Once a merc has no APs left, they cannot move. This can lead to situations where, well, mercs die, even if allies are around, because they cannot help them. This is simple. If a merc is crouched and the main hand is free, they can grab a prone person (even hostile) or corpse next to them (press $ to get the selection menu). If they then move, whomever they drag moves along.
While it would be slightly more reasonable (and useful) if the dragged person would look away from the dragging merc, this causes issues, as then the prone person’s legs would be in the same location as the merc, so I don’t do that. After careful consideration, I’ve decided that only the main hand needs to be free (unlike in the above video). This will make this a bit more user friendly. No more need to send me images from your favorite gung-ho movie about how people drag around fully equipped soldiers with one hand while suppressing full auto with an M4 in their other hand. I’ve fiddled around with movement a bit more, corpses now move a little bit smoother compared to the video. As the overwhelming majority of the feedback called for the weight of the dragged person to be taken into account, it now is taken into account during breath point calculation. We add the other guy’s inventory weight, and the estimated weight of the person (or corpse) to our weight. The estimated weight depends on bodytypes and was hard-coded by me, which will stay that way.
And no, dragging someone a few meters doesn’t suddenly drop breath to a half. You people have no issues stuffing a merc with 2 ARs, dozen grenades, mortars and body armor and expecting them to jump around, so don’t suddenly complain about non-realistic behavior.
This feature has been added in r8474 & GameDir r2386.
This is fully savegame compatible.
Using the new exe without the new GameDir will cost you dearly.