Has anyone experimented with +Aggro Items

[Vulpes]

I am with Hakon's crew on a warpath currently and got a spoil of war that does +2 Aggro and 5% chance of dodging a STR attack. I have Mogr with maxed armor at the moment so I put it on him. I just got my first fight vs slingers and boy did they ever target him. I dont recall the effect being this obvious but then again Im not sure if I have ever used a +2 one before, at least not in TBS1.

Now, my question is, how far out of the way will they go to put themselves in a position to attack someone with high aggro? I was thinking about putting it on Eirik, who I can easily surround with Varl and who can move in and out staying behind a wall and almost always out of reach. Would enemies move to try to eventually get to him, ignoring the wall? Or would they calculate they cant hit him this turn and then select the next best target? In fights where you arent surrounded that could gamebreakingly easy to manipulate.

[Aleonymous]

The AI "weights" are not really straight to figure out. The most obvious thing is that it prioritizes kills above anything else. Then comes the sheer amount of damage (STR or BRK), I think. So, a +2 Aggro on a tank hero might not "blind" the AI, if it has other lucrative targets in-range.

As to your question: I am pretty sure that the AI only considers the valid in-range targets before applying the Aggro modifier. That means that it won't start "chasing" a hero with Aggro around the board...

I think these items work best against Slingers (and other ranged enemies), who have both high attack range and exertion: Equip that on Eirik, position him behind your front-liners, but in-range of Slingers, and let them come to you!

On a final note: That particular item is maybe one of the worse deals in the game! +2 Aggro for just 5% dodge is way too little

[Vulpes]

It is definitely too little, and I now have two of them.

I like the recent patch that gives an automatic item for pressing forward in war battles, but they all seem to suck now. My last playthrough getting a Namej's Ring was hugely important and I even used that in early TBS2 as well. Now instead I have +1 Will per kill level stuff. Got lucky and got a Worldhook for +2 BRK but thats been the best thing so far and its a Level 2 item.

[Aleonymous]

Well, you do need some luck on your side, with the item drops!

[Vulpes]

not as badly as you do in survivor mode in TBS2 tho lol.

[Aleonymous]

I'm actually hoping for lousy low-rank items and also trying to kill-off second-grade heroes, because of this:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/281640/discussions/3/358415206078748831/#c365172547945110368

(You can earn more Renown than what you spent recruiting+promoting a hero, by giving them Viking Funeral w/ item when killed; Profit is highest on low-rank heroes, 3-5.)

[Vulpes]

Yeah I remember your post about it. Cant bring myself to do it though : )

Just did Ridgehorn tower, and the war battle right after (Charge / Keep pressing) ended in a real slop fest down to Hakon and Fasolt trading 1STR attacks vs what was left. My reward? Padded Undercoat.

[Aleonymous]

Originally posted by efoxy06:

Just did Ridgehorn tower, and the war battle right after (Charge / Keep pressing) ended in a real slop fest down to Hakon and Fasolt trading 1STR attacks vs what was left. My reward? Padded Undercoat.

+1 ARM for the win!

[Vulpes]

Hey Aleo, are you aware of any innate +Aggro on any characters or races? In the early Rook chapters it really feels like Iver is targetted by humans more than normal. I am guessing targetting is mostly based on damage potential, or weakest available target. There have been times when other targets would fit that criteria better but Iver was still targetted.

[Gestaltzerfall]

Target selection is a relative complex computation.

Simplified:
Kill >>> Strength Damage > Armor Dmg

Furthermore the position of friendly(good) and enemy(not so good) units have influence. Consuming Willpower have also negative influence. Several other things also affect the equation.

Example:
Killing your vulnerable archer gives 200 points
Do some armor dmg to your noble varl gives 80 points
-> ai kills your archer

Giving your varl +1 aggro item, so he gets 100% bonus points:
Killing your vulnerable archer gives 200 points
Do some armor dmg to noble varl gives 160 points
-> ai kills your archer

Giving your varl +2 aggro item, so he gets 200% bonus points:
Killing your vulnerable archer gives 200 points
Do some armor dmg to noble varl gives 240 points
-> ai attacks your varl

[Vulpes]

that all adds up and makes sense, but my question was if there are modifiers based on race, both of the AI attackers and on their target. In my experience, human AI seem more likely to target Varl.

Knowing the exact formula a little better I can mess around with that. That really does explain a huge boost in effectiveness of a +2 aggro item vs a +1.

[Gestaltzerfall]

I've stepped a little bit through the sourcecode, but i didn't saw anything that would ai decision making would be affected by races.

Extracting exact the formula from sourcecode is not that easy.
But if you really want to know more... You can start game in developers mode and turn ai-debugging on by console command "debug_ai". This leads to more detailed logs on ai decision making.

[Aleonymous]

I don't think the AI takes account "racial enemies" as you say, either (Gestalt's sourcecode investigations prove it!).

I think Iver gets focus-fired just because we typically deploy him first-up, the big tank that he is! That's why Egil (w/ his Stone Wall ability) is super useful in early Rook caravan ;)

It would have been cool though, to have "special" AI behavior depending on circumstances of each battle.