Game Mechanics Questions - Spawns and LOS

I have observed that being very close to a spawn point will cause enemies to not spawn there. I think they spawn in the two locations farthest from any players.

They will definitely move toward players if they can't see anyone, but they do not always see everyone. You can sneak up on them if they are facing someone else, even someone else far away.

Hmmm.. I am not trying to be mean but I am not sure if there is much to discuss other than to be more aware of red tracking dots.

Yeah, enemies will spawn from all directions as long as spawn points are not occupied or visible to one of active players.
They will approach you and surround you as fast as they can.

Enemy LoS is simple matter of AI programming. I don`t think it`s much different from ME3. Only definite way to lose them is to use tactical cloak.

BTW it is most definitely a L2P issue.

Looking at a spawn does not block it. Had enemies spawn more than once while looking at them directly.



Enemies will split up evenly amongst players at the start of the round. There were rounds where I had a sliver of health and enemies walked right pass me to get to another teammate. However an enemy targeting you and in fact getting your health to critically low values will hunt you down relentlessly.

I know what you are saying. I just wasn`t sure if it is caused by lag or not.

Most of the times, if I look at a spawn location long enough they won`t spawn there at least. 

Enemies have certain targeting parameters common with me3.

When they don't have a valid target, such as at spawn, or their target dies, they choose a target, ignoring all line of sight restrictions, this is what gives them a direction to move at all times.

They prefer to keep firing at the same target when all other parameters are the same. This is what causes them to tunnel vision, they need a much better target before they will switch, this prevents them from dividing their attacks between two similar targets.

They prefer targets with line of sight.

They prefer targets closer to "ideal range". For most enemies this is the closest target, but for some, like sharp shooters, this is either ignored, or reversed.

IMO, and I'm not sure anyone understands the mechanics of the game yet, well, maybe including developers themselves, the enemies act in a sort of hybrid between DAIMP and ME3 more towards DAI. They certainly don't need LOS and just know where you are. Also, they seem to lock on players quite persistently. In DAI, it was quite commonly needed to chase the enemies running around who were in turn chasing some other player. Same thing constantly happens in MEA which is just a bad design IMO. Unlike DAI, some enemies will be probably randomly assigned to particular players so that, I guess, you don't feel lonely hiding somewhere. At least a couple of fish dogs or some observer are automatically assigned to target a player who is hiding away from the main battleground. It also seems that lock is quite persistent a-la berserk mode in ME3 meaning that either the player or the enemy has to die or the player can disappear and there is no way to get rid of the aggro apart from invisibility. In ME3, enemies were re-evaluating their aggro quite frequently and switching targeted players which is more fun IMO.

Also, enemies are deaf in MEA whereas in ME3 they could hear you. Another feature of DAI is also present which is target of players who just cloaked. If the cloaking player had aggro, the enemy animations have to finish and aggro is dropped only after that. In ME3 is was frequently immediate depending on lag. But animations in ME3 were generally shorter than in DAI on MEA.

Newly spawned and revived players get some aggro assigned automatically, similar to DAI, regardless of LOS or anything else and maybe even if they are locked into something else, not sure. I had it happened a couple of times when a berserker was chasing me and some player spawned at LZ, berserker just took off towards the newly spawned player and I had to chase him.

IDK of course, but it seems that there is no direct link between condition of the player. In ME3, if multiple players were available for targeting, AI frequently picked weakened target, wounded or without shields. In MEA, I think this is not the case, it maybe just random or something else. In DAI, people suggested it might be linked to threat level but this was never actually proven and how AI determined the threat level remains unknown.

IMO, some MEA maps are really poorly designed in this regard and they don't account for aggro evasion. I always feel like playing Condor or maybe London/Rio, more like Rio with different geometry aka Giant. Zero is actually one of the most reasonable maps and Sandstorm has a lot of hiding places to fool the AI. Considering how accurate the AI guns are and that it is fps-independent (unlike ME3 where targeting was frame rate-dependent), and adding lag and positional issues on top of that, it is quite hard to avoid damage. Kiting requires moving through open areas and enemy speed is on steroids. In ME3, it was possible to solo gold without actually being seriously hit at all if playing very conservatively/carefully. Even such a scrubby player as me could solo gold without using a single gel or oops pack (or oops pack sub in case of jetpack turians or sexbot). In DAI, it was not possible, you get hit no matter what and how you play. In MEA, not sure yet, maybe some better player can do that.

tldr: Aggro and targeting seems to be some hybrid, most from DAI and a little from ME3.