Road Rage

[Jhereg]

I just encountered something I've never seen before. I've been playing for nearly 2 years, so presumably it's rare, but OTOH, there are lots of folk around here - maybe it's not as rare as I think.

Thing is, I was headed back to Santa Monica by cab. Nothing odd about that. When the display started to fade in, though, I heard it. My character was coming out of the cab swinging. I know that happens sometimes when you quick-restore out of a fight still swinging, but when I got into the cab, I wasn't in a fight. I was downtown. Hooker by the Venture building. Suit walking down the street. Party guy headed for the Last Round. All normal.

The cop on that beat chose that particular moment to be standing right in front of me when I stepped out of the cab. I Eagle-beaked him. Popped him right in the Schnozzola.

He, of course, rightfully took offense, and started wailing on me with his night-stick. I'm not reallly all that into killing cops and making a bad situation worse, so I booked. He shot me twice in the back. Alabama State Trooper style: *BANG* "Stop or ah'll shoot!" I ran for the parkade and headed for the sewers until the heat died down.

Fortunately, he was wearing sunglasses at night and didn't get that good a look at me. But now, everytime I show up in Santa Monica, that cop is creeping around, gun drawn, looking to kill somebody. The police search was called off long ago, but he's still sneaking around, looking for something to kill. I'm talking being in and out of Santa Monica four times since that incident, and he's still looking to get some. Has anybody seen this kind of thing before?

I once took too long in the diner and walked into a gaggle of cops, guns blazing, and booked for the sewers. After the search was called off, all the cops were normal. That was for killing four punks. This time I just accidentally popped him in the face! What's the big deal?

Oh, and V1.2 patch vanilla.

[Coruel]

Maybe because it was personal? You hit this specific cop, and so he carries a grugde. In the other situations you never actually damage a cop.

[ellipsis jones]

I came out of a cab swinging one time as well. Actually, I wasn't swinging so much as firing a handgun - I guess that was the weapon I'd been using last. Fortunately I didn't hit anyone, just scared some civilians. I hadn't been in a fight either.

I wonder if it was because I accidentally left-clicked during the loading/transition screen. I do that sometimes while playing half-life, only I'm usually holding a weapon that fires high explosives when it happens. Hence:

*** LOADING ***

(accidental click)

*** LOADING ***

(game resumes, rocket is launched and hits the floor directly in front of me)

(splorp)

SUBJECT: FREEMAN

STATUS: EVALUATION TERMINATED

REASON: DEMONSTRATION OF EXCEEDINGLY POOR JUDGMENT

[Jhereg]

Maybe because it was personal? You hit this specific cop, and so he carries a grugde. In the other situations you never actually damage a cop.

Hmm. That's not a bad angle. It can be tested, even. I think I'll go find another cop to beat up to see if it happens again. Normally if I hit something I don't stop until it's dead.

[Jhereg]

I came out of a cab swinging one time as well. Actually, I wasn't swinging so much as firing a handgun - I guess that was the weapon I'd been using last. Fortunately I didn't hit anyone, just scared some civilians. I hadn't been in a fight either.

I suppose I could have accidentally double-clicked instead of single-clicking. A lot of these games have their own message-handling functions and don't handle double-clicks in the normal way. That might be the why at any rate.

[Jhereg]

Well, isn't that odd? The blood-thirsty oinker seems to have been retired. I guess the denizens of Santa Monica didn't like their local gargoyle wandering around packed. Funny, that.