Is the "friendly NPC" bug completely unfixable?

[Hal900x]

Really quite infuriating, this bug that has been around since launch. IIRC there is a programmatic issue that basically prevents it from ever being fixed, which really sucks because it's a bad one. Many tactics are unusable whenever friend NPCs are on the screen. Causes problems on the bottom floor of GMS with Sully and Co, but today this issue really kicked my butt: I was able to kill the Rathound King and still keep Edgar alive by using Molotov + CC on the King. After the combat, one of the hunters walks straight into the flames (!), causing Edgar to become hostile and one-shot me. Extreme irritation!

[STEN]

To make things even worse it looks like NPCs assigned to coalitions, which lead to illogical, stupid situations - plus those from post above, there, for example, Gorsky: spoilers in black colored text:  if you kill him during certain quest, very far from SGS, leave no witness alive, still whole South Gate will turn against you.  RP-breaking situation

[Styg]

I was able to kill the Rathound King and still keep Edgar alive by using Molotov + CC on the King. After the combat, one of the hunters walks straight into the flames (!), causing Edgar to become hostile and one-shot me.

A literal case of friendly fire.

But on a serious note, both of these issues (friendly fire and remote hostility propagation) bother me as well, but unforunately there are no quick solutions that can be applied here.

I have some ideas how to deal with the latter in a sense that I can at least let the player know when the hostilities will propagate and when it's (relatively) safe to assassinate someone without instantly becoming hostile with a large faction. We already took a step in this direction with the "leave no witnesses" indicator.

As for the former problem - it would take a lot more work because here I'm limited by rather rudimentary AI system which is not well disposed to dealing with environmental stuff.

[UnLimiTeD]

In case a combat in a non-secure location ends, couldn't you just have gas and fire create pathing blockers for a few seconds?
I wouldn't know if the AI can take a "wait and try again" command, or if that would just make it worse. Alternatively, maybe make it a two-stage fire, so after the first two damage ticks it switches to one that doesn't count as friendly fire damage any more.

[Styg]

In case a combat in a non-secure location ends, couldn't you just have gas and fire create pathing blockers for a few seconds?
I wouldn't know if the AI can take a "wait and try again" command, or if that would just make it worse. Alternatively, maybe make it a two-stage fire, so after the first two damage ticks it switches to one that doesn't count as friendly fire damage any more.

Well, it's not that simple because player has to weigh the cost of going through the fire and the cost of inaction in a lot of situations, but that's not the point. I can still do a lot to improve specific cases (and I might given time), but I cannot make the AI intelligent enough at this point to differentiate between unintentional friendly fire and player exploiting it to kill off NPCs with impunity well enough, so I decided to err on the side of caution and assume players are evil.

[Tygrende]

How about making it so NPCs turn hostile only if the player takes away a set percentage of their HP? I was thinking 20%-25%.

Most cases of friendly fire involve very little damage, mostly NPCs walking over a tile of flames/puddle of acid or a stray bullet from burst from my experience, so that should prevent NPCs from turning hostile in those cases. It should also prevent the player from murdering NPCs  since they will turn hostile once they take enough damage.

[STEN]

Yeah, that mechanism was implemented in Divinity:original sin. Worked well.

[Styg]

Perhaps, but I don't have the time now to get into it more. Perhaps at a later date.