How to rescue kidnapped survivors? And other target mark questions

[ArtificialQT]

You know those missions you get every now and then where another community's survivor gets kidnapped and you have to rescue them?

I've accidentally killed my rescue target 3 times now. How am I supposed to tell which one of these 3 enemies that are actively fighting me is the one I'm supposed to rescue?

Also, I just failed a mission where I was supposed to disable a specific zombie in a whole hoard of zombies because I accidentally killed the mission target zombie and there was no marker indicating that this was the mission target zombie.

Am I missing something? Is there a part of the UI or a mark on these mission critical humans or zeds that I'm missing?

[Defektiv]

The hostile ones should have a red diamond above their heads. They cluster up though and use melee so its tough. I've killed quest NPCs on more than one occasion by mistake.

[Protectron]

First one is the Medics special enclave mission, and taking them out without killing the surgeon is very difficult. Much better if you instead get the mission where you help them defend against some attackers, who you can bribe by selling 3 Strong Painkillers which spawn for you inside the clinic.

The second one is a Zombie Trapper special enclave mission where you are supposed to take out only the Screamer in a horde and leave the rest alone.

[ArtificialQT]

Originally posted by Defektiv:

The hostile ones should have a red diamond above their heads. They cluster up though and use melee so its tough. I've killed quest NPCs on more than one occasion by mistake.

I know the hostile ones have the red diamond above their heads. The problem is that in every rescue mission the rescue target is also hostile and also has the red diamond above their heads.

There was only one rescue mission that I completed successfully, the one where 2 people were persuaded to join a rogue Red Talon, and the only reason I succeeded in that one was because the 2 rescue targets were male and I aimed for the only character in the group that was female.

Outside of making a guess based on gendered names, how am I supposed to tell which one of these people trying to fill me with lead is the rescue target?

Originally posted by Protectron:

The second one is a Zombie Trapper special enclave mission where you are supposed to take out only the Screamer in a horde and leave the rest alone.

So I was just supposed to snipe the screamer and run away?

That's so stupid! The mission briefing didn't even hint that I was only supposed to take out the screamer

[Stardustfire]

than you got another mission instead of that one, because the briefing was ultrasuperdirectly about the fact: "She may be a zed now, but she is still one of us, so dont kill her" how much more clear you want it (and im ignoring the fact here that the quest reminder in the top right gives you an extra line that you shoud leave the friend zombie alone..... )

[ArtificialQT]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

than you got another mission instead of that one, because the briefing was ultrasuperdirectly about the fact: "She may be a zed now, but she is still one of us, so dont kill her" how much more clear you want it (and im ignoring the fact here that the quest reminder in the top right gives you an extra line that you shoud leave the friend zombie alone..... )

Yeah, I get that I'm not supposed to kill her. But the question is, "how am I supposed to I tell which zombie is her?"

The point of all of this is that the game doesn't have markers for mission critical entities who's lives I'm supposed to preserve or kill. The one zombie I'm not supposed to kill doesn't stand out from the zombie horde, the survivors I'm supposed to rescue are marked as hostile humans and will actively try to kill me while I'm rescuing them, etc.

There was even one mission where I was supposed to put a survivor's zombified Policeman brother out of his misery, except that the location for that leg of the mission was a Coffee Stand in the middle of nowhere and there were literally no zombies around. I had to wander around killing random zombies on the road until I accidentally killed the right one.

Unless I'm missing something there are absolutely no markers nor hints as to which zombie/human these mission critical rescue/kill targets are. Or is there such a marker anywhere in the UI and I'm just missing it?

[Protectron]

Freshly turned zombies actually do differ from the rest of the zombies. Their clothes are different and so are their faces.

[Warr]

to save people from the crazy red talon mission your describing is pretty easy as the red talon is always wearing the mask and dressed in full black. killing said red talon is a whole different story lol the zed hunters mission to rescue there friend is broken as killing any screamer will do, just walk outside their base and kill the first screamer you see to complete it, you dont even have to drive to said location

[Stardustfire]

i must drive to the location but the screamer there stand very lonly around and the rest of the zeds where one garden away, including the friend zed that was questmarked as well (at least i got a orange marker that teh friend shoud be there from teh quest) . so i backstabbed the lonly screamer and gone back to the base after that

[Le Deflagosseur]

If you're talking about the daughter/son mission, you can't save them. Once, I killed all three hostiles before the dialogue was over and the daughter still dropped dead.

[Defektiv]

I looked it up last night after getting one where I had to save a ladies son, and then got the option to recruit BOTH of them. There are multiple rescue missions involving someones son/daughter. Most end in the death of the person you're supposed to be rescuing. It's rare to get the one where you get an option to actually save and recruit them.