I think a sims style would be cool, where the more you know a NPC the more options of interactions you can do with them like 'inside joke' and such. but NPC you just meet have limited options. And maybe the options for interactions are unique to each NPC, like some are just more open and have more options from the get go
Definitely a big question I want to see the answer of.
As a player I want to see a system that:
*Allows for information both relevant (obviously) and irrelevant to be passed along.
*Doesn't break the flow of the game- it would be bad to have a system where you're locked into a conversation while both you and the NPC are getting stabbed.
*Contains a reasonable amount of options without being too slow- navigating through a maze of menus would be an issue.
*Isn't personal: people should be able to overhear conversations.
To be honest, I don't want to be given quests, I want quests to find me. I want to talk to an NPC, learn their story, find a little about them, then see if they need help. Some will say no, but others will offer you rewards for just day to day quests that they are too lazy to do. Might sound strange but that's what I'm hoping for.
Posted By Demontion at 7:04 PM - Wed Apr 19 2017
To be honest, I don't want to be given quests, I want quests to find me. I want to talk to an NPC, learn their story, find a little about them, then see if they need help. Some will say no, but others will offer you rewards for just day to day quests that they are too lazy to do. Might sound strange but that's what I'm hoping for.
In Chronicles of Elyria, quests follow you. The alignment of the planets and the stars at your birth provide you with a destiny unknown to you, which will trigger events if the right conditions have been met...
Also yes, our NPC AI is based off psychology's OCEAN, so they've all got their own individual wants and needs. They may or may not give you tasks, and they may or may not accept yours... or perhaps execute it how they interpret it...
I'm mobile currently so I can't offer a more in-depth explanation yet! Anyone wanna fill in for a bit?
Posted By Caeoltoiri at 11:21 PM - Wed Apr 19 2017
Posted By Demontion at 7:04 PM - Wed Apr 19 2017
To be honest, I don't want to be given quests, I want quests to find me. I want to talk to an NPC, learn their story, find a little about them, then see if they need help. Some will say no, but others will offer you rewards for just day to day quests that they are too lazy to do. Might sound strange but that's what I'm hoping for.
In Chronicles of Elyria, quests follow you. The alignment of the planets and the stars at your birth provide you with a destiny unknown to you, which will trigger events if the right conditions have been met...
Also yes, our NPC AI is based off psychology's OCEAN, so they've all got their own individual wants and needs. They may or may not give you tasks, and they may or may not accept yours... or perhaps execute it how they interpret it...
I'm mobile currently so I can't offer a more in-depth explanation yet! Anyone wanna fill in for a bit?
So, I can try on this.
Your birthday determines your story via the engine. Its crazy stuff that they haven't gone into TOO much detail with, however, each soul (think character slot) has their own story, and a kind of karma, that follows them throughout, in which your actions will effect your soul, making it darker or brighter, dependent on what you do. So, each time your soul inhabits a body, it mixes with what your soul has already done, to give you a web of possibilities for you in this life. Each potential action you can take will move you further down on path or another. The further you go along that path, the deeper the engine will take you, opening up new options to you. Like, if for the last couple lives you've been desperately searching for dark magic/lichdom, maybe you'll actually find it, due to a chance encounter with a random npc or the like.
Further, you can CHANGE your direction, decide to be good instead of evil, or lawful instead of chaotic, however they decide to quantize it. Anyways, the game may give you a quest about killing someone and taking their stuff, because that's what you've been kinda doing lately, but you decide not to, and instead help them out. Well, now you've unlocked a redemption track of your story. That will then play out for you.
Maybe you want to be the greatest blacksmith? Well, start early, and the game will give you related quests, with a whole bunch of random possibilities based off the RNG for your birthday (of your character mind) and modifiers for your soul, that will help you achieve that task, or at least make it more interesting, give you a story worth playing with it.
