Factions & Threat

Vanilla mobs fight whoever hit them last. That makes real boss fights impossible: no way to hold aggro, no way to pull it, and nothing stopping a mob from turning on its own side over stray splash damage. LodeEntities mobs keep a threat table instead. They remember everyone who has hurt them and fight whoever is most threatening, and you can give any mob a faction so it knows friend from foe.

Factions

Give any mob a side with one field:

skeleton_archer:
  base: skeleton
  faction: undead

village_guard:
  base: iron_golem
  faction: villagers

How the sides get along lives in an optional plugins/LodeEntities/factions.yml:

undead:
  enemy: [villagers, players]
  ally: [skeletons]
villagers:
  enemy: [undead]

Three relations:

Relation	Meaning
`ally`	Never targeted, and never generates threat. Friendly fire is ignored completely.
(neutral)	Fights back if attacked, but won’t start anything. The default between two different factions.
`enemy`	A valid target without being provoked.

Two things to know:

Relations are one-way as written. The example above is only mutual because both halves are spelled out, which is deliberate: you can build a hunter that stalks a creature that never hunts back.
Pets are always on their owner’s side. A pet is an ally of its owner and of that owner’s other pets, whatever factions.yml says.
Players are the reserved faction players, so you can write relations against them without tagging anything. A mob with no faction: behaves exactly as before.

Threat

Damage generates threat equal to the damage actually dealt, after armor. Mobs retarget on a timer to whoever tops their table, and threat fades over time so old grudges lapse. Four knobs in config.yml:

threat:
  enabled: true
  retarget-interval: 20     # ticks between retarget passes
  decay-per-second: 0.02    # 0 = threat never decays
  forget-range: 32          # blocks past which a mob forgets you

Because retargeting runs on an interval, a taunt lands within about a second at the default rather than instantly. Lower retarget-interval for snappier switching.

Driving threat from effects

The threat mechanics are what make scripted fights possible: tanks that hold aggro, phase changes that reset the fight, mind-control gimmicks.

- threat{amount=500} +onInteract @trigger      # a taunt: jump to the top of the table
- threat{amount=-200} @trigger                 # shed threat
- threat{set=0} @trigger                       # wipe one entity's threat
- threatclear +onDeath @self                   # forget the fight entirely (phase change)
- setfaction{faction=undead} @trigger          # defect one entity, for as long as it lives
- taunt{amount=500} +onInteract @trigger       # MythicMobs' taunt: raise threat and turn it on the caster

See Combat & Health for the full option reference. Targeters can read the table too: @threatTable, @threatTablePlayers, @randomThreatTarget, and sort=HIGHEST_THREAT on any area targeter (Targeters). The samefaction and faction conditions test sides, and <target.threat> prints a value (Placeholders). Addons get the same through LodeEntitiesAPI.mobs(): factionOf, setFaction, clearFaction, areAllies, relationBetween, threatOf, addThreat, threatTable, clearThreat. See Mobs & Factions.

What it looks like in practice

A zombie takes hits from three attackers: an ally for 5 damage, a stranger for 12, and another stranger for 2 (most recently). Its threat table ends up with the 12-damage stranger on top and the ally absent entirely, so it goes after the biggest threat, not the last hit and never its friend. That’s the difference between vanilla chaos and a fight you can design.

Getting Started

Mobs

Spawning

Commands

Effects

Models

Compatibility

NPCs

Pets

Configuration

API

Factions

Threat

Driving threat from effects

What it looks like in practice

​Factions

​Threat

​Driving threat from effects

​What it looks like in practice

Factions

Threat

Driving threat from effects

What it looks like in practice