Commoner's turning hostile

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:15 pm

Having completed SOA with a party, I thought I'd have some fun solo. I'm playing an Archer/Thief (a little SK help to gain the kit, but otherwise 'normal').

Anyway, my character isn't exactly a tank ...

so I've been using him like a sniper. Right now I'm trying to take on Prebek in the Docks district. I attacked him in the house, then fled outside - and they followed. Which is exactly what I wanted as now I have the whole district to hide in.

My plan is to hide in shadows, come close enough to see them, take a few shots, then run away again - repeat as necessary

. Works reasonably well, but at some point the commoners turn hostile on me! Not that they're a threat - they just run away. But I have to think this is going to cause problems down the road ...

so I keep resorting to a save game and trying again. But everytime, they turn hostile on me.

So how can I stop them from going hostile?

Raumoheru · Post by **Raumoheru** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:19 pm

My plan is to hide in shadows, come close enough to see them, take a few shots, then run away again - repeat as necessary .

pansy...lol

werebeargoddess · Post by **werebeargoddess** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:20 pm

I don't want to say this, but you might need to change your tactics. It's possible that the commoners don't like seeing you do that, or see you as a threat. And you might be accidently killing commoners, which will deffinetely make them hostile. Are the guys that you're shooting at commoners? 'Cause that'll make the others hostile as well.

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:28 pm

Prebek is the guy the Harper's ask you to take out. I'm only attacking them, but I don't know if they're considered 'commoners'. I've never had this problem with attacks that happen outside normally though ...

werebeargoddess · Post by **werebeargoddess** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:47 pm

hmmm. Then, as I often say, there might be a bug. And there might be a patch to fix it. I dunno. It might have to do with your rep, but I doubt it, since you sound like your guys tend towards good.

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 3:06 pm

I'm pretty much straight out of Irenicus's dungeon, so nothing's changed my rep yet - should be 11 I believe.

This did happen once before - when clearing Jaheira's curse (I picked her up so I could get her quests, although I'm still going 'solo' in the fights). First try they went hostile. Tried again, and it worked fine. Now that I think about it though, I believe the first time, I killed Baron Ployer outside, and the second time inside (and just picked off the mages outside). So maybe I do have to kill Prebek inside the house ...

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 3:36 pm

OK, went back to a previous save and killed him in the house this time. Bit of a close call when he cast confusion on me, but otherwise managed pretty well. Then almost got killed by the traps - 95% in traps, and he can't even find them!

sparky_kat · Post by **sparky_kat** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:06 pm

one thing could have been your alignment possibly, if its evil that may have triggered the commoners possibly

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 5:23 pm

Chaotic Good, so that's not it.

I think werebeargoddess had it right - they're viewed by the commoners as 'one of them'. Whether that's a bug (some flag unintentionally set), or by design (to force you to deal with them in the house) I don't know.

From what I saw, it seemed as long as all I was doing was taking down their stoneskin, the commoners were perfectly fine with it. But as soon as I did any damage, they turned hostile.

Another interesting point - at one point Prebek cast a lighting bolt at me, which incidentally took out a commoner. Yet the other commoners had no reaction to it, and still turned hostile when I hit Prebek!

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 2:37 am

Commoners turn hostile when you take a fight outside. They're scripted that way. This scripting is not very logical; as you said, people turn hostile when you hit a baddie, but don't react when the baddie hurts you. Also, when you're attacked in the streets and you fight, people don't react as well. BG1 was the same way. It's a bit annoying.

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:06 am

Irritating!

The same thing happened on the Docks to me... I don't know how to fix it, but I should tell you that it can get worse... I had left the Party AI on an Vircona kill a peasant... Grr... 2 points reputation down the drain... I releaded from before I had killed Kagnaxx rather than accept the loss...

Coot · Post by **Coot** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 10:35 am

That doesn't seem right. No NPC will just go and kill somebody - except enemies (with red circle) of course.
Are you maybe talking about the guy on Waukeens promenade, near the west exit, near the fountain? This guy seems to have a beef with Viccy for some reason. Viccy attacks him after he makes a comment or something and the guard standing nearby will turn hostile as well.
This doesn't always happen... there is something in the scripting that triggers this. It certainly isn't arandom thing.

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:04 am

[QUOTE=Coot]That doesn't seem right. No NPC will just go and kill somebody - except enemies (with red circle) of course.[/QUOTE]

I think you missed the whole point - the commoner's are turning hostile ... i.e: they do have a red circle. So if you have AI turned on (like stramoski), then you'll start targeting commoners.

Playing solo, I'm not using an AI, so I didn't have that particular problem ... I just didn't want to risk it causing problems down the road. Who knows when I'd run into someone I'm supposed to talk to who's now hostile ...

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:38 pm

Have you used any explosive device, or trap laid down outside to slay Prebek when he goes out of the house?

glenfar · Post by **glenfar** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 1:58 pm

[QUOTE=Luis Antonio]Have you used any explosive device, or trap laid down outside to slay Prebek when he goes out of the house?[/QUOTE]

Nope - just shooting +1 arrows, nothing else. As I said, it seems the commoners are perfectly fine with it as long as they're bouncing harmlessly off his stoneskin. But as soon as I actually do some damage to Prebek, the commoners turn hostile.

It has to be a flag or something that's set. It was strange with Baron Ployer, because I couldn't hurt him outside, yet his hired mages were fair game. Also I don't recall any penalty to reputation for killing either Prebek or Baron Ployer outside. So it must be a "seen as commoner" flag or some such as opposed to a "is a commoner" flag.

stramoski · Post by **stramoski** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 11:05 pm

Weird

There was once when a summoned Wyvern was hit by chaos and attacked a commoner... They don't seem to have an appreciation of collateral damage. I reloaded from that one. (Yes, I reload whenever things don't go my way, that's why I don't play Wild Mage... my personality doesn't fit it.

) But this was different... They turned hostile in the middle of the Preblek battle, but they were all still Uninjured (I could see because they were now hostile.) I hadn't even used any Area-Effect spells like Chaos or Minor Malison which could have changed their alliegence without damage. I think it's a bug of some sort, but it doesn't hurt to much, I just keep my Party AI off while running though the Docks.