A REAL living wasteland

[linehand]

1. Everybody alive.

2. You arrive.

3. Someone murdered.

 

It's not rocket science. :wink:

 

Except that in the wasteland I really doubt that nobody ever dies until you arrive. Which is something else which should be addressed.

 

Perhaps with the help of a script extender this could really be addressed.

 

Here is what I would like to see:

 

1 - Random NPC generation which is designed to maintain a certain population level of different NPC types. So that even if some traders die some new ones will be generated to replace them. This system could maintain an average, balanced range of traders, settlers, scavengers, citizens, adventurers, etc.. throughout the wasteland. I mentioned settlers and citizens, but really these should start as small groups of travelers that move across the wasteland to settlements which have lost some of their population, once they arrive at their destination they would take up the empty roles of their predecessors. So if a merchant dies, a couple weeks later a new merchant will take their place. Of course these replacement NPCs would have greatly simplified dialogue trees.

 

2 - Conflicts between NPCs. Like raiders actually launching raids on settlements. In a bar 2 guys + 1 girl = possible fight. Traders with 3 guards instead of 1 = Trader flees from threat while guards walk backwards toward trader while firing at threats. Thieves who attempt to sneak into places and steal from chests/pickpockets and flee if spotted. Occasional angry drunks/addicts who perpetrate various violent acts. Ghoul and other mutant/animal infestations sometimes spilling over into settled areas. Those generally polite little conversations that NPCs have with each other occasionally not being so polite and turning into violent arguments.

 

3 - A collection of scripted behaviors that could be occasionally picked up by random citizens. So Joe Shmoe in Megaton might one day decide to start sneaking around at night and eating people. Or Jane Doe at Tenpenny Tower has some thugs show up to help her kill the merchant steal his/her stuff, and then they split town. These events could be designed so that when one was triggered it would download accompanying scripts to others in the vicinity (especially guards) - this way some random citizens in Megaton may be heard to speak of the recent half-eaten corpses turning up around town, or the guards at Tenpenny Tower may be offering a bounty for Jane Doe and her thugs who fled into the wasteland.

 

4 - Better awareness and discovery system among factions. So if nobody witnesses you kill someone they won't all know you did it. If you left something at the scene they will realize it was you after a day or two (certain weapons will leave evidence too, like the railway gun or the dart gun - also if you kill someone and loot their stuff and can't carry everything you want, better think twice about leaving some of your junk behind in the area to free up inventory). People who are sleeping should not be aware of a sneaking character even right in front of them, and should not be so easily awoken either (like if you silently kill someone, others shouldn't automatically jump out of bed). Also if someone does witness you kill someone they should have to actually report it to others within earshot and if you kill them before they do so then the report won't spread (if they report to one other that other will attempt to report to others, once more than 3 living people know, who weren't original witnesses the whole faction will know).

 

5 - People should not all be so brave and readily willing to throw their lives away. This goes for encounters between NPCs, as well as encounters with the PC. When a faction realizes that you killed one of theirs they should not all automatically try to kill you, especially once they see 2 or 3 of those attacking you die. It would be particularly cool if there was a "THREATEN" button that if you pressed it would be like a warning to NPCs. Like saying "NOBODY MOVE!" so you could kill one guy and then hold everyone else at gunpoint. This should require a slower reaction time among NPCs and slower weapon draw time for everyone including the Player. Then someone might still try to go for their gun and you could shoot them too. And everyone else would be even more afraid of you. Sometimes NPCs should even throw down their weapons and attempt to surrender. Also many people's first reaction to witnessing violence should be to run and tell others/guards and only to fight when the violence is against themselves (not everyone, but many. some people still may just attack.) Maybe we need a bravery level (perhaps based on strength and stamina?)

 

6 - Hostages. There is a config setting called something like GrabTheLiving so I suspect it could be possible to use the "GRAB" key to grab a living target. With some tweaking, and combining this functionality with the "THREATEN" option I mentioned above it could be possible to take a hostage/human shield.

