So! I’m in mid-game! Hooray!
My world has static NPC’s so that they are rare and to be valued (might play with spawner set very low later), but what is this?
My friend Marcel Huff, while a unique and beautiful individual, is a pain in the ass to haul around…
“Marcel No! Guard the CAR not the space its on!! I parkMarcel exits and BOOKS it to a square of empty pavement”
“Marcel! No! That’s my seat!!”
“Marcel No! Don’t stand in the acid!!!”
“MARCEL NO!! WHY JESUS BUDDA WHY”
Suddenly I am not certain I am capable of saving the human race at all!
Marcel is (I save-scummed to save him) a lot to handle on his own, 5 of him are beyond my capabilities. But five is a pittance if I want to save a race, isnt it?
So what can we do?
Here are some ideas to make having NPCs less… Just less.
I fully expect you all and Kevin to be like, “lol no” to this, but hey why not?
My followers want to farm! I think its too tedious for my ADD brain. Let them! They can just auto harvest/replant off screen if making them move to do it is too much to code. Like a little extra dialogue button and everything in a certain range is theirs to till. I would suddenly have a reason to not only build a non-mobile base, but also a reason to hoard and appreciate my fellow survivors. Why build immobile defenses? To keep your friends safe!! I know farming still doesn’t provide enough food for much, but with some tweaking I would love to build a self sustaining population. (Or keep “need to eat” off on em and just benefit from their thankless labor if the amount harvested is too low, whateva. They eat off screen too!)
Assigning seats! Sit there!! Great for: Waiting in the car! Turreteers! RP! Probably other things!
It would be cool to make it permanent, so that if you leave and come back they always go there, but that might be too much to ask. (Like setting tag on the seat type dealy?)
NPC interactions and wandering in a set area. Add more life to a base. Its far off, I know, but would make those little pixles so much more loveable. Side idea, patrols for soldiers/combat troops in the base. we could draw a line that they follow. That concept could also be applied above, but to a filled in area? Drawing the exact line civilians walk would be depressing. A moral drop irl.
BABIES. I want to have all those cool genes we insert into our bodies and those of our “friends” play mix’n’match. Also repopulation I guess yeah. More mouths to feed, but more to fight for. Hope. We already have a time system, and a trust level, so the base is there. Other NPCs making babies is far off, but would be so interesting. Furthermore, think of all the fun moral ups and plummeting crashes!! (This one is a bit of an unlikely dream on my end. But hey this roguelike is pretty dreamlike in its differences from others already!)
So those are my thoughts!
Overall still loving the game, thanks so much to the developers!!
Please share any thoughts or further ideas below!
Sorry to write so much.
But imagine playing as a female survivor in charge of a colony.
You bring in meat and protect the colony, but an unexpected pregnancy adds a level of difficulty to daily life (idea #5 huge moral boost from sex, small drop from lack, but condoms are rare/old, recipe to make your own needs high cooking)
You are the only one to fill your role, but as the pregnancy progresses the physical and mental tolls pile up.
You survive, but now you have a child to care for (with the dad but milk is important)
How will you deal with this new addition to your life?
And so many new starting scenarios become real too. Lone wolf and cub, couple trying to carve out a new life, Really bad day + preggers
Heh… the baby thing could be interesting if, let’s say, you happen to die, and then the player would take control of one of his own children to continue his father’s work…
“Jabberwok! You killed my father! You killed my sister! You killed my brother! Now I have come to claim your lii-AAAIEEE…!”
And yeah, NPC companions need babysitting. IIRC, it’s easiest to just give them solid armor and a beefy melee weapon. Let them tank some damage, while you finish off the zeds.
Dear lord, that’d be cool.
Even without it I’d enjoy it, but that option would be amazing.
Particularly for RP purposes.
Edit: Didnt see the first response sorry!
Cool! I’m really excited for that.
YES, Marcel died but this makes many things better. Including the negation of his COD for future friends. Researching how now!
EDIT EDIT: I’m really sorry, but how to I set the seat to an NPC and have them only sit in that seat? Im having trouble finding this info.
EEE: FIGURED IT OUT! But would be nice to have him guard the seat (whining no mas)
Why? It seems complex, and admittedly a pain to do, but the systems are more or less there? Excepting stat growth. Though world settings currently allow skill based stat growth for the player character. (Planning on starting a world with this, playing with super low stats and building them up to something usable, RPing as a child growing up after the apocalypse)
Like spawning an NPC with a mix of the genetics of the two parents (after a pregnancy stage for moms if possible, though thats a secondary step), super low stats that either: 1. grow to a set final number (based on parents?) after a set number of seasons 2. Or just recycling the skills -> stats system and refining from there (Raise your kid!)
What is the issue? Is it a direction people dislike? Or am I like fundamentally misunderstanding the system (which is wholly possible)?
You could have the child NPC spawn with set stats, but have them limited by a “youth” type disease. Like how diseases have rough time sets in the game.
Flu goes on for x long and lowers x stats plus symptoms.
Baby goes on for x seasons and massively lowers all stats (-20) and causes random screaming. Leads to “Young child”, ect