Semi-Practical Game Design Ideas

[puur prutswerk]

This thread is for posting game design ideas that (in my case have not been implemented yet because of lazyness) we want to post here to benefit gaming as a whole.

I'll start with the postile state. In my limited experience, NPCs tend to have just two states, friendly and hostile. The postile state is a state that an NPC can be in in which it is not openly hostile, but will turn hostile if the NPC catches the player alone (most likely other way around now that I think about it) or if the percentage of postile NPCs in an area around a player goes over a certain threshold.

I am not sure if I am kicking in any wide open doors with this, but I think this could add "fun" dynamics to games.

 

[baboogy]

I'll start with the hostile state. In my limited experience, NPCs tend to have just two states, friendly and hostile. The hostile state is a state that an NPC can be in in which it is not openly hostile, but will turn hostile if the NPC catches the player alone (most likely other way around now that I think about it) or if the percentage of hostile NPCs in an area around a player goes over a certain threshold.

This is something that has bugged me in cRPGs for a long, long time. Parallel to this, NPCs fighting to the death more often than not in games. If a group of peasants turned highway robbers jump a party of adventurers so decked out that they look like they might have descended there from another planet, and the first of their rank is cleaved in two the instant a blade is drawn, it'd make sense for some of them to scatter. Tabletop games have had rules for enemy parlaying and morale/surrendering/fleeing from their very inception, so why don't more RPGs have enemies that play it smart and retreat or shy away when they know the odds aren't in their favor instead of just lining up to be cut down with no chance of victory?

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The Gold Box games included morale and fleeing for enemies from their very beginning with Pool of Radiance, but this was something almost entirely abandoned by CRPG designers, who prefer having groups of opponents fight to the death even as they are ignominiously slaughtered one-by-one.

 

[NoMoneyNoFameNoDame]

I do seem to recall moments where having a companion did scare off hostiles in Fallout 1. But that could have been emergent for other reasons than a direct check.

So there are two ideas:
-attack if player alone.
-cower if player is not alone.

Maybe Fallout Tactics has something like this somewhere?

This sounds like a good Trait idea. You are alone so benefit X is granted, but you tend to be taken more lightly so others desire to attack you more.
Perma-tradeoff: no recruiting companions?

edit: You could call this AI type, "The Konjad".

 

[MarathonGuy1337]

These are great ideas actually another one which would be cool would be to expand on the Radiant AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2tEVuSA0Xk&ab_channel=That'sCoolDude

I mean as "It Just Works" as it was in Oblivion I think the concept given new technology or learning from the mistakes of the Radiant AI seen in Oblivion could add a whole level of depth and detail to NPCs.