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Pets Attacking When They Shouldn't

Wildberryjack
Wildberryjack
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There is a problem with our pets attacking unprovoked. It happens with Sorcerer, Warden, and WW Pack Leader pets.

If we are anywhere near another player with their pet out and it attacks something, then our pet runs to attack also. We did not attack, we did not even target the NPC, we did not take splash damage. The other pet attacks, ours attacks.

This is a problem. I've been stuck in combat and had to dismiss my pet and I've gotten bounties because of this. And it happens a lot more than you'd think. Earlier I was in Anvil fishing when another Sorcerer attacked a neutral NPC a little bit down the pier from me. The instant his pet attacked my pet hauled its butt over and attacked. Thanks for the bounty in the middle of Anvil you stupid minion.

Our pets should not do this should they?They should only attack what we attack or what attacks us. I can not imagine this is intentional behavior.
The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~Pablo Picasso
  • VoodooPlatypus
    VoodooPlatypus
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    I was leveling up with a friend - both of us playing pet classes. Me on a warden, my friend on a sorcerer. Both of us had our pets out. My friend went AFK and I continued killing mobs in the general area - wolves and spiders if I remember correctly. Several times during her AFK period, HER scamp ran to me from well beyond 'agro range' to assist me in my fights. This happened over and over. I chalked it up to some kind of group-related action on the pet AI, but I was curious.

    Sounds as if pet AI needs some looking into from ZOS.
  • Magdalina
    Magdalina
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    I was leveling up with a friend - both of us playing pet classes. Me on a warden, my friend on a sorcerer. Both of us had our pets out. My friend went AFK and I continued killing mobs in the general area - wolves and spiders if I remember correctly. Several times during her AFK period, HER scamp ran to me from well beyond 'agro range' to assist me in my fights. This happened over and over. I chalked it up to some kind of group-related action on the pet AI, but I was curious.

    Sounds as if pet AI needs some looking into from ZOS.
    This part actually does make sense. I assume you were grouped with your friend, and anyone in your group initiating combat automatically puts you in combat - and you being in combat will make your pet attack by default. It doesn't matter that you are/aren't actually attacking yourself, your group is.

    OP's story sounds a bit weirder though, were you grouped with that other sorc or was that just some random person, OP?
  • Wildberryjack
    Wildberryjack
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    Random person every time. With the fishing in Anvil, the other player came along and tried to pickpocket the NPC and failed. The NPC swung at them with their fists and the other player decided to kill them, so of course their pet attacked. But so did mine. I wasn't that close to them either, there was no splash damage. My pet just hauled over to attack as soon as the other players pet did.

    Also, I was on my Pack Leader at a shrine talking to another Pack Leader. He directed his wolves to go attack a giant. When his ran to attack so did mine. I did not direct them to do that. We tested it several times and if either of our pets attacked something so did the others pets.

    Same with Warden. One example; I was waiting for a dolmen when another Warden decided to kill a nearby scorpion. The second her bear ran to attack mine suddenly did also. I did not even target that scorpion and it hadn't engaged her pet yet.

    This happens all the time. Seems it shouldn't. Not once was I grouped.
    The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~Pablo Picasso
  • Nestor
    Nestor
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    We need to be able to toggle our pets, so that they either attack anything in range/line of site, or, only attack when we attack, or, attack what we tell them to with a target system like we have on PC.
    Enjoy the game, life is what you really want to be worried about.

    PakKat "Everything was going well, until I died"
    Gary Gravestink "I am glad you died, I needed the help"

  • Magdalina
    Magdalina
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    DjinnRa wrote: »
    Random person every time. With the fishing in Anvil, the other player came along and tried to pickpocket the NPC and failed. The NPC swung at them with their fists and the other player decided to kill them, so of course their pet attacked. But so did mine. I wasn't that close to them either, there was no splash damage. My pet just hauled over to attack as soon as the other players pet did.

    Also, I was on my Pack Leader at a shrine talking to another Pack Leader. He directed his wolves to go attack a giant. When his ran to attack so did mine. I did not direct them to do that. We tested it several times and if either of our pets attacked something so did the others pets.

    Same with Warden. One example; I was waiting for a dolmen when another Warden decided to kill a nearby scorpion. The second her bear ran to attack mine suddenly did also. I did not even target that scorpion and it hadn't engaged her pet yet.

    This happens all the time. Seems it shouldn't. Not once was I grouped.

    Interesting. There appears to be an issue with one pet's agro automatically turning all other pets' agro on then. I wonder how that came to be, does game consider all pets a group of their own with subsequent group agro logic or something?

    But yes, that definitely shouldn't be happening.
  • Wildberryjack
    Wildberryjack
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    I now dismiss my pet when in a town, I'm really tired of getting bounties when I didn't deserve them LOL. But even in the open world this is annoying.

