Why don't various friendly pact NPC's help me when I'm attacked ?

Svissloki · September 2015

Hello to everyone, I am new forum member.

I got an XBOX One around one month ago, I purchased ESOL and two other games with it. I have not even touched the other games yet ! - ESOL I love it.

Currently I'm a LV24 - Ebonheart Pact Nord male.

Just recently something occurred to me, it happened in a few instances around various missions.

Example:

I foolheartedly took on four Dominion LV28 npc's and one false move by myself and they had overwhelmed me ! - I had Bosmer arrows raining on chest and Khajiit daggers poking me in the ribs ... so I RAN ! ...I ran to the safety ( or so I thought ) of a nearby cave that housed around five hiding friendly argonian npc's ( two of which were guarding the entrance ).

I thought they may help me out as I ran in the entrance with my health bar dangerously LOW ! , but they didn't even flinch when the remaining two Dominion npc's followed me right into the safe house cave ! .. luckily I battled it out and slaughtered them by bashing the sense out of them with my shield.

I have been assisted in various other missions by npc's, like when I was collecting wasp larvae, an argonian was tailing me because we were about to escape the argonian egg hatching area that had been occupied by the dominion, and I was helped by this npc on many occasions to finish off the swarm of wasps chasing me.

My question is " Why do some npc's help and others don't ? ( they were part of the Ebonheart Pact and we were working together ) - shouldn't they all lend a hand when they see you in trouble and it comes there way ? "

Merlin13KAGL · September 2015

Guards will, in some cases, but most of the time they're oblivious. (It's not like the standalone games)

If it makes you feel any better, the NPC's will often watch their fellow man get slaughtered in the same manner without ever raising a hand.

"Bill's getting his ass kicked by that adventurer guy, should we help him?"

"Nah, I'm eating lunch, and he still owes me money from that bet about the Orc."

I think the general consensus is that they mind their own business, lest it get them into trouble too, not to mention you could start a parade in Tamriel with everyone having a free-for-all fighting everyone else.

You can also drag a Mammoth into base camp and people will continue about their day, stepping over any recently killed personnel in the process.

Short version: The AI is incredibly basic, so it's simply not implemented more often than not.

Jumper45 · September 2015

There is nothing new to this. Some of the first MMOs had guards that would help in all situations and were judge and executioner. If they saw you hit someone they killed you if they saw someone hit you they killed them. Even if you hit them first out of sight ran to a guard and the person smacked you. The guards were always very strong almost able to 1shot or 3 shot someone. So they were used as the safety spot. You didnt need any buffs to prevent damage upon other players or anything fancy like that. Because you saw that guard and you knew if u blew even a fart on another person he would pound you so far into the ground you would De-Level. So at this point its either being lazy to deal with it or they think its not needed.