Advanced interactions

[khravv]

For the most part, I think we have acknowledged that this is going to be hard, and as I said earlier, we should focus first upon a Prototype mod that is more of a proof of concept to show that it could be done possibly, this way other modders may be motivated, and we can see what really works or does not work in the game itself.

But first, I think there are a few things we need to work out.

First, is that we know making a fully realistic AI would be hard, and if there was more then one of them, they may overload and/or crash the game if they get near each other.

This could resolved by attempting to create an illusion of realism. Faking it. Instead of trying to create all of these morals and personal interests and evolving moods, we could see what all we could do to shortcut it, and make it more possible without crashing the game. After all, they may not have to be that elaborate to seem so. This leads to the second thing we should consider, and that is how we can make things like that happen in the most simple way possible.

 

We should also consider what we want it to take form as. I'm seeing to trends, one is to enhancing how the general crowd acts, one is leaning towards how specific people act.

Perhaps we should work these together. If we could get a loose not very complex system up (like what Grmblf said about multiple options) that slightly improves the crowd, and then pick a few specific NPCs we want to work on, and take them a notch further. This could be making NPCs aligned with certain quests reveal a bit of themselves in talking, this would give a purpose to the player chatting. This could be done in other ways to.

We may want to focus on Companions to a degree as well. They would be the ones that the players spends the most time around, and would require the most work because of that. Here is where as many shortcuts and illusions would be good, as it allows us to simplify the system and make an AI that won't bog down the game and give us room to make more then one maybe. What we should focus on is rather then much dialog, building different levels of relationship that the NPC can go through. So this way the hero of Tamriel at the end to the game is treated like a star, same if the player gets to the top of the arena. This way if you travel through many lands with a companion, he will trust you more and may even journey alongside you even if you did not ask you, that he may aid you even if you do not pay him or feed him, because he is that close a friend. And also, while it is not my focus, it should be possible that if the Player is a male, and he has been traveling for most the game with a female companion and has gone through fights with her, she's healed him, and he has saved her, etc. there should be potential for a relationship. And now i'm not talking about stuff like she will decide to wear something more revealing, or that she will go through a provocative set of animations, I mean just simple stuff that makes it seem real. for example, if you could replace most of the generic companion lines with ones worded a little bit more affectionately, making the companions disposition a little more forgiving and not as prone to hate the player instantly. Nothing much, jsut make it seem like the NPC acknowledges the relationship.

That is the biggest issue i've had with any romantic based mod, is that they all focus on animations, clothing, and scripted sequences, when all i'd want is for an occasional "honey" or "dear" and for the NPC to seem happy to see me, etc.

Now once again, romance is not my primary focus, but I also see it as one of the many ways (and easier ways) to make the player feel connected with the NPC and feel more realistic.

[rdamstrom]

Well I'm up for working on it on a companion level and see how It works out I think we should link to my mod at least for now since it offers use a good starting point without having to start from scratch and the player spell can dump all our data if it doesn't get to large. if needed I can use pluggy to dump it to an external file. if you want to get fanny I can create some computer voice files so he/she can tell us how they feel.

[khravv]

Alright, i'll be away for a few days, i'll be out hunting.

 

but I looked at your mod, and like it, i'll try it out as soon as I get home.