Rather expect NPCs to react to your destiny to at least some degree, such that people won't be able to get the same kind of conversations from the same NPCs all the time.
So its, pretty complicated, but boils down to the random encounter tables from D&D dungeon master's guides, writ large, with like, actual story and meaning to them. Still though, lots of numerolgy, and astrology, with your star being able to say things about you....
Ok, so bit more stuff, your soul has a soul mate. Which may or may not ever actually get played by a person, but they totally exist, and theoretically shouldn't be a soul you own. So their destiny is tied to your own. Which could mean working together, or being mortal enemies. Don't think romantic soul mate. That's a different mechanic, that you can kinda trigger via a special marriage function thing, with another player. Anyways, if you are good and your soul mate is evil, you'll get extremely similar but opposite quests. You'll also just kinda notice, if they come close. Specifics probably aren't ironed out yet.
Caeoltoiri if I'm dead wrong about any of this, please let me know, because this is accurate as best as I can figure from the stuff I've read.
Also note, I am NOT official in any way shape or form, so whilst I believe this is all accurate, it may not be, until confirmed by an actual dev/mod/outreach type.
Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
I've not heard of Tori's OCEAN model before, so I decided to do some quick googling. It seems like it works with a "Simple RPG Character" model of Goals, Interests, and Relationships to build interaction preferences with other characters.
Ocean stands for:
Openness to experience - a willingness to try new things, curiosity
Conscientiousness - tendency to either act spontaneously, or set and stick to a plan
Extroversion - a preference to interact with others, opposite of Introversion
Agreeableness - a tendency to cooperate with others
Neuroticism - a tendency to become bothered by something, can be seen as temper
These are incredibly simplified explanations and should be taken with a grain of research.
If we apply OCEAN to our "Simple RPG Character" we can make a good guess as to how the character will act in certain situations. A person who is open to new experiences is likely to set goals that reflect such (get a new job, visit the capital). An extrovert is likely to have more relationships than usual, and possibly more willing to part with information, if they are also agreeable.
This whole thing melds together to create more interesting and human-like NPCs.
On the topic of how I'd like NPC interactions to work, I'd want NPCs and players to be indistinguishable. I want to be able to live in a town and not know how many other players there. For all I know there are no NPCs at all... or maybe I'm the only player there?!
Vexirion, I also had to google it.
This sounds awesome, I like how complicated the NPCs will be
Xuerou Wyvernwood Mayoress of Imbrium Ridge Kingdom of Ashland Duchy of Fioralba
I'd love to see a UI that vaguely resembles the old Elder Scrolls system (Morrowind's, specifically), without the lock-in of a fullscreen chat window. A side-scrolling, resizeable chat window in which we can click key words or phrases to further explore them would work well with BDO's soft mouse-locking system, where the player can switch between moving the camera with the mouse and using the mouse to click things onscreen. If the player is attacked or notices something they want to look at midconvo, they can just relock their mouse and swing around to react. Being able to either click points of interest in a conversation or type them to see what the NPC knows about the topic seems to me like a simple and effective way to handle interactions.
Of course, "simple" might not factor in when we have contracts in the mix... given the level of complexity some of them will have :S
To touch Divinity, one must be prepared to brave Reality.
Posted By Vexirion at 9:13 PM - Wed Apr 19 2017
For all I know there are no NPCs at all... or maybe I'm the only player there?!
Though this would be very unlikely, this would be incredibly interesting to see/experience! It'd be like playing a single player game with a bunch of NPC's. Almost like a tutorial town until you go out into a new town that could be filled with PC's rather than the latter. I could imagine someone complaining that their town is an empty shell, though this OCEAN program may prove to be good at actually mimicing human interaction to the extent of making it still seem entirely realistic. What I'm most curious of, now, is how the chat system will pan out with PC's vs. NPC's. Chatbox for all or seperate for NPC's? Maybe It'll all be the same wheel-interaction system with both? Yes, a very interesting ponder...
