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Let's make a date thread for when we predict NPCs will officially drop.


Lightning Flash

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23 minutes ago, syfy said:

hmmm...

 

these lead to speculation, and people often times coming in to bitch at the Devs for not having them ALREADY done

 

lets hope we dont get those kiddies in heree. i say 2018, first half

I mean, if they weren't done by then, I'd be content with at least a 'beta' of how they work, just to see how realistic they are.

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I REALLY don't get what you guys have with NPC's ...

 

really !! the main problem with NPC's is that you need a good and working AI (!!!) - which is a HELL of work - we are not talking about some 1000 animations which are "just a piece of work but nothing too complicated" - we are talking about adding an AI - which if done poorly will break the game !! 

 

Not an AI like the Zombie Ai - no, an AI which let's the NPC's act "almost player like" - not like the (great) MOD that includes some "NPCs" but a REAL NPC AI..

 

An AI most people have no idea how many work it will be to create but everyone will shitstorm if a "NPC" is ruining his playthrough, doing something stupid, gets the player killed, etcpp

 

NPCs are a REAL nightmare - why do you think most games today are going multiplayer instead singleplayer? You don't need so much AI ! Without so much AI the game will be much less costly... a bad AI breaks games...

 

PZ is great without NPCs, it COULD be better with NPCs I agree BUT most likly it will be the opposit as the NPC-AI will NEVER meet the quality the player expect - PZ is too complex a game for that IF you expect the NPC to survice more than 1h - it is NOT a simple shooter or a scripted RPG... you can't even include "savezones" were NPCs can live peacefull without Zeds - like the traders in 7DTD - as it would break the fluff of the game (but would be working to include NPCs as you wouldn't need too much AI for that) ...

 

So I am more than happy to play the game without any NPC as it would be a lot worse to have bad NPC-AI integrated !

 

 

Edited by King-Salomon
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August 29, 1997.

 

I don't like multiplayer ( beyond providing an experience for others ), so I want a crafted sp experience, even if the NPCs don't ultimately rise up against mankind.

 

They just have to be better than what's on the market today (about equivalent to the 2012 iteration). Though I'll reserve judgement until they're back in, if anyone can do it, it'll be the TIS team. Deity love them for actually caring enough to try to be better.

 

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TBH I can wait as long as it takes for NPCs. Once they're added they won't "make" the game - they'll fluff it out.

 

I appreciate the extra "right-clicks" we're getting; dig graves, clean clothes, boil bandages etc. Those are the kind of things I want short term to keep me locked in. The not-so-recent addition of metalwork was nice, adds variety to constructions - and that's what we need despite what we want. The game is being bulked out with core features that immerse you in survival mindset. Let's not forget recent town additions in a one-map world.

 

I like the changes we're getting now. They're steady, re-playable and useful.

 

Although I do think 2020 is a reasonable time to expect NPCs. Especially good ones. 

Goodthingsshot.jpg

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i bet for 2020-2021.

 

And no, we dont need great NPC, well dont exprect them. Its still one person work.

 

All I need is RimWorld like NPc`s for base bulding part and Death Road to Canada AI for looting and combat.

If they hit that lvl of AI ill be more than happy

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Never until they are suddenly released.

 

I don't need complex npcs, as long as they can do most of what a player can such as following recipes, applying first aid on themselves. As long as they are programmed in a sensible way, are sort of abstracted and somewhat easily extendable.

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The original scripted npc batch that I initially funded was already at the time, enjoyable - limited but enjoyable.  My own estimate for the return of Kate and Bob in some capacity, likely a separate branch will be sometime around April 2019.  Now, that date isn't so much speculative of the amount of time it takes to flesh out the systems being worked on now; but I believe TIS will be extremely careful when it comes to NPCs and likely won't be inclined to let the general public see a 'half baked' product, unlike Animation and Vehicles. Now, one thing I should mention, this doesn't mean we won't see demos beforehand, I suspect we might start seeing 'something' in the middle of next year, but the label suggests you want to speculate when they arrive for the public, for consumption. I do however, think they have been working on them in unconventional ways though for awhile. (Getting systems ready for the 'drop-in' by pre-planning game functions that will 'tie-in' with NPC play; so I do suspect it will move faster in the early stages of development; the fine tuning will take awhile though.) 

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I dont like anticipation threads because it reminds me of this:

https://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php?/topic/16560-the-patch-33-anticipation-theoretical-gambling-thread/

 

But if i have to take a very wild guess of a estimation with everything i learn so far, maybe we might see glimps of NPCs around November of next year at the current pace, i really don't see animations coming any sooner than around December of this year (and i mean that as in a very hopeful way, i dont expect them until a much later date), if so i expect to see them out to the public until Feb 2018 and afterwards probably some more stuff like wild life or some other X thing they have in the backburner, NPCs would probably get shafted into late 2018~2019.

Edited by Blasted_Taco
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I love PZ and the best experience that drew me to the game was the Kate + Baldspot demo, and the NPCs in one of those first demos. Kate was just a talking piece of furniture, and the bandit NPC was just on a set path: If baldspot moves, shoot him. If he sneaks up behind and shoots bandit, die. xD

 

I wouldn't be too surprised if we were surprised suddenly with rudimentary NPCs in a beta branch sometime before the end of this year, and I wouldn't be surprised either they took more months/years to really fine tune NPCs before they even let a peek of info out to the public. That's their decision as developers, and IMO they have given us a lot already. We have so many maps, mod support, sandbox options, multiplayer, vehicles, and new animations on its way. 

 

My BF said something that got me thinking, video games in the 80-90s were at the quality of some of the broken-ass early access games on steam today, except they were full-priced. Games like PZ and other games with developers that continue to work on their early access, beta, and even some complete games give you updates, patches, new content, and all for free AFTER you have purchased the game at an earlier stage at half the price of a full game. I bought PZ years ago, and stuff I have never even anticipated is now in the game.  I am really happy with PZ on the reflection of that, and have already bought more copies for friends/family. 

 

With that said, even if broken NPCs are released soon for a small number of people to test and mess around with, it still would be a fun experience. Think of the NPCs in the Cataclysm DDA early experimental builds, people had fun and insanity with their various glitches.

 

But if they really get NPCs right I think they know that an explosion of youtubers will cover PZ, they will get attention, they will get a ton of new audience, and it will be worth the wait. Think of Stardew Valley, whose developer had a rudimentary version of the game done 4 years before release and took the  time to really polish the game, before finally releasing, resulting in it topping many AAA titles in steam sales. 

 

tl;dr It could be by the end of the year, it could be years, either way it will be worth it and fun :)

Edited by psibomber2
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