The Game: A 3D isometric SF RPG where the player adventures in space w/ a starship. The Problem: What are some good ways of representing information? How can you make gameplay out of lies / truths / rumors? The Details: There are three areas where information could be important: Trade, combat, and stealth. I think the three most important things about info are: Reliability, detail / completeness, and age. Reliability and detail would be based on the source''s reputation and your reputation with them. Age would be some random factor that would lower the value of the information. What are some good types of info? How should they be communicated? Thoughts on UI / management? Here are some thoughts (apologies, it''s a bit disorganized...): --- Requesting Info On Places During conversation, you can ask for info on a place by clicking on it on the map. For ease, you can save several places as if they were inventory items (to quick access later). You can request General Info, News / Current Events, Trade Info, and Strategic Info (defenses, layout) --General Info-- Info on the culture, laws, and geography of a star system. Free or pretty cheap. More reliable the closer it is. No expiration date (as it''s so static). The closer the system is, the more likely the NPC is to have info on it. If the player is Neutral or Friendly, the information is always free. If the player is a Hostile, the NPC will likely give them no information or false information. --- --News / Current Events-- Disasters, wars and other info about the system''s state of affairs. Works like General Info, except is less reliable. Each system has a History Queue that saves all the events that have happened. An NPC gets a random start and end range in the queue. Each time the player asks for info, the NPC will communicate a chunk of what they know, starting with most recent info. If the system is cut off, the queue is flagged as invisible info at a certain point. Some info is tagged as rumor, and randomly corrupted (a civil war gets tagged as a rebellion, or a disaster as sabotage, etc.) The info is only good while the player is in the system. Some NPCs are saved for next time the player jumps in, others are created anew. I think bases should save all their known info if feasible. --- Trade Info What a system buys and sells. Works like News / Current events. Info from rival traders is more likely to unreliable or absent than info from a station that buys and sells goods. --- Strategic Info A map of defenses and ship positions. The less reliable the info, the less gets shown. Information brokers with good reputations have good, current info at very steep prices. Info rules are similar to News, except there is no queue, only a true or false state of what''s there. The info gets saved on the player''s map with a date, so the player may be able to piece together info by paying for it from different brokers. The seller communicates his price for the map data, and only his rep tells you if it''s worth paying for. You don''t know if it''s true or not until you get in system. This is sort of like Warcraft''s fog of war, where you see things on the map that may not actually be there. --- Any other ideas? Improvements for the above? -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

Hate to reply to my own post, but anyone have any thoughts on this?

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Just waiting for the mothership...

This sounds really great, but I can''t think of anything to really add.

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Most of it sounds pretty good, but as for interface, I don''t know about having to ask more than once to get all the history information. Maybe the npc could pause after each element on their list and ask if you want earlier info. Or maybe you could specify how old or how recent you are hoping the information to be. Other than that, what about asking npc''s about other npc''s? I don''t know how avanced your ai will be, but it would be cool if npc''s could have lists of which npc''s they know about etc. If you ask them about friends they might give you positive information, ask about enemies and you will get negative information. You could get information on how reliable the people are who are giving out missions etc. I don''t know how important your npc system is, but it was a thought.

Think something like the Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy (the Book the book is named after - you know, that Ford Prefect writes for).

When you check on a system, the latest information gets entered in that book, and you have it for future reference, but it can become out of date and you may get misinformation due to embellishment (or lack of it - remember "Mostly Harmless"?)

You could also set up a Surveillance Network, and require the player to log into it to check out fleet movements and such, but have an inherent risk of being caught as a spy and require certain technology to do it.

Plus, although you mentioned Good, Neutral and Evil, I don''t see any mention of Racial Hatred.

BTW, how could I have missed this thread? 8)


"NPCs will be inherited from the basic Entity class. They will be fully independent, and carry out their own lives oblivious to the world around them ... that is, until you set them on fire ..."
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quote: Original post by Saluk

Most of it sounds pretty good, but as for interface, I don''t know about having to ask more than once to get all the history information. Maybe the npc could pause after each element on their list and ask if you want earlier info. Or maybe you could specify how old or how recent you are hoping the information to be.

OK, good suggestion. Specifying a range might be too mechanical, but generic categories should be okay. For instance: "Recently" being within the last month, "Last Few Months," or some option that means events greater than that. (Have to think about this more...)

quote:
Other than that, what about asking npc''s about other npc''s? I don''t know how avanced your ai will be, but it would be cool if npc''s could have lists of which npc''s they know about etc. If you ask them about friends they might give you positive information, ask about enemies and you will get negative information. You could get information on how reliable the people are who are giving out missions etc. I don''t know how important your npc system is, but it was a thought.

Aaarghhh!!! How could I have forgot about this one! This is perfect!

What would be useful? Their reputation, their whereabouts (heh, don''t ask for the wrong people), any important historical info. Thanks, that gives me a good start.

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Just waiting for the mothership...

quote: Original post by morfe

Think something like the Hitchhiker''s Guide to the Galaxy (the Book the book is named after - you know, that Ford Prefect writes for).

When you check on a system, the latest information gets entered in that book, and you have it for future reference, but it can become out of date and you may get misinformation due to embellishment (or lack of it - remember "Mostly Harmless"?)

We are thinking the same thing!!! Interface-wise, I see this as a date attached to the info that references each star system. Information could be sorted by date, with something like color flagging the veracity of information. Something like:

Alpha Centauri
Latest Info: 60 days old


4692.15 -Rebellion?

4692.14 -Centauri Prefect assassinated, Terrans suspected
4691.01 -Military coup fails

4690.31 - Spies sabotage Centauri Royal Spice plant?

etc.

quote:
You could also set up a Surveillance Network, and require the player to log into it to check out fleet movements and such, but have an inherent risk of being caught as a spy and require certain technology to do it.

Yes yes yes!!!! This is great!!!

quote:
Plus, although you mentioned Good, Neutral and Evil, I don''t see any mention of Racial Hatred.

Excellent, forgot this one. The more Xenophobic and Bigoted a people are, the more you''ll get misinformation or no information regarding the target of their dislike.

quote:
BTW, how could I have missed this thread? 8)

Heheh, don''t know but I''m glad you saw it! Thx for the suggestions!!!



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Just waiting for the mothership...