Game News Age of Decadence Journeys Through Zamedi

[Sarvis]

I like the idea of being able to hire someone to do it. The only problem is 1) No one wants to do it 2) If someone is willing to do it, they are either a dumbfuck or the best in the business. It will also cost you a lot of money.

The dumbfuck would obviously get caught and you would be found out in the end, sending a lot of problems your way. The superb thief would be hard to find, so you'd probably have to be a thief yourself, and who knows, he might just keep the shit he finds to himself.

As an option you could disguise yourself when you hire the person, so that if they are caught they can't finger you.

Hiring a master thief would be expensive, but then again there's nothing wrong with that. Perhaps a merchant type character would take such an option, right?

As for the thief keeping other loot... well of course he should! Losing the loot (other than what you paid for) is part of the cost.

 

[Sarvis]

How about starting a fire nearby to distract people and get some of the guards out of the house to fight the fire?

Hiring someone else to sneak in and get the key for you?


Of course, if you implemented those other people playing other types of characters would come up with other solutions. You'll never cover every option... which is why you can't roleplay in a computer game.

Yeah, I guess that trying trying to cover all possible (thinkable) options would not exactly be feasible.

The only hope for this is the people plugging away at physics and AI. Even though the current results are largely unimpressive, they are laying groundwork for future improvements. In the 80s and 90s we saw all sorts of great ideas implemented once in a game and then ignored by the community. As more and more projects move to using middleware, however, some of those results will be fed back into the system for the next game.

Agreed that physics engines could help a lot, but I don't think AI will ever really get to a point that would allow actual roleplaying. Not without turning Terminator into a true story anyway...

 

[ushdugery]

Keep polishing the game until you're pleased with its sheen. I'll buy a copy when you're done, it doesn't really matter if it takes you a week or three years. I won't be running out of time anytime soon.

QFT

 

[obediah]

How about starting a fire nearby to distract people and get some of the guards out of the house to fight the fire?

Hiring someone else to sneak in and get the key for you?


Of course, if you implemented those other people playing other types of characters would come up with other solutions. You'll never cover every option... which is why you can't roleplay in a computer game.

Yeah, I guess that trying trying to cover all possible (thinkable) options would not exactly be feasible.

The only hope for this is the people plugging away at physics and AI. Even though the current results are largely unimpressive, they are laying groundwork for future improvements. In the 80s and 90s we saw all sorts of great ideas implemented once in a game and then ignored by the community. As more and more projects move to using middleware, however, some of those results will be fed back into the system for the next game.

Agreed that physics engines could help a lot, but I don't think AI will ever really get to a point that would allow actual roleplaying. Not without turning Terminator into a true story anyway...

Probably not in a Turing test sort-of-way, but there is a lot of potential from just getting behavior right - running towards sounds, reacting more realistically to being attacked, all sorts of good stuff that let the player solve problems in ways the developer doesn't need to foresee.