Critique person management system pls.

AJ · 2004-03-15T18:27:44

I'd like to synthesize some of the other posts I've been making about loyalty into a coherent picture and get some constructive criticism. It's longish, but I've organized it for readability. The personality management part of the RPG hybrid I'm working on involves hiring NPCs to fill certain essential roles on your team. In the most common example, a starship, you might need a couple of engineers, a navigator or two, and maybe a gunner (more or less depending on the size of the vessel). A colony or station works the same way, but may have different roles. The System In Brief Hire people and raise their morale. Give an NPC inventory, resources, wealth, access to facilities, or personal attention to do so. As NPCs become more loyal, you can use them to perform increasingly difficult tasks in the game. Start: Creating A Party You start the game alone, as a character with stats. Building a party means you seek out NPCs in hiring halls, bars, academies and such. You can also hire them away from competitors or shanghai them. The NPC The NPC has a default set of skills, a personality of a certain strength, two factions they like and one they dislike, and a starting morale and loyalty. Skills determine success in certain areas; personality and faction allegiance govern events such as bickering, brawling and murder; personality also governs the chance for positive and negative events, which are higher the stronger the personality. Morale determines effectiveness in danger and combat and ultimately governs loyalty. Morale NPCs lose morale naturally by -2 each game hour (which is somewhere between 15 to 60 seconds, haven't decided exactly). Three things naturally boost morale: Facilities, events and interactions. Morale also drops more sharply based on certain status effects. For example, if your crew is starving (meaning you’ve run out of automatically deducting foodstores), cumulative morale loss is -5 per game hour. If you work them to exhaustion and starve them, the loss is -7 per game hour. When morale drops below 0, it begins to affect loyalty. For every -2 points below 0, the NPC’s loyalty drops by 1 point. Facilities Objects like VR pods, beds, or arboretums recharge morale for each hour the NPC spends in them. The quality of the facility determines how much morale the NPC recovers. The type of facility matches with the personality, and determines whether or not an NPC will use it .The Pious personality won't use the Eros Pod, for instance, while the Merciless type gets nothing from a walk in the arboretum). NPCs can also staff facilities and improve their effectiveness. For example, you won't catch the Fanatical NPC at the bar drinking, but if it's run by a favored NPC, they'll stop by and chat, thus getting some of the benefit of the facility. Same might go for a dias, which is useless unless used by a crewmember who can sing. NPCs must be given time off to make use of facilities. The more time off you give them, the more they can recharge. However, the catch is that you pay them by the voyage, not by the hour, so the less they work, the less economically efficient you are. Events Events can add or subtract morale depending on personality. For instance, infighting, which is based on a probability event between certain personalities or factions, can reduce morale among those involved. On the other hand, the Bumbling personality, lowers his own morale but raises morale of those nearby when he fails because the events are entertaining. Interactions The player can directly interact with NPCs to raise their morale. For instance, he/she can rally the team, providing a temporary boost; or promise the NPCs certain resources by a certain time. Simply talking to an NPC may raise their morale, while asking them about their troubles may trigger quests that not only raise their morale but also unlock the ability to make them devoted to your cause. Success or failure is governed by the player’s character’s skill in talents like Intimidate, Speechcraft, and Leadership. Additionally, character traits and flaws can raise or lower morale on a permanent basis (such as Commanding Presence, which raises morale for all those within the player’s character’s radius). Loyalty Loyalty comes in 4 flavors: Respect (the default), Devotion, Fear and Hate. Each range from 0 to 100, and certain events or player actions can switch the types. Beat your characters mercilessly for their mistakes, and they may grow to fear or hate you. Accomplish missions and award them bonuses, and you'll raise their respect. Do life quests for them or their allies, and they become devoted, which unlocks abilities and lets you cybernetically and genetically modify them. Loyalty governs many of the random and semi-random events in the game. Whether or not your team can be hired away, bribed to look the other way while someone sabotages your ship, or mutinies is based on loyalty. When loyalty is