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Forums > Home› The Foundry for Star Trek Online› The Foundry for Star Trek Online - Bug Reports

Can NPC Contacts be killed? bug?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
edited February 18 in The Foundry for Star Trek Online - Bug Reports
In a mission a created, I have ground combat in a cargo bay and then you have to talk with a NPC Contact to progress. Last night a fleet mate was playing my mission and he said that he saw that NPC in the room and then fought the Klingon mod in the area (which was close to the NPC Contact.) He then when to the another room to fight another mod. When he went back to the 1st room to talk to the NPC Contact, she was gone. Is there a bug there or did she suffer from collateral damageand was killed? I did not think NPC Contact could be killed or damaged. Am I wrong?

do i need to be more carefull in my NPC contact placement?
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Yes. Both space and ground contacts are capable of dying to aoe damage. It's really annoying.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Altexist wrote: »
    In a mission a created, I have ground combat in a cargo bay and then you have to talk with a NPC Contact to progress. Last night a fleet mate was playing my mission and he said that he saw that NPC in the room and then fought the Klingon mod in the area (which was close to the NPC Contact.) He then when to the another room to fight another mod. When he went back to the 1st room to talk to the NPC Contact, she was gone. Is there a bug there or did she suffer from collateral damageand was killed? I did not think NPC Contact could be killed or damaged. Am I wrong?

    do i need to be more carefull in my NPC contact placement?

    Yes they can get damage and be killed. I think I dropped someone's mission because they put an NPC in with a bunch of Klingon ships I had to fight and after I beat them, I had to talk to the contact but it wasn't there any more.

    I saw it while testing my mission too. I blew up an enemy battleship and the warp core explosion from that took out an NPC contact ship it was next to. Quite spectacular, but it would mess up the mission if that was a critical NPC you had an objective for. Fortuately, it wasn't in my mission, by design.

    So when making your missions, make sure you put NPCs in safe places!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Thanks that explains a lot. This is a good tip to get out to mission authors .

    I will be more careful with their placements.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    I've had this happen in a few places in different missions... I used 2 different solutions...

    1. Use a pop-up dialogue box instead of talk to contact. even if the NPC dies after the combat the box will pop-up regardless...

    2. Have the NPC be part of the Allied NPC Group. They can then escape and move to get away from plasma grenades and help you fight. After the battle they will return to their designated placement. Then use interact with object or a reach point.

    Really the trick is to use ANYTHING BUT a talk to NPC contact... it can be a reach point, pop-up, or interact with object buried in the floor - ala volcanic flower.

    I would suggest following this approach anytime an NPC Contact might be in harms way.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    I thought about doing that but in my case the NPC spawned as a different class each time and when he was an engineer, if he laid turrets down he would not return to the start position after the battle, so a volcanic flower trick wouldn't work.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Keep the NPC but use a pop-up in case he dies... he doesn't have to be part of a group that fights... you can also use a reach or interact with object... you just might not see him if he gets killed but the mission will continue... not the best but it's better than a failed mission...

    I had to change several of mine and in one instance you have to kill the "Dark Queen" & beam down a medical team and bring her back from the dead... but I was forced to use a pop up... you see her in the window... but I always disintegrated her and after the battle there's no corpse or anything. Not much I could do about it, but it's fast paced at the end of the episode and by that time the mission is over at the end of the dialogue...

    I've done it several different ways to make it work in a "good enough" fashion. What else can you do?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Napoleon_BlownApart wrote:
    KI've done it several different ways to make it work in a "good enough" fashion. What else can you do?

    Well, I suppose they could fix the bug.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    BorrowedTune wrote:
    Well, I suppose they could fix the bug.

    To fix it, they should have a toggle box that lets you set NPCs to God Mode so that they can't be killed. I've seen this in some Cryptic missions, e.g. you have a ship that fights with you and even though the enemies take it to zero life, they stay alive because they are a critical part of the mission.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    Excellent idea Galactrix...it would be a welcome addition to our options.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited January 2011
    I had positioned NPCs near where I was planning on having enemy mobs beam in *specifically* so they will die. Dramatic woe.
This discussion has been closed.