A semi-simple suggestion for escort woes

Lady Deathwish.
Fusionette.
General Z.
That Nemesis Defector Guy In RWZ Arc Who Gets Blasted Away The Moment You Rescue Him.

Combat escort missions in CoH have a bad rap and, let's be honest, it's entirely well-deserved. Considering that most of the combat NPCs tend to be glass cannons, combined with their utter lack of self-preservation and {usually} instant mission failure from their sudden yet inevitable faceplanting gives a lot of players a "dead man walking, fission mailed" attitude toward them.

So, if the problem stems from the fact that they die so easily, the question becomes, why let them die at all?

Here's a proposition for their revised behavior -

1} NPC is "released", from their "captors", or whatever they're set to put them into...

2} Combat mode. They fight according to their general combat AI.

3} If their HP hits 0, they don't "die" - they go back into passive mode, kneeling on the ground. See Proton's behavior at the end of Twinshot's arc. They remain that way as long as there are hostile NPCs in the vicinity.

4} Once there are no more hostiles, they get back up and pop an insta-full-heal power.

5} Goto 2}

This would, in theory, remove the inherent issues around their penchant for being defeated. They would still get defeated as easily as they are now, but it would not become an inconvenience. Putting them into a non-combat mode after being defeated {as opposed to straight-out unkillability} would prevent them from doing too much of the player's work for them.

Any thoughts?

An open letter to NCsoft

The mechanics that you're talking about aren't (as far as I know) part of the NPCs nor the "escort a vaptive" mechanic, but rather, part of the missions. Whiich means that every mission using combat hostages would need to be re-written. I doubt that they'd do that.

Personally, I don't have a problem with any combat hostages, except General Z. Strategic play (and not scrapperlocking) allows you to get these enemies to their destinations relatively unscathed. I sometimes wonder if General Z has a +perception power, because that seems the most likely way to explain how aggro-happy he gets.

I find that the issue with these pets is typically that players don't change their playstyle, and charge forward after rescuing one. This causes issues for two reasons: 1- The NPC has fewer powers than players, and is less intelligent about their application, so they can't save themselves when a situation goes sideways. 2- Rescuing most of these hostages triggers at least one ambush, so if it shows up while you're fighting another group, the situation is quite likely to go sideways - for the dumb NPC at least, even if you can handle it.

Personally, I think that the game is easy enough without the game spoon-feeding us the few challenges that exist.

I'd be happy with just being able to see the NPC's friggin' health bar without having to click on them. Add them to the team window so I can see when they're in trouble!

Maybe an indicator on the compass, too, similar to the "team leader" star.

Or! OR!

Bring back the old "my mentor is getting too far away" thought balloons. "Lady Jane is in trouble! I'd better help her!" when she hits 50% health or her threat level goes past a certain threshold or something.

I wouldn't mind seeing a setup almost identical to the old distance-triggered sidekick-warning balloons for non-combative NPCs, too, so I don't leave them in the dust. If the first one could also trigger the activation of a Sprint power in the NPC, too, all the better. Seriously, can't they at least try to keep up?

Those escorts in the RWZ arcs (drummer, dark watcher etc) are really awful.

The nemesis ones in particular. I have seen them fail on EVERY single large or pugish team. People just dont expect a hostage to run into a mob of 8 fake nems, at random. It would make more sense if he HAD to die in the story line, and he gets blown up by a warhulk guarding him. Whenever I do that mission, I solo it or have a small team, and clearly explain to people...NOT to free him till the end. Even dumber, he is often the first hostage in the map.

The other mission from Drummer, also Nems, in the warehouse, is just as terrible. You free the hostage, who quite often gets killed by the old veng'd up exploding warhulk to teh face trick, and then lead him out (assuming he isnt dead) and round a corner, only to see 3+ fakes..which he will charge.

These missions aren't real fun.

{dear log-out bug,

DIE.

Sincerely,

Quinch}

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roderick The mechanics that you're talking about aren't (as far as I know) part of the NPCs nor the "escort a vaptive" mechanic, but rather, part of the missions. Whiich means that every mission using combat hostages would need to be re-written. I doubt that they'd do that.

I doubt it would be that much of an issue - blueside, I don't think there's more than a dozen or two combat escort missions, and once the template is written, I don't think the process would go far beyond a simple search/replace.

{and if you're asking why bother at all then, making escorts less prone to AI-induced failure reduces the risk of them being ill-received in future content}

Quote:

Personally, I don't have a problem with any combat hostages, except General Z. Strategic play (and not scrapperlocking) allows you to get these enemies to their destinations relatively unscathed.

That works solo or on small teams, but on larger ones, when armies of ambushes start piling in, a tissue-paper blaster with delusions of tankerhood is often going to bite the carpet pretty quickly no matter what you do.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doctor Roswell I'd be happy with just being able to see the NPC's friggin' health bar without having to click on them. Add them to the team window so I can see when they're in trouble!

It's something of an all-or-nothing prospect, but you can use /optionset showvillainhealth 1 {throw in showvillainname for good measure} to force the game to display health bars for all combat NPCs, whether they're selected or not.

An open letter to NCsoft

I'd be happy if they just cut down on their perception.. I don't know how many times I have seen General Aarons, from Serpant Drummer, just blow past me and start attacking anything that moves.. and I have yet to get into range with characters that have RANGED attacks.

My worst memory of this was on my SoA Crab. We entered the chamber with the 2 Fake Nemesis and I was stand back trying to decide how to attack knowing as soon as I got close he'd rush in. Next thing I knew he's chasing CHASING the two Fakes around the chamber and aggroing every single mob. At that point I assumed the mission was doomed to fail so I just launched into the 2 Fakes with all my pets out hoping to get as much XP as possible before the giant mission failed notice appeared. To this day I still don't know how I managed to kill everything in that room before the idiot could get himself killed. Now as mentioned I had all my spider pets out and while not one of them attacked anything until I moved forward AARONS was after everything in the room???? Just how far does their aggro range extend?


I've taken to developing my own, soloing, strategy for many of these missions. On the Aarons mission once I find him I will mark the spot and then go clear out the entire rest of the map before I rescue him. With Lady Jane, when possible, I will run past the COT that are gaurding her and then taunt them away. Kill them and then clear out the cave before I go back to guide her to the end.. at worst that way she only has to survive 1-2 ambushes. Its actually been quite a while since I even bothered with JIm Tambor arc but I use the same plan.. kill anythng standing between me and the entrance before I rescue her and then at worst I have to try to take out the ambushes before they take out her.

I LIKE your idea Quinch just not sure they have the means or the desire to do it.

I saw the thread title and my mind immediately flashed to General Aarons. it's not enough that he's a fragile pet who runs up through three groups of to pistol whip a mob in the corner, it's that he's a fragile pet who runs up through three groups of to pistol whip a mob in the corner that explodes when it dies!

I used to rescue him last, but lately I just let him get killed so I can move on to missions I actually enjoy.

But if we did that, how would we speed the LGTF?

I'd like to see several things that I don't THINK would require much coding:

1) The captive's Health status. List them as a Pet or something.

2) The ability to give them Insps. Seriously, escort missions are the ONLY ones where buffers really rock solo. They can bubble/shield/heal/whatever the captive while the rest try to draw aggro and wish they had Heal Other.

Do this and I'm a happy camper.