Instructing NPCs

Everything about Illarion that fits nowhere else. / Alles über Illarion was inhaltlich in kein anderes Board passt.

Moderator: Gamemasters

Post Reply
User avatar
Nalzaxx
Posts: 1234
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:14 pm
Location: In Ethereal Thoughts

Instructing NPCs

Post by Nalzaxx »

Whenever I see a quest involving monsters and one or more GM's there is always moments of hilarity as the GM in question fails to adequately direct the monsters in his desired direction. Therefore I'm proposing that more control is given over NPC and particularly Monster behaviour.

This proposal is fairly straightforward, although I'm really unsure about the technical implications/possibilities of implementing it.


Firstly it would be useful for GM's to be able become effectively invisible from monsters. Although they can become invisible to players, monsters inevitably give away their location by running up to them and whacking thin air. Although Im not sure if it would be possible due to the way nature of players/monsters.


Secondly would be a series of commands that could instruct NPC's into certain behaviours. For instance a GM could tell a monster to halt and it would remain on the spot attacking all who come in range. Or they could be told to walk in a certain direction.

This would depend of course on whether this is currently possible, and on the time needed to implement it, but here is a list of what I think might be vaguely possible.

Stop - Stand Still on the spot
Move Normally - Clear all commands / Return to original state
Walk Direction # - Walk # of steps in a certain direction (N/S/E/W)
Wait # - Wait for # seconds (or whatever) before next command
Turn - Turn in specified direction (N/S/E/W)
Attack - Attack anything
Defend - Do not attack anything
Cast - Cast certain spell
Say - Say whatever
Emote - Emote whatever
Etc - Anything else that you can think of

And then a possible number of commands could be given: Walk North 5, Emote "#me charges", Attack. This would allow the GM's to direct the movement of monsters in quests to create things such as formations, charges, guard posts, arrow volleys etc etc.

For your consideration :)
User avatar
Llama
Posts: 7685
Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 7:02 pm
Location: The VBU is awesome
Contact:

Post by Llama »

Well I'm sure everyone wants this.

And I'm positive that this is too hard to make.

The monster AI will need a-changing.

--

Currently all the monsters do are:

Walk Around randomly
Approach person
Attack person
User avatar
Lrmy
Posts: 1263
Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2006 4:42 pm

Post by Lrmy »

Hadrian_Abela wrote:Well I'm sure everyone wants this.

And I'm positive that this is too hard to make.

The monster AI will need a-changing.

--

Currently all the monsters do are:

Walk Around randomly
Approach person
Attack person
I'm fairly sure they can do a bit more than this...not much though.
User avatar
Llama
Posts: 7685
Joined: Sun May 29, 2005 7:02 pm
Location: The VBU is awesome
Contact:

Post by Llama »

Like what?

Die?

Ah yes, cast spell!
User avatar
Nitram
Developer
Posts: 7638
Joined: Fri Oct 31, 2003 9:51 am
Contact:

Post by Nitram »

Monsters can:
  • Walk randomly
  • Die
  • Trigger a script on death
In case the monsters are flagged as aggressive they can additional
  • Select the weakest player character from a group
  • Search a way to a target
  • Attack
  • Trigger a script at the moment they see a enemy
  • Trigger a script when they get close to a enemy
Nothing else.
User avatar
Faladron
Posts: 1139
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 3:52 pm
Location: Ich warte auf NIX

Post by Faladron »

So what do mules do that respond to "move!", break the laws of Illarion Npc code of conduct?
User avatar
Nalzaxx
Posts: 1234
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2005 7:14 pm
Location: In Ethereal Thoughts

Post by Nalzaxx »

Nitram wrote:Monsters can:
  • Walk randomly
  • Die
  • Trigger a script on death
In case the monsters are flagged as aggressive they can additional
  • Select the weakest player character from a group
  • Search a way to a target
  • Attack
  • Trigger a script at the moment they see a enemy
  • Trigger a script when they get close to a enemy
Nothing else.
Is it possible then to trigger scripts under other circumstances? All the proposal would involve is introducing a few more scripts that can be triggered with certain keywords in the same manner that shopkeepers or other NPC's work.
User avatar
pharse
Posts: 1787
Joined: Wed Oct 04, 2006 9:33 pm

Post by pharse »

mules are dynamic NPCs (same like normal NPCs, but can be spawned by a script). Nitram described what monsters can do. Though I think there is an entry point when a monster receives spoken text.
Post Reply