ModernUO/Projects/UOContent
Kamron Batman 8e39da2810
fix: creatures track and chase targets reliably around corners (#2590)
### Summary

Fixes the long-standing reports of monsters losing track of players who run around a corner ("Is monster AI not using pathfinding? It seems to be LOS blocked by statics"). Root-cause investigation compared current behavior against RunUO line-by-line and traced the regressions through the AI overhaul era (#2232, #2246, #2379, #2401, #2461).

### Root causes and fixes

1. **Movement contract** — `MoveTo`/`ApproachTarget` returned false on every healthy mid-chase tick (true only on arrival), so MeleeAI's RunUO-inherited *"move failed and beyond RangePerception+1 → Guard"* clause — which RunUO only evaluated on genuine blockage — fired **every tick of every chase**. A mounted player trivially opens 17 tiles at a corner, the monster guards, Guard nulls the combatant, and re-acquisition is LOS-gated — unrecoverable through a wall. Movement now reports failure only on genuine failure (no step taken with no working path, or approach give-up). ArcherAI's equivalent clause moves to the hard leash.

2. **Last-known-position pursuit** — while a combatant is in LOS its position is recorded each think tick. When the target vanishes (corner, hiding, recall), the creature walks to the last-seen spot, stands guard there ~10s (restoring RunUO's guard grace, which had decayed to a single tick since #2246), and **re-engages instantly** if the same target re-enters view — bypassing the 10s reacquire throttle.

3. **`ChaseLeashRange`** — new virtual on BaseCreature (default `RangePerception * 2` = 32 tiles) replaces the inline `RangePerception * 3` (48) in Melee/Mage/Archer AI. Per-creature tunable via `[props`.

4. **Group movement demoted to a crowding refinement** — previously any uncontrolled creature with one ally within 8 tiles on the same target used greedy ring-stepping for the *entire* chase, with wall-slides counted as success, never invoking the pathfinder — the "aggroed but won't come around the corner" symptom for spawn groups. It now engages only near the target when allies actually contest the ring, and blocked/wall-slid steps escalate to the pathfinding approach primitive.

5. **Mages close distance on broken LOS** — a mage within casting range but LOS-blocked by geometry stood at the wall holding a spell target until the 60s combatant expiry (ProcessTarget short-circuits Think and its RunTo stands off at RangeFight). Geometry-blocked mages now close in until LOS returns, both pre-cast and while holding a target. Hidden targets (CanSee) and poison-cure priority unchanged. The new movement contract also stops the constant spurious `OnFailedMove` teleport rolls mid-chase.

6. **Move budget: one actual step per AI tick** — nothing advanced `NextMove` on a normal step (RunUO's `m_NextMove` budget was lost), so code paths attempting several moves in one think tick could cross multiple tiles at once — visible as "warping" when crowded creatures jockey for position. A successful step now consumes a half-step budget (floor 50ms): blocks intra-tick double moves, stays safely below the timer interval so legitimate next-tick moves are never jitter-throttled, and does not reintroduce `TransformMoveDelay` inflation. Blocked attempts consume nothing, so retry ladders (repath-and-step, the collision fan) are unaffected. `CanMoveNow` is also wraparound-safe now.

### Reference behavior

RunUO requires LOS to *acquire* a target and to *land* a hit or spell — never to *continue* a chase (its MeleeAI LOS bail-out is literally commented out in stock code). Chases drop only on: target hidden, target dead/off-map, beyond `RangePerception * 3`, 60s without combat interaction, or blocked movement while far away. This PR restores those semantics while adding the last-known-position investigation on top. NPC run flags are untouched — pace is AI-timer-driven and most NPC art has no run animation.
2026-08-23 01:13:00 -07:00
..
Accounting perf(login): run password hashing on a parked worker thread (#2566) 2026-08-09 00:13:34 -07:00
Assistants chore: Use var everywhere (#2294) 2025-12-27 16:47:28 -08:00
Commands perf: Sleep the event loop when idle. Fixes networking micro-stalls. Adds event loop instrumentation. (#2559) 2026-08-09 13:24:59 -07:00
Compression feat: Implements new robust/pluggable backup/archive system. (#2388) 2026-03-22 19:51:20 -07:00
Configuration fix: Streamlines insurance. Insurance only executes when enabled. (#2550) 2026-07-26 09:47:49 -07:00
Console feat: Adds console commands (#1714) 2024-03-30 09:40:43 -07:00
Context Menus fix: Moves ContextMenu out of core, streamlines code, fixes bugs (#1873) 2024-07-20 21:33:23 -07:00
Engines feat: convert all delta-time serialization to anchored time (#2589) 2026-08-22 19:34:43 -07:00
Gumps fix: harden idle-sleep scheduling against bad config and misattributed saves (#2567) 2026-08-09 22:05:18 -07:00
Holiday Stuff perf: Migrate Veteran Reward gumps to DynamicGump/StaticGump (#2415) 2026-04-25 20:09:27 -07:00
Items feat: convert all delta-time serialization to anchored time (#2589) 2026-08-22 19:34:43 -07:00
Migrations feat: convert all delta-time serialization to anchored time (#2589) 2026-08-22 19:34:43 -07:00
Misc refactor: fold hand-written serializable property setters into field hooks (#2587) 2026-08-22 18:20:39 -07:00
Mobiles fix: creatures track and chase targets reliably around corners (#2590) 2026-08-23 01:13:00 -07:00
Multis feat: convert all delta-time serialization to anchored time (#2589) 2026-08-22 19:34:43 -07:00
Network feat: make the blocklist and manual allowlist opt-in; cut the ban subsystem's on-loop cost (#2577) 2026-08-13 23:22:35 -07:00
Regions fix: Fixes criminals having guards called on them (#2348) 2026-03-13 17:35:47 -07:00
Skills fix: Removes unnecessary dictionary removal guards (#2565) 2026-08-08 11:50:01 -07:00
Special Systems feat: Add zero-alloc interpolation handler to ValueStringBuilder, replace all StringBuilder usage (#2387) 2026-03-22 14:23:44 -07:00
Spells feat: convert all delta-time serialization to anchored time (#2589) 2026-08-22 19:34:43 -07:00
Systems/JailSystem fix: Bumps deps. Updates copyrights (#2353) 2026-03-05 19:36:54 -08:00
Targets chore: Use var everywhere (#2294) 2025-12-27 16:47:28 -08:00
Text fix: Bumps deps. Updates copyrights (#2353) 2026-03-05 19:36:54 -08:00
Utilities perf(login): run password hashing on a parked worker thread (#2566) 2026-08-09 00:13:34 -07:00
World Saves perf(messages): mechanical interpolation cleanups (#2436) 2026-05-03 18:26:49 -07:00
Module.cs fix: Fixes sending packets and sidesteps a major issue with stackalloc and PGO in .NET 8 (#1607) 2023-11-21 12:18:20 -08:00
UOContent.csproj feat: adopt serialization generator v4 (field-side linkage, anchored timers) (#2586) 2026-08-22 17:54:02 -07:00