Re: [Adonthell-devel] Characters

[cirrus]

Kai Sterker wrote:
> 
> To get the discussion going, here's some thoughts about characters.
> 
> Types of characters:
> ====================
> 
> Basically we'd have three different types:
> 
> * player character (the one controlled by the player)
> * NPCs (people and creatures that can talk to the player)
> * Beasts (all the rest)
> 
> There's no practical difference between player and NPC. They're both
> controlled via schedule scripts (one waiting for keyboard input, the
> other containing predefined activities). If we allow to switch the
> player controlled character (when having a party of multiple
> characters), NPCs may become player characters and vice versa. All it
> needs is exchanging schedules.
> 
> The difference between player/NPC and beasts is that latter do not talk,
> hence they need no dialogue and portrait. They'd still have a schedule
> though, and I could well imagine the player taking on the role of a
> beast by means of magic.

Perhaps beasts should have a portrait and name too. Might come in useful
if we have an 'identify' spell or something to find out what kind of
beast something is and it's weak poiunts or stats or something like
that.

Also one more character attribute might be uniqueness - player chars and
important NPCs will be unique, whereas most normal NPCs and beasts will
just be clones that wander around. Beasts might even be dynamically
spawned by the map (as opposed to explicitly being placed there by a map
designer) so they'd be more generic if you know what I mean. As for NPCs
some might be generated from different sets of heads/torsos/legs to vary
their appearance and I suppose might get a random name and dialogue
assigned to them (I remember some discussion on this at the summer
meeting).

Just thought I'd mention those points incase you need to alter the
design to accomodate such things!

                -James

-- 
   ___    ___  ___       ___
  /    / /__/ /__/ /  / /__
 /___ / / \  / \  /__/ ___/@linuxgames.com

         Reg. Linux User #148821
    http://event-horizon.kicks-ass.net/