Shattered Kingdoms

They actually do not fly. I was actually trying to figure this out the whole time I was leveling there using bolt of glory (which they're weak to, btw) as sometimes they would come back in, and other times they would not.

It's a mistling, it only makes sense that it's flying. If it isn't, that's the bug.

But seriously, yeah, NPCs shouldn't flee to BoG.

I was under the impression that dart is the descriptor for flying, and run was the descriptor for being on the ground when movement is involved, or does it always say dart when fleeing?

Is it possible the NPC fled and then moved to a different room before you looked in the direction it had fled?

The way a NPC is described to move does not necessarily speak to its actual movement state (i.e., flying/walking). There are NPCs that are described to "soar" or "float" from one room to the next, but are actually walking. The Great Horned Owl just west of the mountains at Zhenshi's stones is a good example of this.

Like NPCs can "hop" from one room to the next, or "arrive from" a different room, so too can they "Dart" while not being flagged as flying.

I don't think that Bolt of Glory is the problem here, because I am pretty sure that these NPCs are legitimately flying. They also don't seem to have an aggro table, so if they flee from BoG they aren't going to fly back into the room. That said, it seems that another underlying problem might be that the code that makes NPCs flee when they're hit with ranged spells from an unassailable source needs to be looked at.

I just took a look at these NPCs, and if I flamestruck them from a ground sector, they would soar in and hit me. If I flamestruck these NPCs from a flight sector, they would flee (darting) in a random direction, much like NPCs who are hit from an unassailable source would. The weird thing is that these NPCs also could randomly "flee" in my direction and immediately start combat as a result.

It seems that even if NPCs that can fly are hit with spells from a flight sector, they still don't give chase, and as a result just move in a random direction on account of the defenseless code update. Another weird thing that might be affecting this is that these NPCs don't seem to have an aggro table, which might be contributing to the problem. At least, if I hit them with a ranged damage spell and then walked into the room, they didn't attack me.

Me too!

If I remember correctly BoG actually made PC's flee back in the day and it was changed after a great many complaints.