MMORPG with no AI and no NPC’s The way I see it None Player Characters (NPC’s) are used to do all the boring jobs that players don’t want to do. The Dragon that waits for hours or days for someone to come to slay him. The inn keeper, the shopkeeper, the beggar who just happens to know where the quest starts, I think NPC’s can be designed out you know. Let the grief player play the Dragon and you have a tyrant of a dragon mercilessly frying everyone in his path, the slayer of such a dragon would truly be a hero. Let the grief player play the necromancer deep in the forest, or is he !! This is not my idea I was just playing a level 12 scalebone skellie on the Everquest test server what a ball … after slaughtering numerous “Newbs” hiding behind trees etc. they’re on to me I hide in the field of bone with the real NPC’s hehehe .. my movement is to realistic ack they have a posse I’m dead ..

Nah, I think NPCS will always be needed, but the idea to let people who are kinda pissed at the game assume the roles of various NPCs is kinda neat! =D I mean you might expect a gnoll pup to run, but then he does something completely different. Or even some people could get together, and make their own quests. However, not everyone is gonna want to be a merchant standing around forever selling water to people. There really are some things NPCs are necessary for. Especially banks! "Dude, I''ll go be the banker, and give you everyone''s money! You give me half when I get back on as my main char."

And letting the griefers play as Dragons would be interesting, just they would get bored of it quick if they always had to stay in the same place because of size limitations.

Nagafen tells you, "Hey! You suck! You suxxors! Come fight me, I''m bored!"

-=Lohrno

A true achievement would be to have NPCs act as real as a player who would play them but that is, of course, impossible.

It would be nice to be able to play pretty much any character in the world but players taking on the role of near-gods could be trouble because they are unbalanced. Player killing would be a big problem.

I think it would help a lot if the NPC''s and gameworld were more realistic. Wouldn''t it be cool to be hiding in an alley and when a gaurd comes by grab him, snap his neck and take his armor and not have the entire world know you just did that? I''ve never liked how NPC''s can see everything you have ever done, even if the only person who saw it is now dead.

__________________________________________
We get signal.
There are bombs exploding all around us!!

Rixter:
I agree with you on that. I was thinking of a system that used "probability of witness" to determine whether or not anyone could prove you guilty of committing a crime. Depending on your location, the time of day, and how many people are about, there''s a certain chance that someone will notice as you snap the guard''s neck. Under your specified circumstances, it would amount to maybe 5 percent, but in broad daylight it would be more like 50 percent.

I think letting players take over NPC''s is probably not a good idea, because it prevents them from playing their own characters, which is kind of why you made the game in the first place, isn''t it? While it''s true that I''m about tired of MMORPG''s in general, there are still a few lines I think should not be crossed. That''s not to say you couldn''t make a fun world devoid of NPC''s.

The problem is that you can''t expect players to fulfill every station of society. You might have one or two full-time cooks, servants, street sweepers, sewer cleaners, carpenters, etc. in your entire world at any given time---before they get bored and play something else. If you want a player-only world, you have to put everyday necessities into a black box: people don''t eat, people don''t sleep, dead bodies disappear in a matter of seconds, so you don''t need any gravediggers---well, you get the idea.

The problem here is that such a world is unbelieveable. I''m a strong propponent of immersion, especially in RPG''s, and I can tell you that an unrealistic world is definitely not an immersive one. So, I say you should keep NPC''s for all the mundane duties, but allow players to perform them as well should the urge arise. And as far as establishing conflict---players do that anyway. It''s human nature. As long as you allow PvP, your world doesn''t need one single monster.

What if you payed people to play the roles usualy assigned to NPC''s. Being the banker in MMORPG''s can''t be any more boring then working in a real bank. It might be more fun cause if were getting robed you could could cut the guys head off instead of hiding underneath a table like a real bank teller would. Ofcourse this would have to be economicly feasable but a game where every charactor is truely alive would attrack a lot of players I think.

Well, a little outside the box thought would do nice here.

First off, there are some roles in a game that a frankly just boring. A textbox and menu would do a much better job than any player could. Or an NPC. Second, the roles that are horribly unbalanced should not be casually given out. NPCs do nice there also. This is the logical path of thought on most game, but heres some alternative thought. First, Eliminate the concept of a pre existing society on the MMORPG. Create your massive world consisting of only forest, wilderness, tundra. No cities, towns, nothing. Second, let the players assume the roles of all of the possible jobs that NPCs are given under a set of rules. For example, being a dragon would be real fun. However, if you lazily give a 99 levels experience system, the heaviest players will sure enough be level 99 dragons. However, if you looked at it differently that the Dragon contains it''s own exp system, with only 4 levels, then you have a way to balance the players. Say, dragons have 10 STR, 10 VIT, but 0 on everything else. Then your player has a significant disadvantage to deal with.

Of course, theres a lot more things to deal with on my hypotetical mmorpg. How do you assign these jobs, are they to be a serious of quests that are time-locked? What about casual exp, is it to be only through player killing, or do we have livestock NPCs to beat up. And then the issue of Society, it is definately going to amass on it''s own, despite the fact that we eliminated official support of it. Do we want to control it, or leave it to become either a utopia, or some game where 1337H4K0RZGUY goes around killing newbies at random?

-> Will Bubel
-> Machine wash cold, tumble dry.

A lot of this is just not possible with the MMORPG. To get along with no NPC's you would basically have to run the game only when all the players could be on at once. It wouldn't make much sense for the dragon only guarding his treasure while someone is sitting behind a computer. If you tried to inplement a dynamic world that begins with nothing, you would eventually need NPC's to populate it. No one would want to be a farmer or a goblin who can be killed by any level 1 adventurer. Maybe you could have roles like 'goblin chief' where they can actually compete with humanoid races. I know Nox and some MUD's have a no pc deathmatch mode, but that is limited and there is no real leveling. Much has to be reset and leveled at the end of each match.

[edited by - ohohvi on April 9, 2002 6:32:24 PM]