Dronejam: Difference between revisions

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When annoying [[NPC]]s stand in front of a door or passage and won't move.

This is usually accidental, and was far more common back in the days of tile-based maps, when a door would be one space wide and could be completely blocked if a mindless NPC happened to wander in front of it. Still occasionally shows up in modern games, if the [[Player Character]] can get "caught" on the character models of [[NPC~~|NPCs~~]]. Best case scenario when this happens is the NPC moves after a few seconds and you can move on as before, only slightly more annoyed with life. Worst case scenario; you may have to reset.

This is usually accidental, and was far more common back in the days of tile-based maps, when a door would be one space wide and could be completely blocked if a mindless NPC happened to wander in front of it. Still occasionally shows up in modern games, if the [[Player Character]] can get "caught" on the character models of [[NPC]]s. Best case scenario when this happens is the NPC moves after a few seconds and you can move on as before, only slightly more annoyed with life. Worst case scenario; you may have to reset.

Either way, you have to wonder -- [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|why can't you just push these people out of the way]]? Note that several 16-bit examples allowed you to; for example, ''[[Breath of Fire|Breath Of Fire 2]]'' and ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' had [[NPC~~|NPCs~~]] move out of the way if you walked into them for a moment.

Either way, you have to wonder -- [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|why can't you just push these people out of the way]]? Note that several 16-bit examples allowed you to; for example, ''[[Breath of Fire|Breath Of Fire 2]]'' and ''[[Secret of Mana]]'' had [[NPC]]s move out of the way if you walked into them for a moment.

If it's intentional, placed there by the designers, you've got one of the more obvious forms of the [[Broken Bridge]]. A favorite tactic of the [[City Guards]]. See also [[Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence]].

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* ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' for [[Xbox]] has a variation on this problem. Several tasks require leading innocent people to safe zones. If you don't get them to follow -just- enough, they can stand just inches out of the zone and the next event is not triggered. By the way, some of the zones aren't as safe as they seem...

* ''[[Counter-Strike]]'' can cause player fueled versions of this. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when a griefer [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqB1uoDTdKM enters a server].

* In ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'', Survivors can pass through each other, as can player-controlled Infected. In the [[Word of God|developer's commentary]], it's mentioned that this was done to prevent [[Griefer~~|Griefers~~]] from being able to push players off of roofs, killing them. Played straight between Survivors and Infected, however - during random zombie hordes, it's typically impossible for players to continue on ''at all'' until they've killed everything. The sequel is a bit better about this, with both adrenaline that prevents zombie attacks from slowing you down, and melee weapons that cut through them faster than even the auto-shotguns.

* In ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'', Survivors can pass through each other, as can player-controlled Infected. In the [[Word of God|developer's commentary]], it's mentioned that this was done to prevent [[Griefer]]s from being able to push players off of roofs, killing them. Played straight between Survivors and Infected, however - during random zombie hordes, it's typically impossible for players to continue on ''at all'' until they've killed everything. The sequel is a bit better about this, with both adrenaline that prevents zombie attacks from slowing you down, and melee weapons that cut through them faster than even the auto-shotguns.

* The original ''[[Rainbow Six]]'' often forced you to ''shoot your own team-mates'' when they refused to move out of the way. Particularly egregious since the point of the game was suffering as few casualties as possible.

** The same goes for ''[[Ghost Recon]]'', your fellow teammates tend to block the door way you just entered, or stand on a narrow bridge your trying to pass, although you are free to switch to the other teammate if needed.

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** ''[[Final Fantasy Mystic Quest]]'' got around this by letting you ''leap over them.''

* The ''[[SaGa]]'' games for the Game Boy (aka the ''[[Final Fantasy]] Legend'' series). Partially ameliorating the problem, a player can jump over an interposed NPC if there is a free space on the other side and the NPC is not an intentional obstacle.

* The ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games avert this. Your overworld character will actually stick out his hands and push [[NPC~~|NPCs~~]] aside in any direction you make him.

* The ''[[Golden Sun]]'' games avert this. Your overworld character will actually stick out his hands and push [[NPC]]s aside in any direction you make him.

* ''[[Pokémon]]''. As a bit of a compromise, pressing against an NPC will cause them to hustle out of the way. Usually.

** The notable exception being the cranky Old Man in Viridian City, who won't let you pass until [[Must Have Caffeine|his coffee takes away the grumpiness]]. (In the original he's just drunk and needs to wait until he's sober.)

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* ''[[Jade Empire]]'' mostly fixes this problem for large crowds: Not only do the random extras move out of your way, you can also walk right through them if they don't move quickly enough.

* ''[[Mega Man Star Force]]'' suffers this trope badly.

* Occasionally a serious problem in ''[[Fallout]]''. Avoided in ''Fallout 2'' by a special "Talk to the hand"-looking button used to move friendly [[NPC~~|NPCs~~]] out of your way, even during combat. (When used on cattle, it causes them to [[wikipedia:Cow tipping|tip over,]] of course.)