zero under Respect, the NPC has a chance to act based on their personality. The majority quit, but some may sabotage and others, based on the viciousness of their personality, may mutiny. When loyalty is zero under Fear, the NPC has a chance to flee, stealing resources or performing mild sabotage to cover their escape. (This is for evil player characters and shanghaied personnel.) When loyalty is Hate (at any level), the NPC will attempt to flee, attack, or sabotage whenever they get the opportunity. (This is for prisoners and shanghaied personnel.) When loyalty is zero under Devotion, the NPC switches either to Respect (random level) or Hate (random level), since the player has fallen in their eyes. Under Devotion, normal morale loss will never bring an NPC below Loyalty (1). Since it took a lot of effort to get them devoted, simple discomfort and abuse means nothing to them. It takes a specific act to lose devotion, such as attacking their allies or gravely injuring them. Gameplay You free wander as in Morrowind, taking on tasks and affecting the game universe. The stronger you are as a faction, the more impact you can have. The game universe updates based on Risk-like stats with occasional "rolls" going on in the background changing the game map. You level up by buying upgrades for your ship / base and training and equipping your crew. Gameplay is largely on the order of combat, stealth and trade, with some other simple forms of gameplay (mining, expansion, exploration) tossed in. Combat / Danger During combat and danger events, the morale and loyalty mechanisms slow down drastically. Time scales down to 1:1, and as such morale and loyalty mostly only rise or fall as a result of actions the player takes. Theoretically, the player COULD be engaged for hours, slowly losing morale naturally, but that seems more than manageable and should be the exception, not the rule. NPCs have whatever morale and loyalty they had at the start of the event, which affects whether or not they flee, surrender, sell you out (in the case of their own faction attacking you), or cause additional trouble through sabotage and mutiny. Travel Warping between locations involves a number of game days. There is a mini-game involving moving resources and assigning personnel to tasks that make the journey take a shorter or longer amount of time. This is meant to give the player time to interact with his/her crew and manage them and the ship. My hope is that it fuses the macro goals the player chooses with the micro goals of successfully being a captain. Traveling itself is also dangerous, and introduces random problems based on the route traversed and the skill the player shows in managing ship and crew. Conduits may need to be repaired, and little engineering puzzles may crop up that involve moving resources around and taking risks. This adds an element of danger and excitement to even a normal, non-combat voyage. Managing Specifics Players can set individual schedules and tasks for a maximum of 15 characters. To grow, they must promote existing crew to head departments (Engineering, Tactical, Operations) and assign them resources. NPCs use these resources to automatically acquire new crew as needed in ports, or may barter existing crew back and forth with the player’s approval. At higher levels, the morale of NPC department heads and their department fuse. The personality events still work, and the dynamic of facilities, events and interactions is still the same, but not every NPC is simulated. NPCs really become "personnel points" behind the scenes, with one being selected for some dramatic event every once in awhile. View 3D. Multiple zoom levels like Aliens Vs. Predator (console) or Freedom Force. Clicking characters reveals health and morale. The 15 key characters can be micromanaged, sent to facilities, interacted with, etc. If not micromanaged, NPCs make the rounds automatically, according to schedule player sets or a simplified needs system. The base or ship’s map (decks) are exposed to the player’s view wherever their key 15 characters are, with the rest greyed out. This represents “comm pins” or whatever that have continuous audio-visual contact. NPCs may disappear as they go off duty, not sure about this one yet. When they commit misdeeds, NPCs are only visible doing so if they’re near another NPC, the player’s character, or some sort of security device. Otherwise the AV pins only show the NPC’s location and tactical situation (ie, the map). For large crews, polys will be a problem. The solution, I think, is to only show characters wandering in and out of the radius of the player or the key NPCs. This would at least be better than trying to show screens and screens of characters. Whew! Okay, that's basically it. Any suggestions or comments you have would be appreciated. -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership... [edited by - wavinator on March 12, 2004 6:06:37 AM]

dink

127

March 15, 2004 02:21 PM

Wow!

