What's the deal with gang members running when I start attacking a group of them. Usually, one will say something like "take off" and another will bolt. Am I supposed to chase him down first, is it just for flavour (trying to act like a real gangster making a break for it) or is something else that I haven't worked out yet?

Sorry if it's explained in the handbook, I am still downloading it at the moment.

Thanks.

Its there to annoy scrappers and tankers.

Not really sure why it does that. One tip though, most of the time if there is one person say tugging on a purse, or crouched down breaking into something, that one will be the one to run.

Sometimes its someone else, but they seem to be the most likely one to run.

Sometimes I will just look like a bunch of guys standing around. If you get close, they'll usually be selling drugs. The Dealer is the one that will run, not the buyer.

If they're harassing someone or trying to snatch a purse, whack the runner first. The others will usually stick around. If you defeat them all, the civilian you saved will give you influence and occasionally an Inspiration or Enhancement.

As a Tanker or Scrapper, I find it helps to zoom way out and then que an attack and lead them while running. Zooming out helps you correct if they change course quickly. You should get a hit or two in to finish em. Thankfully my Scrapper is a Spines Scrapper. When they run, I just laugh and Impale them. Not only is Impale ranged, it also Immobolizes.

Claws scrappers are also nice at stopping runners. Once you hit lvl 18, you can get a ranged attack that does hvy damage and knocks them down. Well worth getting.

Main thing that sucks is that they added bosses into a few of the zones a couple of patches ago. The bosses, when they are the ones committing the crimes, also run. Which just absolutely blows, since they have high hp, some of them can fly, and they require greater magnitudes of status effects to stop them.

LTs don't exhibit that annoying behavoir. They really need to fix the bosses so that they work like LTs.

I know Lead Bricks and Lead Shockers in SC are particularly guilty of this.

my only melee char that does not have probs with this is the ice-armored tanker.

His enemies try run off too, but it is in slow motion due to freeze...

Another thing worth mentioning is that in groups of thugs where only one of them will speak, he's the one that will run. I've noticed this mostly with Trolls, but I imagine that it will work with some of the other gangs also.