Hello. Would any of you happen to know of any material online dealing with how to set up an NPC scheduling system, like the kind used in Ultimas 6-8? Anything would be appreciated since I doubt anyone''s really written tutorial material on the subject. So if there''s any sourcecode, developer diaries, or general discussion of theory that''s laying around online, I''d be very grateful for a pointer. Thanks.

Over the past year I''ve seen several deep discussion threads on GameDev about NPC scheduling. You might want to search for them because they''d be mosty on target with what you''d want.


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RPG NPC AI, Scheduling and Needs...


Subject : Ultima 7 & 7.5 Schedule Structure
Author : Byun DongHo (cpascal@soback.kornet.nm.kr)
Last Modified : Jul 13, 1996

The schedule file is "STATIC\SCHEDULE.DAT". I am going to introduce you about the structure of this file.

-----[ Think as Header ]-----------------------------------------------

Offset Length Description
------ -------- ---------------------------------------------------
00H 4 256 in Ultima 7 & 7.5. NPC num.
(Next header item size(byte) is affected by this.)
04H NUM*2 Same as the SUM of each NPC''s schedule amount.
(Because NUM is 256 in Ultima 7 & 7.5,
the size is 512 bytes in Ultima 7 & 7.5. )

-----[ Think as Body ]-------------------------------------------------

Each schedule size(byte) is 4 byte.

XX XX XX XX
| | | +------ SuperChunk Number
| | +--------- Y coordinate in the SuperChunk.
| +------------ X coordinate in the SuperChunk.
+--------------- Schedule number & Match time.

You can see the real X, Y location in cheat mode.
SuperChunk Number = (Real-Y / 256) * 12 + (Real-X / 256)
X = (Real-X % 256)
Y = (Real-Y % 256)
*. ''%'' is the same keyword as in C.
You can get them(SuperChunk Number, X, Y) easily by hex.

The followings are about Schedule number & Match time byte.
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Bit
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
| | | | | | | | |
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+
[============] [======]
Schedule num Match time
( 5 bit ) ( 3 bit )

Match time: 000= 0 AM, 100= 0 PM
001= 3 AM, 101= 3 PM
010= 6 AM, 110= 6 PM
011= 9 AM, 111= 9 PM
Schedule num:
0= Combat 9= Hound 18= Bake 27= Duel
1= Hor. Pace 10= Stand 19= Sew 28= Preach
2= Ver. Pace 11= Loiter 20= Shy 29= Patrol
3= Talk 12= Wander 21= Lab 30= Desk Work
4= Dance 13= Blacksmith 22= Thief 31= Follow Avt
5= Eat 14= Sleep 23= Waiter
6= Farm 15= Wait 24= Special
7= Tend Shop 16= Major Sit 25= Kid Games
8= Miner 17= Graze 26= Eat at Inn

Avatar has no schedule. And each NPC must have 1 schedule at least. Surely 8 is max amount for one NPC.

If you are not able to understand above, run Ultima 7 or 7.5 at cheat mode and check the NPC schedule.

Thanks for the Ultima info. That''s exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for: a nice, little abstract that I could use as a signpost to make sure my code generally follows a logic similar to Ultima''s NPC scheduling. I presume that Origin has pretty much refined that type of behavior and I''d just as soon crib directly from their design as conjecture up my own amature system.

Thanks again.