Re: [Adonthell-devel] Characters

[Kai Sterker]

On Wed, 8 Jan 2003 09:37:40 +0100 Alexandre Courbot wrote:

> > I'm a little dubious about this concept. Do we *really* want the
> > player to be able to go around attacking anyone they choose to? E.g.
> > in Wastes Edge, would we want the player to be able to just start
> > attacking Silverhair, his mistress, immediately upon meeting her?
> > Then some guards come in and kill him?
> > 
> > I think it's reasonable to not let the player do anything that is
> > far out of character like that. There's little point in giving the
> > player the appearance of freedom by letting them attack everyone,
> > but then making it that if they do they will have to face an
> > unbeatable foe. It seems far too contrived in my humble opinion: I
> > think it would be better to simply prevent fighting
> > peaceful/friendly characters; at least important ones.
> 
> Yeah, I guess you're right on that one. I'd like as far as possible to
> avoid the kind of stuff you can see in many games: your sword just go
> through the character who doesn't get hurt. This makes nonsense and
> would not fit very well with the engine design. On the other hand, my
> proposal was a bit extreme, I agree. And we want the player to be able
> to play the bad guys if he want so - so killing non-important
> characters should be allowed IMO (say you kill the inn keeper - then
> the inn gets closed and you have to find another place to sleep in
> next time as a penalty, something like that). What to do for important
> characters remains an open question. As they are not *that* numerous,
> maybe we could make a different reaction for each of them.

What David says in the other mail is right, I think. If the player's
allowed to attack any peaceful NPC, it would not be very realistic
either. Perhaps we could add one or two (hidden) side quests for evil
characters where they can kill some NPC to gain something he wouldn't
otherwise offer them. For those few cases we could create a halfway
decent reaction of the environment. (Other NPCs talking about the
murder, guards asking questions, maybe even some totally innocent NPC
getting charged for murder, etc ...)

Everything else would just seem odd, I think.


> > Also, do we want to allow NPCs/monsters to fight against each other?
> > For instance, I think it would be pretty cool if the character could
> > be wandering through a forest, fighting monsters, and run into some
> > other NPCs who are doing the same thing.
> 
> Definitely. Technically, nothing would speak against that anyway.

That sort of thing would happen on schedule level, I guess. Agressive
creatures would probably walk around randomly, but also scan their
surroundings for prey. If they find harmless animals or characters (or
the player) walking nearby they'd attack.

Actually, this 'scanning' could involve a test against the sneak skill
(or whatever skill is appropriate) of the prey, so that experienced
characters might be able to remain unnoticed.

Once something is attacked, it'd switch into some kind of fight-mode
(well, that'd be probably just a schedule change). Depending on the
script it might defend itself, or try to escape (possibly depending on
the strength of the attacker.)

With those scripts properly coded, it would be quite easy for the player
to some fights go on in the wilderness. With a bit more effort one could
even implement the occasional tavern brawl :).

Kai