NPC - Hobbies/Side hustles and active modes
Suggestion.
NPC characters will have their regular duties, they will be engaged in a task, on a rest break, sleeping or..... indulging in their hobby or side hustle.
Hobby/sentiment modes:
Reading a book/datapad.
Watching or listening to media.
Talking in a bar.
Exercising gym or otherwise.
Target practice.
Racing.
Fab lab tinkering.
Arts and crafts
Card or thing collecting.
Pub or table gaming.
Dancing.
Swimming. Sailing. Hang-gliding.
Parkour. Rock climbing.
Worshipping
Helping others. Cause or general.
Nature walking and picnicking.
Fixer upper projects.
Side Hustles :
Trading in small hard to get goods.
Gambling or running a pool.
Tricks and trolling characters and NPC characters.
Covering for others duties.
Theft
These activities will create a background for many types of encounter entanglements with consequences.
NPC characters could have one or two of these traits and occasionally engage in any one of the others.
The hope is that this will make NPC characters feel less flat and more challenging.
Please add your suggestions to the lists.
I like this feedback
Do NPC characters get vacations?
Do NPC characters get vacations?
I like this suggestion. It would be cool if NPCs weren't working 24/7. This would make them more believable. Other suggestions for NPCs (single player):
1. NPCs are of varying skill in different areas and can potentially even level up in certain areas (for example, shooting, flying, welding, social skills, etc.).
2. There is something like morale within the crew, which affects their work quality (for example, shooting accuracy, work speed, theft, and even mutiny). Morale could be influenced by various factors, such as food variety, leisure activities, working hours, and more.
3. Each NPC could have personality traits (inspired by State of Destiny 2). With positive and negative traits (early riser, pacifist, hopeful, loyal, selfish, liar, etc.). Traits that harmonize better or worse with the traits of other NPCs, allowing you to assemble targeted crews.
4. To expand on the idea of State of Decay, you could switch back and forth between all NPC characters, depending on who you want to manually control at the time.
5. The implementation of a permadeath system so that the death of a leader requires the election of a new one, with different traits and thus different advantages and disadvantages for their company. So that the loss of a warrior in battle is a real loss and more than just a respawn.
6. NPCs have different ages and die of old age to give each one more depth.
7. NPCs can reproduce and have children. You could also create children deliberately using artificial insemination in the medical station. If implementing child animations is too much effort, you could also grow the child in a glass tube until it is fully grown, also to speed up the creation time.
___________
All of these things would not only add more depth to the NPCs but also to the whole aspect of colonizing new planets, which seems to be the focus. This could make the story believable and even carry it while still doing justice to the sandbox nature of the game.
I like this suggestion. It would be cool if NPCs weren't working 24/7. This would make them more believable. Other suggestions for NPCs (single player):
1. NPCs are of varying skill in different areas and can potentially even level up in certain areas (for example, shooting, flying, welding, social skills, etc.).
2. There is something like morale within the crew, which affects their work quality (for example, shooting accuracy, work speed, theft, and even mutiny). Morale could be influenced by various factors, such as food variety, leisure activities, working hours, and more.
3. Each NPC could have personality traits (inspired by State of Destiny 2). With positive and negative traits (early riser, pacifist, hopeful, loyal, selfish, liar, etc.). Traits that harmonize better or worse with the traits of other NPCs, allowing you to assemble targeted crews.
4. To expand on the idea of State of Decay, you could switch back and forth between all NPC characters, depending on who you want to manually control at the time.
5. The implementation of a permadeath system so that the death of a leader requires the election of a new one, with different traits and thus different advantages and disadvantages for their company. So that the loss of a warrior in battle is a real loss and more than just a respawn.
6. NPCs have different ages and die of old age to give each one more depth.
7. NPCs can reproduce and have children. You could also create children deliberately using artificial insemination in the medical station. If implementing child animations is too much effort, you could also grow the child in a glass tube until it is fully grown, also to speed up the creation time.
___________
All of these things would not only add more depth to the NPCs but also to the whole aspect of colonizing new planets, which seems to be the focus. This could make the story believable and even carry it while still doing justice to the sandbox nature of the game.
@Deon Beauchamp NPCs could engage in hobbies when not doing something else, though if they're just playing sandbox instead of story then players will be less inclined to make use of them without some manner of significant benefit, and having to worry about negative behaviors (theft, assault, mutiny, ect...) would strongly incentivize not having npc crewmen.
@Kim Hansson
"...the death of a leader requires the election of a new one..." "...NPCs have different ages and die of old age..."
-That sounds a lot more like grand-strategy than it does a first person sandbox shooter/builder. Having to concern yourself with internal politics when you are just trying to operate a few ships/bases would be more annoying than anything, and implementing old age would either be meaningless (With a 2hr day it will take 2.5 years of server up time just to go from green to retirement), or (if lifespans are shorter) it would give people anxiety about the possibility of their own character keeling over from old age.
@Deon Beauchamp NPCs could engage in hobbies when not doing something else, though if they're just playing sandbox instead of story then players will be less inclined to make use of them without some manner of significant benefit, and having to worry about negative behaviors (theft, assault, mutiny, ect...) would strongly incentivize not having npc crewmen.
@Kim Hansson
"...the death of a leader requires the election of a new one..." "...NPCs have different ages and die of old age..."
-That sounds a lot more like grand-strategy than it does a first person sandbox shooter/builder. Having to concern yourself with internal politics when you are just trying to operate a few ships/bases would be more annoying than anything, and implementing old age would either be meaningless (With a 2hr day it will take 2.5 years of server up time just to go from green to retirement), or (if lifespans are shorter) it would give people anxiety about the possibility of their own character keeling over from old age.
@Tael - You are assuming that the player is the commander of the ship or base.
@Tael - You are assuming that the player is the commander of the ship or base.
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