Impressive scale. . .

On the parts that I know well, I would suggest pulling back a bit. . . 49 groups? Could you make this ten, but flesh them out with their own group bonuses, ideosyncracies, and history? I don''t know that I''d be interested in learning 49 groups if they were as detailed as I like them to be in games, and if they are not that detailed then I certainly would not be able to maintain interest beyond finding which ones I want for my crew and ignoring the rest. I think the diversity you describe would lead people to only using a select few of the clans that they "know how to play". That would be my approach to this game. . . when a game offers me to much to understand quickly, then I am forced to take it in smaller bites. The problem is all the dessert left on the plate. . . and with 49 groups how can you make them different enough from one another to not seem like the "same thing but with a different name". If ten is too small, then how about ten major ones, and then two subsets of each? Even then, I think this is MUCH too diverse. . . could the subsets not be racially (statistically different) but just hold different political beleifs (act differently only in the sociopolitical drawings of the map?)

The next things I want to learn about is gameplay. I like the social matrix, and I am imagining a game that is like Sims in space, but with action sequences that slow down time. The character must then move avatars to the appropriate stations in order to keep things running correctly. So you have a social/skill builder and ship design module and then a combat/event module where players react to problems?

How is ship combat played? Is it just rolls of the stats or is there a strategy in this beyond simply showing the results of your ship management? Also, is there personal combat? How do psionics work? Do they add something new or are they just "cool" versions of other combat options?

You may not be able to reveal all of this yet, and I totally understand. I''m impressed with your game design. Great work.

Wavinator

Author

2,020

March 15, 2004 06:24 PM

quote: Original post by dink
Wow!

Impressive scale. . .

Hmmm... As you note, this can be good or bad.

quote:
On the parts that I know well, I would suggest pulling back a bit. . . 49 groups? Could you make this ten, but flesh them out with their own group bonuses, ideosyncracies, and history?

This is certainly something to consider. The original idea was to generally make factions an appendage of empires, so that you'd expect mirroring among them. The Roman Catholic Church faction may oppose the Protestant Church faction, for example, but the only real gameplay difference would be one's in England and the other's in France. Or the CIA might oppose the KGB, but the only real difference is a variation in technique and home country.

Now when you talk about detailed factions, I think of Morrowind's Great Houses. There you have the rural Redorans drastically different from the sophistocated Hlaalu, who are both way different from the mushroom-growing magician Telvanni. I'm saving this level of drastic difference for the different races, who while being almost all humanoid (errr... so I can reuse the skeletal animation

) have different rules that should inspire drastically different gameplay.

quote:
I don't know that I'd be interested in learning 49 groups if they were as detailed as I like them to be in games, and if they are not that detailed then I certainly would not be able to maintain interest beyond finding which ones I want for my crew and ignoring the rest.

This *MIGHT* be okay. Factions serve two ends: They complicate the empire you're in, adding diversity and action as they interact with one another; and they give you a strategic choice in who to work for and who to hire.

In my mind the major difference between factions are: Game goals (which determines missions offered), assets available (which determines what they can supply and reward you with) and reactions to things like failure or betrayal (how ruthless they are, how relentless, etc.) You might change the nature of the empire if you lead the faction to victory, but I'm fuzzy on how this would work right now.

What does a detailed faction history and characters do for you? And how detailed is detailed?

How would you feel if you knew the history was somewhat autogenerated, as in: "Year (x) - (Hero name) founded (faction name) to combat (faction name), but was betrayed by his son before he could lead them to victory..."

quote:
I think the diversity you describe would lead people to only using a select few of the clans that they "know how to play". That would be my approach to this game. . . when a game offers me to much to understand quickly, then I am forced to take it in smaller bites. The problem is all the dessert left on the plate. . .

