## Summary
After #2670, `BaseCreature` stores one master. Callers still reached it through three differently gated names plus hand-rolled combinations of the `Controlled`/`Summoned` flags. Each gate is now one named view:
| Member | Definition | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `Master` | the reference; its setter does the follower bookkeeping; serialized as before | whoever the creature answers to |
| `ControlMaster` | `Controlled ? Master : null` | the owner |
| `SummonMaster` | `Summoned ? Master : null` | the summoner |
| `GetMaster()` | `ControlMaster ?? SummonMaster` | who answers for the creature |
`ControlMaster` and `SummonMaster` stay settable so custom code keeps compiling: both setters assign `Master`. There is no guard, so a write through either one can read back as null until the matching flag is set.
An enraged creature is the one shape with a master and neither flag. It keeps its meer through `Master`, while `GetMaster()` stays null, so the meer never answers for it (notoriety, kill credit).
Readers move onto the view they mean:
- "Owner or summoner" pairs and `ControlMaster ?? SummonMaster` collapse into `GetMaster()`: pack instinct, familiars, golem, house access, mounts, pack horse, Solen friendship, spell target and guild checks, and the `[` pet command.
- Checks such as `Controlled && ControlMaster == from` drop the flag the view already applies. Checks that don't reduce keep it: `Controlled && ControlMaster != from`, a possibly-null `from`, and `MageAI.CanDispel`'s `Summoned &&`.
**No behavior change, save format unchanged** (the schema generator produces no diff). Edge cases for custom code and shard operators:
- `SummonMaster = x` on a plain pet now replaces its owner (#2670 made that a no-op), and `ControlMaster = null` on an uncontrolled summon now clears its caster (it did nothing before).
- `SpellHelper.GetGuildFor` no longer falls back to an enraged creature's meer. Meer mages have no guild.
## Docs
- `dev-docs/content-patterns.md` § Masters: which view answers which question, how to set a master, and which flag checks are redundant.
- `dev-docs/runuo-migration-docs/09-items-mobiles-creatures.md` § Masters: RunUO's two-field reads mapped onto the views, plus the gotcha for creatures that set `SummonMaster` without `Summoned` (the write compiles, the read now returns null; use `Master`).
- The `modernuo-content-patterns` and `migrate-items-mobiles` skills point at both.
## Test plan
- [x] `MasterViewsTests`: all four views across wild, pet, controlled summon, uncontrolled summon and enraged shapes; reassigning `Master` moves follower slots; `SetControlMaster(null)` keeps an uncontrolled summon's caster; deleting a summon returns the caster's slots
- [x] Serialization tests updated to the new views (round-trip, legacy v22, v23 migration)
- [x] UOContent.Tests (1178 passed, 2 skipped) and Server.Tests (907) green
## Problem
`BaseFamiliar.OnThink` drove its own movement (`WalkMobileRange` toward the master) while the familiar was also a controlled pet running `Obey()`. `Summon → SetControlMaster` issues `Come`; `DoOrderCome` converts it to `Stay` within two tiles and anchors `Home`; from then on `OnThink` walked toward the caster while `DoOrderStay` greedy-stepped back toward the stale post — the backtracking. Combat never approached anything: main only copied `Combatant` while already adjacent to the caster. `CurrentSpeed = 0.01` was a 10 ms think / 50 ms step sprint hack, and `RangeCheck` teleported the familiar to a spot eight tiles *from* the caster.
## Change
A dedicated `FamiliarAI : BaseAI` (registered through `ForcedAI`, like `CloneAI`) owns every familiar decision, for both the controlled (`Obey`) and uncontrolled (`Think`) dispatch:
1. **Lifecycle** — caster gone → drop pack, delete. Caster on another map → stand down and wait for `TeleportPets`.
2. **Herding** (Dark Tides) — stands down, then `CheckHerding()`. Outranks combat.
3. **Assist** — combat-capable familiars (dark wolf, vampire bat, horde minion) engage the caster's target; otherwise anything in a fight with the caster's side — attacked the caster or the familiar, or attacked by the caster (a pet's attack is credited to the caster) — that is still fighting the caster, the familiar, or one of the caster's pets. Leashed to `RangePerception` of the caster; dropped when the caster hides. Shadow wisp and death adder never fight (`AssistsMaster => false`, enforced at the `Combatant` setter so no path can hand them a target).
4. **Follow** — `MoveTo(master, 1)` through the centralized `ApproachTarget` (greedy step / persistent `PathFollower` / stall detection).
5. **Keep-up** — snap to a validated tile beside the caster (on the caster's floor) when outpaced on open ground beyond 10 tiles, or when `ApproachTarget` gave up; never while a detour is working.
**Command immunity** is expressed inside the order machinery rather than around it: `FamiliarAI.IssueOrder` does nothing and rests the order on `Come`, so `TeleportPets` keeps working and no system-issued `Attack` (retaliation on ML's stand-down rule) can strand the familiar. `StandsDownOnCommand => false` so the ML rule never mutes it.