[AdanRyder]

1. Everybody alive.

2. You arrive.

3. Someone murdered.

 

It's not rocket science. :wink:

 

Except that in the wasteland I really doubt that nobody ever dies until you arrive. Which is something else which should be addressed.

 

Perhaps with the help of a script extender this could really be addressed.

 

Here is what I would like to see:

 

1 - Random NPC generation which is designed to maintain a certain population level of different NPC types. So that even if some traders die some new ones will be generated to replace them. This system could maintain an average, balanced range of traders, settlers, scavengers, citizens, adventurers, etc.. throughout the wasteland. I mentioned settlers and citizens, but really these should start as small groups of travelers that move across the wasteland to settlements which have lost some of their population, once they arrive at their destination they would take up the empty roles of their predecessors. So if a merchant dies, a couple weeks later a new merchant will take their place. Of course these replacement NPCs would have greatly simplified dialogue trees.

 

2 - Conflicts between NPCs. Like raiders actually launching raids on settlements. In a bar 2 guys + 1 girl = possible fight. Traders with 3 guards instead of 1 = Trader flees from threat while guards walk backwards toward trader while firing at threats. Thieves who attempt to sneak into places and steal from chests/pickpockets and flee if spotted. Occasional angry drunks/addicts who perpetrate various violent acts. Ghoul and other mutant/animal infestations sometimes spilling over into settled areas. Those generally polite little conversations that NPCs have with each other occasionally not being so polite and turning into violent arguments.

 

3 - A collection of scripted behaviors that could be occasionally picked up by random citizens. So Joe Shmoe in Megaton might one day decide to start sneaking around at night and eating people. Or Jane Doe at Tenpenny Tower has some thugs show up to help her kill the merchant steal his/her stuff, and then they split town. These events could be designed so that when one was triggered it would download accompanying scripts to others in the vicinity (especially guards) - this way some random citizens in Megaton may be heard to speak of the recent half-eaten corpses turning up around town, or the guards at Tenpenny Tower may be offering a bounty for Jane Doe and her thugs who fled into the wasteland.

 

4 - Better awareness and discovery system among factions. So if nobody witnesses you kill someone they won't all know you did it. If you left something at the scene they will realize it was you after a day or two (certain weapons will leave evidence too, like the railway gun or the dart gun - also if you kill someone and loot their stuff and can't carry everything you want, better think twice about leaving some of your junk behind in the area to free up inventory). People who are sleeping should not be aware of a sneaking character even right in front of them, and should not be so easily awoken either (like if you silently kill someone, others shouldn't automatically jump out of bed). Also if someone does witness you kill someone they should have to actually report it to others within earshot and if you kill them before they do so then the report won't spread (if they report to one other that other will attempt to report to others, once more than 3 living people know, who weren't original witnesses the whole faction will know).

 

5 - People should not all be so brave and readily willing to throw their lives away. This goes for encounters between NPCs, as well as encounters with the PC. When a faction realizes that you killed one of theirs they should not all automatically try to kill you, especially once they see 2 or 3 of those attacking you die. It would be particularly cool if there was a "THREATEN" button that if you pressed it would be like a warning to NPCs. Like saying "NOBODY MOVE!" so you could kill one guy and then hold everyone else at gunpoint. This should require a slower reaction time among NPCs and slower weapon draw time for everyone including the Player. Then someone might still try to go for their gun and you could shoot them too. And everyone else would be even more afraid of you. Sometimes NPCs should even throw down their weapons and attempt to surrender. Also many people's first reaction to witnessing violence should be to run and tell others/guards and only to fight when the violence is against themselves (not everyone, but many. some people still may just attack.) Maybe we need a bravery level (perhaps based on strength and stamina?)

 

6 - Hostages. There is a config setting called something like GrabTheLiving so I suspect it could be possible to use the "GRAB" key to grab a living target. With some tweaking, and combining this functionality with the "THREATEN" option I mentioned above it could be possible to take a hostage/human shield.

 

I love you for this post.