True. I may be thinking so much about exploration, a large world and replayability that I don't yet see this as a problem. Even having dozens of empires which are simply fractured nations like we have in the real world doesn't seem to be a problem to me. If you run across a pirate nation and in one system they're called "The Jovian Syndicate" and in another "The Orion Cartel", your main concern is: Can I bargain with them? Can I fight them? How aggressive are they? How much territory do they own? Are any of my crew members a member? etc.

quote:
could the subsets not be racially (statistically different) but just hold different political beleifs (act differently only in the sociopolitical drawings of the map?)

This here is where I think you could do a game such as this and get the most mileage. You don't have to know every faction in the world, just be aware of the ones in your local neighborhood.

quote:
The next things I want to learn about is gameplay. I like the social matrix, and I am imagining a game that is like Sims in space, but with action sequences that slow down time. The character must then move avatars to the appropriate stations in order to keep things running correctly.

Right, or deploy them on a game map (either terrain or a ship/base interior) strategically, as in an X-Com game. Space Colony, btw, has some very fun elements just like this, but you deploy robot dogs and soldiers in RTS fashion. (Btw, the only problem is that it becomes hard to fight and manage the fast-changing eat/sleep/social/hygiene/etc bars for the people while you fight, which is why I'm slowing everything down).

quote:
So you have a social/skill builder and ship design module and then a combat/event module where players react to problems?

Yes, more or less. There are really three major modules: The object management module is where you move entities around a map by pointing and clicking. The entities can be ships, people or vehicles. The map can be terrain or space. The map and entities determine the gameplay by their capabilities, status bars and stats: A ship might have a fuel level, while an NPC has a morale level; an ship regains fuel by touching a spot on the map and playing an animation the same way that an NPC regains morale by touching a spot on the map and playing an animation.

Then there is an avatar module, where you control one entity in detail. The major variants are ship, vehicle and person. The control scheme is similar, but there are of course variant manuevers and capabilities for each.

Finally, there is an interaction module, which governs exchange and conversation. There are also some submodules that govern logic for some of the other minor forms of gameplay, but all get expressed through the major modules or a popup window.

quote:
How is ship combat played? Is it just rolls of the stats or is there a strategy in this beyond simply showing the results of your ship management?

Ship combat involves actual turning, positioning, and weapon and defense deployment. It plays similar to Starfleet: Orion Pirates in that you steer, choose targets, fire, etc. Success and failure is determined by equipment and training level of those staffing it. So even though you as the player are firing weapons and moving the ship, it responds according to the skills of your gunner and navigator.

quote:
Also, is there personal combat?

Yes, using the same forward/back/sidestep (ships can sideslip) keys and mouse for turning and firing. The game engine shouldn't care if you're a ship or man, except that the stats and terrain will be different.

quote:
How do psionics work? Do they add something new or are they just "cool" versions of other combat options?

Psionics can impact combat, personal interaction, trade, encounters, crew management, and stealth. At its core it either generates an effect at a location, or alters the stats of an entity or causes a status effect. It's not magic (science fulfills that role ala Star Trek's "fields" and "particles" idea). There's some deep gameplay in psionics, such as the strategic tradeoff that they only mostly affect brains (leaving machines mostly immune); there are two major schools of psionics (internally powered, and environmentally powered); a couple of races with psionic powers and one psionics-only race; symbionts that enhance psionics; and monsters which deploy them.

quote:
You may not be able to reveal all of this yet, and I totally understand. I'm impressed with your game design. Great work.

Thanks! Ask away, I'm more than happy to answer. I've been working on the wretched thing for a long time now, so I'm happy to have something to show!

--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

[edited by - wavinator on March 15, 2004 7:27:44 PM]

--------------------Just waiting for the mothership...

Critique person management system pls.

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Critique person management system pls.

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