**Visibility** mirrors the caster from the familiar's own state (a step reveals a hidden NPC in `Mobile.OnMove`; the old cache compared the caster's previous state), `RevealingAction` is suppressed while the caster is hidden, and becoming hidden drops Warmode so no swing gives the caster away.
**Speed** is a flat 0.1 (`ReduceSpeedWithDamage => false`).
### Engine-side (all `Projects/UOContent`)
- `ApproachTarget` records which exit it took in `BaseAI.LastApproach` (`ApproachOutcome`: Arrived / Waiting / DirectProgress / Routing / Blocked / GaveUp / InvalidGoal). Callers' booleans are unchanged; keep-up reads this instead of running a second scheduler. `MoveTo`'s arrival return now also clears the move intent, as `ApproachTarget`'s own arrival does.
- `MoveToPoint(goal, range = 1)`; `CheckHerding` passes 0. **Fixes a main regression from #2591:** herding stopped one tile short, never cleared `TargetLocation`, and left the creature pinned to the herding pace — affects the shepherd's crook and the Dark Tides scroll fetch for every herded creature, not just familiars.
- `ChangeAIType` reads `ForcedAI` once. It read it twice, and each `BaseAI` ctor activates its timer for a non-sector-gated creature, so a `ForcedAI` creature with `PlayerRangeSensitive => false` got an orphan AI ticking it.
## Tests
`FamiliarAITests` are timer-wheel driven (the real `AITimer` thinks and moves; `PetPacingTests` style) against live Trammel statics, gated on client map data: follow without backtracking, the five-way assist theory, leash, retaliation, aggressor fallback (caster's own `Combatant` expired; caster's pet in the fight), target dropped when it stops fighting, keep-up on open ground / not while routing / after give-up, hidden mirror across steps, herding priority with a visible fighting caster, stand-down when left behind, no stale move intent. `ApproachOutcomeTests`, `HerdingTests` (fails on main), `ForcedAITests` (fails on main) cover the engine-side pieces.
Against `origin/main` with the familiar tests dropped in: 16/16 fail, including the reported backtracking. On this branch: `UOContent.Tests` 1082 passed / 2 skipped, `Server.Tests` 891/891, solution builds with 0 warnings.
Stacked on #2594. Fixes jerky creature movement (lich / Fast-bucket melee chases) by choosing the client animation flag from the actual step pace instead of a caller-supplied `run` argument, and fixes three step-pacing defects in the move budget found while verifying it with paired server/client traces.
### Why
The `Direction.Running` bit does nothing for creatures server-side (`Mobile.OnMove` reads it only for the player throttle and stealth reveal). Its whole effect is on the client, which animates each step over a fixed time selected by that bit: walk 400 ms / run 200 ms on foot, 200 / 100 ms mounted. ClassicUO queues up to 5 steps and *drops* the sixth, so a creature stepping every 300 ms while flagged as walking backs the queue up until it snaps forward — the observed jerk.
The `run` argument never carried the one fact that matters (the step interval). RunUO passed `true` in combat / `false` for pets and gated it on `dist > 5`; #2271 flipped every combat site to `false`; pets passed `currentDistance > 2`. None of that is a coherent signal.
### What
**Pace-derived run flag**
- `BaseAI.ShouldRun()`: run iff the effective step delay (move clock + badly-hurt inflation) is shorter than `Movement.WalkFootDelay` / `WalkMountDelay` (mounted or flying) — with a continuity rule: an *isolated* step (taken after standing at least a walk interval) goes out as a walk, because the client renders each step alone and a lone run-flagged step is a 200 ms dart. Only a continuing cadence flags run; a true sprinter (pace under the run interpolation) always runs, since a walk-rendered first step would flood the client's 5-step queue. This reproduces RunUO's close-in feel (its `dist > 5` gate) from first principles.
- `DoMoveImpl` stamps the bit; it is the single place the flag is set.
- `run` removed from `MoveTo`, `WalkMobileRange`, `ApproachTarget`, `MoveToPoint`, `MoveToWithGroup`, `MoveToWithCollisionAvoidance`, the move intent, and `PathFollower.Follow`. All 35 call sites updated. **API change** for custom scripts — documented in the RunUO migration docs (`09-items-mobiles-creatures.md`, `11-api-reference.md`) and `content-patterns.md` § Creature Speeds.
**Move-budget pacing fixes** (each confirmed by UTC-aligned server/client step traces)
- A stall no longer banks catch-up steps: the budget's snap-to-now released up to three steps in ~300 ms when a creature resumed chasing after standing beside its target — rendered as a teleport.
- Debt accrual removed entirely: a step landing sub-period late (think-grid vs budget misalignment during reactive mirroring) kept the remainder and fired a follow-up ~100 ms later — a dart pair. `ConsumeMoveBudget` now paces every step from when it was actually taken; in continuous pursuit the move-wake lands within wheel resolution of the deadline, so the cost is single-digit-ms drift.
- Net effect: a creature can never step faster than its pace, verified across a full chase session (zero sub-pace steps; metronomic 350 ms cadence for a 0.3 s lich).
