Oblivion talk:Imperial Legion Forester

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I once saw two Foresters killing eachother for no appearant reason. Anyone experienced the same thing? ^{—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.182.205.89 (talk • contribs).}

It happens all the time. If, for instance, they were both shooting at the same creature and one accidentally hit the other, they will start attacking each other. It's a well-known problem with the AI. --Rpeh^Talk 07:54, 26 July 2007 (EDT)

That's what I first thought. But the two foresters near Applewatch ALWAYS fight. I'm not sure about this but I noticed that whenever I summon creatures to attack random deer in the wilderness and a guard sees it, he attacks my creature right away. So I think a guard is supposed to attack/arrest anyone who attacks deer. But at the same time, as foresters they are supposed to hunt deer. Since most the time there's only one guy he gets away with it, but here since two of them are nearby they start attacking each other for assaulting the deer. --Sundaroct131088 14:27, 18 August 2007 (EDT)

There is something glitchy about the AI here. I did various tests spawning Foresters and deer (and had a standard Imperial Legion guy on horseback ride by in the middle of the fun and join in). First, attacking a deer is not actually a crime. My character could attack and kill a deer in front of any type of guardsperson, and I received no bounty for the attack. Second, all the legionnaires would happily coexist as long as there weren't any living deer in the area.

But when I spawned a deer in the vicinity, things would always got ugly. The moment a forester would see the deer and start running after it, any other legionnaires would start attacking the forester. This would happen even before the forester had a chance to pull out his bow: he definitely had not fired any arrows at anyone, and definitely had not accidentally hit any NPCs. It is seems to just be the forester's AI status (i.e., switching to attack mode) that is triggering the reaction from other guardspeople.

I can't see any obvious explanation for this AI glitch. There is no reason for any legionnaires to automatically ally themselves with deer (none of the disposition modifiers for any of the relevant factions apply to the creature faction or the prey faction, which are the two factions for deer). So I'm guessing it is just a programmed reaction any time a guardsperson sees someone go into attack mode: the guardsperson always has to go after someone involved in the attack. I can't speculate what all the factors are that influence the guardsperson's decision about whom to help and whom to attack. But in this case the deer always seems to be selected as the victim and the forester as the aggressor, presumably because the deer is fleeing and has never tried to retaliate. --Nephele^Talk 21:46, 26 August 2007 (EDT)

This reminds me of another strange glitch, and I wonder if they're connected. Edla Dark-Heart, one of the Marksman trainers, has a habit of going hunting for horses. She will even attack horses in the stables around Bruma, which makes it somewhat dangerous to park your horse there when you visit. Now, the mounted guardsmen are by default always allied with their horses, which makes sense, of course. But if you consider that horses and deer share a common faction in that they are both considered "prey" (at least for people like Edla), it may be that it is not the guards that are going out to defend the hapless deer, but their horses, and the guards of course will attack anything their horse sees as threatening, since they are allied with the horse. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 00:05, 27 August 2007 (EDT)

Just try summoning something instead of attacking the deer yourself. The guard should attack your summon immediately. I've had this happen so many times. Also sometimes if you follow legion soldiers and summon creatures or bring along a Mage Apprentice/DB Murderer to help them beat the enemies they encounter, there's a chance that the soldier will attack your ally after killing the enemy. Like you said this has something to do with the "attack mode". The only character unaffected by this glitch is the player. --Sundaroct131088 08:03, 27 August 2007 (EDT)