Re: [Adonthell-general] NPC's and the perception of their surrounding

[Kai Sterker]

On 16 Feb 2002 10:31:10 +0100 Alexandre Courbot wrote

> Just wondering: would in this case a bucket be an item, or an object? It
> rather looks like it would fit as a map object, (as items are unique)
> and I don't know how far we could give ownership to map objects (which
> are re-used at many places). In the smith case, we would assume the
> nearest bucket is his bucket. 

Well, a bucket is still small enough to be carried around, which would
make it an item in my understanding. 

It's right though; would it be a object, a owner field would be
useless, as it would be immobile. In that case, "we would assume the
nearest bucket is his bucket." :)
 

> Yeah. "family" fields for the characters, plus friends, etc... ;) Just
> kidding. I think we don't need to go that far - we might design stuff
> that will just be usefull once, and could be workaround with a bit of
> script.

True. There is little you could automate by having family fields :). By 
giving them the same home, they would automatically become a "family", 
more or less. The rest is a matter of dialogue.

But there might be other properties that help to make schedules
independent from the character and location, and those we have to
indentify :).


To come back to the ownership, I have thought of a pretty cool scenario.
Whenever the player picks something up that belongs to somebody else, we
could check if that person is near, and if so change his schedule to the
'spot_thief' schedule. 

First he'd utter some remark, like "I would put that down if I was you,
friend". The exact words would depend on the NPC's aggressiveness and
alignment.

If the player does not react, the NPC might call for the guard, or even
attack himself. And here it is the same. If guards are near, their
schedule might be changed to the 'catch_thief' one, with the player as
argument. And they would go after him.

But the same would work if the 'thief' was another NPC. Imagine two
blacksmiths always quarreling over the one using the other's tools :).


If our NPC's would react to their surroundings, and influence each other
in their actions, we might be able to create a world that is fun to look
at as it is. 

Kai