Fix stun mechanics

[srmalloy]

I don't expect that this would get done any time soon, since it has been an issue in game from launch to shutdown (which implies that the original devs either failed to work on it or never found a solution), but I'm throwing it out to get visibility. Fix the Stun mechanics so that NPCs are affected the same way that PCs are.

 

By this I mean the way that an NPC who gets stunned can still close with you at full speed, or in the behavior that makes it most annoying, run off, jump up onto the roof of a building, and disappear from view, all while doing the 'body waving back and forth' stunned animation. If you get stunned -- either a PC or NPC -- your movement speed should immediately change to the speed stunned PCs move at. Ideally, it would also set your jump height/distance to zero, but just not having them continue to dash around at a dead run after being stunned would be a big improvement.

 

It occurs to me that it might be possible to handle this as one tick of immobilize, which would interrupt an NPC's movement and allow the stun movement change to take effect, but I don't know how (or if) that could be implemented without looking at at the code. I suppose that I'm going to have to download a set of the sources so I can look for myself.

Edited November 16, 2019 by srmalloy

[Razor Cure]

This is actually a really good point. I have seen it a lot, using a stun at range, on a target already running towards you...and their run speed wont change. Obviously they are still stunned, which helps, but they will often be right next to you when the stun ends.

I like the idea of all stuns applying like a 0.5 sec immob, just to get them stopped. Not sure how that would work with Oppressive Gloom though.

[srmalloy]

It was particularly oppressive during the pre-Containment days, when a Controller became virtually unsoloable about level 12 because they had such abysmal damage. It was perennially annoying to be fighting a spawn of three Outcasts in Steel Canyon, slap down a Stun, and have one of the spawn take off at a high-speed stagger to the building thirty feet away, leap up onto the roof of the building, and disappear from view -- because you had to stand there waiting for them to decide to come back or miss out on the XP/inf for taking out the whole spawn. And it's still annoying that you get hit with a stun, and the best you can do is stagger around like a sailor on a five-day blind bender, while the NPCs act like Jesse Owens and dash off halfway across the map.

[boggo2300]

+1 please fix from me!  not super urgent, but a PITA nonetheless