NPC - Hobbies/Side hustles and active modes

Deon Beauchamp shared this feedback 21 days ago
Not Enough Votes

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.

Replies (4)

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Do NPC characters get vacations?

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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.

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@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.

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@tael

I prefer playing in a sandbox. I would enable all of my suggestions. They're also sandbox, just on a different level. Check out State of Decay 2. It wouldn't require the depth of a grand strategy game, and even small modifiers would add a lot to the experience.


For example, splitting off a base into another faction (or they establishing themself a new faction) would make recapturing it exciting. It wouldn't just be a random NPC base with no connection to it.


You could establish advantages or even a necessity for having NPCs. (Ideally, deactivatable so everyone can have their own sandbox world the way they want.)


1. Permadeath together with the aforementioned system of switching between NPC characters -> 1 NPC = 1 life


2. You could disable automatic aiming of the turrets, so that an NPC gunner would be required. Or the accuracy with gunners would increase.


3. Ship repair with an NPC mechanic on board.


4. More efficient energy management with an NPC technician.


5. More efficient food production with an NPC gardener.


and so on...

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"...Permadeath together with the aforementioned system of switching between NPC characters -> 1 NPC = 1 life..."

-That just sounds... weird? There'd be little point in having complexity of character for them because people would just lock them in cryo to serve as respawns... Not a bad idea mind you, it would help solve grinder-monkey issues but if you are using them as your respawns then they'd probably be better story-wise as "clones" instead of individual characters.


"...an NPC gunner would be required. Or the accuracy with gunners would increase..."

-People need to stop watching starwars, it has everyone thinking "human gunners work better than AI"... In all seriousness though requiring someone have a crew post for every turret is probably unreasonable given the way the game works, and most people will just avoid using NPCs all together if there is a threat of mutiny.


The rest of that isn't too bad provided the npc buffs aren't game-breaking.

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Cool, you see the advantage of the proposed permadeath system. Even if we have different priorities. I don't care about grinder monkeys since I don't play online. For me, it would add more depth to the single-player mode. Regarding your suggestion about cloning, I thought so too. However, if character traits make it into the game, I would prefer my version.


Regarding the gunner, I understand if you're bothered by the specific suggestion. As an alternative, for example, an assigned NPC could resolve weapon malfunctions more quickly at a turret.


My point is this: The more armed and larger the ship, the more NPCs should be needed. This results in 1. higher oxygen consumption. 2. higher food consumption. 3. more beds, although there might be a morale difference between individual quarters and mass strikes. 4. a recreation room. 5. a dining room with a kitchen. 6. and more.


It would require more thought when planning a ship and a base. It would be more realistic than a lone captain of a giant ship. Role-playing spaces would have a practical use. Everything would be more alive. Growth would feel more organic.

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I played a game where the whole "each few weapons require a dedicated gunner" was actually a thing, it did a spectacular job of souring the idea by being otherwise realistic... I also rather enjoy small-grid gunships that need a turret or four but don't have the space for that many crew members.


So... my issue isn't nessicarily the idea of having a crew on a larger ship, or the added resource consumption that would entail (both would probably improve the game). My issue is requiring the crew on a smaller ship to perform tasks a computer should logically do better than any human, and having to concern myself with the possibility that the crew is going to turn off the medbay and shoot me because Dread SPRT Roberts showed up on a bicycle with a box opener and ordered my universe-conquering navy to surrender.

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@Tael - You are assuming that the player is the commander of the ship or base.

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Given SE1's resource availability allows players to go from a drop pod and hand tools to a substantial large-grid base and large ships in only a few days, and Keen has stated a desire to get more people in to more combat with less down-time, it isn't an unreasonable assumption.

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Fair enough for FTUE, but in the long term, gameplay requires variety and situations where you are not in command will make for many hours of a differentiated style of play.

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