Vapourware RPGs where NPCs do their own thing.

[JarlFrank]

Oblivion was quite innovative to me with things I'd never seen before in RPGs (though they did exist previously... I just hadn't played those games). Imagine my surprise when I'd go into a dungeon and find all the treasure chests plundered by another adventuring party that was still in the dungeon and that you had a choice to either fight or say FUCK YOU! to and walk away. I remember encountering a party of half-orcs like this and rather than being annoyed that my booty was commandeered I would smile because, love it or hate it (Radiant AI), it was an example of NPCs "doing their own thing" and made the world feel alive and not just a bunch of "static NPCs" literally standing around 24/7 in the same spot waiting for their dialogue scripts to be triggered (which is one of the single most immersion-breaking things in RPGs that almost all the classic ones are guilty of). Later in the game, a female half-orc (voiced by Lynda Carter) says something snide to me then slowly walks off onto a path out of the area, and if you followed her, it led to a huge free-for-all battle. It was all very new to me and very charming.

I am pretty sure that was either a one-off scripted event or two, of not a mod straight. Oblivion had no such free-roaming AI feature.

It might very well have been (at least the female half orc part) but I distinctly remember encountering looted treasure chests long before I met those other adventurers in the dungeons.

That's just Oblivion's shitty randomized loot system spazzing out.

 

[moon knight]

KCD?

 

[Okagron]

Oblivion was quite innovative to me with things I'd never seen before in RPGs (though they did exist previously... I just hadn't played those games). Imagine my surprise when I'd go into a dungeon and find all the treasure chests plundered by another adventuring party that was still in the dungeon and that you had a choice to either fight or say FUCK YOU! to and walk away. I remember encountering a party of half-orcs like this and rather than being annoyed that my booty was commandeered I would smile because, love it or hate it (Radiant AI), it was an example of NPCs "doing their own thing" and made the world feel alive and not just a bunch of "static NPCs" literally standing around 24/7 in the same spot waiting for their dialogue scripts to be triggered (which is one of the single most immersion-breaking things in RPGs that almost all the classic ones are guilty of). Later in the game, a female half-orc (voiced by Lynda Carter) says something snide to me then slowly walks off onto a path out of the area, and if you followed her, it led to a huge free-for-all battle. It was all very new to me and very charming.

Those orcs are scripted events, you can run into them in specific dungeons. And Radiant AI in Oblivion is extremely immersion breaking, NPCs doing the same exact thing everyday is absolute nonsense. If you are gonna add schedules, make them do different things everyday and not do the same thing.

Then again, adding schedules to NPCs forced Bethesda to use way less NPCs and made the cities have the same population of a fucking village. I'll take static NPCs that fill the cities to make them seem more lively and actually full and leave the schedule thing for select NPCs.

 

[normie]

incredible

 

[Commissar Draco]

incredible

 

[adddeed]

Space Rangers 2.

The only answer really. All other examples are just scripted events. Gothic, Ultima, etc. Space Rangers 2 NPCs do actually do their own thing, unscripted.

 

[Hellwalker]

Witcher 3: Blood and Wine is especially worth a look. NPC routines are plentyfull and insanely detailed. Try any of the vineyards.
Beyond just random routines I love how you can sometimes follow NPC-s after the quest is ended and there will be "offscreen" epilogue scene.
For example in one quest you tell a man his wife is cheating on him, so when the cinematic ends and the quest is complete, the husband will find the wife and he will scream at her. Wife will run off crying and start praying in the gardens, husband will try drowning his sorrow in a drink.

 

[sullynathan]

For example in one quest you tell a man his wife is cheating on him, so when the cinematic ends and the quest is complete, the husband will find the wife and he will scream at her. Wife will run off crying and start praying in the gardens, husband will try drowning his sorrow in a drink

GTA has been doing this for years now

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Like Radiant AI except not shit.

I dunno. I kind of liked Radiant AI and how I'd lure a massive troll into a town of peaceful citizens doing their own Radiant thing, and enjoying the view of all the corpses littering the ground after the troll did his Radiant thing. There really wasn't anything quite like it in the RPGs I'd played up until then

Dude. It's called Gothic and amazing it is.

 

[Hellwalker]

For example in one quest you tell a man his wife is cheating on him, so when the cinematic ends and the quest is complete, the husband will find the wife and he will scream at her. Wife will run off crying and start praying in the gardens, husband will try drowning his sorrow in a drink

GTA has been doing this for years now

Huh, never noticed this in GTA. That's cool.

 

[NatureOfMan]

Yeah nothing comes close to Gothic and Ultima VII. Fucking infuriating when you think about how back in 2006 Todd Howard was all giddy and acted like his Radiant AI shit was revolutionary and definitely his creation when Ultima VII was released 14 years before that genius revelation of his. Worst of all is that his Radiant AI promised things that just never got implemented and was worse than Ultima VII's system.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

People continue to call the AI in Oblivion Radiant AI, but Radiant AI was actually scrapped in the game. What's left is a very basic AI that doesn't include half the features they were planning, like dynamic economies, hunger/thirst mechanics, NPCs skilling up and training and so on. So we haven't actually SEEN Radiant AI yet, to be honest. Shame because it sure was promising (until all the NPCs in town killed each other over the last pieces of bread from the baker).

