Do NPC ever flee to map borders?

[temnix]

I don't remember ever seeing an NPC walk off the map with the EscapeArea action. In Fallout they did, which was very nice. Here they always head for some door, even when that doesn't make any sense, like when walking into a small tent. You step inside, they are not there. Can this be changed somehow? If the border sides don't count as travel regions, is it possible to patch areas with new regions along every side - regions without a cursor, not usable by the party? Or do the map sides simply need to be tweaked to allow NPC through? 

[Ardanis]

Walking into tents used to be a thing. If it doesn't work, either there's some flag on that transition, or there was an engine change.

Map borders are actually defined in searchmap and simply trigger the worldmap UI display. It should certainly be possible to spread an array of transitions around the border. A simple dot without any coverage should suffice.

[temnix]

They still go to tents, that's the problem. EscapeArea destroys them, so they are not inside. I want to make it so that...

...shit, I'm whipping up enthusiasm here... Doesn't anybody care about trying to make the world more believable?

...I would like NPC to head for the borders instead. This could be done by patching, I think. Only for outdoors areas, because inside there are no borders or it's not worth it. They have to go somewhere. But outside, for each of the map borders that enables travel, there could be a travel trigger the length of the border. It should be a real zone, otherwise they might hover about and stumble, looking unnatural. I tried making a region connected to no area, no entrance, cursor 0. And NPC head off there to disappear, but the party can't see it. So that works. The dimensions could be gotten from WED horizontal and vertical size data. This would also involve disabling the other triggers for NPC outdoors, if that can be done. Those tent and building entrances. Without this they will only walk off to borders if those are closer.

[marchitek]

3 hours ago, temnix said:

Doesn't anybody care about trying to make the world more believable?

Please, name one thing that is realistic in this game. Then we can try to fix it, so it would fit the game better.

Seriously, this games is very symbolic in most of its parts. Let's take inns, some of them have one or two rooms. Is this bothering you? It's just symbol.

[temnix]

I don't know any inns that have one or two rooms. They have either big suites, like Feldepost's, or many small rooms side by side on the second floor. Maybe Ulgoth's Beard inn is a little guilty, but it uses the mansion layout, the same as Degrodel's house. Yes, there is some convention involved all around, but not too much. Mostly the artists and designers put in the effort to make a visually convincing world. And NPC could walk off the map in the Fallouts, why not here? And what do you suggest I do with all these conventions? If nothing is realistic here, how am I supposed to relate to this world?

[marchitek]

Feldepost inn have I think four rooms, two of them are occupied. But you can still choose from four types of rooms there. Oh well, maybe they have some magic walls like in Hogwart. Have you noticed, that there is no trash in the city? Oh well, they probably clean with magic anything that is left on the ground, not only in city, but in wilderness too. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? Some group of travelers used fireball in middle of library, fortunately this will not end up in any fire. They have probably magical protection on their books, or maybe fireball itself was magical to only hit enemies. And party member, oh well. The same group of travelers found full plate mail, it was good use for their gnome fighter, but then they change their mind, and give it to one of half-orc in squad. Why should you be surprised, if you count people and beds in Beregost it wouldn't match at all, but why shoul it match, the same peapole sit whole day and night by the same table and drink beer.

So, clearly this game doesn't make sense if you look at it in realistic categories. But it does make sense I you think about it as symbols. Obviously game designers want you to imagine Feldpost inn as big inn. They prepared for you some simplification regarding equipment and fighting. Fighting itself (btw one of most exposed aspects of the game) is totally symbolic, two guys just standing and swinging swords, it's not how it looks like. I'm surprised that you don;t see this, I thought you are into all this PnP RPGs where you need to iamgine everything by yourself. Here game designers give you some symbolic representations, to make it a bit easier to play then only text.

I could finish here, but I have a feeling that you will still have a trouble to understand my point, so let me apply all of this directly to you case. So, NPC goes to tent and disapperas. It's symbolic. You shouldn't expect this person would be there. It's just symbol that this NPC finished conversation with you and go it's own way. Better then immediate disappearance (it also sometimes happens in this game).

Just to clarify: if you will have fun preparing this mod and/or playing game with it, you should totally go for it. I just unwisely respond to you little provocation, maybe it was just rhetorical question and I shouldn't do that. If so, I'm sorry for inconvenience, I don't want to hijack your topic.

[temnix]

That is not called symbolic, it's called an omission. A shorthand for something more complicated. But your point is not that difficult to get. How about mine? A game can't be completely realistic, and shouldn't necessarily by direct transposition in any case, but its designers should be lauded wherever they managed to make the world convincing and believable. The fewer nonsensical details it contains like peasant rooms in a luxury hotel (I had this fixed for inns in one of my unfinished mods) or people walking into small houses to disappear there, the healthier this alternative reality is for living. No? You don't have to want to take it seriously, of course, maybe you want to keep it at arm's length with the "it's just a game" feeling, but then that's the difference between you and me.