From ca50ae87e288e62f5ba8da2bde5c31025475b205 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Simon Brooke Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2021 10:43:03 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Bit of documentation work... nothing major --- doc/Gossip_scripted_plot_and_Johnny_Silverhand.md | 2 +- doc/Organic_Quests.md | 10 ++++++---- 2 files changed, 7 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/Gossip_scripted_plot_and_Johnny_Silverhand.md b/doc/Gossip_scripted_plot_and_Johnny_Silverhand.md index cdb7e36..a311a01 100644 --- a/doc/Gossip_scripted_plot_and_Johnny_Silverhand.md +++ b/doc/Gossip_scripted_plot_and_Johnny_Silverhand.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ # Gossip, scripted plot, and Johnny Silverhand -I've been writing literally for years -- since [[Voice acting considered harmful]] in 2015 -- about game worlds in which the player speaks to non-player characters just by speaking the words they choose in their normal voice, and the non-player character replies using a pipeline that goes, essentially, +I've been writing literally for years -- since [Voice acting considered harmful](Voice-acting-considered-harmful.html) in 2015 -- about game worlds in which the player speaks to non-player characters just by speaking the words they choose in their normal voice, and the non-player character replies using a pipeline that goes, essentially, 1. Alexa/Siri style speech interpretation; 2. A decision on whether to co-operate based on the particular NPC's general demeanor and particular attitude to the player; diff --git a/doc/Organic_Quests.md b/doc/Organic_Quests.md index ae817b6..fd947e6 100644 --- a/doc/Organic_Quests.md +++ b/doc/Organic_Quests.md @@ -12,14 +12,14 @@ The structure of a modern Role Playing Came revolves around 'quests': tasks that 'Gather quests' are more frequently referred to in the literature as 'fetch quests', and 'kill quests' are simply a specialised form of fetch quest where the item to be fetched is a trophy of the kill. And the trophy could be just the knowledge that the kill has happened. A delivery quest is a sort of reverse fetch quest: instead of going to some location or NPC and getting a specific item to return to the quest giver, the player is tasked to take a specific item from the quest giver to some location or NPC. -Note, however, that if we consider a delivery quest to have four locations, where some of these locations may be conincident, then a delivery quest and a fetch quest become the same thing. Thus +Note, however, that if we consider a delivery quest to have four locations, where some of these locations may be coincident, then a delivery quest and a fetch quest become the same thing. Thus 1. The location of the quest giver at the beginning of the quest; 2. The location from which the quest object must be collected; 3. The location to which the quest object must be delivered; 4. The location of the quest giver at the end of the quest. -This characterisation assumes that at the end of each quest, the player must rendezvous with the quest giver at the end of the quest, either to report completion or to collect a reward. Obviously, there could be some quests where this fourth location is not required, because there is no need to report back (for example, if the quest giver was dying/has died) and no reward to be collected. +This characterisation assumes that at the end of each quest, the player must rendezvous with the quest giver, either to report completion or to collect a reward. Obviously, there could be some quests where this fourth location is not required, because there is no need to report back (for example, if the quest giver was dying/has died) and no reward to be collected. Note that a location is not necessarily a fixed x/y location on the map; in a kill quest, for example, location 2 is the current location of the target, and moves when the target moves; location 3 and 4 are both normally the current location of the quest giver, and move when the quest giver moves. @@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Given that quests are as simple as this, it's obvious that narrative sophisticat But, if we're thinking of a game with much more intelligent non-player characters with much more conversational repertoir, as I am, can satisfying quests emerge organically? In space trading games such as [Elite](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/games/11051122/Elite-the-game-that-changed-the-world.html), a primary activity is moving goods from markets with surplus (and thus low prices) to markets with shortage (and thus high prices). This is, in effect, a game made up of deliver quests - but rather than deliver quests which are scripted, they are deliver quests which arise organically out of the structure of the game world. -I already have working code for non-player character merchants, who move goods from city to city based on market information available to them. For player characters to join in this trading is an organic activity emerging from the structure of the world, which provides an activity. But moving merchants provides a market opportunity for bandits, who can intercept and steal cargoes, and so for mercenaries, who can protect cargoes from bandits, and so on. And because I have an architecture that allows non-player characters to fill economic niches, there will be non-player characters in all these niches. +I already have working code for non-player character merchants, who move goods from city to city based on market information available to them. For player characters to join in this trading is an organic activity emerging from the structure of the world. But moving merchants provides a market opportunity for bandits, who can intercept and steal cargoes, and so for mercenaries, who can protect cargoes from bandits, and so on. And because I have an architecture that allows non-player characters to change occupation to fill economic niches, there will be non-player characters in all these niches. Where a non-player character can act, so can a player character: when a (non-player character) merchant seeks to hire a caravan guard and a player character responds, that's an organic escort quest. @@ -59,4 +59,6 @@ So quests can emerge organically from the mechanics of the world and be richly v ## Stuff to consider -The games [Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_Mordor), and [Middle Earth: Shadow of War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_War) have a procedural story system called [Nemesis](https://youtu.be/Lm_AzK27mZY), which is worth a look. \ No newline at end of file +The games [Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_Mordor), and [Middle Earth: Shadow of War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle-earth:_Shadow_of_War) have a procedural story system called [Nemesis](https://youtu.be/Lm_AzK27mZY), which is worth a look. + +There's an interesting [critique of Red Dead Redemption 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos&feature=emb_logo) which is relevant to what I'm saying here. \ No newline at end of file