companion NPCs

[fleet]

I'm still waiting for the full US release (tomorrow, I hope). In the demo version I've noticed the companion NPC (who goes with me to rescue soldiers trapped in a cave) often runs away to attack enemies (and getting killed when he runs out of sight), instead of staying with me to accomplish the quest. Is there any option I can set to keep the idiot closer?
I was able to set the companion behavior in Mage Knight Apocalypse to defend, attack randomly, or attack the same enely as the playable character.
In a similar manner I caould control companion NPC behavior in Gods: Land of Infinity.

regards,
fleet

[Night Ω Wolfe]

Nope I don't think you can, companion NPCs dieing has always been an annoying problem with Sacred

[AREA666]

There is no setting but you can try and run away yourself since if the npc is too far away they will auto teleport to your char. S1 was much worse for what the npc's would do though. In 2 I have found that any of the ones I escort either can die easily and it does not matter since they are not important to the quest, or they have a lot of health that can get you to the end of the quest before they die, sometimes they have infinite health too. Maybe the demo just is different than the retail in these respects, or I have just not done that quest you are talking about.

[fleet]

Running away? When I tried to do that after going thru the timed gate in the demo the unded monsters followed me back into town.

[AREA666]

Run farther then, to the point where the NPC icon is not on your mini map. I also have my mini map calibrated so it is at the most zoomed out level though, so you may need to go further if you are not the same.

[kcwong]

People complained about this a lot on the official forums... there may or may not be a fix.

When you take on multiple NPCs it becomes even worse... they will run in different directions pulling in all the monsters in the region for you.

So try to finish escort quests ASAP... or don't take these quests (some say so clearly). A number of them are immortal though, they make good diversion when you need to take some heat off your back.

Edit: Also when you drink a healing potion it heals all the NPCs following you. So if you have the potions to burn, you can tab space a lot and run...

There's also an easter egg I read about on the official forum...
Spoiler (highlight to read)
In one of the tutorial quest a small bear will follow you. If you don't finish that quest, the bear will keep following. If you bring the bear with you past a point in the main quest, it will growl and then grow up into an adult bear! But it's not very useful in combat though, often getting stuck in mid-air or inside the landscape.
End of Spoiler

[fleet]

That sounds more like a bug in the game, rather than an Easter Egg.
I looked at the officialk forums and saw the thread about companion/escort NPCs. At least someone else besides me thinks the NPC problem should be fixed. I remember in Dungeon Siege 2 that there was NOT a problem with companion NPCs running off to do their own thing.
regards,
fleet

[celtickyrie]

Speaking of NPC's I am trying to figure out how to get to Sophia on the island so I can get rid of this Orc heirling, any ideas on how to get across the water?

[AREA666]

The game should have you go to a town on the edge of the ocean. If it has not then you can try to manually do it where you would basically just go north until you can not anymore, and then go west until you can not anymore and you will reach a small town there with a port that has one of the sailors that will take you across the ocean.

[celtickyrie]

I finally got there and finished all quests in that region and the underground region as well, he did help out with the octo and the kobolds lol. Thanks much for the tip Area. Off to the swamps we go!