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What NPC groups do you want to see in the future?


Lightning Flash

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Let's assume that fully-fledged NPCs are still ten years down the line (ecks dee), and there will be NPCs with only one function, whether it's good or bad. What kinds of NPCs would you want to see implemented into the game?

 

For me, I'd like to see a group of wandering cannibals, perhaps wandering randomly across the map, who only want to kill people that wouldn't look like they would fit their status quota. These types of people would typically spawn after at least a year or more after the outbreak.

 

They have no other purpose other than to kill you. If you die at their hands, you will not be able to find your stuff; your corpse and your backpack will be gone.

 

Their base of operations would be randomly generated in a building(s) across the entire map. For example, if a base forms in Muldraugh, there will typically be more than a couple of groups a day wandering the town while killing zombies. If you were to, for example, launch a horde at them and wipe out the base, you will not find anymore groups, save for a few wanderers; they will still be a danger, but not as much of a danger with their home gone.

 

Typically, they will not use guns; they will only use blunt or bladed weapons with the intent to kill quickly, "as to not spoil the meat."

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the idea of additional NPCs spawning in is an interesting one. I like very much the idea of dangerous things coming through the map as time goes on. One big one is the great zed migration- the zed themselves need to flow from the cities out through muldraugh and along the highways and rivers as the game goes later and later. the devs are insistent that they want the inevitibility of death to be a real thing in this game.

 

Its interesting to think of humans spawning in in the same way. I think thats an interesting concept for creating humans of those kinds. I am really hoping that the crazily gunhappy ones dont just kill you right off the bat, so the idea of a gang with clubs coming through is an interesting one.

 

We'll have to wait and see what happens with the NPCs! 

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7 hours ago, Deputy said:

With groups, I would focus primarily on those of occupations, in addition to those of ordinary citizens. Additionally, while I think the original question of which groups we'd like to see is certainly a good question, I'll disregard the 'one-function' assignment as I think that would overall limit the possibilities and amount of interest regarding groups of NPCs.

 

Soldiers - During the quarantine period in Survival, I would like to see groups of well-equipped soldiers at the borders of the Exclusion Zone, and possibly smaller groups performing small clean-up operations further into the towns as time progresses - at this point, I think they should be primarily hostile towards players and other NPCs, in addition to zombies. I think exceptions to this could be through choosing either the Veteran occupation or an active-duty Soldier occupation, in which case a lone soldier separated from a squad sweeping a house won't necessarily help you, but won't kill you either - and perhaps provide some valuable inside information to you about the quarantine, from one soldier to another, before pretending you never existed and moving on with the rest of the group.

After the quarantine period,  I think it would also be worthwhile to see groups of former soldiers in the surrounding area - especially at key military camps or installations (i.e. Fort Knox). Disregarding the 'one function' mentality - neutral at best, hostile at worst, well-armed, and potentially dangerous, they could serve as groups to watch out for.

 

In addition to soldiers, I would also like to see groups of first responders and citizens across the map, both by themselves at times (a small unit of police officers only) and together with other groups in other instances (such as firefighters, police officers, and civilians together) that banded together when the virus hit.

 

Police Officers - Having had training to protect and to serve, I would like to see groups of neutral or friendly officers carrying appropriate police equipment and civilian-grade weaponry around the map, possibly (though not always) at police stations or other municipal structures such as the courthouse that were converted to temporary safe areas - concurrently, this situation could be applicable for undead groups of police officers in fallen 'safe havens,' along with other professions.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

From The Walking Dead:

 

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Firefighters - Working in tandem with police officers, neutral or friendly groups of firefighters, possibly located at future fire departments across the map aside from the single firehouse in-game currently; potentially found either alone or with other civilians and/or first responders, and carrying trust-worthy fireaxes or other forms of civilian-grade weaponry.

 

Doctors/Paramedics - Either neutral or friendly, groups of medical staff at major clinics, future hospitals, or other areas of medical care, with amounts of medical supplies and experience; possibly willing to help heal an injured friend in exchange for food or other supplies. Armed with appropriate civilian-grade weaponry.

 

As mentioned before, disregarding the one-function assignment, I think it would be nice to see either small groups of these professions alone, or together with other first-responders and/or civilians - for example, medical staff having barricaded a floor or two within an overrun hospital, or police officers and civilians holding out in a courthouse or police station. I think with this type of grouping, there would be a lot of potential for both unique storytelling and gameplay.

 

Convicts - Primarily hostile (possibly neutral at best) and for the most part exclusive to prisons or large county jails, I would like to see these groups in facilities that are not entirely overrun as not only could they prove for interesting encounters (as seen with The Walking Dead), but could also provide competition for re-taking and living in prisons or jails beyond large zombie populations. Potentially heavily armed with corrections officers' weaponry.

 

Corrections Officers - Anywhere from neutral to hostile (though perhaps not to the extent of the convicts), I think this group could also work in prisons either independent from or banding together with convicts in securing, maintaining, and defending prisons, and potentially be unwilling to give up their residence to players - in effect, largely playing the same role that convicts would. Also potentially heavily armed with weaponry available to prison guards.

 

Just a few groups I personally would like to see with NPCs. It's cliché to say but between potential behaviors, coinciding groups, locations, and equipment, I think the possibilities per playthrough are nearly endless.

Good, but i don't agreee that all "friendly" professions should be neutral/friendy.

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During my last session on PZ (SP), I was experimenting with the vehicle build and it really gave me a feeling of doing what I would do in that apocalyptic situation. It's very exciting to prepare a car with food, weapons, equipment, repair the car, make sure that everything is set - while managing a day to day life of surviving -, you can set your own goals by deciding where you go. And at this point you don't have much to do except for maybe constructing something huge somewhere. But I thought, if at this point I knew that there were buildings with survivors in them, and that I could have a "rudimentary" option to make him follow me and then assign him a job in my base, that would be more than enough to give me a solid purpose and develop a strategy around:

- Should I build in the town and slowly make my way district after district? Or should I build in the country side and organize expeditions to find people? What building are more likely to have NPCs and where are they on the map?

- Having NPCs in your base would probably imply consumption of food, fuel, etc, and that in itself would bring another clear objective that would trigger organic gameplay events  like expeditions, reorganization of production, cannibalism, trade, etc.

 

Even if you had no control over the NPC (meaning you can't bring them on a mission for instance) being able to gather them in your base would give a strong sense of achievement and progression. Anyway my point being, I think I have been eager to see the animation update for the longest time, and I'm sure it will look and play fantastic, but I feel like what will really change the way people play the game is with NPC addition.

 

Once you have built a community it would indeed be great if there could be events that jeopardize the stability of it: herds, agressive npcs, draught/blizzard,  mutinery?

 

On a side note I was wondering if anyone knew if there existed a mod where you could attract all zombies in the direction of your base? Some kind of apocalypse switch? Maybe not all zombies, but a really large amount to see of your base holds. That would be fun to do if not yet existing.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Community management aka TWD Alexandria style.

 

Make the ability to give NPC's duties. Like sending out certain NPC's to loot certain stuff like ammo, food, drink, weapons etc. Maybe an NPC doesn't come back and you have to go out and search for them only to find them held up in some house or store surrounded by Zombies and you have to rescue them. Or maybe you don't find them at all which means they died.  

 

Can also use Search parties. Or send out a few NPC's together assuming your community is big enough to let that many resources go. Or you go out hunting yourself and decide to bring a few along with you. 

 

You could probably have NPC's do a certain check to see if they'd join you and your community to begin with.  Maybe some wont. So this would be a game within the game. Go out searching for NPC's to join you and your community and they follow you home if they decide to. 

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