So, last night I had this sudden inspiration about how NPCs can be implemented, neatly and dynamically without much slowdown (hopefully). I wrote it down, along with a BUNCH of other ideas I had.
–Simplified combat for simulating npc battles far away from the player. If we ignore physics and positioning, just considering skill and gear, combat can happen outside of the reality bubble.
–“Event queue”, so that at specific minutes things happen, like NPCs eat food, drink water, finish crafting, return from missions, etc. This would open the door for massive NPC actions, without a nasty slowdown.
–NPC missions, player can form parties and send the teams out to do various things, like skirmish zeds, scavenge areas, chop wood, raid rival villages, etc. Rival computer-controlled factions can do the same.
–NPC crafting, they can start a crafting job and then the end is placed in the event queue, then repeat if commanded to. That way, someone can boil water for you! If you have a bunch of people, you can queue up more complex tasks, like crafting heavy wood arrows from metal, plastic, and wood.
–NPC command interface, player needs to be able to see a general idea of their stats and traits, and assign them to buildings or teams accordingly. Hourly schedule?
–Raid parties: Instead of dynamic spawning as happens close to the player, raid parties spawn from hazard zones and move around randomly, sometimes heading close to other parties. Parties might try to run from stronger, or at least larger parties, ignore other parties until they’re close enough to fight, or path to other parties agressively to intercept potential problems. Players can build these and command their own, and some spawn from danger zones, like portals, rival settlements, swamps, mines, waste disposals, triffid groves, spires, etc. Parties would normally be just walking, but should be able to be assigned vehicles. Only 1 vehicle per party, and each party member would need a seat. Perhaps during engagements, ranged party members could fire their weapons, and melee party members would be forced to smash the vehicle. Ramming seems like it would just be too difficult to reliably work, and in any event would seriously overpower vehicles, even MORE so. But, with logistical difficulty, NPC vehicles could add so much to the game. Between tanks that wander around and defend your territory to high-capacity scavenging vehicles, this would just be awesome.
–Party interactions: If raid parties manage to get all the way to a square, they can interact with it, either scavenging from town buildings, chopping forests, gathering water, etc. Fungi parties might convert an area into fungal bed, eventually (over the course of a season or more) creating another spire. Netherworld inhabitants might create new portals, factions might create new outposts/settlements, etc.
–Outposts, small areas attached to villages that can do jobs that villages themselves cannot. For example, survivors can draw water from LMOE shelters, pools, and rivers, then go on a mission to trade the water to the main village, or lumber outposts that go to nearby forests and chop trees, then cut into logs/planks and send home. Outposts might also include a presence at strategically-important locations, such as missile silos, mines, power stations, waterworks, etc.
–Building functionality is defined by furniture and tools as well as designation; a kitchen might have a water tank, FOODCO, and RV Kitchen Unit, while a chem lab might have that and more. Any building can have survivors assigned to it, and then they can use the stuff inside to do automated crafting. Buildings can basically be built like vehicles, but wheels cannot be attached, and engines only charge batteries, but do so significantly faster than if they were in vehicles. But realistically, you’re gonna want solar panels. (Perhaps panels should be nerfed? I can’t seem to go lower than 90% on my one-panel vehicle in the current version, even after boiling hundreds of units of water on the RV unit.)
–Some structures would have to be scavenged in a special mission, headed by the player. Dissectors, Telepads, etc. can be claimed and then built in some special buildings for awesome purposes, like the medical room or a teleport hub that can allow teleportation between your settlements.
–Building types!
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Workshop: The most general building, it allows survivors to perform crafting jobs
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Warehouse: For keeping your stuff, with water/gas/hydro tanks, fridges for food, dressers for clothes, tables for tools. Requires the proper furniture for each storage. Any building can, in theory, work that way, but every settlement must have a primary storage warehouse. Requires at least one of each basic storage furniture (to be expanded). Survivors assigned here can perform scavenging or harvestry missions.
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Library: Shelves and computers. Survivors can be assigned here to read their skills up, which would work along the “event queue” system. Lower-intelligence survivors can also maintain their skills here if there are books of their level. Requires shelves for the books. Scavengers drop books off here. Computers can be built here, where downloaded log files can be reviewed, and the lights would allow books to be read at all hours.
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Medical: This type of building would have beds for the wounded to recover in, as well as potentially cyborging stations and hospital structures. Cyborging stations, surgery rooms, etc. require MediSoft and computers as well as a metal table.
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Gym: Survivors can be assigned here to train their skills in safe sparring matches (their strength for the purposes of training is reduced to 1? need to work on that), so long as there are at least 2 total survivors assigned to the building at that time. Use the simulated combat system? Would require a special floor. Survivors that have martial arts skills can be assigned here to train those skills.
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Target range: Survivors will be able to grind their ranged combat skills, albeit at the cost of ammo. But, with the NPC crafting job system, ammo should be easily obtainable. Requires a fenced area, not necessarily inside?
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Garage: Survivors assigned here can repair vehicles to full, replacing grey components from building storage and, if commanded to, strip given vehicles to components. Before doing that, they will siphon all tanks into storage. You still have to drive vehicles to them in order for them to strip vehicles. Requires a Vehicle Welding Rig.
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Armory: Survivors assigned here will be available to go on military missions, either intercepting raid parties or performing their own raids. Survivors assigned here can also be led directly, so that you can clear towns or perform raids yourself. You might lead a team to strip a vehicle in the field, or claim a special structure.
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Guard Post: Guard teams see and respond to hostile parties that get close, but stay within the perimeter. Ammo and some supplies are stored here?
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Perimeter: Defines the outer boundaries of the settlement. Guards patrol this area, as if on missions.
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Abattoir: Survivors assigned here will wander around, killing wildlife. They then bring the wildlife back and run it through a dissector, getting more meat/bones/sinew/fur than standard butchery.
Now, this is a HUGE proposal, so it should really be a low priority; bugfixes first after all. I would love to hear discussion about it, though. Ideas?
Anyway, by central point stands.