I know we will be able to hire NPCs for some jobs. But npcs fall under the OCEAN (Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism) players can manipulate npcs if they can catch on to their stats, also npcs can turn on you if they don't like you or if someone can fill their needs better than you can. OPCs, scripts from what I understand will be able to do mostly everything if you can code it. I would go with an OPC over npc or player if you can help it. If not make sure you are treating your workers right.

Hiring NPC's to do simple jobs like renting out rooms seems like it would be supported but maybe an even better option would be to take advantage of the contract system and hire players to do it? It might be too mundane for most players but there will be traveling characters who will surely need the income to support their travels and survive.

Just a thought.

I'm sure they'll have a lot of functionality. They have wants/needs and they're marriage candidates.

I'm sure SBS has a very long list of professions people/NPCs can be but they aren't going to make anything mundane. It must be serve a purpose or add to storytelling.

I think you'll give NPCs/PCs important and complex jobs in contracts, like "Inn manager" or "Stable Hand" instead of delegating all the individual menial tasks as jobs. That way you have multiple responsibilities and it's not something like you're shoveling hay all day and you're the hay boy.

So as an Inn Manager you would check in guests, show them to their room, answer questions. If they're unable to answer, they'll come and grab the PC, or the AI will know who to direct the PC to.

The contract may look like...

SMITH, do these tasks listed below for 10 GOLD a week:

• Coordinate keys to rooms.

• Accept deliveries/packages/mail and secure them in proper mailboxes.

• Opening and closing the Inn, securing the premises.

As long as they have a good daily routine and their happiness and needs/wants are met, then they should be good employees and follow the script until you know... life happens and they get married, move on, or die.

I think the devs said that they'll be releasing scripts at the beginning to get people started and give them an idea. You can get very complicated with the scripts through, as long as you're very specific.

That danged apprentice was supposed to get the fire nice an hot in the blacksmithing demo, but didn't. Was that an NPC, an OPC, or a PC who decided that it would be more fun to do something else?

;-)

NPC >>>> PC.

For the majority of government roles and establishing infrastructure, NPCs will need to have functionality. You can't expect that a monastery in the game to have 100% PCs - or a library, school, bakery.

1. Player businesses and ventures also can't be the only businesses in the game. There would be 0 attempt at realism or practicality if that were the case.

2. NPCs are a vital part of any game. They live in the cities, man shops, clean streets, stand at towers ALL DAY - do all the basic things that players never do while they travel around maps having adventures.

SBS is breaking the mold by allowing so much player autonomy in an RPG, but they can't shirk their duty to create a story that can survive even without player intervention. They are breaking the tradition theme-park model of rides on rails, but the there is still a theme park and it needs to be able to exist without guests. Think Westworld, but SBS volunteered to completely kill everyone so now there aren't even loops. NPCs must now grow into their roles.

NPCs need to be able to gain skills and level up - maybe even better than players who can augment with gear and accessories and talents and powers. NPCs need to be able to mimic emotions and have their own complex interactions such as romance and rivalry, ambition and despondency.

ALL these things are programmed into characters in other MMORPGs. They are standard for the immersion that classifies as an RPG. SBS may have taken it upon themselves to create a dynamic story, but the onus of implementing basic game features still falls to them.

Without some AI capabilities to allow for the NPC, consequently, to grow from birth towards something more than bystanders...COE will have failed at producing an RPG under the guidelines they set for themselves.

This is also probably one if the reasons game developers were shying away from throwing their weight behind SBS at first - it's hard to see a small studio pulling of something so daring.

But, I have high hopes for the group, especially with all the progress they've made so far!

To me, this is the most ambitious part of their project.

Almost everything they have discussed revolves both around the "intelligence" of the NPC's and the barrier for entry for offline player scripts.

The entire dynamic world revolves largely around the NPC's being orders of magnitude "smarter" than traditional NPC's. The ability for players to replace NPC's revolves around being able to create good scripts.

The more roles that are filled by players, the more important it is that they have excellent OPC scripts. Can't have the player guards "not guarding effectively" when they are offline. Can't have in innkeeper stop taking orders. Can't have the laborers stop working, etc.

The more interconnected the economy of a settlement, the more important it is that each person does their role properly.

We assume NPCs will do them as programmed (and assume that SBS will make them smart enough to do them correctly). Do I need to be a programmer to make sure my OPC is able to perform his role correctly? How friendly will the UI be for creating OPC scripts? Will serious guilds need to start hiring programmers to write OPC scripts if they want to be competitive?

Lots of concerns here.

Posted By Marovec at 08:33 AM - Fri Apr 27 2018

To me, this is the most ambitious part of their project.

Almost everything they have discussed revolves both around the "intelligence" of the NPC's and the barrier for entry for offline player scripts.

The entire dynamic world revolves largely around the NPC's being orders of magnitude "smarter" than traditional NPC's. The ability for players to replace NPC's revolves around being able to create good scripts.

The more roles that are filled by players, the more important it is that they have excellent OPC scripts. Can't have the player guards "not guarding effectively" when they are offline. Can't have in innkeeper stop taking orders. Can't have the laborers stop working, etc.

The more interconnected the economy of a settlement, the more important it is that each person does their role properly.

We assume NPCs will do them as programmed (and assume that SBS will make them smart enough to do them correctly). Do I need to be a programmer to make sure my OPC is able to perform his role correctly? How friendly will the UI be for creating OPC scripts? Will serious guilds need to start hiring programmers to write OPC scripts if they want to be competitive?

Lots of concerns here.

I think they may have a simple time of day schedule and a list of easy to program commands for OPC for example a scheduling system that would have time slots you insert pre-made commands. 8:00 am wake up 8:01 get dressed (consumes 1/60th of an hour) 8:10 am make&eat breakfast (consumes food resources_insert foods in slot) 9:00 pm show up to job (insert repeating job contract, like town guard or shop keep) 11:00 pm take water break 1:00 pm eat lunch (consume certain foods) 2:00 pm show up to job (smith sub order make _) 4:00 pm take water break 6:00 pm go home and eat dinner(consumes certain foods) 7:00 pm study (insert book) 9:00 pm converse with spouse 10:00 pm Go to bed

so on XD might be tedious a little bit but if they let you save some presets you could easily program out activities for you Ocp like jobs, training, and tending daily needs. maybe even schedule up a day and arrange them into weeks so that they will do things like shop for food and supplies on some days or accept contracts for new work at specific times. with an If emergency happens plan section where you can have your opc do this thing, give these orders to these people, and follow these other people's orders.

this way you can be off for a day or two real time without your character starving and failing to perform employment or jobs, setting things like the chronicler of a noble to record events and report when asked would also be a big help. that way if the mayor is out and a bandit raid occurs you know why people died even if the two of them were not on at that time.