Movements automatically change NPC's animation and direction?

[alexgleason]

I'm experimenting with making NPCs shiver back and forth when I use my vacuum item on them. It's a pixel movement that jitters an entity left and right by 2px.

When I try it, it says: Error: Illegal direction 3 for sprite 'animals/seagull_trash2' in animation 'walking'

I'm guessing that using a movement on an NPC is "smart" and makes the NPC automatically change direction toward the movement and try to walk that way. Am I right? If so, is there an easy way to override it?

It's not a big deal, and I might just not do this in my game. It doesn't seem documented though, and kinda surprised me.

[Christopho]

You are right, sprites of NPCs automatically take the direction of the NPC's movement. But there are two types of NPCs: usual NPCs, that have this behavior, and generalized NPCs, that have no automatic behavior. So just set your NPC as a generalized one (in the quest editor) and you will be fine.