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NPC Factions and Faction Customisation


Pamplemousse

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I don't know very much at all about the NPC system, but this is something I would like to see possible. From what I understand the greatest extent of NPC factions will be generic dozen-man survivor groups, be it raiders, or people just trying to get by. While this is all well and good, I don't think I'm the only one who would like to see large, detailed factions. A part of the allure of the zombie apocalypse settings, and many apocalyptic settings on a broader scale (like Fallout) are these big factions you get, The Walking Dead's Saviors or Woodbury for example. While an attempt to make such a thing be generated in the game would probably be hard, and end up rather generic, this is where I think a mechanic that is already present in the game could come in handy.

 

As it stands, when you die your world is not yet lost, and the things you have done remain. I can load up that old save file with the skull next to it, and go into the same world where my deceased character's base will be. So I figure this is a good framework to allow the player to inject their own lore into the world essentially. You want the cool NPC groups with their unique approaches to situations, uniforms etc? You make them. Play out the story of the leader, and leave behind that faction after you die (or add a system where you abandon that character to NPC control. Make your own Saviours and Woodburys. I think this would be very cool, but it would require certain additions to really get it to where it would be fun. Maybe the ability to add custom banners, the ability to select a form of governance and attitudes to other groups before your death (so that they may carry on your desired faction's 'ideology,' for a lack of better term, rather than just becoming another dormant generic NPC group, only made larger due to the player's previous intervention prior to their death). Being able to inject a sort of culture and morality to your the group that they can act out, and do so even after your death when you encounter them on a new survivor with no affiliation, would really bring life into the world, I imagine more so than any pre-generated group could.

 

This is just an idea, and its quite blatantly not a high priority thing.

 

Let me know what you think.

Edited by Pamplemousse
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To put it shortly I'd really like the ability to add some degree of character and personality to the groups you establish, and for those to live on in that faction's mode of operating (or be challenged and alter by the shifting of circumstances) such that when left behind, it doesn't feel like this husk of a group where the NPCs just stake the place out and continue to get by, but will actually feel like a faction from something like Fallout New Vegas depending on the degree to which you provide them with a framework for some sort of method of governance. Maybe your slaver gang continues to capture survivors from outside to put to forced labour, maybe your trading company resumes commerce and tries to make contact with more groups, maybe your militaristic faction continues to conquest and appoint its members to rule over weaker groups. Where an in-built faction generation system may reap something bland and repetitive at best (as far as I can imagine,  but I'm no game developer), I think enabling the player to configure such things by establishing said factions (and also maybe being able to import them through mods) will bring about a great deal of richness and liveliness to the world. 

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So I figure this is a good framework to allow the player to inject their own lore into the world essentially

To further elaborate on this point, because I think this is central to my suggestion, I basically want to be able to say - start out as a cop for example and they make a group at the Police station and as time passes they become almost militaristic and become a conquering force, with a name, some basic ideology or set of principles, and those continue to guide them on after I die. Next I play as a cook and make a pacifist refuge where we try to help the needy. Then that character dies and I make a military veteran who joins up with a pastor to make a quasi-religious militaristic faction. I'd like the factions that come of all this to interact with each other, wage war on each other, form alliances, conquer, merge etc. While I lead them I'd like the ability to add details to them, maybe some dialogue to give the characters some personality, raise flags, create literature, erect statues if that's what tickles their fancy. The Kentucky map is the canvas and I think it would be nice to have the player paint their world into it.

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