Grateful rescued civilians

[srmalloy]

Is it possible to increase the frequency with which rescued civilians check your position for their pathing? It's not a huge issue, but it's annoying to watch civvies running off in some random direction when you blow away the mobs threatening them just because you're airborne when the last mob goes down, and even if you land immediately, they'll still go running off in whatever direction the server decided was the best route to get to you for ten or fifteen seconds before it recognizes that you're not in the air any more and turns them around.

[Greycat]

Pfft, next you'll want the people you rescue in missions to actually be able to *follow* you.

 

Crazy talk.

 

🙂

[MTeague]

I still want the ability to grab them in a fireman's carry.

Particularly for redside kidnappings!  I mean, come on!  Even if I'm forced to put them down before I can use any combat powers.

 

However, I suspect the coding work for that would be .... "non-trivial". 

So yea, having them not get stuck on doorways, or running laps around the room to find you, would be nice.

[Rudra]

Have them not get stuck on stairs... "It's only 3 steps down! Just take that last step already! NO! Don't go back the way you came! Where are you going?!"

 

Have them not get lost in a straight hallway... "Just have to get the NPC down this hall and (s)he is out... and... there (s)he goes back three rooms for God only knows why...."

 

Have them not run over to other mobs... "Save me, hero!" "You saved me! Thank you!" *runs over to mobs at far end of room player has not reached yet* "Save me, hero!" Save yourself! You're obviously working with the <insert enemy faction name>!

Edited January 31, 2022 by Rudra
Edited to change colon to quotation mark and remove other quotation marks,

[srmalloy]

I'm not talking about the hostages you rescue in missions and have to lead out, although a position check frequency increase would probably benefit them, too. I'm talking about the civvies you rescue outside in the zones -- for example, in PI near Portal Corp southwest of the water tank, if you're in the air when you rescue a scientist there, he'll turn and run up the hill to the northwest, and run most of the way up to the top even if you land immediately.

[MTeague]

7 minutes ago, Rudra said:

Have them not run over to other mobs... "Save me, hero!" "You saved me! Thank you!" *runs over to mobs at far end of room player has not reached yet* "Save me, hero!" Save yourself! You're obviously working with the <insert enemy faction name>!

So, every escort mission in every game, ever?

[MTeague]

3 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

I'm not talking about the hostages you rescue in missions and have to lead out, although a position check frequency increase would probably benefit them, too. I'm talking about the civvies you rescue outside in the zones -- for example, in PI near Portal Corp southwest of the water tank, if you're in the air when you rescue a scientist there, he'll turn and run up the hill to the northwest, and run most of the way up to the top even if you land immediately.

 

Ah. Those civilians. I admit, they barely exist to me. 

I blame the respawn rate. You can only save the same people from purse-snatchings about 320,948 times before you stop caring. 

Same with the ones being menaced by CoT on King's Row rooftops. 

Or the PI scientists being threatened by possessed ones. 

Or the people being harried by Lost. Or Tsoo. Or Devouring Earth. Or Family. Or.... you get the idea. 

 

[Crasical]

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

I still want the ability to grab them in a fireman's carry.

Particularly for redside kidnappings!  I mean, come on!  Even if I'm forced to put them down before I can use any combat powers.

 

However, I suspect the coding work for that would be .... "non-trivial". 

So yea, having them not get stuck on doorways, or running laps around the room to find you, would be nice.

 

I'd very much like to be able to toss a those dang mayhem mission escorts over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes to be hauled to the exit by force.

[srmalloy]

2 hours ago, MTeague said:

Same with the ones being menaced by CoT on King's Row rooftops.

The CoT on the KR rooftops have been getting a bit of a scouring from a couple of my characters; it may be juvenile, but there's something hugely giggleworthy about watching CoT get turned into high-velocity projectiles when you drop Meteor on them. Although the Nemesis Jaegers come in a close second -- they don't fly as far or as fast, but watching them fly away from the impact with a cometary tail of fire is just as fun.

[Clave Dark 5]

I was just hovering my blaster near that Atlas bridge that gores over that one lake right?  Saw some guy doing the usual purse snatching, one-shotted him, and saw the civvie do this exact thing.  Then the pair respawned, did it again... and again... each time the civvie ran towards me then away; once they even jumped off the bridge first.  It'd be fun to see them perform some parkour to try and get as close to me as they can to thank me, but ultimately I don't care.

[Doomguide2005]

18 hours ago, Crasical said:

 

I'd very much like to be able to toss a those dang mayhem mission escorts over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes to be hauled to the exit by force.

Burlap sack, duffle bag or even a body bag would work, yes please.  Heck don't the Vahz use body bags?

[srmalloy]

1 hour ago, Doomguide2005 said:

Burlap sack, duffle bag or even a body bag would work, yes please.  Heck don't the Vahz use body bags?

I don't know if the HC staff has the art people/tools to do it, but you make a good point that the body bag carry is already in the game, even if the first thing the Abominations do when they aggro is to throw the body bag on the ground. You'd still need animations for picking them up and setting them down, and have to decide how to handle multiple hostages, how to work with Beast Run carrying someone, and how it would work for nonhumaniform Kheldians, though. Having the base 'shoulder carry' gives a start, but I suspect that that part will be the smallest piece of making it work.

[Luminara]

21 minutes ago, srmalloy said:

throw the body bag on the ground

 

I cannot express how frequently and with what glee I would pick up the civilian and throw him/her back on the ground, in retribution for all of the misery they've caused over ten years of playing.

[TheZag]

A little popup toggle button that places escort npc's into the player version of follow would be great.  

 

'Target me and press F.  I can rescue u faster that way.'

 

Maybe street rescues could do the same by default and they only use beacon pathing if they are no longer closing the gap with their rescuer.

[Doomguide2005]

38 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

I cannot express how frequently and with what glee I would pick up the civilian and throw him/her back on the ground, in retribution for all of the misery they've caused over ten years of playing.

"I'm so sorry I thought I heard/saw/smelled something.  Yes again.  Now please be quiet and put your head back inside"   Zzzzzzip.