Pets won't defend themselves????

[Bill Gates OSD]

Ok, I rarely play my tamer character so maybe something has changed... I took my greater dragon then my rune beetle / nightmare combo and then my favorite Cu Sidhe to the Ophidian / Bane war and all of them were quick to dispatch anything that I used my all kill macro on but if I invis'd myself to save my life or break line-of-sight on a monster, the dumb critters would just stand there and get killed rather than defending themselves! I tried having them guard me, *not* guard me and everything else short of just releasing them. Am I doing something wrong?

 

[Bill Gates OSD]

Come on folks, 35 views and no response? Someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong... Thanks!

 

[LordZahn]

I just recently returned to UO and have always played a Tamer. I to have noticed my pets doing the same thing. Unless I tell it to attack it will just stand there like a dumb !@#$ and get beat to death. Wish I had the answer for ya but sadly I do not. Maybe someone will clue us in.

 

[kitiara-atlantic]

I tried to find details on the update that affected pet commands - I want to say it was within the past year. Couldn't find it though.

I think the only way to get the pet to auto-defend is by having it guard you. Otherwise, it will only kill what you tell it to via target. If you tell it to follow you, it will literally ignore whatever is chomping on it and walk to you. At least, that's how my pets behave for me.

When the update came out, there was a lot of rationale discussion around the changes, but I can't seem to dig it up. Sorry.

 

[Barry Gibb]

Yes, the commands were changed a while back:
"follow" now makes it so the pet ignores its attackers and follows its target (be you or other)
"guard" will make the pet defend itself if attacked (if you tell it to "follow" then "guard", it will follow and defend itself when attacked, as it used to (going after every mongbat that aggresses it))
"kill" now makes the pet attack its target, it also disrupts a "guard" command, so it will have to be told again to defend itself
The other commands still work the same as before. You can find them here:
http://uo.stratics.com/php-bin/show_content.php?content=30911

In situations where the pet is being surrounded and attacked by multiple targets, once commanded to guard again, it will only choose one of its attackers to fight. The attacker may not be one of the creatures adjacent to it, so it will look like it is just standing there. In this situation I have found that it is best to tell the pet specifically what to kill. You may need to retreat a bit and reassess your strategy if this happens often, it appears you are being overwhelmed.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Taylor]

Yup. Wanna make sure the pet is guarding.

 

[Kellgory]

Before they made the changes to what they are now,people were getting upset because their pets would run off to go attack a mongbat a screen away just when they needed it most, and about the only way to stop it from do it was to spam the "all stop" and "all follow me" commands.

 

[Llewen]

Pets will defend themselves if you use the guard command or the kill command. To control your pets effectively you really need to know how they both work. The problem with the guard command is that they will go after your most recent attacker, so they may or may not finish off their target. If you use the stop, follow, or stay commands pets will not defend themselves.

 

[Emma Royds]

Strange, very strange, Dont think anyone told my NM about these changes, i was in the 5th hive killing some ant lions and in between spawns my mare was trying to jump wall to get to the solen ants, he was not on guard and even if he was that would not have made a difference as im a friend of the hive.

What i have noticed is when i give the kill command they now have to be in los before attacking, i was bored a few days ago and decided to go kill some blood ellies in ish with my mare/WW, had no problems locking onto the targets while i was invis

 

[Barry Gibb]

... my mare was trying to jump wall to get to the solen ants, he was not on guard and even if he was that would not have made a difference as im a friend of the hive...

Solens do not like pets, regardless if you are a friend of the hive or not. I forget that sometimes when I am taming a blue beetle for someone.

Stayin Alive,

BG

 

[Jlapps]

Solens do not like pets, regardless if you are a friend of the hive or not. I forget that sometimes when I am taming a blue beetle for someone.

Stayin Alive,

BG

Hahahahaha...

My friend and I wanted to farm ant lions for ore, gold, and the rogue skeletons and t-maps therein.

So, we figured that we would take our giant beetles, each grab a pair of pack horses, and go down into the hive and farm till every horse and beetle was full and make a big haul. I'm sure you can see how this ends

First, we couldn't get ourselves and our horses to get through the cursed moongate I had opened to the hive entrance. I got through first, and took my horses into the hive, where the Solens promptly killed them! (I am a friend of the hive, so I wasn't expecting this). My friend then followed, and unlike me he tried to just sprint to the ant lions with his horses in tow. Unfortunately, since pack horses move slower than dirt, he arrived at the ant lion horse-less. I wasn't present at the time, and he relied on my blade spirits to take hits, so the lion proceeded to eat him. I arrived shortly after, and disposed of the ant lion, and then we simply left, somewhat dismayed that two thousand gold lay on the floor of the ant hive in the form of our poor horses.

We initially had this idea when we did the same thing - but only used our beetles, which we could ride! Neither of us realized that un-mounted pets would be attacked even if we were friends of the hive, which we both were.