Improvements for the escort quests.

[yufra]

The escort quests are a great part of the game, but a reoccurring request is to make the escorts a little more intelligent. The escort rewards are really good, so making the escort quests easier is not the goal of this thread... rather making them more interesting and natural feeling. Why does the injured seer rush monsters again?

So in order to keep the difficulty roughly the same, add a generous time limit to the quest. "My friends left a recall portal, but I think it will collapse in X turns" could be added to the quest introduction. Options to improve the escort are:

1. Remove the random stunning and let the player request stops. This could be used to rest, keep the escort away from a dangerous battle, etc.
2. Give life_regen back to the escort.
3. Have the escort follow the player, making the search harder.
4. Add a X% chance the portal actually spawns escort allies and they try to rob you (particularly the thief). Reward should be guaranteed ego items or something like that.
5. Either remove beam attacks from escort or improve their targeting ("stop manathrusting me!")

Comment on these and suggest your own!

[Hachem_Muche]

I support these ideas, especially #2 and #3. In addition:

1. "Leash" the escorts to within 2 squares of the player so that they will never willingly leave this range.

2. Once the quest is accepted, mark the recall portal on the map so you know where you're going. The current dialogue implies that the escort doesn't know where the portal is, but he/she still bee-lines straight to it. Instead change the dialogue to something like "My friend has created a recall portal through which I can escape, but I don't think I can make it there on my own. Will you help me get there?"

If there is to be a time limit, it should be something like 10 turns per square of distance between the entrance and the portal.

[Elkan]

I like Yufra's idea. How about an additional chance that the escortee's buddies are hanging around at the portal waiting for him "I'm not leaving without Dutch!" There should be 2-4 of them, of the same class and faction as the escort and twice as powerful (These guys are not injured!) and as such capable of holding the portal against the natives. The dialogue should be a little different "Thank you for rescuing [escort name] We'll take care of him from here on" and the welcome party offer to teach the appropriate rewards. in such cases the escort should make a direct beeline for the portal ignoring enemies when he has LOS to his buddies Whilst the escorts engage any pursuing or intervening mobs, and once the escortee reaches the portal they all leave ASAP

[Taxorgian]

Maybe allow the player to give a healing infusion to the escort also? I always thought it was weird before that you would carry 35 lesser healing pots and couldn't give the poor dumb escort even one....

[Zonk]

bump(well, necro I guess )! This is a very good idea, I really hate the current escort AI.
And I think DG might be working on a 'party'/control your allies system anyway, so it fits.

[coffee]

Escort missions are annoying because their kamikaze behaviour. However as I play usually as Summoner at least I havent really much problems in doing that kind of missions since I massive cast creatures ex-imps/hydras/fire drakes "ahead" to clean the road before. Also I strategic block the passage of escorts in corridors/tight passages since also they are too stupid to find a longer route to the portal. However 2 major problems. One, in longer escort missions with lots of mobs I have the problem of accumulate high equilibrium and don't have a way of regen since damn escort is also "activity" that mess with meditation. Also before I change "level"/zone I need to meditate before since if a escort mission pops up I no longer have a chance to regen and things could be really harder. Also, as Summoner I can Nature touch them!

I also agree that at least a "please stop" could help.

EDITED I also would like to see a small cam travel animation to portal since as noticed one of the problems is antecipate to where the stupid escort will run to.

[Postman]

I'm strongly against 3. Making escortee follow will make it a pet, not escorted. And that would be suspension of disbelief too, they know where their portals. What I suggest - make escortee wait for player if paler too far. behind*. Some or all escortee may show portal position at once though.

[Grey]

I 'd like to see them walk around traps more, or maybe thieves should be able to disarm the traps. Otherwise I'm happy with the current level of escort difficulty. Some games I can't keep any alive, others I save every single one. It can be frustrating but also very very fun :)

[Aoi]

Other than how they can't regen, the only thing that really bugs me about them isn't an unrealistic situation-- it's when they spawn on the boss level and it's practically impossible to get them past it. I've probably lost more escorts to Wrathroot than to anything else combined. ...Admittedly, somewhat biased since Wrathroot's pretty early on.

[Zonk]

I'm strongly against 3. Making escortee follow will make it a pet, not escorted. And that would be suspension of disbelief too, they know where their portals. What I suggest - make escortee wait for player if paler too far. behind*. Some or all escortee may show portal position at once though.

I disagree. It doesn't make them 'pets', but well...escortees.
You know, you're acting like a bodyguard/security person to them - it makes sense to me they might follow your directions to ensure their safety rather than just rush to the portal even when it's obvious that is likely to get them killed, while waiting a few turns wouldn't.

Sure, they could help in fights, especially if they can do so from a distance(and without hitting you), but they WANT to survive or they wouldn't have asked your help.

Also I don't see what's so important about them knowing the EXACT position of their portals - I guess you could have them merely know the general direction from the stairs.

[Taxorgian]

Actually it would be nice (especially in the Trollwhatever) if the escortee would tell you the portal is roughly in what direction (N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, S) the portal is, so it's a little easier to keep track of the kamikaze idiot....

[Grey]

Normally you can roughly tell by the direction they're heading.

[Taxorgian]

Normally you can roughly tell by the direction they're heading.

This is somewhat true, but since there is so much LOS disruption there it's really easy to lose track of them at the first bend (where you don't know where they will go). So you either let them lead you (which is instant death every time since their HP are very low) or you guess which way to lead them (and lose track of them especially early).

[eronarn]

I'd appreciate:

1) escorts not *walking into your projectiles* (I just lost one this way!)

2) some kind of overlay showing the next direction the escort intends to move in, so that you aren't left guessing or mashing 5 - this is a pretty big problem given the layout of some levels

3) the portal always showing up far away from where you are - sometimes you start in line of sight of it and this feels very cheap

4) more HP, or some defensive/healing abilities - sometimes they die far too quickly

5) rebalanced rewards; the difference between anorithil and fighter is ridiculous. All of them should be ~Thief levels of utility IMO

6) option to get an item reward appropriate to that class