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New NPCs: Giving Orders? Will They Always Listen?


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NPCs won't always listen to the leader, however its not clear whether the scenes that deal with this will be in the first version. Certainly an NPC following an 'order' to patrol the house may decide to stop patrolling the house because they are tired or lazy.

Could you reflect anything to my above post? I am just curious if my ideas are close or totally off your development track ^^

 

 

I just saw the word "NPC" in the title, which forced me to open this thread, read every comment and leave a response. What the devs said :D lol... Its like showing the trailer for the new star wars movie and say "NO HYPE! Its still ages away!" or saying "DONT PANIC!" when raging zombies surround your safehouse.. right its gonna happen haha.

 

So - NPC'S with personalities ++

NPCS trading you stuff you need and they don't + (I would make it so they have multiple of that item they trade you maybe), you could trade bullets for food or visa versa depending on the kind of NPC (if he is a farmer in the group, he probably doesn't go out to loot a lot, might need seeds, water or just finished food products (cooked soup) instead of bullets).

Group hierarchy inside NPC groups +++ just the thought of me being able to work my way up in a group while surviving and doing heroic deeds (Spiffo disapproves of Heroic deeds) so I can command a small tactical group and encourage them to develop their own skills.

Infected NPCS ++ your lovely group went out on a looting mission, but one of them was scratched and might be infected... do you take the risk? Would this cause a debate that you guys kill him/her or make NPCS pissed at you if you did? Who knows, would be a nice addition. Especially if he turns inside your safehouse and bites another NPC going to the toilet.

Organized looters/bandits (NPCS ofcourse) ++++ imagine this: you have been holding out in your little fortress for weeks, farm is growing, you got the rain collectors going. Suddenly some asshole breaks down your fence and 3 armed survivors come in looking to take everything you got, including your life... A WHOLE new level of defense right there. They might force you to drop your stuff too (Devs suggested there will be a force inventory open thing when the player will put hands behind their head and the other can take anything from them).

Treating NPCS wounds + lets say you got some painkillers and bandages, which are required by one of the NPCS as he/she was shot or scratched, you give it to them or use it on them? to get some plus gratitude from them. "You saved my life, I will help you with anything you need" kinda thing.

Vehicles with NPCS ++ You want to do a major loot run? Take out that Van you just found (once they are implemented) with your NPC friends and fill up the trunk with stuff.

Radios, Walkie talkies ?? ++ The ability to be able to communicate with your group from a far would be highly awesome of course require batteries and stuff. Just imagine if you could ask for help, give out a distress signal that somebody may find and then come to kill you and take your stuff? AWESOME.

 

No hype.. just ... casual discussion here :D :D :D

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I'd like to know if ai will have the intelligence to not only create a safehouse (which is a given) but also to be able to recognise that a whole area can be made safe by building fences. Ie, if fences around the town square are made and such, then it can be classed as a safe area and is classed as a town to npcs.

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I'd like to know if ai will have the intelligence to not only create a safehouse (which is a given) but also to be able to recognise that a whole area can be made safe by building fences. Ie, if fences around the town square are made and such, then it can be classed as a safe area and is classed as a town to npcs.

 

Ultimately yes. We've zoned the map into areas (same system Romain's trapping etc uses) but this is unlikely to be in version 1

 

Wolfihunter_prey - its all still up in the air to be honest I don't want to start discussing NPC features that may not end up in for a long while, or making any promises or assumptions about what we may be able to get in or when, but obviously if there is a logical reason for an NPC to behave in a certain way or they fit within or involve zombie fiction tropes like a lot of your points, then the answer is likely yes, you can assume its something we want to get in at some point.

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Wolfihunter_prey - its all still up in the air to be honest I don't want to start discussing NPC features that may not end up in for a long while, or making any promises or assumptions about what we may be able to get in or when, but obviously if there is a logical reason for an NPC to behave in a certain way or they fit within or involve zombie fiction tropes like a lot of your points, then the answer is likely yes, you can assume its something we want to get in at some point.

 

 

Thank you Lemmy all I was curious about :) You guys are awesome ^^ Im looking forward to making a video series once build 28 is out though :3

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Treating NPCS wounds + lets say you got some painkillers and bandages, which are required by one of the NPCS as he/she was shot or scratched, you give it to them or use it on them? to get some plus gratitude from them. "You saved my life, I will help you with anything you need" kinda thing.

 

This just made me curious, I wonder if the medical system will become more complicated in the future. It would be awesome if you could preform back-ally surgery on NPCs in your group. Someone in your group gets shot, you return him to the safe house and hand him all of the whisky you had stashed, put a kitchen knife on the stove and a wooden salad fork in his mouth, and then dig the bullet out and burn the wound closed.

 

Although part of me wishes it ever only went as far as band-aids. 

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I'd like to know if ai will have the intelligence to not only create a safehouse (which is a given) but also to be able to recognise that a whole area can be made safe by building fences. Ie, if fences around the town square are made and such, then it can be classed as a safe area and is classed as a town to npcs.

