Desert Bandits - A dark open world moment I appreciated in PoF

[Xapheus.1235]

I ran across some Desert Bandits last night fighting off scarabs in the Desert Highlands.

Seeing a huge cluster of enemies, I charged in killing the scarabs and many of the bandits with AoE before realizing the bandits don't actually do much damage to you, and, in fact, most of them are just openly scared of you and just trying to defend themselves! They periodically have fear applied to themselves at the sight of your character and their few attacks do almost no damage. There is a lootable bag of shinies but it only had a couple Jute Scraps.

 

Many players will murder all these bandits before realizing that they essentially invaded a peaceful camp to steal their worthless loot.

Seems from their perspective, your character was "aggroed" by their attacks in the midst of the scarab fight and they were right to be scared. Blew my mind when I realized the Pact Commander was the bad guy here.

 

I just wanted to say this was a very nice touch, ANet. I am liking how the expansion has darker moments like this.

 

Map location: 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

You can actually stand right next to the bandits and they don't do anything. I found that out when I was crossing quicksand in Elon Riverlands and was expecting a fight just to find... hey, they're not actually moving, are they just taking a while for the programming to register my presence (sometimes happens with melee-only foes on uneven footing), nope, they're just not attacking, interesting...

 

So I left them be. There's some Desert Highlands groups the same, though do not think the Corsairs in the SE Elon Riverlands tunnels are the same, those do attack on sight.

[Athrenn.9468]

The moral nuance of the NPCs and quality of ambient storytelling in the expansion is probably the most enjoyable thing about it. You get to see Awakened troops as both the enemy and as allies depending on the situation, which makes them a lot more interesting as characters. Hopefully they carry on this trend and find more ways to make the NPCs feel more like real people in future maps with different behaviors and types of interactions.

[Zaklex.6308]

Interesting, because when ever I run across the Desert Bandits that are around the Choya heart they attack me on sight, which are part of the same group you encountered, whether I'm fighting anything else or not...maybe it's just my characters personality that draws everyone and their brother in to attack me. Would be nice to know if they have some kind of AI that let's them decide whether or not to attack PC's, though I highly doubt that is the case.

[Djinn.9245]

> @Xapheus.1235 said:

> I ran across some Desert Bandits last night fighting off scarabs in the Desert Highlands.

> Seeing a huge cluster of enemies, I charged in killing the scarabs and many of the bandits with AoE before realizing the bandits don't actually do much damage to you, and, in fact, most of them are just openly scared of you and just trying to defend themselves! They periodically have fear applied to themselves at the sight of your character and their few attacks do almost no damage. There is a lootable bag of shinies but it only had a couple Jute Scraps.

>

> Many players will murder all these bandits before realizing that they essentially invaded a peaceful camp to steal their worthless loot.

> Seems from their perspective, your character was "aggroed" by their attacks in the midst of the scarab fight and they were right to be scared. Blew my mind when I realized the Pact Commander was the bad guy here.

>

> I just wanted to say this was a very nice touch, ANet. I am liking how the expansion has darker moments like this.

 

I was in that general area for a POI / Vista. I looked across a chasm that was below me and noticed 3 bandits hanging around. Then a pack of 3 sand lions (not vets) ran up and demolished all of them. I said to myself "now I understand where all those human skeletons in the sand around there come from."

[Randulf.7614]

> @Athrenn.9468 said:

> The moral nuance of the NPCs and quality of ambient storytelling in the expansion is probably the most enjoyable thing about it. You get to see Awakened troops as both the enemy and as allies depending on the situation, which makes them a lot more interesting as characters. Hopefully they carry on this trend and find more ways to make the NPCs feel more like real people in future maps with different behaviors and types of interactions.

 

Agreed. There are also a lot of other examples of battles like forged vs awakened and of course the duelling giants. These are the sort of touches that make up a living world for me - seeing the World in action regardless to my presence.

 

When the branded attack the gardens of sebothin or near the necropolis, the djinn and awakened eventually will win. Our presence merely speeds things along.

 

The ambient activity at least has really stepped up in this expansion.

[Fluffball.8307]

I viewed this as them looking for easy prey. There aren't a lot of morally sound people with the occupation of "bandit".

They may even recognize who we are, and if they don't... well, the person riding a 20 foot griffon while expertly wielding tales-of-legend-esque glowing weaponry and phenomenally wondrous magical abilities probably isn't the best target for a band of dirty hooligans.

[Taelac.7036]

They don't heal, either, and the Vet in the corner is the only one that will actually aggro even halfway properly, so you can tie it up with a pet and pick the others off like fish in a barrel. There is one Bandit Chemist that will occasionally spawn up the hill and run down and throw a bomb at you, but if you stand where the Vet usually does, you're out of his range. I sent a /bug report, because they seem really, really broken.

[Fluffball.8307]

During one of the events they won't become (actively) hostile unless you try to take their stuff. I don't think they're bugged, I think they really aren't meant to want to fight you.