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The most annoying NPC contest

The princess from Prince of Persia:Sands of Time. The one who shoots you in the back during sword fights.
Noooo! Not Farah. I loved her cute lines with the prince.
Partly because of the text, partly because of the voice acting, partly because it was so great to have her beside you working relatively flawless in a genre where npcs that follow you tend to need extra protection, are stupid, and deliver generic remarks.

The most annoying NPC has to be Guilty Spark 343 or something like that. The hovering glowing robo-sphere in Halo CE that leads you through the library.

And of course Mud in Gothic 1. He was pretty annoying too.:D
 
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unfortunately I was not able to think of any bots or AI that annoyed me...

Well... right now, the only one I can think of is

The Bots of Red Orchestra.
They are just horrible and need A LOT of work.

Yet this Red Orchestra game is amazing because of the spectacular multiplayer experience... So its not much of a problem.

Still would be nice to have well coded bots who will go for any kind of cover and use the features that make RO unique.
 
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How could I possibly choose just one? I'm going to go with "any NPC you have to escort somewhere without them getting killed". Because naturally, they're semi-retarded, have little health and their favourite tactic (when not blocking you in) is to stand in the open/rush the enemy and get owned. Almost as annoying are the ones that can actually fight. Not well mind you, they always have a pistol or a melee weapon, so they'll run up and start wailing on a huge robot, or a dragon, or anything that's meaner than they are and you have to be careful not to shoot them while you're in the process of saving them.

I swear, I shoot them more often than the enemy. Deliberately mind you. You just start to get sick of them and more often than not I can't help myself. I get the biggest weapon I have and shoot them in the face with it. Doesn't make me feel any better, but I do get a grim satisfaction out of doing it over and over.

Oh, if anyone's played WoW (I gave up the addiction long ago, before anyone comments), their escort quests were the worst. The NPC's just run along and you have to run to keep up. Then you have to get yourself almost completely killed to save their useless arses, at which point they inst-heal and run off again. You can either try to heal yourself and let them leave your proximity (instant fail) or you can chase them with no health/mana and die on the next encounter. It's just so much fun. The only time the bloody NPC's move slowly is when you're about to be ambushed and you actually want them to hurry the **** up.
 
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Noooo! Not Farah. I loved her cute lines with the prince.
Partly because of the text, partly because of the voice acting, partly because it was so great to have her beside you working relatively flawless in a genre where npcs that follow you tend to need extra protection, are stupid, and deliver generic remarks.

The most annoying NPC has to be Guilty Spark 343 or something like that. The hovering glowing robo-sphere in Halo CE that leads you through the library.

And of course Mud in Gothic 1. He was pretty annoying too.:D

Haha oh how could i forget Mud? :p Jesus, i got so annoyed with him i took him outside the Old Camp and i killed him. Then i felt bad, and loaded a savegame wich took me 5 minutes back then, and just steer clear of his area lol :p
 
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Baldur's Gate I.

I don't remember the npcs name, but there is a guy in one of the early towns that follows you around and asks you a bunch of question. I had no problem with him following me around but when he asks you a question the game freezes up for the dialog. He does that every minute or so.

My good hearted warrior (me, that is) got really pissed me off, so unfortunately I had to kill him and quickly dispose of his body. My party members didn't seem mind either :)
 
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"any NPC you have to escort somewhere without them getting killed"

Absolutely! and unfortunately, you find this in quite a few games..

Remember how bad NPC's where in Half-Life? allways getting stuck, even a walk to a retinal scanner 2 meters away could become a chore!
Well, someone made a singleplay mod where you played as Barney the security dude (this was before "Blueshift"), it was allmost as long as HL, but allmost half the game, you had to escort Barney's girlfreind (a mannish security chick wearing a barret), NOOOOOOooooo... When does the hurting stop!
 
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Like Nimsky and Bluehawk said, I really hate how most of the NPCs in Stalker have only 2 lines at most and like to repeat them every few seconds. This gets especially annoying in the 300 Rads Bar, where you got 8 or so NPCs in close confines. Every time I walk into the Bar I get out as fast as I can because crap like this really starts to annoy:

"Don't stand there, come in! I said don't stand there, come in!" (repeat)
"Still alive? That's good" (repeat)
"You can't go there!" (repeat)
"Hey Stalker, come here, I have something that might interest you." (repeat)
"Get out of here Stalker" (repeat)
And my personal favorite:
"Black raven, black raven, circling above the graves..." (maybe a fan of Poe?)
Lmao. Yeah STALKERS NPC had me on the brink of mass homicide many times. I wanted to murder the whole bar then smash that damn new wave sounding/ mildly gay mood music and put on some blistering Metal instead. GOD! It's like a nightmare SHUT UP ALL OF YOU, ARE YOU ALL RETARDED!?!?!!!!!!! lol.

I could only tolerate playing through once (for many reasons). After I finished the game that was it, no round 2 for me.
 
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Presuming you're asking for annoying characters (rather than poor AI quality) first one that springs to mind is that fat bastard in FEAR

Hmm.. yes- poor AI can certainly make a character annoying but I aimed for the character itslef to be the focus. We have good stuff here but I was hoping to get some more spesific hatred, on a personal level. Havent played FEAR (cept the demo) so could you plz elaborate on WHY is fatso so annoying?
 
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well I played it a long time ago but your in a massive office complex thats been overrun - and your restricted where you can go by laser security things.
It's all a bit dark and tense with enemy soldiers and many creepy visions of the ghost/girl, and you suddenly bump into this extremely fat, badly dressed ginger computer guy stuffing his face with cheesy wotsits.

He's a computer programmer who was working late and got trapped in the security lockdown, and he tells you where to go to deactivate certain laser grids- a ' my local knowledgde with your ability will help us both..' type deal. Whilst he's hardly likeable- it's nice to meet someone who isn't shooting or scaring you and seems like he can be of some assistance.

After you've done so, you find he as escaped but has re-activated other grids so you can't follow him- or something like that. Then he mocks you or whatever and from that point you see him running ahead of you every now and then, just out of your reach ( and gunfire) - Half life G-man style.

The level is huge and creepy and you wanna press on , so you don't need this fat prick trapping you and taking the piss basically.

Phaps because i got quite well immersed in FEAR i found this NPC sprung to mind when i read the thread.
 
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I find that in Medieval 2... I want to strangle my own cavalry. After setting up my front line, chasing their archers up, and dealing with their cavalry, I send my loyal horsemen right into their flank. Peasants start running away, so I order them to keep sweeping through the line, but instead they start walking (not running mind you) after the 3 troops left alive that are running away.
 
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