 

Ultimately yes. We've zoned the map into areas (same system Romain's trapping etc uses) but this is unlikely to be in version 1

 

Wolfihunter_prey - its all still up in the air to be honest I don't want to start discussing NPC features that may not end up in for a long while, or making any promises or assumptions about what we may be able to get in or when, but obviously if there is a logical reason for an NPC to behave in a certain way or they fit within or involve zombie fiction tropes like a lot of your points, then the answer is likely yes, you can assume its something we want to get in at some point.

 

 

Cheers for the response, good to hear it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

NPCs won't always listen to the leader, however its not clear whether the scenes that deal with this will be in the first version. Certainly an NPC following an 'order' to patrol the house may decide to stop patrolling the house because they are tired or lazy.

When reading this, I just realised....

 

....I'm going to be a Bad NPC....

 

The group leader will tell me to patrol the house and I'll send my character outside, stick them behind a tree and then quickly run to the kitchen to grab some biscuits or something, get back to the game and tell the leader that I patrolled the shit out of that house.

 

And the zombie-infested toilet will then be my fault.

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And the zombie-infested toilet will then be my fault.

 

Oh no! Not the toilet! My last stand plan is ruined!

"Mission control, toilet is down! I repeat! Toilet down! Our escape route is lost!"

 

 

 

I still think about making NPCs addicted to my magic cabbage salad first, then of sending them through the whole forest go get water from a mystical well far away, armed just with a radio* and a pistol with a single shot**.

While I send one NPC after another, telling them the most glorious tales of other survivors who came back***, I am on top of my wizard tower, swimming in rain water and wait for a binoculars-mod.

"Don't come home without 6 gallons water, son.  The Master Wizard is trusting on you!"

 

*The radio's main function is to alert the survivor to the presence of zombies by emitting static.

**when a survivors' marooned, he's given a pistol with a single shot. One shot. Well, that won't do much good hunting, nor to be rescued. But after three weeks of a starvin' belly and thirst, that pistol starts to look real friendly, while zombies gnawing the trunk below

***haha! Good joke!

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I've been thinking on this, and what would happen if you weren't the leader? Perhaps everyone works together and has their own jobs, making no leader. This would still make the Player have to get an interesting job or just leave the group. If the AI is a leader? You've got two options, suck up to the leader and get the good jobs, or try to get everyone in the group to like you and then hold an election. Or a hostile takeover, and it makes everyone not really like you or trust you. 

 

Furthermore, I think the trust thing is certainly interesting. If you're a leader, is it better for them to love or fear you? Perhaps a scale like that might be nice. If they really like you, they won't want to take over or kill you. If they really fear you, they'll fear what will happen if they try to takeover. If they neither like you, nor fear you, run the fuck away! Also, if they really trust you, but you can't get an election, you could always see to it that the leader has an "accident" and they won't be suspicious of you!

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I've been thinking on this, and what would happen if you weren't the leader? Perhaps everyone works together and has their own jobs, making no leader. This would still make the Player have to get an interesting job or just leave the group. If the AI is a leader? You've got two options, suck up to the leader and get the good jobs, or try to get everyone in the group to like you and then hold an election. Or a hostile takeover, and it makes everyone not really like you or trust you. 

 

Furthermore, I think the trust thing is certainly interesting. If you're a leader, is it better for them to love or fear you? Perhaps a scale like that might be nice. If they really like you, they won't want to take over or kill you. If they really fear you, they'll fear what will happen if they try to takeover. If they neither like you, nor fear you, run the fuck away! Also, if they really trust you, but you can't get an election, you could always see to it that the leader has an "accident" and they won't be suspicious of you!

 

This all sounds more or less inline with what we're doing :) group politics will be deep.

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I've been thinking on this, and what would happen if you weren't the leader? Perhaps everyone works together and has their own jobs, making no leader. This would still make the Player have to get an interesting job or just leave the group. If the AI is a leader? You've got two options, suck up to the leader and get the good jobs, or try to get everyone in the group to like you and then hold an election. Or a hostile takeover, and it makes everyone not really like you or trust you. 

 

Furthermore, I think the trust thing is certainly interesting. If you're a leader, is it better for them to love or fear you? Perhaps a scale like that might be nice. If they really like you, they won't want to take over or kill you. If they really fear you, they'll fear what will happen if they try to takeover. If they neither like you, nor fear you, run the fuck away! Also, if they really trust you, but you can't get an election, you could always see to it that the leader has an "accident" and they won't be suspicious of you!

 

This all sounds more or less inline with what we're doing :) group politics will be deep.

 

Awesome :D sounds very nice guys! :)

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The modding possibilities * passes out, gets back up, goes back to daydreaming*

I agree. This is the feature that I'm waiting for the most. To be able to add you own behaviour patterns to NPCs and creating endless dynamic stories. I love the mapping stuff, but this is hopefully be the crux of what the game will bring for me in terms of fun fun fun.

 

EDIT: better phrasing :oops:

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Ridiculous! He / She should just live o

 

 

As long as I can assign the boring stuff like Cooking and Gardening to them I'll be happy. :P

 

And then your level 5 farmer gets infected and you cant farm D: Nooo!

 

Ridiculous! He / she should just live out his / her life inside the quadruple-barricaded garden in safety! :o

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