    One thing though that I have not done and will ask some guildies to help me test, is will this happen if you are not the same class. Will my Sorcerers pet run to attack if the person near me whose pet attacks is a Warden or Pack Leader. So far my experiences it's been like to like.
    Edited by Wildberryjack on January 26, 2018 2:31PM
    The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~Pablo Picasso
  • Asardes
    Asardes
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    I can't tell how many times a valiant Scamp decided to attack the Mage and Warrior on his own while everyone was changing gear or skills, and we wiped as a result. Until they fix the damned AI I will never play with pet on my Sorcerer. I don't want to wipe the group.
    Beta tester since February 2014, played ESO-TU October 2015 - August 2022, currently on an extended break
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  • Morimizo
    Morimizo
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    This happened for the first time to me last night, in the Riften bank, while I was stocking my Guild shoppe. The Clannfear hollered, and I figured it was one of the many other player's summons inside, and ignored it; then I proceeded to get throttled. I had 207 bounty (way more than for thieving).

    I thought, "What? Did I glitch and post a stolen item in the store? Did I 'accidentally' pinch the nice Dunmer lady where I shouldn't have?"

    If it were the latter, guess I deserved it. :)

    They are 'unstable' summons, after all.
  • ArtOfShred
    ArtOfShred
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    Bumping this:

    @ZOS_Wrobel @ZOS_RichLambert

    I don't think pet reactions are controlled at all by combat events since nothing seems to fire when heavy attacking to make your pets change targets. Maybe something in the AI scripting for pets is being sent to all player pets in a large radius rather then applying only to the owner players pet(s)? Seems like a pretty significant issue.
  • geng14159
    geng14159
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    This just happened to me last night. I have "Prevent Attacking Innocents" set to On so I can't accidently attack someone so I was really confused when I walked into the Basilica in the Clockwork City and my pet started attacking someone. There was someone else there with a pet and they were engaged in battle with a guard. One interesting thing I noticed was that when I walked into the building, I could see the red AOE on the ground, which I usually don't see unless I'm the one fighting.

    Other details:
    Platform: Xbox NA
    Character: Magic Sorcerer. My clannfear was the one that attacked and I ended up with a bounty.
    Location: Basilica in Clockwork City
    Option: Prevent Attacking Innocents was set to On
    Was NOT grouped with anyone at the time
    Did not have a bounty prior to entering the building
  • Hempyre
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    Use the pet controls... Set to passive.

    Easy peasy.

  • Mystrius_Archaion
    Mystrius_Archaion
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    Nestor wrote: »
    We need to be able to toggle our pets, so that they either attack anything in range/line of site, or, only attack when we attack, or, attack what we tell them to with a target system like we have on PC.

    That won't help this.
    This is a bug where the pet will likely get put into aggro mode since attacking an enemy now automatically commands all pets you have to attack that target regardless of the status the pet is in. You set your pet to passive to ignore combat? Sorry, it needs to attack the enemy you are attacking.

    That was a change they made with Morrowind, if I remember correctly.


    This would also explain why I had this happen to me in the Vulkhel Guard bank a year ago where my clannfear killed the tax collector lady who walks around the banker room. I was in the bank menu and started seeing aggro indicators for the clannfear attacking and she was dead before I could stop it, though I had no choice if I wanted out of there but to let the thing kill her and hope no other npc aggroed due to the limitation on not activating doors while being attacked(except outlaw refuge doors).



    P.S.
    It's dumb that we can't activate doors until we have not been attacked or attacked anything else for at least 5 seconds(apparent duration) because we can certainly normally go through a door faster, even in real life, and the only thing that should stop us from entering doors is crowd control, like stuns and immobilizes.

    I bet they can code it to check if we are CCed or not and let us open doors to escape when not CCed.
  • Mystrius_Archaion
    Mystrius_Archaion
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    Hempyre wrote: »
    Use the pet controls... Set to passive.

    Easy peasy.

    No.

    Pets automatically attack on weapon attack, at least heavy attack, towards the target being attacked. It ignores the passive status.

    That means you can't stop this bug, EVER, let alone on console that doesn't have those options.
  • Mystrius_Archaion
    Mystrius_Archaion
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    Magdalina wrote: »
    DjinnRa wrote: »
    Random person every time. With the fishing in Anvil, the other player came along and tried to pickpocket the NPC and failed. The NPC swung at them with their fists and the other player decided to kill them, so of course their pet attacked. But so did mine. I wasn't that close to them either, there was no splash damage. My pet just hauled over to attack as soon as the other players pet did.

    Also, I was on my Pack Leader at a shrine talking to another Pack Leader. He directed his wolves to go attack a giant. When his ran to attack so did mine. I did not direct them to do that. We tested it several times and if either of our pets attacked something so did the others pets.

    Same with Warden. One example; I was waiting for a dolmen when another Warden decided to kill a nearby scorpion. The second her bear ran to attack mine suddenly did also. I did not even target that scorpion and it hadn't engaged her pet yet.

    This happens all the time. Seems it shouldn't. Not once was I grouped.

