[b42] alchemist escort bug report

[Urist]

* my golem's molten skin kills all escorts all the time.
bummer that. probably shouldnt be like that.
(ok, 90% of them unless i intervene)

* when encased in ice, my 'subconscious' body of fire attacks
and most likely finishes any momentarily hostile escort attacking the ice.
bummer that too. probably shouldn't be like that either. since they ARE in my party after all.

this has happened often enough now for me to resort to save-scumming and disabling Oleg's ultra cool molten skin as needed rather than exploiting the 'loose the escort, go down and come back up to get it again bug' which is more of an exploit for which i've not actually tried to work out a rule

hth

p.s. i'm up to 88 actual logged by hand spurious freezes with their corresponding countless lost hours, so, no, i don't feel bad about save scumming when i get instagibbed or when stuff like this happens.

[Mewtarthio]

When you're escorting someone, you have to be a little more careful. You can inadvertently kill your escort. This is not a bug; this is WAD. Don't throw down area DOTs where escorts might walk. Turn off sustains that can cause collateral damage, such as Body of Fire or the reaver's Overkill. Open your golem's tactical talent usage menu and order it not to use Molten Skin.

[Urist]

hey, hi, thanks for the reply.

first off, i can agree with you on the WAD part. but i'm truly unhappy with it because

* the escort is in my party and exempt from beam damage after all -- because of that i would argue that the alchemist's protection from Molten Skin should naturally extend to the guest we're entertaining as well. besides... and, yes, i can agree with you on me having the ability to 'disable' by prioritizing the skill with a 0, i would argue that since i can't 'click to pause' the skill being used we're trying to rationalize a missing check for party membership before the escort is given the damage. .. i'm not sure how the lua mechanics work, but having something get injected there when an npc's an escort might make sense.

* that folks get damaged by the alchemist's body of fire when they are attempting to get rid of the ice for me too looks and feels like the tail end of the old 'no good deed goes unpunished' stick. it was probably a good idea that started it and someone thought that having a short terms state-override that summons/thoughtforms/golems/escorts/etc hostile would be a good idea. it is. but it can cost you / has cost me an escort without having recourse. .. i think you're saying one should run without any retaliation type sustains when one's 'running' an escort. that's a pretty big sacrifice.

so if these observations are not bugs, let me turn them into 2 suggestions:

- escorts should not be affected by aoe dealt by part members
-- alternatively the skill control system should explicitly support 'pausing' skills without having to set values to 0

- as escorts dont seem to do explicit heals, they should also not try to free the player from ice.
this way they don't turn hostile and the body of fire / retaliation issue never crops up.

in the big scheme this isn't a big deal, still, even if it works as designed, as is, it breaks at least this player's expectation/immersion.

cheers!