NPC Variation and Intelligence

[jmordetsky]

As a little rule of thumb, I only wish up if I have a bunch of people that need to be entertained on something that generally boring (read: Wagon trip) and/or something is unusual is a foot (read: I'm breaking into a noble house).

My general thoughts are I'd like the staff to be paying attention to me as little as possible.

Just kidding....

Sort of....

In all seriousness, if your thoughts are "just wish up". That's not really what I wanted to encourage - I wanted to encourage thoughts on making NPCs more diverse and interesting and exciting. My feelings on the wish system (after a lot of time playing) is that the system:  

1) (Most importantly) Doesn't scale for large player base

2) Is prone to favoritism

3) Is prone to abuse and/or mistakes by newer Imms (Thats not meant to knock anyone - All positions of power are subject to the FNG syndrome (Fucking New Guy) and we've had our share).

That said - I'd like for this thread to remain about ideas - not about how awesome (or not) the wish system is. Consider this an opportunity to think creatively.

[jmordetsky]

And with that said - another idea:

The concept of a Spawning Pool followed by Spawned behaviors based on number of existing spawns. So - in this case we could pick a location - for example the Gith Mesa or something in the Red or Gortok den etc. This area becomes a known (or unknown) spawn point for a type of NPC. As IC time passes, NPCs of said type spawn at this location.

As they spawn, they at first just take up residence outside the spawn (the spawn itself could be heavily defended to avoid raiding etc). As they spawn, however, they check the number of still living spawns and if the numbers are high enough, they begin to fan out - indicating infestation in the area, or aggressive movements for sentients. As they start to move, they can given an inclination to move toward trade routes so that they essentially become a "growing threat" rather then a static occurrence. That would give local military clans a vested interest in keeping back the hordes. It would also put a quantifiable cap on daily twink-tasticness. Ie, you couldn't go out and slaughter hordes of gith everyday, because well - there aren't any left.

In theory, if the problem was left unchecked, you could have them create additional spawns, which created more and more of a problem essentially functioning as a multiplier of the in place effect. Ie, once at a certain level, a gortok might dig a den or a gith might make a camp and from there, additional numbers would spawn.

[AmandaGreathouse]

Actually... I kind of think that scripting mobs (read gith and other less humanoid npcs) to wander within the constraints of their area alone would go a long way. And it would make IC sense. Carru are native to scrub, so set carru npcs to wander randomly around any room with the terrain type 'scrub' and so forth.

Then it wouldn't matter much where npcs spawned, and they would have a random chance of forming small groups on their own.

[jmordetsky]

Actually... I kind of think that scripting mobs (read gith and other less humanoid npcs) to wander within the constraints of their area alone would go a long way. And it would make IC sense. Carru are native to scrub, so set carru npcs to wander randomly around any room with the terrain type 'scrub' and so forth.

Then it wouldn't matter much where npcs spawned, and they would have a random chance of forming small groups on their own.

That is interesting. Especially if they grouped up - but I thought they did this now? (I could be wrong.)

[AmandaGreathouse]

I really have no clue if they do it on their own or not. I know I've seen cases of aggro npcs killing other npcs within line of sight. [ie a carru on a skeet]. But whether it came because its aggressiveness was triggered is uncertain. As is whether or not the skeet wandered there of its own volition or was fleeing a n00b ranger. No clue.

I do like the way gortoks approach line-of-sight combat with other gortoks, but I have no idea if they would do the same if they saw you fighting a skeet, or how other animals and their behaviors (as they currently are) would figure in.

[Rhyden]

So long as NPCs have exact if not similar skills/abilities as PCs have I'm fine with anything.

The one thing I hate is when I see an NPC with incredible abilities no PC would ever have.

And you might say, but the NPCs aren't intelligent like PCs are, then code the NPCs to act intelligently against PCs. Code them to flee, to sneak and hide, to run to a safe zone, whatever, but if there are NPCs who have skills that no PC can ever have - it's a huge turn off for me.

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