[Riven1978]

1. Everybody alive.

2. You arrive.

3. Someone murdered.

 

It's not rocket science. :wink:

 

Except that in the wasteland I really doubt that nobody ever dies until you arrive. Which is something else which should be addressed.

 

Perhaps with the help of a script extender this could really be addressed.

 

Here is what I would like to see:

 

1 - Random NPC generation which is designed to maintain a certain population level of different NPC types. So that even if some traders die some new ones will be generated to replace them. This system could maintain an average, balanced range of traders, settlers, scavengers, citizens, adventurers, etc.. throughout the wasteland. I mentioned settlers and citizens, but really these should start as small groups of travelers that move across the wasteland to settlements which have lost some of their population, once they arrive at their destination they would take up the empty roles of their predecessors. So if a merchant dies, a couple weeks later a new merchant will take their place. Of course these replacement NPCs would have greatly simplified dialogue trees.

 

2 - Conflicts between NPCs. Like raiders actually launching raids on settlements. In a bar 2 guys + 1 girl = possible fight. Traders with 3 guards instead of 1 = Trader flees from threat while guards walk backwards toward trader while firing at threats. Thieves who attempt to sneak into places and steal from chests/pickpockets and flee if spotted. Occasional angry drunks/addicts who perpetrate various violent acts. Ghoul and other mutant/animal infestations sometimes spilling over into settled areas. Those generally polite little conversations that NPCs have with each other occasionally not being so polite and turning into violent arguments.

 

3 - A collection of scripted behaviors that could be occasionally picked up by random citizens. So Joe Shmoe in Megaton might one day decide to start sneaking around at night and eating people. Or Jane Doe at Tenpenny Tower has some thugs show up to help her kill the merchant steal his/her stuff, and then they split town. These events could be designed so that when one was triggered it would download accompanying scripts to others in the vicinity (especially guards) - this way some random citizens in Megaton may be heard to speak of the recent half-eaten corpses turning up around town, or the guards at Tenpenny Tower may be offering a bounty for Jane Doe and her thugs who fled into the wasteland.

 

4 - Better awareness and discovery system among factions. So if nobody witnesses you kill someone they won't all know you did it. If you left something at the scene they will realize it was you after a day or two (certain weapons will leave evidence too, like the railway gun or the dart gun - also if you kill someone and loot their stuff and can't carry everything you want, better think twice about leaving some of your junk behind in the area to free up inventory). People who are sleeping should not be aware of a sneaking character even right in front of them, and should not be so easily awoken either (like if you silently kill someone, others shouldn't automatically jump out of bed). Also if someone does witness you kill someone they should have to actually report it to others within earshot and if you kill them before they do so then the report won't spread (if they report to one other that other will attempt to report to others, once more than 3 living people know, who weren't original witnesses the whole faction will know).

 

5 - People should not all be so brave and readily willing to throw their lives away. This goes for encounters between NPCs, as well as encounters with the PC. When a faction realizes that you killed one of theirs they should not all automatically try to kill you, especially once they see 2 or 3 of those attacking you die. It would be particularly cool if there was a "THREATEN" button that if you pressed it would be like a warning to NPCs. Like saying "NOBODY MOVE!" so you could kill one guy and then hold everyone else at gunpoint. This should require a slower reaction time among NPCs and slower weapon draw time for everyone including the Player. Then someone might still try to go for their gun and you could shoot them too. And everyone else would be even more afraid of you. Sometimes NPCs should even throw down their weapons and attempt to surrender. Also many people's first reaction to witnessing violence should be to run and tell others/guards and only to fight when the violence is against themselves (not everyone, but many. some people still may just attack.) Maybe we need a bravery level (perhaps based on strength and stamina?)

 

6 - Hostages. There is a config setting called something like GrabTheLiving so I suspect it could be possible to use the "GRAB" key to grab a living target. With some tweaking, and combining this functionality with the "THREATEN" option I mentioned above it could be possible to take a hostage/human shield.

 

 

 

Talk about a Home-Friggen-Run with that one