Survivor Encounters...

[dsant5389]

IMO this game desperately needs NPCs to keep it interesting after you've survived a month or two. 

[Fj45]

IMO this game desperately needs NPCs to keep it interesting after you've survived a month or two. 

 

They will come.

[ApolloDiaspora]

 

IMO this game desperately needs NPCs to keep it interesting after you've survived a month or two. 

 

They will come.

 

 

Through your window. Into the safehouse. Pulling a horde and screaming up a racket.

[glenmack]

If you build it, (baseball pitch or safe house)

They will come.

[ROFLMAOmatt]

I kind of liked how every once in a while I'd be doing something in a house and then hear a really close gunshot and then quickly reassure myself that npcs don't exist yet.

[AirborneM4]

I'd like 50+, and maybe have the game run the simulation of events for a week of game time to kill some of them off and make the world look worn down.

[Aardman55]

 

 

 

I think the most fascinating part of the entire thing will be the "emergent behavior" of the system.  Can NPCs learn?  Can they "get better at surviving"?

 

I see an almost evolutionary mechanic happening.  NPCs with weaker characteristics will die.  NPCs with stronger characteristics will survive longer.  If you can survive a month, will the only remaining NPC survivors be crazed sociopaths or will it be only NPCs with strong cooperative traits.

 

The metagame would be fascinating to watch on it's own.  I hope the developers can run metagame simulations to balance the evolution to avoid dominate characteristics in the NPCs.  Keep it crazy.

 

 

And what will they add to the game? Will they bring happiness (raised mood - less likely for depression)? Will they help grow food and kill zombies? Will they do stupid things like shoot a gun when there is a horde nearby and only a couple of zombies that are a real threat? Will they panic and run or panic and stand still and get eaten? Will they follow orders? 

 

They are more mouths to feed. If you choose to group with NPCs will they help your survivability or will they just eat all the food and you all starve? I could see cooking becoming even more useful. Will there be more recipes like a pot of soup that create four servings instead of just one? I think you will need more. How big of a group could be sustainable? Will they join you or do you join them?

 

Part of me is reluctant to start another game because I don't want to make great progress only to have NPCs added and then I will feel obligated to start again from the beginning. I am also cautiously optimistic about NPCs although it worries me a little that they were in the game and now they are not. I think they will add to the game but only time will tell.

 

 

They will be realistic so just think of basic human psychology. Some will be very useful, others a deathtrap.   

 

 

In a mondoid from like 10 months ago if I'm correct, they said they will try to make the NPC's and the Metagame make sandbox mode feel like a full story. They'd be far away from that point, but they do already have some interesting things. I know that they said you could get betrayed in the way that in scavenging runs, one of your group members could kill you or wound you so bad youd be so slow and get killed by the horde, and then later back at base say that the zombies got you and that he tried to help you. 

 

I thought sandbox lets you change how many survivors you want? Like zombie distribution.

Sorry, I dont really get this. Correct me if Im wrong.

[glenmack]

 

 

 

 

I think the most fascinating part of the entire thing will be the "emergent behavior" of the system.  Can NPCs learn?  Can they "get better at surviving"?

 

I see an almost evolutionary mechanic happening.  NPCs with weaker characteristics will die.  NPCs with stronger characteristics will survive longer.  If you can survive a month, will the only remaining NPC survivors be crazed sociopaths or will it be only NPCs with strong cooperative traits.

 

The metagame would be fascinating to watch on it's own.  I hope the developers can run metagame simulations to balance the evolution to avoid dominate characteristics in the NPCs.  Keep it crazy.

 

 

And what will they add to the game? Will they bring happiness (raised mood - less likely for depression)? Will they help grow food and kill zombies? Will they do stupid things like shoot a gun when there is a horde nearby and only a couple of zombies that are a real threat? Will they panic and run or panic and stand still and get eaten? Will they follow orders? 

 

They are more mouths to feed. If you choose to group with NPCs will they help your survivability or will they just eat all the food and you all starve? I could see cooking becoming even more useful. Will there be more recipes like a pot of soup that create four servings instead of just one? I think you will need more. How big of a group could be sustainable? Will they join you or do you join them?

 

Part of me is reluctant to start another game because I don't want to make great progress only to have NPCs added and then I will feel obligated to start again from the beginning. I am also cautiously optimistic about NPCs although it worries me a little that they were in the game and now they are not. I think they will add to the game but only time will tell.

 

 

They will be realistic so just think of basic human psychology. Some will be very useful, others a deathtrap.   

 

 

In a mondoid from like 10 months ago if I'm correct, they said they will try to make the NPC's and the Metagame make sandbox mode feel like a full story. They'd be far away from that point, but they do already have some interesting things. I know that they said you could get betrayed in the way that in scavenging runs, one of your group members could kill you or wound you so bad youd be so slow and get killed by the horde, and then later back at base say that the zombies got you and that he tried to help you. 

 

I thought sandbox lets you change how many survivors you want? Like zombie distribution.

Sorry, I dont really get this. Correct me if Im wrong.

 

 

Sandbox will presumably allow you to change the amount of NPC's but this poll is about a survival game, Survival is the basic game, the "quickplay" if you will and is the measurement by which we would all compare our games.

[Sammy The Salmon]

I hope the NPC's are relatively smart.  And in sandbox you are be able to turn off NPC's

[Guest]

 

You know what i think would be frekin awesome.

 

Instead of right now when you spawn everything is, normal. The outbreak has just begun.

 

You spawn and u immediately notice the cannibalism unfolding and all the zeds are fresh and at their peek condition, fast, strong, keen. So most likely you need to run, and by sunset, if you survived, the town is a already infected. And you (hopefully) and the survivors are actually "survivors".

 

This has been discussed quite a bit in other threads. Short answer, the devs aren't going to work on it, given how hard it would be to code. Just think of all those NPCs that have to act smarter than they would usually have to, to handle the mass exodus and flight. Plus, you would have to be exceptionally lucky to avoid having your brand-new-hidey-hole from being bumrushed by NPCs and the Zeds hot on their tail.

 

It would be a fun game mode to mod in, but, the devs aren't going to work on it, and it would be a cow to make fun.

I am making a mod for this actually, have all of the code ready, just waiting for npcs and maybe vehicles to make it look real.

[Onomatopesha]

I'd say, considering how big the city is, they could begin with around 20/50 (maybe in between both cities, and migrating as time goes on, in order not to flood the experience and early days). Considering how easy you can die, i'm imagining that number would decrease rapidly as time goes by, maybe even factions could be formed, who knows?

I still retain the memory of the demo in which i could see a lone survivor running around with a shotgun trying to make it into the police station, only to get himself caught by even more zombies than he killed initially. Stuff like that could add a lot to the game, i can't even imagine how awesome it would be to find a survivor after like 5 months of gametime, they could havefer you shelter if you manage to find certain items within the city, or could turn hostile if you stay too close to their fort.....

The possibilities are endless, and seeing how they pulled off stuff like Bleach, the Luck factor and many others, i definitely don't see this as a wild idea, perhaps it could even be added later as a mod.