Also, Oblivion "dynamic" conversations are still better than the scripted, say the same thing every time Skyrim version. Oblivion's system had tons of potential and still does.

 

[Salvo]

Kenshi, Gothic, Kingdom Come.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Like Radiant AI except not shit.

I dunno. I kind of liked Radiant AI and how I'd lure a massive troll into a town of peaceful citizens doing their own Radiant thing, and enjoying the view of all the corpses littering the ground after the troll did his Radiant thing. There really wasn't anything quite like it in the RPGs I'd played up until then

Dude. It's called Gothic and amazing it is.

I never had a problem with Gothic or Gothic II (well, I did end up not able to progress in the latter because it was the first RPG I played that had absolutely no hand holding and I hated chasing my tail for hours because I missed a very important NPC that was watching a battle from on top of a hill) but man, Gothic 3's AI was shit. Worse than Radiant.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

So we haven't actually SEEN Radiant AI yet, to be honest. Shame because it sure was promising (until all the NPCs in town killed each other over the last pieces of bread from the baker).

Also, Oblivion "dynamic" conversations are still better than the scripted, say the same thing every time Skyrim version. Oblivion's system had tons of potential and still does.

This is where that starve mechanic from Kenshi would have been cool... seeing all these skeletal villagers crawling along the ground because they couldn't find food. I'm surprised the Radiant AI wasn't fixed with mods... or was it? Personally, I never had a problem with the AI though admittedly the towns and cities did seem a bit sparsely populated, and I remember one of the first mods I downloaded for Oblivion was one that increased visible populations.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

No, mods never restored Radiant AI, no one except Bethesda even knows how it works or what all was included. That's why we haven't actually seen Radiant AI yet, because they had to scrap it at the last minute.

 

[Wesp5]

VTM Bloodlines has a little bit of this, like there are two gangs on the downtown hub, internally called Jets and Sharks , and whenever members would randomly meet, they would fight. Or on other hubs I restored sequences in which a prostitute would meet a client and then they would go into some side alley to have some fun !

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Geezus, if I had known back then before playing it that VTM Bloodlines had street gangs with names right out of West Side Story I probably would have given it a wide berth for fear of it turning me homo. But I'm glad I played it. Good shit.

 

[vota DC]

The adventures of Robin Hood from Millennium Interactive, same developers of Pathway to power. It is mixed adventure/rpg (you can't improve your stats). You can stay all the time sitting and still some things can happen.
Peasants grow their crops, buy the food from the merchant, buy the ale from another merchant, listen to the Sheriff, go to watch people being hanged, flee from the dragon, get arrested and hanged, become beggars, collect wood for fire, wash themselves, listen the minstrel, call the guards.
Monks build the monastery, pray, collect dead people, bury dead people. Friar Tuck also collect money from the Sheriff.
Sheriff feasts like Harlaus, bans deer hunt then as the game progress bans robin hood, bans merry men.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

No, mods never restored Radiant AI, no one except Bethesda even knows how it works or what all was included. That's why we haven't actually seen Radiant AI yet, because they had to scrap it at the last minute.

Which begs the question: what is the most sophisticated, free-roaming AI in a computer sim? I just love the idea of all these NPCs with full personalities programmed into them filling a city doing various things. Many years ago my brother told me about ELIZA and I was intrigued... until I actually ran it and it was severely mentally retarded only one step up from a vegetable and just below a professional psychic reader.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Oblivion still probably has the most sophisticated AI. They at least simulate eating, drinking, they sleep, they work a job, they do hobbies, travel between towns. Gothic is sort of similar but not quite on the level of Oblivion, where sometimes you'll find someone skipping church to drink in the pub, or a certain day of the week an NPC does something 'special' and out of sorts with the rest of the NPCs, etc.. So I'd probably say Oblivion off the top of my head.

 

[Monkey Baron]

STALKER isn't an RPG but A-Life deserves a mention. The AI will fight bandits, mutants and roam the zone. The ability to stumble upon random gunfights or the remains of them really helped bring the zone to life. You could also see the list of all STALKERs on your PDA, and track their progress (and death) as you played through the game. Good stuff.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

STALKER isn't an RPG but A-Life deserves a mention. The AI will fight bandits, mutants and roam the zone. The ability to stumble upon random gunfights or the remains of them really helped bring the zone to life. You could also see the list of all STALKERs on your PDA, and track their progress (and death) as you played through the game. Good stuff.

True. That was cool stuff.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

I'm currently playing Risen 3 and when I showed up to a ruin there was a mage there fighting the enemies already. After they were all dead he resumed his path to a certain point on the map, where he asked me to help him with an experiment. I thought that was a good example of "radiant AI," as I assume if I arrived later he would have been at his destination already, and I would have had to fight those enemies alone.

Elex has this quite a lot too.

 

[Terenty]

Space Rangers.

I would also add Rain World, although its not an rpg, the way creatures interact with each other independent of the player and their AI is one of the most impressive things ive seen in gaming