    Interesting. There appears to be an issue with one pet's agro automatically turning all other pets' agro on then. I wonder how that came to be, does game consider all pets a group of their own with subsequent group agro logic or something?

    But yes, that definitely shouldn't be happening.

    Probably.
    It's likely like enemy factions and pets are a "pet faction" and aggro may be controlled by "set petfaction to 0/1" where 0 is passive and 1 is aggressive. That's essentially how they get enemies to go passive during certain stages of quests or after, and we know that is buggy because they messed up the public dungeon Root Sunder where the animals inside used to always be passive after the quest but now go back aggressive as soon as you leave or relog.
  • Mystrius_Archaion
    Mystrius_Archaion
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    geng14159 wrote: »
    This just happened to me last night. I have "Prevent Attacking Innocents" set to On so I can't accidently attack someone so I was really confused when I walked into the Basilica in the Clockwork City and my pet started attacking someone. There was someone else there with a pet and they were engaged in battle with a guard. One interesting thing I noticed was that when I walked into the building, I could see the red AOE on the ground, which I usually don't see unless I'm the one fighting.

    Other details:
    Platform: Xbox NA
    Character: Magic Sorcerer. My clannfear was the one that attacked and I ended up with a bounty.
    Location: Basilica in Clockwork City
    Option: Prevent Attacking Innocents was set to On
    Was NOT grouped with anyone at the time
    Did not have a bounty prior to entering the building

    That's the worst part.
    The pets completely disregard "prevent attacking innocents".

    We need this to be fixed no matter what as soon as possible above all else. That's a glaring problem.
  • Wildberryjack
    Wildberryjack
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    Another thing with this; I can successfully sneak past hostiles and once I'm clear my pet will suddenly turn and run back to attack everything I just snuck past. I was hidden the entire time and no aggro indicator was on me. But my pet just hauled back to attack everything as I was moving on. I've also had my pet attack hostiles when I was invisible. Seems it should not do that either.

    Editing to add: tested the pet attack when another pet does issue with a class different from mine. I was on my sorcerer, they were on their Warden. Their bear attacked, then my pet ran to attack the bear's target. I did not send it, I did not target it, my pet just bolted as soon as the Warden's bear engaged.

    Also, I was in the guild house when someone aggro'd the target dummy. My pet ran all the way across the room to attack it. Just sayin'.
    Edited by Wildberryjack on February 13, 2018 5:00PM
    The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~Pablo Picasso
  • Wildberryjack
    Wildberryjack
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    Ok my stupid minion just ran back and aggro'd about ten ogres after I'd bypassed them all. I stopped to pick an herb and he took off and attacked everything in sight. This is old. I'm so fed up with this I'm going to play without him till this issue is fixed, and that is not going to be fun because I'm a MagSorc. But my stupid pet attacking on a whim is not acceptable anymore.
    Edited by Wildberryjack on February 14, 2018 7:52PM
    The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~Pablo Picasso
  • Ral'nor
    Ral'nor
    I have been having a similar issue. I'm saying similar because no other player is involved. If I am anywhere remotely near a red mob, my pet (Warden-Bear, Sorc-Scamp) runs over and attacks.

    This is happening when I am not in combat. I have not aggroed any mobs. It doesn't matter. My pet goes off and attacks.

    I can understand that behavior (at a smaller range) if I'm already in combat. However, if I'm not in combat, maybe, just maybe, I had plans to avoid it.
  • Universe
    Universe
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    @ZOS_Adrikoth @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_BrianWheeler
    This bug discussion was created in January 2018 and this severe issue is still occurring.

    I was in Velyn Harbor's bank alt tabbing(browsing the web while gaming) while my pet is near me and when I returned from the alt tab I noticed I already have 200+ bounty and the guard is attacking my pet.
    I quickly tried to escape and the other guard was pursuing me...I streak my way through and escaped the bank from the upper floor.

    The guards shouldn't have attacked me and my pet at all.
    I had prevent attacking innocents toggle as ON & 0 bounty.
    I was quite literally standing there and doing nothing.

    *Afterwards I did a test and I noticed that commanding a pet + attack on a target will bypass the prevent attacking innocents toggle option ON.

    So 2 problems/bugs:
    1. My pet engaged in combat apparently due to combat status applied to me due to other player/s activities.
    2. Commanding a pet + attack on a target will bypass the prevent attacking innocents toggle option ON.
    The pet will engage the target and a battle will commence.
    Pet: Volatile Familiar
    Class: Sorcerer.
    Server: PC EU
    Edited by Universe on May 16, 2020 7:15PM
    Some videos I recorded for fun: Main character:
    PC EU main: Universe - AD magicka Sorcerer, Former Emperor, Grand Overlord, The Merciless, Trial Bosses Solo Champion
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    PC NA main: The Magic - AD magicka Sorcerer
    Started playing ESO in beta & early access
    User_ID: Daedric_Prince
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