Animal Companion Bugs

[Diz-e]

The new system is great. I really like it. But there are still some bugs which make it very frustrating to use with any confidence.

I already noted one major bug, in exploitable bug reports.

Here are a couple more:

- It's known that using an item or scroll for summoning will dismiss your animal companion. But using an item which casts the Summon Pool variety of summons while your companion is out not only dismisses the companion, but removes it permanently and you will not be able to call it again.

- Worgs. Worg companion AI doesn't seem to follow commands in the presence of hostile creatures. Neither with the NWN commands nor the Control Companion tool (and I know all the tricks to controlling summons/dominated/companions/familiars/animates etc) will the worg maintain the orders you give them. Short of spamming said commands/tools, they will continue to try and attack nearby hostiles. This is the first time I've ever encountered this sort of behavior from a creature under a character's command. I'm not sure if there are any other companion-able creatures that have this issue, as I have yet to try them all.

- I've also lost access to my companion for reasons unknown. Today I logged in and the companion I had was just gone. (if it makes a difference, this companion was not gained via the regular means. I can elaborate if it helps.)

Thanks for creating such an awesome system and I hope we can make it better!

[Diz-e]

I found something else which is peculiar regarding the animal companions.

When feeding them potions, it doesn't seem to give the desired result. Also, in the act of doing so, the respective animation is focused on the character, and not the companion.

[PanamaLane]

Just to note about the "Worgs" issue. This is actually quite common for a number of companions and even animals which have been AE'd. I've found if you can "reset" the AE'd animal by dismissing and then reapplying AE successfully, it will begin to follow commands again. Of course, this is not possible with companions. Also, if anyone in your party has attacked said animal, even though they are not hostile to you, your animal will continue to attack them despite any orders given. Once again "reset" fixes this but its often impossible to pull off while in combat.

Spamming orders is a huge pain in the neck, and most of the time when this bug happens in the middle of combat, the only sane thing to do is dismiss them.

I also want to add to this, that AE'd animals out of your line of sight will sometimes not respond to the /c recall command. This seems entirely case by case and random to me, so I'm not sure why it happens.

Finally, AE'd animals out of line of sight will not bring up radial menu when you click on their portrait. This doesn't seem like a big deal, but often if you want to leave an animal somewhere before transitioning to a new area, you are forced to just wait it out. Is there a dismissal command akin to the recall?

[Dredi]

This was especially prevalent with darkness and the "Panther" familiar..

So many times did that thing turn on me with its sneak attacks.

[Diz-e]

I know all about the problem with creatures being aggro'd and having to wrangle them in. This is different. I'm talking about a completely calm creature, which was AE'd calm, trained calm, never was it hostile or attacking anything.

Having used the foolproof technique of NWN 'Hold your ground' followed by using the CC tool to have it follow my character, I then will bring it into an area with a hostile monster, and it just beelines for that hostile with the attack icon in it's portrait. I have a lot of experience with all sorts of commanded minions, and I've never seen this sort of AI behavior before.

I should also add that the hostile creature in question was not moving to attack the companion at all. In fact it was across the map, the first time I noticed this happening.

One last thing to make clear: I tried out the worg more than once, after the previous were wiped. This happened again and again with that creature as a companion.

[SN]

There's another one which I'm not sure if Diz-e mentioned:

When you feed the Animal Companion certain potions (OWTL, Camo) it does not apply to the animal itself, but to your character.

The animation of potion drinking swirls above your PC's head but the message log says: Companion drinks OWTL/Camo potion.

Not sure about other potions, the standard Stat ones/Blur seemed to work just fine.

[Talir]

I believe I got the summon death bug fixed.

I have tried to fix the AI behavior. It might not work.

Mystery reasons I cannot help with.

Regarding potions, this is not an issue with the animal companion system. It's related to giving potions to any associate. When you give potions with spells that target self such as camouflage, one with the land and shield; you will use it yourself. At least that is what I got out of it during testing.

Radial menu I have no clue. NWN related.