Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Christopher E. Forman)
Subject: Re: (General) Realistic NPCs (Active vs Reactive)
Message-ID: <1995Sep10.171230.95068@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu>
Date: Sun, 10 Sep 1995 17:12:30 GMT
References: <42sp56$5an@nntp4.u.washington.edu>
Organization: Illinois State University
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Dan Shiovitz (scythe@u.washington.edu) wrote:
: My ideal NPC interaction would be something like this:
[SNIP]
: Igor sighs.  "The mouse can't hear me from out here," he says.
: >HOLE, WEST
: You bend down to the hole and say "go west" into it.  "Hey, good idea," Igor
: says.  He bends down and says "go north" into the hole.  You hear the whirring
: of wheels.
: >HOLE, NORTH
: Igor glares at you.  "Hey!  I'm the one with the map of the maze, here."
: He bends down to the hole and says "go north" into it.  You hear the whirring
: of wheels.

The only problem I see with this is keeping the delicate balance between
realistic NPCs and a decent game.  In your example, you'd have to decide,
for instance, how much of the puzzle Igor could figure out on his own, and
how much the player would have to deduce.

From a realistic standpoint, I'd imagine that Igor should eventually be able
to figure the whole thing out by himself, without the help of the player.
This doesn't make for a challenging game -- you'd end up letting the NPCs
do all the work for you.

But by the same token, you can't make the NPCs inactive, or you'd be going
back to the traditional method and wouldn't get the results you want here.

So the question is, where do you draw the line?  At what point do you say,
"Okay, this is all Igor should be able to figure out.  The player has to
do the rest"?  And how long should it take before Igor figures out his part
of the puzzle?  Can the player do it before him?  If so, will Igor figure
out the next part, or will the player have to do that too?  Will Igor go
anywhere the player does, or will he want to explore on his own?

Your idea sounds great, if you can make it work without ruining the puzzles
in the process, but there's a lot of things you'd have to take into
consideration.
-- 
C.E. Forman                                      ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu
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