Log archive
The server log from before the Pantheon project, kept read-only. No new entry is added to it.
Crashtroller: a hunter played by the guides
While Crashtroller danced and kept saying a troll must be patient, hunter best practices were gathered from levelling guides. He now follows a Beast Mastery talent plan, opens with his pet, manages aspects, uses Berserking, keeps ammo stocked, pulls one monster at a time and travels far to train.
Autonomous players: after resurrecting, move away first
Nearly one death in three happened less than two minutes after a resurrection, at the same spot. Now a player resurrected near where they died first moves away, then rests further off.
Autonomous players: potions drunk wisely, and a first night report
Potions went too fast (1,197 in 40 minutes). They are now kept for real danger, and players buy more from vendors who sell them. Fishing also starts with a few weak monsters nearby. Since the start of the night, mortality has dropped by about a third.
Autonomous players: they finally drink their potions, and pick targets more wisely
272 players carried 1,393 healing potions without ever drinking one. In combat, below 35% health, they now drink their best potion, like any player in trouble. Target selection also accounts for the approach path and for humanoids that help each other. Night-time offline breaks survive server restarts.
Autonomous players: the hunter backs off, the angler heads to the shore
In melee, a hunter wing-clips their target to slow it, then steps back to resume shooting instead of insisting with refused shots. A player who feels like fishing walks to the nearest shore instead of waiting for water to come to them. Warriors, with their stance back, now account for 17% of deaths, down from 23%.
Autonomous players: day/night rhythm, real AFK breaks, fewer vendor trips, and A/B test conclusion
At night, autonomous players play shorter sessions and take longer breaks, as on a real server. They go AFK when no monster is near. They only visit a vendor when selling is worth the trip. The A/B test is closed: none of the tested features explained the excess mortality.
Autonomous players: skinning, little hops while running, and real AFK breaks
After herbalism, autonomous players learn skinning: they buy a knife and skin the beasts they have just killed. They hop now and then while running, like any player, and their AFK breaks finally trigger wherever they are.
Autonomous players: city strolls, 'ding!', thanks for buffs, and a first A/B result
Autonomous players now and then take a stroll in their capital (bank, auction house, inn), announce their levels and thank those who buff them. The A/B test pointed at abandoning hopeless fights as a likely cause of part of the excess mortality: it has been softened.
Autonomous players: safer resurrection, more natural groups, and a mortality investigation
Players resurrect further from dangerous monsters, flee towards a guard when one is near, and form groups less mechanically. Deaths having tripled since mid-afternoon, an A/B test measures four recent changes side by side.
Autonomous players: mutual help, AFK breaks and play sessions
Autonomous players buff passers-by, resurrect fallen players of their faction and wait for a healer before releasing. They go AFK now and then and no longer play non-stop: they log off for a break, then come back.
Autonomous players: jumping, backing off, saner fleeing, no more back-and-forth
A 2-hour behaviour audit flagged what still gives the bots away. First fixes: jumping when stuck, ranged players backing off, fleeing only when there is a way out, hunting without back-and-forth, desynchronised vendor trips, stable hearthstone and emergency spells kept for real danger.
Autonomous players: they read quests and walk up to the counter
Autonomous players open the NPC dialog and read the text before accepting or turning in a quest. They walk the last metres in town. Their shooting distance varies from fight to fight.
Crowded camps can wait a few levels
Deaths while fleeing mostly came from fights against five or six monsters at once, in the Frostmane hold or the Bristleback camp: no escaping that alone. A player does such quests in a group or with a level lead; so do autonomous players now. Skirting monsters on trips has already cut deaths on the way from 24 to 17 per 10 minutes.
Skirting camps instead of crossing them
At 300 players, 372 quests turned in and 154 levels gained in 10 minutes, but 24 of 60 deaths happen on the way to an NPC. Path computation now skirts known hostile monsters along the route, like a player keeping a camp at a distance. And two protections against dithering: a chosen quest pickup is kept, and any repeated oscillation between two objectives is cut off.
A/B verdict: fleeing saves lives; and a paladin who died 46 times
The experiment has spoken: over 30 minutes, the fleeing group had 74 deaths, the fight-to-the-end group 90. Fleeing is therefore restored for everyone. The same window revealed an extreme case: Ariton, a level 9 paladin, died 46 times in Duskwood trying to turn in a repeatable quest to an NPC surrounded by level 19 wolves. Paths now avoid dangerous areas, resting happens out of harm's way, dangerous quest enders are avoided and any death streak is stopped at once.
Flee or fight? An A/B experiment on 100 players
Fleeing disappoints: of 52 flights, 22 succeeded and 28 ended in death. Rather than guess, the experiment is on: half of the autonomous players still flee when a fight goes badly, the other half fights to the end with its emergency moves. Death reports record the group; the automatic analysis compares. Also, “on next swing” attacks are no longer cancelled by their own re-cast, and isolated targets are strongly preferred.
Facing two monsters: each class's emergency moves
The detailed death reports are clear: 37 of 42 deaths happen when a second or third monster joins the fight, and 30 during or right after a flight. Each class now has its emergency moves (Evasion, Retaliation, Psychic Scream, Divine Protection…), focuses on the most wounded attacker and avoids pulling a monster in the path of a patrol.
Fleeing the way one came, and seeing danger before it strikes
After death zones: 86 deaths in 20 minutes (vs 99), 39 level-ups (vs 15). But one flight in three ended badly, as the player ran blindly into other monsters. It now retreats along the path it just walked, flees a little earlier, and spots rares, elites and much stronger aggressive monsters on sight to keep away before being attacked.
Following roads, like a traveller
On long trips, autonomous players now prefer roads: a road map, derived from terrain textures, makes off-road ground costlier in path computation. Road following is measured for all autonomous players.
Mortality: remembering where one died
Half of all deaths happened less than 90 seconds after a resurrection: the player went straight back where it had just died. Autonomous players now remember where each death happened and avoid it for a while, no longer farm repeatable quests, ignore NPCs of a festival that is not running, give up on quests they cannot turn in, and keep all of this across restarts. They also flee a lost fight, like a player.
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