As of version 100.17.22308.0 (481060R):
Animals which are supposed to attack nearby villagers (Wolves, Hyenas, Lions, Crocodiles, Bears) do not hunt them, and only fight back against hunters, putting them in the same category mechanically as Boars, Aurochs, Rhinos, Elephants, etc.
I noticed this too! Predators should be much more aggressive.
I figured out the problem.
The gameās tactics files for predatory animals (animal_predator.tactics.xmb within the Data.bar file) has the wrong āautoattacktypeā. By default, it is:
<tactics>
<action>
<name stringid="STR_ACTION_HAND">HandAttack</name>
<type>Attack</type>
<rate type="Unit">1.0</rate>
<attackaction>1</attackaction>
<handlogic>1</handlogic>
<anim>HandAttack</anim>
<onhiteffect type="Snare" duration="2" rate="0.85">
</onhiteffect>
<impacteffect>effects\impacts\hack</impacteffect>
</action>
<tactic>Default<action priority="100">HandAttack</action><attacktype>LogicalTypeHandUnitsAttack</attacktype><autoattacktype>PigSPC</autoattacktype><attackresponsetype>Unit</attackresponsetype></tactic>
</tactics>
It should be more like this (replacing āPigSPCā with āLogicalTypeHandUnitsAutoAttackā.
<action>
<name stringid="STR_ACTION_HAND">HandAttack</name>
<type>Attack</type>
<rate type="Unit">1.0</rate>
<attackaction>1</attackaction>
<handlogic>1</handlogic>
<anim>HandAttack</anim>
<onhiteffect type="Snare" duration="2" rate="0.85">
</onhiteffect>
<impacteffect>effects\impacts\hack</impacteffect>
</action>
<tactic>Default<action priority="100">HandAttack</action><attacktype>LogicalTypeHandUnitsAttack</attacktype><autoattacktype>LogicalTypeHandUnitsAutoAttack</autoattacktype><attackresponsetype>Unit</attackresponsetype></tactic>
</tactics>
Until the devs fix this, I have made a simple mod rectifying this mistake:
Shhh! We like this bug!
Lol kidding, it should be fixed.
Yes this was a staple of the original and should be fixed.
It works! However, they now attack military units too, which Iām not sure theyāre supposed to do (except for Arctic Wolf SPC in āA Lost Peopleā, but I think I remember them doing that when I played the mission a week or so ago so maybe thereās already a separate tactic for them). āPigSPCā seems to cause them to indeed attack Pig (SPC), so I wonder if āAbstractVillagerā or anything like that might have the effect of them only attacking villagers but not military units. There would also need to be a way now for the wolves to attack your special pigs in āOld Friendsā, though that might be easier to do with triggers.
I also recall there being a slight random delay with predators actually attacking in the extended edition, where with this fix they act like normal units that immediately aggro onto any unit in their LOS. Iām not sure how important or complicated that would be to implement though, Iām not a modder at all. These are just some considerations to have for any more thorough fix, but this is just a simple mod altering a single line of code of course.
I agree this should be changed to how it was in the original, but itās possibly deliberate rather than a bug.
The original gameās proto.xml has the flag LogicalTypePredatorsAttack on most units, which has been removed in Retold. I think the point of it was so that predators couldnāt attack buildings.
I actually like that they attack your other units in my mod, especially scouts. It makes scouting the map much more dangerous. Thankfully, the predators tend to give up if your scouts move too far away from them, which prevents players from luring them to enemy bases as an exploit.
This probably shouldnāt have been marked as resolved by OP. It might make the developers ignore it and not fix the bug.
TyrannoNinja found the issue causing predators to not be aggressive at all so I just clicked the checkbox on their post about that, but Iāve not used this site much before so I donāt know everything. I can remove it if thatās what itās usually used for.
Yeah, itās to mark that you found a solution to the issue and that that itās not a bug with the game.
Iāve noticed a similar behaviour. I created some zombie like minions as a test-mod with working infection. Only problem is, nobody really aggroes on them as if it was an editor battle. You can only order them to attack or wait until you get hit by them, which in my modās case is often too late.
it was in the patch notes that this is intentional (i guess for multiplayer balance or something).
check the retold pre-release patch notes on the wiki, the huge ones that show changes from the old AOM.
Under some condition they did attack military units in the original as well.
Those arenāt official patch notes. Itās on there because it is a change, but itās not clear whether it was intentional because they havenāt updated the in-game information that still says predators attack villagers.
Hi guys!
This is intended behavior, they only attack back if they are attacked first
Thanks for sharing your thougths
Even villagers? Shouldānt it be changed that if villagers pass too close to them they attack the villagers? (and only villagers).
Are you sure? Thatās not how it worked in the original, and all the tooltips and various other bits of information still say that predators will attack villagers. Predators are wolves, lions, etc. as opposed to reactive animals like boars that only fight back when attacked. It changes the game and only in a way that makes it less interesting. Predators attacking villagers is also something that happens in Age of Empires 1 and 2 (there are no huntable predators in Age 3).
I came across it as well and thought it was a bug. I believe it should be changed back to predators attacking villagers and why not, soldiers as well. I get itās a change but a bear would attack you in real life as well so I donāt see why not attack a soldier.
Might I ask what the reasoning behind this change is, and why the description of predators wasnāt changed to indicate this was an intended change and not a bug? It seems odd to me to say the least to remove a feature thatās been a part of the game and franchise for a long time, and then not making clear it is a feature and not a bug, or giving a reason for the change.