shopkeeper forgave me

[adamggg]

I was on a Hell run last night, and the shopkeeper stopped appearing at the exit door in the City of Gold and all the Hell levels. He was waiting in all the Ice Cave levels and at the exit of 4-1. I never saw him in 4-2 because the City of Gold door was right beside the entrance.

Is this a bug or is there some condition that could purposefully cause this to happen? I'm pretty sure I killed a few shopkeepers in the black market, so they should always be waiting for me at the exit door. It probably made Hell harder since I didn't have access to a shotgun.

[Ladez]

Never had it happen before and don't believe it's supposed to. Just a fluke. :)

[adamggg]

Yeah, just a fluke. I wonder what set of bizarre in game conditions caused the shopkeeper anger flag to get reset.

[Ladez]

No, it shouldn't happen.

[adamggg]

I have heard that there is a condition where shopkeepers will stop appearing at the exit door after 2 levels. Perhaps if you only steal something and don't ever harm a shopkeeper.

But that was not the case on my run. I robbed the black market and many shopkeepers died. (I can't say for sure if I was actually responsible for their deaths, but it seems terribly improbable that all of them managed to kill themselves when I was tossing sticky bombs about. Particularly the one in the Ankh shop.) Then they appeared at the exit throughout the Ice Caves and in 4-1, so that is at least 5 levels.

[DariusOne]

From on top of my memory it´s caused by the exit shopkeeper getting hit by an element in the terrain without aggroing him. Tiki trap or flame dude from lava or something. As a result he´ll just stand around no matter how close you get until you actually damage/touch him. And if you don´t attack him in that state very rarely that will also reset the shopkeeper aggro on that run. Not really sure what causes that reset, or shopkeepers not aggroing on getting hit in the first place but it´s not reliably abusable.

But that is a bug and normally shopkeepers don´t de-aggro ever.

[Kalir]

In the non-HD version, you COULD reset the aggression by only committing minor crimes. Killing shoppies was right out, but you could, say, steal a jetpack and nothing else, avoid the shopkeepers for a couple floors, and then play the rest of the game with a free jetpack and no major penalties.

But yeah this doesn't seem to be the case in HD, not least because the entire level is active at once.

[adamggg]

On 4-2, the City of Gold entrance was basically right beside the entrance door. So I probably spent less than 10 seconds on the level. If the shopkeeper spawned beside a Tiki trap or double Tiki trap, he would likely have still been alive when I exited the level, but he would have taken damage from the Tiki trap. That would fit with the theory of injury from terrain element without aggroing him. After 4-2, I never saw the shopkeeper again.

[Ellestrogen]

Originally posted by FF7F00263739:

I think shopkeepers forgive you if you don't harm them, their shop, or their stuff. It takes about 2 levels if you harmed only one.

No, they are supposed to be angry with you forever. However, if they take damage from the enviroment (but survive, that might be a part of it) then they might not come after you anymore.

[SuperMeatBum]

It has to do with the shopkeeper dying or being trigger from offscreen by the environment and it usually takes 1-2 levels to happen. It's not consistent and i don't really think it was intentional design from the game. It happens for me mostly on the Moai statue transition or just Ice Caves in general.