What is the deal with the tank road block driver?

[WeaponApe 32]

You know the type.

Like you can steal a cop car, you can steal one of the road-block tanks, and a little red-and-green-dressed fella drops out. He's not fussed about the bazookas flying around him, instead he will calmly walk to the pavement and start beating on cops who are naughty to you. It's like he's on your side from the moment you force him out of the tank!

On the negative side, he often does not live long, since he is usually shot to death by military police when he tries to punch them.

 

I find him to be the most interesting NPC in GTA2. What's up with his behaviour? Why is he dressed in those strange clothes? Why isn't he armed?

Also, his body seems to remain permanently at wherever he was killed, even if everything around him is cleaned up.

[Sektor 103]

Semi technical theory:

 

the clothes are because they're index 0, "default clothes"

his behaviour is all because that's the index 0 in the enum for whatever piece of behaviour

he's all default

that's probably his threat level

they never expected anyone to successfully pull him out (you have to not be blown by his tanks' rockets at all to succeed)

Real theory:

 

His mother was a car thief and his father was a mugger, so he likes to wear a combination of their colours. He joined the army after his parents were murdered. When he got back to civilian life, he couldn't function properly and resorted to stealing cars and mugging peds. His strange behavior is due to psychological problems and PTSD. Eventually he managed to get a job with the National Guard. It's hot inside tanks, so he doesn't like to wear his National Guard uniform.

This is the true story of ROAD_BLOCK_TANK_MAN aka RBTM!

Edited December 11, 2015 by Sektor

[WeaponApe 32]

Hahaha, amazing. I like that theory a lot!

 

Is there a wiki entry on him or something? Or was that quote you pulled from this forum?

[Sektor 103]

The original source of the quotes was destroyed but that's no reason not to have faith in RBTM's origin story.

 

GTA2 modders have talked about him before because originally RBTM made multiplayer go out of sync while in his tank since he shot at the local player instead of shooting at the same player on all computers. Wanted level never went over SWAT in the official multiplayer scripts, so this was only noticed in user made scripts. vike modified gta2.exe to make RBTM aim the tank turret at the nearest player instead of shooting at the local player. Some more weird behavior, RBTM tank shoots at players even when they are extremely far away and there's no way the tank driver could even see them or hit them.

Edited June 27, 2018 by Sektor
fix

[WeaponApe 32]

Interesting!

 

Also, I'm sure I read something like "he's neither dead or alive", and I was gonna do a clever answer about how it's almost like he's a virus.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Giradox

[Sektor 103]

I hinted that his body doesn't vanish because he's a robot but I scrapped that idea since robots don't normally have parents.

Edited December 13, 2015 by Sektor

[BBBean 50]

What is the trick to hijack a roadblock tank? I know you can sometimes jack a cop car if you try many times, but I've not had success with the road blocking tanks.

[Sektor 103]

It's just about timing and trying multiple times. Not too fast, not too slow. This doesn't just apply to stealing tanks.

Edited December 29, 2015 by Sektor

[BBBean 50]

Hm thanks, actually it worked. I didn't know that being too fast can also fail.

[BBBean 50]

I found the red/green guy elsewhere. 😛

 

 

[Sektor 103]

Weird, never had that happen before. I thought the only way out of RC was to destroy the car.

[BBBean 50]

Some more fun with the RC Taxi driver 😛

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2018 by BBBean

[Jeansowaty 4,878]

LOL! Awesome! Who woulda expect that. This guy is basically the Male01 ped of GTA2. (Male01 is the default ped in 3D Universe games).

[TommyTheMan 42]

Thought I know everything of GTA 2 but I've never seen this guy since I've never dared to jack a tank from a roadblock... What's next?

[666_nigger_666 0]

He is just basically working with international affairs, and is undercover in the military, he sucks at both being an undercover agent, and at disguising, many people say he is gonna be the protagonist of the next gta 2 dlc,or should i say Bvr, Big vehicle robbery 2: Anywhere City stories.