ok, the last character I made when I had the game playing was a tech(all of the colleges) when I made the automatons and got around 5 of them only 1 or 2 would actually do anything while the others just stood there like statues, was that a bug the developers never fixed or what? Although that was the only character I had that when he made those guys the game wouldn't just die from the very thought me having access to them.
I don't think it's a bug as a few people managed to get a good-sized army of the things going at the same time. I suspect you've encountered a "hiccup" in the game engine. Annoying but unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it.
yea, lol although that one you fight in the inventor's home is an easy kill if your are using the looking glass rifle, or the pyrotechnic axe, (if you're a techie) I was so bored one time that I used disintegrate on it once. Sadly I wish we could design our own spells for game through the editor.
part of what I like about Arcanum is the ability to have massive partys. that said I found it didn't matter if I had allot of mechanical, undead and/or dominated followers, the outcome was about the same. after 5-7 followers total (usually 7 which is the MAX NPC followers after amulet of leadership that you can get without a lvl 7 tech or at least a lvl 4 and a lvl 3 magick spell/or scrolls of those spells.) some would sometimes not respond in combat other than walk up to you when you walk beyond there comfort area of being away from you. after maybe 14-28 total they start blocking your path when you try to walk EVEN out of combat mode. after 20-30 followers total I find bugs starting to popup more often like the mouse taking 2-5 clicks to respond or each click of the mouse makes the game do the action you clicked 2 times (if graphics and time delay for clicking will allow it.) one thing this effects is if you use Divine Magick it will use up double mana per item identified. I don't think I've gotten more than 40 at one time and am not sure what happens if you manage to get more but also manage to not crash the game. I have started limiting myself to around 22-28 followers total to cut down on the bugs and frequency of the bugs I do already get for having over 14 followers. I'm not sure but I think it averages to be for every 2 followers you have over 5-7 1 will not take part of any fight you get in. and of course if a follower can't find a path to the target it will not fight even if it would have if it could find a path so even with 1 follower if they don't recognize a path to the target they will do absolutely nothing (of course if the follower has a ranged combat option available they will use it if they have a clear shot from where they started their turn BUT if not then it is just the same as melle.).
There's also this thing that if you have more than one follower with the same name (in this example, over one automaton), only the first follower with the said name on your follower list listens to your commands. Perhaps, Haseo, somehow all of your followers received and understood a "back off" command (or some in-game event caused a similar effect to the said command), and now only the first automaton is able to understand the "attack" command. Not sure really, I didn't encounter such problems in my games, every single soldier of my automaton army was happy to attack whenever given the possibility. I did however encounter some of the "too many followers" problems which Darkform mentioned when the said army began to consist of >20 automatons. It seemed the game just wasn't able to handle them.
these types of bugs happen in most games if you hack or use exploits in order to get more followers than is normal for a player to be able to get. tho it seems in Arcanum due to the possibility to have unlimited followers as long as your PC could take the load that they most likely tested for the max followers you can get that count towards the follower limit +1. I somehow think that if they had the time to code it they would have put a limit of somewhere around 10 followers total including every possible way to have a follower. making a HARD 10 follower limit and a 0-7 soft follower limit. but also they may have just figured that with the AI as it is if told nothing all followers in combat attack the first thing the player attacked, which means 1 the player is attacking then up to 7 melee followers attack if the player is using melee and if not then a max of 8 melee followers attack. this is because at max in open ground only 8 melee followers can reach the target at a time (this being said, no matter what if the target doesn't die and therfore triger the remaining followers into switching to a new target that after the first 8 melee followers attack all other melee followers will just stand around doing nothing [because they can't get to the target the AI chose.]. furthermore range followers are VERY picky about shooting when someone is between them and the target, I find that usually if the path of the shoot passes even partialy thru 2 or more other critters then the ranged follower defaults to running up to the target to get a better shoot and if there is no open spot at point blank range to the target (melee range.) then the ranged combat capable party member will also do nothing. see if not told what target to attack then EVERY party member will attack or try to attack the same target and the more party members you have the less they will listen to commands making it very hard to tell your followers 1 by 1 to attack different targets and as Muro Lightning stated only 1 of a follower with the same name will respond to orders anyways. so in actuality allot of the bugs from having a party over 7 are not bugs but is actually just a AI not advanced enough to handle big party combat. with all this it means if you have more than melee 7 followers you have to micromanage to get them in the fight and at max (even with micromanaging) only 9 melee followers with the same name would ever fight at the same time. I still play with more because it's cool to see them follow me around town. there is a mod addon for Fallout 2 that if you flag a choice you can directly control followers in combat. after someone makes a mod addon like that for Arcanum large party tactical combat would actually be possible. other than that someone would have to do some major alterations to the AI (including using unused AP to move away from the target so other party members have a chance to make a melee attack.).
