Game News Josh Sawyer on Jefferson NPCs

[Mistress]

Tags: Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound; Black Isle Studios; J.E. Sawyer

There's an interesting <a href="http://forums.interplay.com/viewtopic.php?t=7578&start=120">post</a> by <b>J.E. Sawyer</b> on the <a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</a> <a href="http://forums.interplay.com">forums</a>, regarding NPCs in the as yet, unannounced <b>"Jefferson"</b>.
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Here's the post:
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<blockquote>A few words on CNPCs in Jefferson:
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CNPCs who are willing to join the Protagonist are also initially willing to let the Protagonist (the player) command them (just like BG-style NPCs). CNPCs have particular "behaviors" that they like or dislike. Behaviors like:
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* Wild
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* Hateful
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* Idealistic
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* Sentimental
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* Unprofessional
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* Loyal
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When they see the Protagonist taking actions that support these behavior types, their bias scales towards the Protagonist move up or down. Typically, they will clearly let the Protagonist know they are unhappy with the things he or she is doing. At a certain low cutoff point (modified by the Protagonist's charisma, among other things), the CNPCs stop trusting the Protagonist, and will act as a follower, rather than a controlled character. If the bias scale gets low enough, they may choose to leave or (in very severe cases) attack the Protagonist. The CNPCs can never be used as "the speaker" for the party, but they may interject with their opinions or insights from time to time.
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You may be wondering why you would ever bother increasing the speech skills of the CNPCs, or taking good "speaker characters" at all. CNPCs also have bias scales and breakpoints towards each other. If/when the CNPCs reach breakpoints and start arguing with each other, they may need to use their own charisma and speech skills to avoid conflict with the other party members. Of course the Protagonist quite often has the ability to calm down the CNPCs through the use of his or her own speech skills.
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So, in summary, a low charisma, low speech-skill Protagonist will typically only be able to take CNPCs that do not have inherent conflicts with each other or the Protagonist's behavior. A high charisma, high speech-skill Protagonist will very often be able to keep a diverse group of CNPCs together in spite of their conflicts and his or her own questionable behavior.</blockquote>
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Thanks to <b>Briosafreak</b> for pointing this one out!
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[Saint_Proverbius]

CNPCs who are willing to join the Protagonist are also initially willing to let the Protagonist (the player) command them (just like BG-style NPCs).

That's funny.. Why not just call them "parrty members", since there's no such thing as a "Controllable Non-Player Character", it's an oxymoron.

 

[Gadro]

funny. he talks about technical stuff of a non-yet-announced game... odd

 

[Flink]

Is it just me or does it seem like he's talking about yet another D&D game?

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think you can safely bet that Jefferson is D&D, yes.

 

[triCritical]

I would personally like to see it that the amount of control you have over your other party members depends on your total pursuasiveness. That way if you play a savy diplomat, you won't get troubled with poor AI. And if you play a combat oriented character you don't get the help of additional party members you control. My own hunch is that there will be a fair amount of combat in Jefferson, so some sort of control over combatants is necessary, unlike the FO's which had smarter encounters.

I really don't know why they would go for this sort of hybrid system, where there will be some characters you control and some you don't, without hearing more about the game.

 

[Rosh]

Oh, so it's just like the Baldur's Garbage system, just beefed up a little.

PC: "Go kill Good Guy!"
Good Party Character: "Sure thing, as you have control of me." /kills Good Guy.
[Good Guy that Good Party Character attacked dies.]
Good Party Character: "You're doing evil things! I don't trust you now!"

Or, better yet, after the PC gets the scale up way high for the Good Party Character:

PC: "Go kill Good Guy!"
Good Party Character: "Sure thing, as you have control of me." /kills Good Guy.
[Good Guy that Good Party Character attacked dies.]
Good Party Character: "You're doing evil things! Since I like you so much, I'll just trust you a little less now."

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I am having serious doubts about Intercrap ever releasing a worthwhile game. Our only hope is somebody buying them out and firing everyone, then licensing titles to Troika, like Fallout. :twisted:

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think Troika making Fallout 3 is nearly every Fallout fan's wet dream. Well, at least, the Fallout fans who actually know anything about the situation.

 

[Deathy]

It's also Not Going To Happen.
Right now, I don't give a shit about what happens to Fallout.
Fallout (the first in the series) was a good game, but the situation has changed and nobody can really expect any future Fallout games to be good.

Right now, Fallout is dead.

What we need to think about is "What made Fallout good?" and follow games that share the same ideals.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Thats the point Im trying to make: The Intercrap people obviously dont give a damn about what makes a good RPG. If they did, every good RPG would have the same qualities as Fallout. Im saying maybe its time for changes with the management, because until we get that, we're obviously never going to get a worthwhile RPG.

 

[Spazmo]

There are changes in IPLY management every weekend.

 

[chrisbeddoes]

There's an interesting <a href="http://forums.interplay.com/viewtopic.php?t=7578&start=120">post</a> by <b>J.E. Sawyer</b> on the <a href="http://www.interplay.com">Interplay</a> <a href="http://forums.interplay.com">forums</a>, regarding NPCs in the as yet, unannounced <b>"Jefferson"</b>.

Here's the post:

<blockquote>A few words on CNPCs in Jefferson:

CNPCs who are willing to join the Protagonist are also initially willing to let the Protagonist (the player) command them (just like BG-style NPCs). CNPCs have particular "behaviors" that they like or dislike. Behaviors like:

* Wild
* Hateful
* Idealistic
* Sentimental
* Unprofessional
* Loyal

When they see the Protagonist taking actions that support these behavior types, their bias scales towards the Protagonist move up or down. Typically, they will clearly let the Protagonist know they are unhappy with the things he or she is doing. At a certain low cutoff point (modified by the Protagonist's charisma, among other things), the CNPCs stop trusting the Protagonist, and will act as a follower, rather than a controlled character. If the bias scale gets low enough, they may choose to leave or (in very severe cases) attack the Protagonist. The CNPCs can never be used as "the speaker" for the party, but they may interject with their opinions or insights from time to time.

You may be wondering why you would ever bother increasing the speech skills of the CNPCs, or taking good "speaker characters" at all. CNPCs also have bias scales and breakpoints towards each other. If/when the CNPCs reach breakpoints and start arguing with each other, they may need to use their own charisma and speech skills to avoid conflict with the other party members. Of course the Protagonist quite often has the ability to calm down the CNPCs through the use of his or her own speech skills.

So, in summary, a low charisma, low speech-skill Protagonist will typically only be able to take CNPCs that do not have inherent conflicts with each other or the Protagonist's behavior. A high charisma, high speech-skill Protagonist will very often be able to keep a diverse group of CNPCs together in spite of their conflicts and his or her own questionable behavior.</blockquote>

Thanks to <b>Briosafreak</b> for pointing this one out!

Give J.E. Sawyer a chance .

You know there is just one thing that you need in order to make a good game .

You just need to love it .

Of course i do not trust Interplay.

But i say just give J.E. Sawyer a chance .

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hell, It doesn't matter, they dont give a rat's ass about our opinions anyway :evil: