Forcing NPC's to walk into the desired direction

[grobblewobble]

Sometimes you want to lure an NPC out of a level without making it hostile. The advice I heard for these cases is to ":s"wap positions to get the NPC where you want. However, this turns out to be a little counterproductive because it requires you to first walk into a square where you block the path into the desired direction. I find it more effective to use the "pathblocking" method. I will try to explain what I mean now. Suppose we want to lure Tywat Pyre out of Terinyo:


.......................
....................
....................
....t...............
.....@.............. TERINYO
....................
....................
....................
.
.
.


Then the way I would do it is to block his path into the least desired direction, as in the picture. This maximizes the chance he moves toward either the top row or the leftmost column. There is of course still a chance he walks into a wrong direction (right or down), but that chance is now minimized. As soon as Tywat Pyre moves, block his path into the least desired direction again.

Using this method he will usually quickly end up on either the top or the leftmost column and he can be lured out of Terinyo.

[Ascaron]

Yeah, this is a useful method. Admittedly, it is still easier to :s him, if you have 7LBs or something of the like

[rmcin329]

yeah but using :s can turn him hostile.

[pblack]

yeah but using :s can turn him hostile.

isn't that jsut for patched games or 1.0.0 or something? i never had any monster turned hostile for ':s'witching places with it. I always played winbeta4.

[grobblewobble]

I can't remember ever seeing a monster turning hostile because of swapping places, maybe the chance is very small or maybe it has to do with versions. In any case the point of this method is that it is more convenient than swapping, at least for me it is. If you swap positions the NPC makes 1 move in the direction you want, but then you need to walk around it for the next step, often blocking the NPC from the wrong directions in the process. So in practice this method works faster and easier for me, even with 7LB.

[Ascaron]

I can't remember ever seeing a monster turning hostile because of swapping places, maybe the chance is very small or maybe it has to do with versions

I can confirm it is possible to make a mook hostile in 1.1.1 dos version by ":s"wapping places with them. I upset several members of dwarftown while trying to create an empty area for me to do DL-testing

[Silfir]

It might be just the dwarves are programmed to become pissed after a while...

[vogonpoet]

It might be just the dwarves are programmed to become pissed after a while...

The sad joyless little gits. They should get out more, explore the world above and below them.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Also happened to me in the linux version (well, the server version with Sage, to be precise) with a dwarven guard. 100% sure and confirmed.

[Silfir]

To be fair, ADOM dwarves got NOTHING on the madness that is the proto-brain tissue of Dwarf Fortress dorfs.