NPC friendly fire

[Melen]

So I just lost a character to friendly fire. He was still pretty early game so I’m not too devastated, but how he went made me wonder if something was off codewise.

My char had a follower equipped with a rifle to provide cover while scavenging vehicles for fuel/parts to fix up an RV we found. We pulled up to a gas station on the edge of a new town and as I got out to look over a car we parked right next to, a few feral runners came into view. Since there was just one tile between our RV and the car I was going over, the NPC hadn’t gotten out of the RV yet. While I was removing a winshield, got a message that I was attacked by my follower, so I stopped removing and the very next turn got the “Watch the last moments of your life?” message.

The NPC shot through the RV, damaging/destroying that section and then into my char as he was aiming for the feral runners beyond. So now on the road there’s a corpse with a few of .223 holes in him and an NPC still cozy in an RV. I guess my question is - Aren’t NPCs supposed to move for a clear line of sight before the take their shot(s)? It seemed to me they would do that before, or maybe they chose another target with nothing in the way… I don’t know which it was, but they never seemed to just keep putting rounds down range until they got whatever they were aiming at.

[Mantar]

I always keep the safety on. IE “do not use firearms” in the tactics submenu of talking to the NPC. If things go south I can tell them to start shooting as long as I’m not deaf.

[redxlaser15]

That’s weird, usually they’ll tell me “get the beep out of the way ya beep!” Before they start shooting. Sometimes a stray shot will still hit me, but it’s mostly okay.
Maybe it has to do with conflict with being in a vehicle or a stray shot like I mentioned.

[Melen]

That could be, or because I was removing a windshield when it happened. I dunno. Just figured they’d move for a clear shot instead of through part of a vehicle and through their leader.

[nameless_survivor]

And this is why NPCs all get crammed into my bunker forever. They are a danger to themselves and others.

[Malkeus]

This is why all my raiding NPC’s are melee fighters. A ranged NPC is a friendly fire incident waiting to happen. A group of them is destined to lose more members to friendly fire than the zombies. It’s a WIP.

[nameless_survivor]

Aren’t they kind of squishy though, because they won’t wear any heavy armor? I figured they would get slaughtered like animals in melee.

[Malkeus]

You can force them to wear a lot of things they wouldn’t ordinarily wear by using the sort armor menu. I’ve had a squad of ‘knights’ wearing ornamental plate before. Slow as fuck, but tanky. I make them carry their own bandages and disinfectant for the inevitable bites and bleeding. It’s requires a lot of micromanagement so I only use small squads of 4 or less. Small groups cuts down on the annoying chatter on the sidebar. “Watch out for the (insert monster)” x15 gets real annoying.
And they are always disposable. Nothing makes for a cleaner getaway than changing all but 1 to avoid combat and just walking away.

edit: Oh and reach weapons are a huge must have.

[nameless_survivor]

Eh, my character is trying to singlehandedly rebuild civilization (and succeeding!) so I wouldn’t want to just use them as disposable heroes to cover an escape. I mostly don’t NEED to escape anyway, as I always use a vehicle for fire support. I prefer using combined arms tactics and trickery.

I didn’t know they would auto use medical supplies though, that’s good to know.

[Malkeus]

Huh? They won’t autouse the supplies, I just don’t want to have to carry a gallon of disinfectant and dozens of bandages myself. That’s why I said it took a lot of micromanagement.

[nameless_survivor]

Oh. Well shit. Yeah screw that noise, they are staying in the bunker until they aren’t a hassle anymore. I don’t want to have to check them for boo-boos every five minutes.

[Malkeus]

They’ll let you know if they’ve got a problem. They complain about bites, infections, radiation, being tired…I don’t remember if they actually say anything when bleeding, but the pools of blood kind of give that one away. Also, the tileset I’ve got gives them status effect bubbles when they have an issue. You have to pay attention, which is just another reason to keep the group sizes down so you don’t spend forever looking at the message log after every combat to see who’s armor took a beating or stood in acid like a fucktard.

[AskaHope]

I’ve been through something similar in the past.

I was crafting a wooden needle inside a veichle, my follower saw a giant mosquito and thought it would be a good idea to shoot it THROUGH my head.