Hi,

I'm in need of some advices. In my RPG the creatures are not by default aggressive. Whenever you encounter a monster they will ignore you, watch you, follow you, flee or attack you. I think that it is important to show the player how the monster react or in what mood it is. In the common MMORPG you would have a red name for aggressive monster or a yellow name for neutral creatures. I want to incoperate the visualization more into the game world.

One disadvantage about more complex AI seems to be that most players are not understanding what is going on and that they interpret "clever" behaviour as bug, or animation or facial expression are just dispatched as "just" animation and not as hint to the NPC behaviour.

So, I need a clear(!) way to communicate the mood/emotion/reaction of a NPC to the player. As background information, the game world consists of dark dungeons, where light is is important and often missing :). When you "see" a creature you are often only able to see its contours. Animation is not an option, because it is just to hard to recognize them in the dark.

Sound would be an option, but it is hard to clearly associate a sound with the reaction of one creature. Sound will be added to increase the immersion, but I'm in need of a more visual approach.

To ofter more options I only want to visualize 2-4 states and being a fantasy game, none realistic approached are welcome too.

To start with, my first idea are glowing eyes or other body parts. Either changing the color of the eyes or the intensity could be an option.

Any other ideas ?

You need to figure out what you want here. You just told us that (a) there isn't enough light to see anything so visuals (animation and color) won't work and (b) you want 2-4 visual solutions.

First, sound does work. I recognize every special zombie in Left 4 Dead and rarely confuse them in Left 4 Dead 2 (which I play less often) Sounds in combo with a silhouette are enough to signal at least an aggressive or none aggressive state. Honestly that's all a player needs to know as he walks up. He isn't asking himself what mood the thing is in, he wants to know if he should sneak attack it. The risk analysis here is if the thing is hostile and he attacks, he is in the advantage, if he attacks and it wasn't hostile, he now has something hostile attacking him that wouldn't have otherwise.

Service the player's needs here by clearly telling him with a sound and silhouette if the thing will attack or not. The rest he can see with animations shown via a changing silhouette when he gets closer. Or not. If it isn't attacking the rest isn't as important.

I think that adding glow effect with color which is describing an emotional state of a creature could be sufficient solution. Maybe you could use some emotions like exclamation marks etc. showing up above monsters heads?

I'm also voting for a glow effect. It seems be plausible that creatures that live in a dark environment would develop signals based on light. Bioluminescence is often found in animals living in deep parts of the sea I believe. Plus, it could look cool. But I guess it depends on what style you are aiming for.

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Original post by JasRonq You need to figure out what you want here. You just told us that (a) there isn't enough light to see anything so visuals (animation and color) won't work and (b) you want 2-4 visual solutions.

Visualisation not only consists of animation and (texture-)color. Light and shadow are also options.

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Original post by JasRonq First, sound does work. I recognize every special zombie in Left 4 Dead and rarely confuse them in Left 4 Dead 2 (which I play less often) Sounds in combo with a silhouette are enough to signal at least an aggressive or none aggressive state. Honestly that's all a player needs to know as he walks up. He isn't asking himself what mood the thing is in, he wants to know if he should sneak attack it. The risk analysis here is if the thing is hostile and he attacks, he is in the advantage, if he attacks and it wasn't hostile, he now has something hostile attacking him that wouldn't have otherwise.

Sound is a good concept to signal danger. In L4D everything is dangerous, so you don't need to distiguise between different states. The witch is the only NPC which communicates its state over sound, which is absolutly suitable, but what about an open game universe where you have many more types of NPCs ? Using one sound set for all NPC to communicate their state would be a solution, but it would destroy the immersion. On the other hand, having different sound sets for each NPC would not benefit the recognition of NPC states.

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Maybe you could use some emotions like exclamation marks etc. showing up above monsters heads?

Using icons would be an option, but it would destroy the immersion, wouldn't it ?

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Bioluminescence is often found in animals living in deep parts of the sea I believe.Plus, it could look cool. But I guess it depends on what style you are aiming for.

This was my first thought (angler fish).

I don't want to show all emotions/moods.. in detail. Let's say I decide to use glowing as way to communicate. When the player encounters a creature engulfed in darkness, seeing only two glowing dots, it is up to the player to decide what to do. Is the player careful, he will throw a torch to the creature to get a better view of it. When the two glowing dots go out, it could be a hunter who has detected a new prey, in this case the player himself. When the two glowing dots light up it is most probably a creature which feels threatened, or which want to attract its next prey.

Still, is glowing the only options which comes to mind in my special case ?

Have you ever thought of the anime way of expressing emotions? Like a little sweat drop or little tiny faces that appear? I think Ragnarok online had something like that.

Of course, if your game is a serious one, this probably isn't the best way to do it.

Ok, here's a test shot of mood representation by bioluminescence:

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Original post by Ashaman73 Quote: Original post by JasRonq First, sound does work. I recognize every special zombie in Left 4 Dead and rarely confuse them in Left 4 Dead 2 (which I play less often) Sounds in combo with a silhouette are enough to signal at least an aggressive or none aggressive state. Honestly that's all a player needs to know as he walks up. He isn't asking himself what mood the thing is in, he wants to know if he should sneak attack it. The risk analysis here is if the thing is hostile and he attacks, he is in the advantage, if he attacks and it wasn't hostile, he now has something hostile attacking him that wouldn't have otherwise. Sound is a good concept to signal danger. In L4D everything is dangerous, so you don't need to distiguise between different states. The witch is the only NPC which communicates its state over sound, which is absolutly suitable, but what about an open game universe where you have many more types of NPCs ? Using one sound set for all NPC to communicate their state would be a solution, but it would destroy the immersion. On the other hand, having different sound sets for each NPC would not benefit the recognition of NPC states.

Sound in L4D signaled the presence of the specials or the upcoming horde of regular zombies. These were important signals not to be ignored because everything was dangerous. In L4D the signal told you when the danger was coming, in your game the monsters can simply be silent (the same as when specials are no present) and make its sound when it is aggressive. The witch as you pointed out could show a fine degree of states. I don't think that it is unreasonable to combine these two and have some things be quiet when clam and growl when hostile and have others make a few other sounds too.

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Original post by Ashaman73 Ok, here's a test shot of mood representation by bioluminescence:

Consider using colour to your advantage in your visual cues.

It will be much easier for the player to interpret if dangerous creatures glow red, for instance, as we tend to associate red with danger.

Similarly, a creature that glows blue/green/white would immediately convey to me that a creature is alert, but not aggressive.

If you really want to use glowing as the key signal then I would suggest looking at deep sea animals and the colorations and bioluminescent patterns they show. Deep cave animals might have similar appearances in that regard.