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AI PACKAGES, To do or not to do!

Submitted by thedarkprince on

As the Poll says!


Anyway, this is all about a talk we had on the dev chat.

I feel the need of telling everyone that adding new places that were not in the Original game is surely something that goes beyond our primary goal. Something that should be done once we are finished with the main project. This said I also would like you to inform me about your thinking on the AI Packages usage.

 

In Skyrim (and also in Oblivion) we could see random (or non random) NPCs going around the world doing their own business; a few examples:
- Guards patroling the streets or the towns or the woods
- Merchants going from a city to the other
- People (random) traveling from town to town
- Giants going around the world of Skyrim.

Of course some of this AI additions would be too much and we could risk going out of the real Morrowind world but I strongly think that Bethesda would do the same as Im writing to you.

If Beth was to remake Morrowind right now I am totally sure that they would use AI packages (or sleeping, working, hunting, traveling, selling, shifting, free days and everything else you see in Skyrim). Some say this is about "extra content". For me this is not extracontent, for me this would be MORROWIND in 2013, that's how it would have been. 

Traveling adventurers, or merchants along the roads or stuff like that are of course just a thought, but there could be plenty more of that. 

Let me know what you think! DISCUSS! <3

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Last edited by grumpycat on 8 Dec 2013 - 19:09.

sounds good to me. Its there why not use the new engine capabilities.

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It'll take some work to setup the system where NPCs take over for dead NPCs needed for quests, but we'll get there and it'd be nice to have NPCs out traveling on the road.

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This is a no brainer...although it IS extra content.

There is a mod called "Inconsequential NPCs". http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/36334//?

Even with a few extra NPCs in Skyrim, its largely an empty world, enough to fill a small town in reality. But you want limits of course.

Might as well use this thread to discuss what type of NPCs we can have.

I always wanted to see a traveling Silt Strider caravan. Might be a bit buggy trying to get them moving across terrain, but worth a shot.

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Traveling Silt Strider? That's something that I'd like to see. Hell yeah.

Other possibilities? I guess there's a lot of them! Sounds good to me !!!

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thedarkprince

Traveling Silt Strider? That's something that I'd like to see. Hell yeah.

Other possibilities? I guess there's a lot of them! Sounds good to me !!!


And then something like this happens...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOe7scTjipU
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If we do this, I have fairly extensive experience implementing the kind of world encounters used in Skyrim. When we get to that point in development, I mean.

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I'd like to see wild silt Striders too.

Like if somebody were to make them a new creature, that would be an awesome lore friendly addition.

Freelance adventureres wandering around Balmora would also be neat.

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It does bear repeating...I'm all for adding this content in, after we have basic Morrowind content implemented. But any time I can spare for this project will be spent implementing quests; when there are no more quests to be done (for both Skywind and Skyblivion), then I'll happily spend time adding fancy encounters and whatnot to the game. (And I've got some good ideas for both Skywind and Skyblivion encounters.)

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Obviously there is plenty of work to be done on AI Packages.

First priority: getting a semblance of life in towns and other populated areas. As of master 0.6.4, all NPCs have at least a sandbox package so they do stuff, a bit :) Now comes the time to implement schedules like sleeping, going to the temple, going home (door unlocked/door locked), have lunch/dinner, guards patrol etc..  Having the current NPC feel alive in short.

Second priority, add travelling NPC, wilderness patrols, etc... This is very immersive but should come slightly after my point above, IMHO.

I always planned to work on AI packages after I'm done with quests and dialogue stuff, so I'll work on that... sometime :)

Also when possible duplicate the packages and package templates so that we use skywind items and not skyrim items.

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