NPCs & Enemies Minor Zoologist Behavior Change

Yello_X

Queen Bee
Hey thewe, Yewwo hewe!

So, we all know that the Zoologist defends herself by attacking enemies with her claws but then just stands still while everyone else dies.

My suggestion is that instead of her doing a Dio (oh, you're approaching me?), why not allow her to leap and pounce on enemies from a distance? She'll keep her old CQC attack, of course. (Not sure how this could work with her normal form, but werefox form on a blood moon can work with this!)

Not very creative, but I'd still love to hear (read) your feedback and comments!
 
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Hey thewe, Yewwo hewe!

So, we all know that the Zoologist defends herself by attacking enemies with her claws but then just stands still while everyone else dies.

My suggestion is that instead of her doing a Dio (oh, you're approaching me?), why not allow her to leap and pounce on enemies from a distance? She'll keep her old CQC attack, of course. (Not sure how this could work with her normal form, but werefox form on a blood moon can work with this!)

Not very creative, but I'd still love to hear (read) your feedback and comments!
While it could be interesting and cool, I think town NPCs only can have melee or ranged or magic attacks, which they all do by standing in one place. The zoologist just uses melee, just like the dye trader or the stylist. which is actually quite good against mobs, even against wraits. but I don't think NPCs could leap, and with a meager 250HP, they would get killed in no time, if they jump around too much, and get contact dmg. from a few zombies...
I don't think town NPCs AI could handle such a thing.
 
Ya got a point there, seeing that AI has limits sometimes. Maybe instead, it's limited to the werefox form and pouncing gives her invincibility for a short time to counteract the contact damage received?
 
Ya got a point there, seeing that AI has limits sometimes. Maybe instead, it's limited to the werefox form and pouncing gives her invincibility for a short time to counteract the contact damage received?
I think her werefox form has the exact same AI as her other, she's probably just set to have different quotes appear on full moon and blood moon days, and the "alternative sprite" was used for that form - all town NPCs can have an alt. sprite, which most, that do have one, use for when it's a party. e.g. dye trader without his tourban, so he can wear a party hat. - but I think zoologist does not wears a party hat? which might be related that her alt. sprite was used for her werefox form?

But the AI is the same, so I don't think if it would be possible to get her to dash, pounce or anything like that.

I would be cool if town NPCs would have a more intelligent AI though... right now they're a bit even dumber than usual, loitering in a lake until they drown...
 
Town NPC AI is kinda bork, yeah. Seeing that 1.4 is gonna be the last last major update (haha 1.5), I don't think they'll put most suggestions in, at least not QoL ones, so AI improvements + this wouldn't happen :/
 
Town NPC AI is kinda bork, yeah. Seeing that 1.4 is gonna be the last last major update (haha 1.5), I don't think they'll put most suggestions in, at least not QoL ones, so AI improvements + this wouldn't happen :/
Yeah, probably unlikely.
It could be interesting though, if town NPCs would have a better AI...
 
I can't think of an AI improvement though, well not now at least.
to be honest, me neither that much. besides fixing that they drown themselves.

When playing modded, there are mods that make NPCs invulnerable to monsters and drowning (lava still kills them). I think such a thing can help a lot when you want to keep them alive. Because especially in hardmode, they are really fragile. but trying to keep them safe can make boss fight unnecessarily tougher. and then a random wraith just floats in and bye-bye NPC...
and it's sad, because they can be quite nice folks to have around. it's really sad that a pirate invasion can wipe out your entire town in a minute, if you're just a bit careless - or if they are.

so, I think having some sort of option to make town NPCs invulnerable could be nice.
it wouldn't solve problem with their AI, but at least they wouldn't end up dying - in most cases at least. the newly freed wizard still got freaked out from a random bat that he jumped into a pool of lava...
 
I love it when a small suggestion suddenly becomes a game mechanic discussion.

Town NPCs being invulnerable to enemies sounds kind of... overpowered imo. Maybe buff the overall stats in hardmode, so they'll have their regular stats in pHM but then get a huge increase upon entering HM to counteract the huge amounts of NPC deaths.
 
I love it when a small suggestion suddenly becomes a game mechanic discussion.

Town NPCs being invulnerable to enemies sounds kind of... overpowered imo. Maybe buff the overall stats in hardmode, so they'll have their regular stats in pHM but then get a huge increase upon entering HM to counteract the huge amounts of NPC deaths.
Haha, it's a funny thing indeed XD when it's okay that it goes a bit off-topic from the initial suggestion XD

I don't think it's actually overpowered if they're invulnerable. they aren't good fighters, so you couldn't really cheese any events of bosses that your loyal townsfolks kill them for you.
ranged and mage NPCs attack quite rarely - and have poor aim against moving targets, and melee NPCs attack only things right next to them. they will land a few hits on bosses flying nearby, but overall, they couldn't likely kill any bosses. even something like a zombie on normal mode needs like 3 hits from a town NPC to die.

Plus they lack the courage and fighting spirit to keep attacking, they just attack if feel threatened, then try to run. understandable though, considering how fragile they are. non-melee NPCs might end up killed by a slime too, if cornered...

They are awful fighters, I just would like if the town would look the same the next morning as it was before, even after a hardmode blood moon, solar eclipse or something, instead of turning into an empty ghost town...
 
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