* Occasionally a serious problem in ''[[Fallout]]''. Avoided in ''Fallout 2'' by a special "Talk to the hand"-looking button used to move friendly [[NPC]]s out of your way, even during combat. (When used on cattle, it causes them to [[wikipedia:Cow tipping|tip over,]] of course.)

** Most notoriously in the series, was the Gun Runner island in ''Fallout''. Their building was on a small island surrounded by toxic waste with a one tile wide plank for a bridge. If a companion followed you on to the bridge, you better hope you have an older save because there is literally no way to get out.

** In ''Fallout 3'', you get to hire several different companions based on Karma, Money etc; One such companion, Fawkes, who can be hired towards the end of the game, takes up almost an entire doorway in-game. If you're stuck in a tight space with Fawkes stuck in the doorway, he is practically unmovable, and although it is possible after several minutes of running into him to free your character, many people choose to re-load their save instead.

** Or you know tell him to go home and wait an hour.

** The Citadel is another likely place to get ~~trapped -- Brotherhood~~ scribes ''love'' to gather in hallways and bonk repeatedly into each other, [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions|issuing a greeting with every collision.]]

** The Citadel is another likely place to get trapped—Brotherhood scribes ''love'' to gather in hallways and bonk repeatedly into each other, [[Artificial Atmospheric Actions|issuing a greeting with every collision.]]

** Pleasantly enough, the Companion Wheel in [[Fallout: New Vegas|New Vegas]] brought back the Fallout 2 workaround.

* This was a big problem in some of the older [[BioWare]] games using the Infinity Engine, especially in closed spaces like narrow hallways and, of course, doors, which made it impossible to do anything constructive if a single character was getting overrun by a group of smaller enemies. ''[[Baldur's Gate]] II'' corrected this problem by allowing player characters to automatically "bump" NPCs and other party members to the side for a moment while they passed.

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== Simulation Games ==

* ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' allows you to push townsfolk around by walking or running into ~~them--especially~~ useful if they've randomly fallen asleep outside. However, they'll get mad at you if you shove them too much.

* ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' allows you to push townsfolk around by walking or running into them—especially useful if they've randomly fallen asleep outside. However, they'll get mad at you if you shove them too much.

** The best part is in the Nintendo DS version of ''Animal Crossing: Wild World'', the "normal" personality will get upset and may even say a line about how you could have just asked them to move if you wanted them to move, making this something of a Lampshade.

* In the game ''[[Sim Ant]]'', often when trying to enter/exit an anthill, your travel click will instead be interpreted as "bug the hell out of the ant that was just clicked."

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* ''[[The Sims]]'' had this problem when two or more Sims would attempt to leave through the same door, resulting in horribly annoying traffic jams. The problem was fixed in subsequent Sims games, and now the Sims can filter easily in and out of doors, even if there are multiple Sims using it at once.

* NPC freight ships are the bane of entrepreneur-type players in ''[[X (video game)|X3]]'', because they have an annoying tendency to clog up docking ports on player-owned stations (particularly ones that produce Inexplicably Popular Goods like computer parts). It's so annoying that somebody wrote a [[Game Mod|script]] to force them to undock.

* ''Almost'' averted in [[Spore]]. All NPCs can be easily pushed out of the way. . . with the exception of your crew-members in the Galactic Adventures expansion who never walk unless they're following you, which provides a bit of a [[Dronejam]] catch-22 if you find yourself wedged between a crew-member and a wall (or between two or more crew-members). They won't move unless you move, and you can't move unless they move. You can sometimes get out of this with a high enough jump ability, but quite often they end up blocking you from doing that as well.

* ''Almost'' averted in [[Spore]]. All NPCs can be easily pushed out of the way. . . with the exception of your crew-members in the Galactic Adventures expansion who never walk unless they're following you, which provides a bit of a Dronejam catch-22 if you find yourself wedged between a crew-member and a wall (or between two or more crew-members). They won't move unless you move, and you can't move unless they move. You can sometimes get out of this with a high enough jump ability, but quite often they end up blocking you from doing that as well.

== Sports Games ==

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== Tabletop Games ==

* Used in-'verse in ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''. Living flesh blocks any [[Planescape|ethereal]] travel. So, all the walls of high-security buildings either have gorgon blood mixed into the mortar or [[Organic Technology|are sort of alive]] and thus impenetrable for self-styled ghosts, but what to do with its door? Simplest solution is a big sentry blocking the doorway.

* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] card game has a card called [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dark_Door The Dark Door], which prohibits your opponent from attacking with more than one monster per turn. Essentially, this forces their monsters to [[Dronejam]] ''each other''.

* The [[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]] card game has a card called [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/The_Dark_Door The Dark Door], which prohibits your opponent from attacking with more than one monster per turn. Essentially, this forces their monsters to Dronejam ''each other''.