Questions tagged [npc]

A "non-player character" is one that is not controlled by a player.

57 questions
161
votes
25 answers

How do I get players to say "no" when they are afraid of missing out on sidequests or XP?

In my RPG, I have a companion NPC who is overconfident in his abilities and lacks self-control. I wanted to create a few situations where the player needs to reign them in and tell them "no". One such situation basically boiled down to this:…
Thunderforge
  • 1,957
  • 3
  • 15
  • 15
80
votes
5 answers

How does Dwarf Fortress keep track of so many entities without losing performance?

In Dwarf Fortress you can have hundreds of Dwarves, animals, goblins, etc in game at any one time, each with their own complex AI and pathfinding routines. My question is how does this not produce noticeable slowdown? Does each Dwarf run in its own…
Rory Harvey
  • 1,422
  • 2
  • 14
  • 16
54
votes
11 answers

How can I implement dialog trees into my game?

What is the best way to implement a dialog tree system in my game? I want an NPC to give the player different sets of responses, some which may only appear when the Player has an item or a previous event has occurred.
Bryan Denny
  • 5,113
  • 13
  • 42
  • 47
47
votes
11 answers

How do I discourage "loot from party members who are about to leave" behavior?

In my RPG, I have companion characters that can potentially leave the party. A behavior I have witnessed among testers is something that I think many RPGs deal with, namely that players will strip the party members of all equipment before they leave…
Thunderforge
  • 1,957
  • 3
  • 15
  • 15
31
votes
6 answers

Who does the AI calculations in an MMO?

I am building an MMO and want to add NPCs. The thing is I don't know the basic design. What does the calculations, the clients or the server? I would understand the server calculating events and reactions, but when it comes down to pathfinding and…
Patrick Lorio
  • 527
  • 5
  • 11
20
votes
6 answers

What behaviors should go into making a "non-perfect" AI combatant?

When making an npc combatant, it's easy obvious what to do to get a robot deathmachine by optimizing combat tactics, timing and attack types, but harder (and more interesting in a fight) to get an idiosyncratic, inpredictable enemy. What behaviors…
Kzqai
  • 1,198
  • 1
  • 13
  • 28
13
votes
2 answers

What is the canonical name of the interaction symbol over NPCs heads?

More often than not, 2D and 3D games markup interactive NPCs (and objects) with the exclamation mark symbol. Typically yellow. But of course, sometimes it's an "i" or a small cloud, or other interaction-appropriate symbols of well standing out…
Kromster
  • 10,758
  • 4
  • 56
  • 67
10
votes
3 answers

Name generation

I'm making a game (or planning to, at least) and to do that, I need a way to automatically generate names for the NPC "bosses" (long explanation and irrelevant here). Something like this is a good example of what I mean. I have an idea that I can…
anon
10
votes
2 answers

How to justify friendly shopkeeper in the cave of doom among millions of mobs?

I am exploring the forbidden example cave of doom. I find, among squillions of baddies, a shopkeeper, who just happens to sell stuff inside a deadly cave where nobody goes. Weird. I accidentally cause him to be angry, and he turns out to be more…
user75521
8
votes
1 answer

How do I convert a Source engine NPC model to a player model?

The Source engine's NPC and player models differ: An NPC model applied to the player has no animations. It cannot walk and holds its arms out to the side by about a foot. The weapon is held in the right hand and you can see the player switch…
PatPeter
  • 181
  • 1
  • 4
7
votes
1 answer

What should "own" the battle state in combat between the player and NPCs?

I have a Map, a Tile, NPCs and the Player. When a player enters a tile in the map, a moveTo event is fired, which calls for any NPCs associated with that tile to be "activated". Those NPCs may be antagonists, and wish to start a battle. The battle…
user6214
6
votes
4 answers

Should NPC dialog be stored in XML or in a script?

I'm developing an action RPG with some friends. I would like to know the differences and pros/cons of making NPC's dialogue using a file in XMLformat instead of using a script. I see that script method is often used by game developers for NPC text,…
Andrea Tucci
  • 315
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13
5
votes
3 answers

Making dialogue different with each playthrough

I'm making a little demo game where roughly half of the NPCs in a little town have a profession, as well as a personality. I'm trying to have the game procedurally create dialogue, so when an NPC is talking about what they do, they describe it with…
Ertain
  • 63
  • 1
  • 4
4
votes
0 answers

Advice on NPC architecture

I'm developing a 2D Zelda game with LibGDX in Java using TileD maps. I am now adding NPCs to the engine and I'm thinking about how to make them so it's going to be easy for me to add/edit their custom dialog/behaviour conditions/interaction/etc in…
N_Real
  • 51
  • 3
4
votes
0 answers

How to develop and optimize the illusion of meaningful character development between the player and NPCs?

How to develop and optimize the illusion of meaningful character development between the player and NPCs? It's very hard for a game developer to create unlimited dialogue options for just one NPC for the player to interact with, and develop some…
linuxfreebird
  • 141
  • 2
1
2 3 4