So the skeleton class sets up its own instance for it's ArrowAttack AI

 

//File: EntitySkeleton.java
private EntityAIArrowAttack aiArrowAttack = new EntityAIArrowAttack(this, 1.0D, 20, 60, 15.0F);

 

 

//File: EntitySkeleton.java
...
public EntityAIArrowAttack aiArrowAttack = new EntityAIArrowAttack(this, 1.0D, 20, 60, 15.0F);
...


//File: NerfedAIArrowAttack.java

public class NerfedEntityAIArrowAttack extends EntityAIArrowAttack {

public NerfedEntityAIArrowAttack(IRangedAttackMob par1IRangedAttackMob,double par2, int par4, float par5) {
	this(par1IRangedAttackMob, par2, par4, par4, par5);
}

public NerfedEntityAIArrowAttack(IRangedAttackMob par1IRangedAttackMob,double par2, int par4, int par5, float par6) {		
	super(par1IRangedAttackMob, par2, par4, par5, par6);
}

         //This is the only difference from the old AI
@Override
public void updateTask() {
           //..snip..//
           this.rangedAttackTime = MathHelper.floor_float((float) (this.maxRangedAttackTime - this.field_96561_g)+ (float) this.field_96561_g);
   System.out.println("Skele Debug: Distance^2: " + d0+ " -- Time to next shot: " + this.rangedAttackTime);
          //..snip..//
        }
}

//And here's my event
@ForgeSubscribe
public void OnSpawnEntity(LivingSpawnEvent ev){	
	//When Skeletons spawn, (and if they're not withers), replace their Arrow AI with the nerfed AI, to slow down
	//The freakin' machinegun
	if (ev.entityLiving instanceof EntitySkeleton){			
		if (((EntitySkeleton)ev.entityLiving).getSkeletonType() != 1){						
			//It's not a wither.
			((EntitySkeleton)ev.entityLiving).tasks.removeTask(((EntitySkeleton)ev.entityLiving).aiArrowAttack); //Get it out if there's one already there
			((EntitySkeleton)ev.entityLiving).aiArrowAttack = new NerfedEntityAIArrowAttack((IRangedAttackMob)ev.entityLiving, 1.0D, 20, 60, 15.0F);			
		} 

	}
}

 

 

It seemed pretty simple and straightforward, but I'm obviously missing something. Hopefully it's something that's obvious to someone better at this than I am.

 

 

 

 

This is what I want to change. Since there doesn't appear to be any event that I can trap in EntityAIArrowAttack, I figured it would probably be cleaner to just make a new AI and swap it out at spawntime. (I know I'll need an AT to make it accessible, but for the moment, I've just changed the "private" to "public" so that I know it's my code that's broken and not the access transformer).

 

Everything below seems to work (no errors or warnings outside of the 5 "built in" warnings for the mcp output), and if I breadcrumb the reassignment, I get the spam I expect. But when a skeleton shoots me in the face, I don't get the output from the new breadcrumb, and it's evident that the AI replacement isn't taking effect.

 

 

UPDATE:

 

TIL. What do you know... Popping a skeleton out of a spawn egg doesn't seem to fire an OnLivingSpawn event, nor does populating a Skeleton which was already in the world when it was unloaded (tested by breadcrumbing the event and turning doMobSpawning to false), which explains why it didn't seem to be working. Popped to peaceful to clear everything out, turned mob spawning back on, and lo and behold, it works (sort of... now they don't attack at all... back to the drawing board).

 

Any thoughts as to what might be a better event to use for this?

 

 

you could use EntityJoinWorldEvent check for your skeleton then replace its ai with yours.

I had an issue (exactly like yours) to nerf the skeleton attack speed, I ended up giving up and creating a new skeleton (identical to the vanilla one).

 

Canceling it upon EntityJoinWorldEvent and replacing the skeleton with a new skeleton.