NPCs and why they must be stuffed into every possible game.

From: Takomtor
Date: 2002-03-20 11:50:27

Hi,

I remember, while playing paper and pen RPGs, NPCs were mostly used as: desperate last minute aid (WHAT a SURPRISE he came and saved us) or as a tool to radically change the story also they were used to bring some extra life into the world (mostly mentioning that there are about 10 000 people living in this city).

Whenever I have been playing computer games, NPCs are there for the same reasons, but total number is far less than it can be in pen and paper game.

As I play online games these NPCs still populate the streets. Why is this? Why he exists there? There is plenty of players to keep cities bustling with activity. There is also plenty of possibilities for sudden events. I don't want NPC to do these jobs. He can take his predictable comments somewhere else destroy somebody else's illusion.

There was of course the statement of boring tasks that need NPC assistance. Tell me - in how many games NPCs are actually performing boring tasks like lets say cleaning, administration, cooking, farming, herding...

NPCs job seems to be to act as an gateway between the player and the we-have-everything-here-land. He buys objects in constant prices and doesn't care if you dump thousands into his stock (after all, one REALLY needs a place, where to dump all that stuff that magically appears for ever spawning enemies). NPCs can also present almost any number of goods for you so no need to worry about running out of food, hey they just have it, after all it IS restaurant.

Hmm, what about world being dangerous and therefore we need NPC security??? What if the world IS dangerous and we just need to survive all those Player Killers that live out there.

What else?

Oh yes. Why is it that after something is invented or created, its history seems to be impossible to drop. Paper and Pen games needed NPCs and they were introduced. Still they keep on popping about in every game I have played... developers tweak their appearance, behaviour, but they still are merely NPCs.

Hmmm, no conclusion here
Bye

From: namhas
Date: 2002-03-20 12:03:04
In-Reply-To: 1271

It's a question whether we want real cities with realistic population counts or just a few cities that may have 10 players in, if lucky. If there's no players online defending the city, standing on guard, and orcs attack, they have no-one to oppose the attack. Even if we have all the citizens online, they may
not be twiddling in the city but adventuring elsewhere. Conquering cities would be just too easy.

From: Archantes
Date: 2002-03-20 16:33:44
In-Reply-To: 1271

We need NPCs because as mentioned, it's not a living world if it has only 1 000 players active and space for 100 000. This is a huge world and without NPCs it is an empty huge world.

But in my opinion, yes, the NPCs should be just like ordinary people - they should (and will) act as identical to PCs as possible by the AI code.

So there will be no 'unlimited food' -restaurants or traders 'always having money to byu all your stuff'. Or if there will be.. well I will not like that ;)

This way we might even have a world that is living and realistic.