quote: Original post by BaShildy
Although what you wrote was incredibly descriptive, i believe you are too focused on the prose.

There is nothing wrong with focusing on the prose. I am just not certain it would come into play in a game. But that doesn''t mean one can''t write nice prose to better create a visualization for both the writer and any other member of the development team.

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sunandshadow: that was excellent! Let''s take a look at it more closely to see if we can better mold it to what I have been envisioning.

quote: Original post by sunandshadow
Condition: Player examines rose

It was autumn, and the garden was mostly fallen leaves and muddy ground, but there were still a few flowers. I crouched down to admire a rose, and [NPC] lounged against a nearby tree, watching me with one eyebrow raised.

Ok, what we really have here is a situation waiting to be imposed on the player. That is good, because that is the type of thing we are looking for. Now, we want to generalize this to a template so the program can work with it in various contexts. So, what I see are these initial setup parameters:

• A garden or patio: could be private or public.
  
• The player is in the garden, and is not an intruder.
  
• The garden has roses.
  
• There is at least one convenient tree nearby.
  
• The day is quiet, there may be other people around, but certainly there is nothing alarming going on at the moment, such as a battle, emergency, or crime.
  
• An NPC is leaning against the tree.
  
• The player stoops to examine or smell the roses.
  

Ok, aside from the player''s choice to smell the roses, everyhting else can be imposed on the player. The program need not wait for these exact circumstances, but can set the stage in preparation for this situation.

Once the player stoops to smell the roses, assuming the situation has been setup in advance, the situation is triggered. At this point, depending on the genre, sophistication, and the way the game chooses to handle dialogue, we have a possible set of outcomes to this situation, which you haven''t eunumerated.

I see this as half of a situation, with no resolution or purpose. Imagine that the AI controlling the game has an agenda, or has something in mind for the player. Is the NPC about to engage in a scam? Is their some trickery about to happen. Is this the opening to a romantic segment.

Better yet, imagine this situation as the setup for any of the above. Call it the preplanned encounter with the charming but mysterious stranger.

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Patiently awaiting more situations...

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This is a "random encounter". In bold are engine concepts.

Preconditions:
- The player character is entering a dark , deserted and public place, such as an alley or a nearly empty biker bar.

Resolution:

• Add additional population to dark corner of area: A dangerous thief with weed to sell . Play the normal description of the area.
  
• If the player character has normal senses play:
  

  quote: There's a shady character lurking in the seediest corner of this dismal place. His/her (choose based on dangerous thief's gender) eyes flash as he/she glances in your direction.

  
  
• If the player character has heightened senses play:
  

  quote: Something's not quite right here... the atmosphere seems oppressive and the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up.

  
  
• Wait five seconds, play:
  

  quote: The shady character approaches you slowly from the corner. He/she seems to have a slight limp. "Hey bro/sis(choose based on Player Character's gender), want some good stuff?". He/she flashes you a bag marked with a green leaf.

  
  
• Allow for player action.
  
• If the player character seems weak , the shady character attempts to mug them, Else the character is offered the opportunity of buying one bag of weed.
  
• If the player character has a wealthy appearance , does not appear very strong , and at any time turns their back on the shady character while still in their view, the shady character attempts to mug them, regardless of having sold them weed or not.
  
• If the player character gets out of the dark place unmugged, play:
  

  quote: You can breathe easier getting out of that bleak place.

  
  

I hope the formatting on that works the first time around

Is this the kind of thing you're expecting from writers?



People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

Edited by - MadKeithV on February 5, 2002 3:47:17 AM

Hey MKV, that was pretty fun. Call it the encounter with the shady unsavory type in a dark alley. It is better than your average random encounter. There is some substance to it. I would then say that such ''encounters'' should only be played out once. To inflict this on the player a second time would remove the realism of it.

However, if the player has not learned his lesson from the above encounter, there should be several more ''situations'' waiting for our player if chooses to enter alleys freqently. But each should be a custom tailored experience.

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Thank you BaShildy and Bishop_Pass

Anyway, to formalize things...

I''m thinking that a scene must be set up by the player entering a specific area (with there being an exception for the player travelling with an NPC). So, the area has some stuff and maybe some people in it, depending on how you want to generate areas of the game. The content of the room and the character''s inventory determine the possible interactions. So it would be like in a MMORPG where you enter a room and you get a message: This room is blah blah blah, Contents: X, Y, and Z. The animate objects in the room will have AI instincts that determine how they react to the character, and they will start to do this when the character enters the room (unless he''s invisible or something). So any animate objects in the room are checked to see if they want to take any immediate action upon the player''s entrance. If yes, they do. If this action is agressive it triggers the start of an exchange (e.g. The NPC leans against the tree. This is not agressive, so it is merely reported to the player). If not, the player''s first action (e.g. examining the rose) triggers the start of the situation.

Now the main AI (the writer or DM figure) gets the input: situation start[whatever action triggered it] and decides how to respond so that the player is entertained and the plot is furthered.


[This post is still in progress, I''m going to edit and finish it tomorrow, so you can ignore it until then.]

Just wanted to bring this to the top again, with the note that I started using this in a project I''m working on now, and it helps immensely.

quote: Original post by ThoughtBubble
Just wanted to bring this to the top again, with the note that I started using this in a project I''m working on now, and it helps immensely.

Well, I am sure we would be interested in the details and how you are making it work.

How about something like this?

Each situation (ministory) has a set of things:
type option:
each option has the:
array of probabilities, for each option
array of id''s for each ministory, to move to
end type
Description (string, with the description of the place, ect.)
Options() (type option, each option the player can shose)
Removed() (doubles, shows which ministories cannot be used because of this one)

Player choses an option, say option 3, using optionprob, to determine where they go.

x = int(rnd(50) * 100)
do until mvd = true
for y = 0 to ubound(option(pchoics).prob()
if x <= option(pchoice).prob(y) then
''move character
mvd = true
exit for
end if
next y
loop