Of course, that post uses the word "reduce", implying that this is a simpler method... you still need to model each need, how it is measured, how it will be satisfied and then produce the 'known' routines to satisfy the needs.

Also, the original poster was referring mainly to combat by the looks of it, and I'm not sure how appropriate a needs-based system would be for that situation. Do you really need anything more complex than: IF health < cowardice_threshold THEN run away? And so on. I'm not saying you don't: but I'd like to see some examples.

And anyway: from a psychological point of view, combat makes many needs temporarily irrelevant (hunger, shelter, etc) and other needs are so obvious that representing them is implicit in the system (killing opponent, avoiding death). So a system that only really represents 2 or 3 needs is pretty simple.

Edited by - Kylotan on November 22, 2001 9:42:45 PM