Summary:
Attack Move and Defense ignores random goblins. Issuing an attack command directly on a goblin causes combat to start with only them. It seems Hearthlings/goblins weren’t flagged as enemies until direct attack command.
Steps to reproduce:
Spawn goblins.
Refuse to give them an offering.
Attack Move/Defend Area on there base.
Watch only half the goblins get killed. The other half ignore the footmen/cleric and the footmen/cleric ignore the goblins.
Expected Results:
Goblins in range attacked.
Actual Results:
Goblins in range ignored. Hearthlings in range ignored by the goblins.
Notes:
This gets fixed on restart of the entire game. I think this didn’t get fixed on reload of save with game running.
Also, I had saved and exited the entire game after the goblins spawned. I restarted and loaded the game before issuing the attack move/defend. I issued the commands multiple times.
Did the goblins get not attacked at all or only after a while?
There is a priority function
high danger enemies vs low danger enemies
and how far away is the enemy
If a very low danger enemy is far away, it will get ignored to a point where it is to far away to be chased or attacked.
I had 2 footmen and a cleric encircling (4 cube radius) and clipping into a boss goblin and a couple others using numerous Attack-Move flags. I set a Defend area flag on the goblin camp while my hearthlings were in the goblin camp. My hearthlings started running back to base like there was nothing to see there. Directly clicking on individual goblins initiated combat solely with that goblin, while the others watched less than 10 cubes away.
As @groms says, they go for the high danger enemies first, if they are all at the same distance.
When you issue a party command (for example, defense) and then issue an individual command (you, go attack this goblin), the command is overwritten, so once he kills the goblin he ignores the previous defense command and goes to patrol again.
If you issue the attack command on the ground, they are supposed to attack any enemy they encounter on their way to that point. If the enemy is too far, they won’t see/acknowledge it.
Were they workers or footmen? The goblin workers are like your workers, they won’t attack by their own will unless something in the campaign tells them to (they normally just go to steal your items).
The “Move” command ignores enemies, it’s meant to be used to order your party to retreat to safer locations when they’re injured (or to order them to go to where the enemies are approaching, but until they reach the command flag/banner they won’t start to attack).
After I killed the first wave (which consisted of all goblin non-boss warriors), they attacked 0 enemies. The boss goblin would not get attacked or be attacked. The “worker” goblins also wouldn’t get or be attacked.
I know.
The remaining goblins were workers and the boss goblin (with the standard on his back). I expected the workers not to attack me on sight, but I did expect the boss to attack me on sight. Even if they didn’t, I expect if I click Attack-Move (not regular move) on the other side of the base where my footmen have to literally path around the squares occupied by any enemy, I expect my footmen to attack. I can’t remember if I attacked the boss first. If so, that would explain why the other goblins didn’t aid the boss.
I was not using regular (green) move, I was using Attack-Move and Defend Area. Either way, exiting and reloading changed the boss’s behavior to attack on sight, which he completely ignored me (until I attacked him first). Unfortunately, reload fixes, so good luck reproducing.
