"Caretaker" profession, and bed-ridden NPCs?

[moist_zombie]

Between the Project Zomboid tutorial and the winter segment in Last of Us, I’ve been itchy for a bedridden survivor to take care of… Ideally there would be morale boosts for taking care of them, morale damage for failing to take care of them, and a severe morale hit if they died…

Not sure if something like this would need to wait for the major NPC overhaul, but it’d be a lot of fun to have now… First, it’d actually force me to settle down in one place instead of grabbing a Hippie Van and driving around aimlessly gathering goodies… And then the dynamic of needing double the food and water, and whatever medicines your injured/paralyzed/bed-ridden needed… Rushing back to base not knowing if you’ve made it in time, or if you’ll find a morale-killing corpse instead…

I only ask because this could be “faked”, to where the NPC was basically a half-radio half-trashcan that you had to feed and water and medicate every day, pre-programmed with lines requesting aid from the player… Anyway, it’d be cool to see this dynamic added in at some point

[Litppunk]

First, it’d actually force me to settle down in one place instead of grabbing a Hippie Van and driving around aimlessly gathering goodies…

Definitely have to be able to tell the NPC/carry them someplace else, I mean if zombie horde approaching house, I don’t care how bed ridden they are, if I am set on saving them, I am dragging their ass out of there… and possibly into a hippie van. Caretaker scenario would also be fun. Mother/father/brother/sister/etc… was bitten/deathly ill, and now you have to save them in zombie apocalypse… Just so much yes, might become many peoples favorite, option to continue even if they die, but would definitely be nice to have something that could be considered a “win” game even if it ends up only being short term compared to the games that last in game years.

[botherations]

This would be a great addition to NPC’s.

[Valpo]

I would like to see Npc with actual needs first. then we can implement npcs in dire need of help. I think that would be the correct order.
As it stand npcs do not drink eat or entertain themselves. Have no humanly needs whatsoever and are on top of that batshitcrazy.

[kevin.granade]

Actually a NPC that can’t take care of itself is going to be easier to implement than one that has to try and meet those needs themselves. For the former you need to get the rates right, for the latter you have to get the rates right, and the AI so that they don’t accidentally starve to death.

An interesting wrinkle you could add would be a family of characters you have to support. It might be easier to add NPCs that just spawn alongside you and have specific roles than to code up assembling an arbitrary faction (though we want to do that too).

[Valpo]

actually having survivour npcs who fails to scavenge food and water for himself and therefor dies of starvation/dehydration or begs the pc for sustenance or attacks the pc for the same reason would be great.
That though depends on them having needs and “personalities”.

[troll_from_behind]

One could choose “Psychotic” and let them starve.
Then wait for them to rez and kill them never butchering/smashing gaining a training partner for (un)life!
Would require a way to chain a zed though.

[Chezzo]

The internets will scream that we a copying Project Zomboid if we don’t do this right.

For the former you need to get the rates right, for the latter you have to get the rates right, and the AI so that they don't accidentally starve to death.

I cut my teeth doing storyline mods of Project Zomboid. They were cool, they were their own little games. In the latest storyline mod mode (disabled by the devs five years ago, and still isn’t in the game.) NPCs would starve to death.

I tried everything, I gave them food, I made two NPCs right next to each other and tried to make them feed each other, I tried having the pc feed everybody (too much like Sims: Nursing Home) eventually the only thing I could get working was to re-spawn them when they die.

I tried to hide them behind tables and bars and such, but it was a little odd, going up to people standing on five or six of their own corpses.

[acidia]

Hmmm, the easiest way to implement the idea would be a baby. It would justify having the person unable to take care of themselves for years at a time while not necessarily needing a specific item… but throwing formula and improvised formula into the items mix wouldn’t be hard. As a nearly uncontrollable noise generator that can either be moved by hand or get a whopping +80 enc in a tummy/back harness… life would be pretty tough. I guess you could leave the kid in your safe house but an NPC or zombie might ruin your morale FOREVER…

[Valpo]

A baby will most likely get killed if you carry it arround in melee. If you leave it somewhere alone theres a chance it gets killed by enemies. Sounds fun.

[Straume21]

Critical! You hit the zombie brute with the baby for 30 damage.
The zombie brute is thrown back by the force of the blow!
The zombie brute dies!
You feed the baby improvised baby formula.
The baby cries!

[Obscure]

even worse, when you come home to feed the baby, and it’s Zedified, and eats your face!

[secretfire]

[quote=“Kevin Granade, post:5, topic:9329”]Actually a NPC that can’t take care of itself is going to be easier to implement than one that has to try and meet those needs themselves. For the former you need to get the rates right, for the latter you have to get the rates right, and the AI so that they don’t accidentally starve to death.

An interesting wrinkle you could add would be a family of characters you have to support. It might be easier to add NPCs that just spawn alongside you and have specific roles than to code up assembling an arbitrary faction (though we want to do that too).[/quote]

Thats actually an amazing idea. It’d be a neat expansion to the scenerios. Like the school start could start with kids in the ‘Little Kid’ role. A caretaker start could have an ‘invalid’ role npc. A family start could have a list of default family ‘roles’ to choose from. Even if no other AI was ever implemented, it would drastically enhance the storytelling possibilities of the game. Hell, imagine the lets plays alone. Even if -you- get badass, its one thing to be powerful and another thing to protect people and feed them when the wandering hordes come to your base… I mean, you’d have some serious Walking-Dead quality lets plays arising out of that.

[botherations]

This idea is gold, if it can be implemented.