the spell.

https://web.archive.org/web/20010822...ve/arc59.shtml
Player Question:

Overpowered Song
[Quote from original post: Abashi, Aradune, etc: Just how the hell was the song "over powered?"]

You've explained it well just outlining what the song did:

[Quote from original post: It could stop a "SINGLE" blue from running at 25%
It could stop a "SINGLE" green from running at 50%]

These stopped creatures would just sit there, essentially rooted, but passive, not fighting back.

Essentially, if the creature is fleeing, there is risk because he might flee into something that would cause the attacker a problem. If the creature was rooted, there would be risk because the creature would fight back. However, in this case he's fleeing and rooted, which is the problem.

8/27/99 Evidence:

These same green mobs will also run from you at less than half health
when you fight them, so you will sort of get what you want here too.
Making a mob instantly run from you if green would make places like Guk
even more of a nightmare than they already are. Remember, mobs that run
are programmed to aggro all the other mobs they pass towards you.

Be careful what you wish for. By L40 you will be very tired of having to
deal with L18 mobs attacking you then running away after your first good
hit.

10/20/99 Evidence:

True GREEN mobs run when their health reaches 50%. Time your DOT to go off when
it's hit points are just above this level (yes, I know. Your a caster not a
fighter and you will be interupted, but that's the time you should cast it.
Besides, it's only a green). Necro DOT's slow the runner so it shouldn't be too
hard to run the creature down and it shouldn't get too far before the DOT kills
it anyway.

01/24/2000 Evidence:

> Actually he's right and you're wrong. The speed at which something
> is damaged alongh with your health has more to do with when it runs
> than the amount of damage you've done on it. You just havn't had
> to clear enough green crap out to get stuff worth killing to spawn
> to see how it really behaves.

I think it's actually a function of level, not rate of damage. I
hurt things very slowly when I melee them (Enchanters are not
impressive with weapons) even if they are very green.

A monster will run when it hits a certain percentage of its health.
If the monster is green to you, that percentage is higher than if
the monster is blue to you. I think the highest percentage is
around 50% for very low greens. If there is more than one person
attacking it, it responds to the highest level foe.

Some out of era evidence around 2006 or so, for what its worth:
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/...ng-away.48203/

I saw this thread in bug forums about fleeing in general, but didn't really address the 50% mode on green mobs.

I have to say, after reading some of the other comments in these threads, I'm reaching back into my memory banks to my warrior on live. This could easily be a tainted memory, but I thought fleeing mobs would 'run' away from me when I was soloing and it was a white knuckle scramble to get a few more hits in to get them to 'walk mode'. Anyone else recall this? I don't remember mobs just walking off like they do on P99, but as Rogean said in that thread some may have been sowed.

So maybe like those first few links they would 'run' at 25% if blue, and walk when hitting 20%. Snare would stop them regardless. Probably not enough evidence for that portion in here (maybe someone else will want to contribute additional findings), but I think the green mobs fleeing at 50% should be good?

Let me know if any more info is needed, thank you.