- Test fixture now runs `Movement.Configure()` (the walk delays were 0 in tests).
### Accepted trade-off
Animal (LOW group) bodies without a run animation slide on their stand frames when flagged as running. Most are slow enough to stay flagged as walking; the client-side fallback is in ClassicUO/ClassicUO#1930.
### Tests
`RunFlagTests`: foot thresholds (0.3 / 0.125 run; 0.4 / 0.45 / 1.05 walk), flying uses the mount threshold, badly-hurt inflation flips a 0.35 s creature back to walk, a real `DoMove` stamps the bit, isolated steps drop to walk (sprinters keep running), a stall restarts the cadence with no banked steps, and a late step earns no quicker follow-up. Full suite: 837 Server + 747 UOContent green.
### Summary
Updates all calls to container.EnumerateItems() to properly dispose of the underlying PooledRefQueue so that we are properly recycling pooled arrays.
## Summary
- Removes allocation of a `List<ContextMenuEntry>` every time a context menu is created.
- Moves packet/context menu creation logic out of the core
- Fixes tame entry
## BREAKING CHANGE
> [!Important]
> **Developer Note**
> ```cs
> public virtual void GetContextMenuEntries(Mobile from, List<ContextMenuEntry> list)
> ```
> and similar functions changed to
> ```cs
> public virtual void GetContextMenuEntries(Mobile from, ref PooledRefList<ContextMenuEntry> list)
> ```
> [!IMPORTANT]
> Please read through these changes, as they changed certain expectations for how the internal AI thinking/movement work.
> Note that some mobs still don't have smooth movement on ClassicUO due to how the client handles animations/movement.
### Summary
- **Important Change**: Mobs will now move at a more regular pace. If the OnThink results in a move, but the cooldown would otherwise prevent the move, then the movement is scheduled on another timer.
- Added a 400ms delay to mobs turning to face a player to attack in order to avoid glitching between moving and turning.
- Reverted AI thinking speeds back to RunUO specific speeds.
- Reverted the AI thinking to moving conversion delays back to RunUO.
- For thinking speeds that are not exactly the predefined speeds from RunUO, there is a new calculation to determine the correct conversion to movement speed. This stops speeds like `0.35` from being faster than `0.3`
> [!NOTE]
> **Developer Note**
> BaseAI.CheckMove() no longer contains the check for whether or not a mob is on movement cooldown. This function can now be overwritten without causing issues to figuring out that cooldown.
* Movie ignore mobiles to Mobile class
* Allow necromancer familiars to ignore mobiles
* ChampionSpawn should not quietly fail when creating new spawn
* Fix client party crash bug: 2 people partied, the leader logs out, other client is hung
* Fix spellbooks creating with magery/meditation only and creating magery multiple times
* Fix BaseRunicTool.GetRandomSlayer() creating more undead slayers than intended
* Do not allow players to dismount each other whilst mounted
* Fix AOS onwards damage increase tooltip and wrong formula in AOS
* Fix monsters killing other monster revenants + animate dead should not attack player pets + other animates
* Fix fire steed having loot pack added twice
* Fix oaks spawn not able to create Unicorns + Kirins via Activator.CreateInstace() due to constructor having name as parametr
* Fix ignoreMobiles flag not propagated to client for non-players.
* Fix harrower tents not leeching from players
* Fix boats speedhacking around the map
* Fix bless, agility etc. not renewing duration
* Fix reveal always worked
* Fix empty constructor for steeds so they don't throw now.
* Removes scaled speed by dex for monsters
* Changes scaled speed by dex for pets (HS+ expansion) to be 400ms -> 100ms between 50 -> 200 dex
* Removes speed changes that were broken for various mobs
* Combines "Legacy" speed and renames the class to `NPCSpeeds`
* Creates speed "classes" (slow, medium, fast, very fast)
* Introduces a new overridable property `SpeedClass`. Register a new speed class using `NPCSpeeds.Register()` and then set the speed class to bulk/mass apply speeds.
Order of speed determination:
1. SpeedMod
2. SpeedClass property (not null)
3. SpeedClass entry in Data\npc-speeds.json for that type
4. "Fast" (200ms Active, 400ms Passive)
* Adds the following configurations:
* `movement.delay.npcMinDelay` - 0.1 - Pets or Non-monster NPCs
* `movement.delay.npcMaxDelay` - 0.4 - Pets or Non-monster NPCs
* `movement.delay.monsterMinDelay` - 0.4 - Non-pet Monsters or NPC vs Player Combat
* `movement.delay.monsterMaxDelay` - 0.8 - Non-pet Monsters or NPC vs Player Combat
* `movement.delay.monsterMinDex` - 150 - Dex maximum for delay by dex
* `movement.delay.MinDex` - 190 - Dex maximum for delay by dex
- [X] Fixes a bug with RunUO where direction is set multiple times and the run flag is not set properly.
TODO: Fix other direction/movement issues and duplicate packets.
Bumps release version
