Talk:Pawns/@comment-173.67.53.196-20130916221726

The pawns have a rather flawwed system despite what they are in-game. In game they should do whatever we say but alas, they don't. While I love dragons dogma I cannot help but feel turmoil when my pawns decide to jump over a chest when they could easily walk around it. Oh, and of course when the chest is next to a chasm. Hahahaha.

I still find it unbelievable that when Dark Arisen was released that the developers would program the enemy A.I pawns better than our own. For example: We all know that goblin shamins, pawn sorcerers, and pretty much any enemy on the game (besides the unsuspecting regular goblins) can see the player through walls somehow and attack.

In dark arisen there is this area where players fight against the cockatrice along with some other enemies. They can either be corrupted pawns, goblins or cyclopses. Now the pawns in particular i'm referring to are the one's on the second level that are rangers. This particular incident made me fume because my pawns did nothing to support me.

There are about three(?) ranger pawns on the second floor and before I went out into he main area I went after the pawns first. So I made my way up to the second floor to defeat them. Mind you I was a mystic knight at the time but I wanted to try a few tactics against them. I wanted my pawns, specifically my mages and sorcerers to crush them with spells while I defended them. I used the Holy Fortress spell on my shield and slowly ascended the flight of stairs to fight the rangers.

I have one mage, one sorcerer, and one fighter. The one who actually did some attacking was the fighter but that was neither here nor there. The corrupted pawns spammed great gamble as I blocked all of their attacks. The fighter pawn mostly defended against attacks that weren't even directed at it. The other two would run out, start casting, and run back behind me cancelling the spells. After the corrupted pawns would attack the fighter would attack briefly then go back to defending.

Now the corrupted pawns on the other hand...Hahaha. On the second floor, there are two pawns on the side where I am at, and one across from me. It's an area you have to jump to. The pawn in front of me eagerly spams great gamble and only targeting me not my pawns. The other in the back also spams it, but when I move closer to that one the pawn repositions itself on the balcony where I'm still in range but now I have pawns on both sides of me spamming the same move. My pawns are still doing very little to support me.

When the spell wore off of my shield I quickly retreated since my stamina was getting low and I was getting nowhere. Oh and these same pawns headshotted me through several tiny cracks while tracking me through walls when I was trying to get a got shot at them as well. (A different instance when I was a assassin.)

Now I don't have a problem with them seeing me through walls (which they shouldn't), but if my pawns aren't being supportive to counter their advantages it really ruins some of the mood for me. I love it when a pawn comes to the players aid while being swarmed with enemies. But I also don't like when ranger pawns decides that bringing down an airborne cursed dragon requires shooting arrows below the tail not at the crystal in it's chest.

I feel like the pawns were not thought through as far as how they act in-game. They gave really intelligent A.I to "some" enemies in-game. I like the goblins since they have some life in the game. They show fear, they can be fearless, status aliments affect them in some ways, sneaking up on them, throwing their held items, the leaders command other goblins and even call reinforcements. Even if they are generic enemies they have some kind of element to them. Even if they could see the players through walls they didn't "show" it.

Our pawns can't do anything like that other than be there. I find it funny that pawns will not sprint away while death is about to swing his scythe or gain some distance to attack long range like rangers or sorcerers. They will however bunny hop away from dragon doing slow attacks or will actually take the attack while casting a spell in order to complete it, or make full use of the augments given to them.

I think, if anything, that the developers should have put more work into the actual A.I and mechanics of pawns in-game rather than the lore since in-game activities can show the player rather than tell. For example: if pawns are supposed to be guided by the arisen, shouldn't we have more options over our pawns actions? I was thinking about how all of our skills are dictated by the L1 and R1 buttons. What about using those two together and adding a list of pawn specific commands to those button commands. Example: L1+R1+ Square could be to search the area for items, or keep their distance from the arisen while attacking enemies, or a miscellaneous option like asking the pawn to lanuch the player up to a higher level with the launchboard skill outside of battle.

Oh and tell the pawns to stop breaking boxes that i'm using. Hahaha. All in all, I think the pawn system is good but it lacked the depth that other features in the game already show.

I would greatly appreciate any feedback if someone managed to ready my post.