how does subarea following work?

[lynx]

By subarea following I mean when actors follow you in a subarea of the master area when you try to retreat; think of the Gates lich. I haven't seen it outside combat.

 

Gemrb doesn't support this yet and this is a game breaker in SoA (where your Bhaal essence is supposed to follow you inside Candlekeep after your soul was stolen).

 

So if you know anything more than what was just said, we'd be grateful if you shared it.

[Taimon]

I think I came across this while looking into the door flags.

What exactly do you need to know?

[lynx]

Is there anything more to it or is it that simple?

 

fuzzie also wants to know whether it's done because of actions, and which actions do it, and etc.

[devSin]

There's a transition flag that blocks movement. If this flag is set, no movement occurs. If this flag is not set, the NPC can use the transition (even if the transition is disabled, ouch).

 

It's entirely by script (nobody does nothin' without no script). It shouldn't be a specific action thing, but RandomWalk()ing will NOT leave the current area (thank the almighty!). Also, a transition for EscapeArea() is not valid if the flag is set (if there are no passable transitions the NPC can get to, it'll just stand around until disappearing).

 

This is BG2-only. IWD had its own actions for keeping characters from moving between areas, and BG/TotSC doesn't support this at all.

[Avenger]

The most important question is, how following npcs (for dialogue, attack, etc) stay active if an area is unloaded

I could see two ways:

 

1. have a list of npcs already targeting an exit to the newly loaded area, add them to the new area with a slight delay

2. don't unload areas actors with npcs already targeting an exit until they reach it

[igi]

Added, thanks.