[MUD-Dev] NPC Goals ( Was: RE: Dynamic Timelines)

[Lord Ashon]

-----Original Message-----
From: mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu [mailto:mud-dev-admin at kanga.nu]On Behalf Of
Travis Casey
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2000 2:00 PM
To: Lord Ashon
Subject: Re: [MUD-DEV] Dynamic Timelines


> - Making NPCs behave in a consistent way.  This requires the system
>   to know things about the NPCs.  E.g., if Bubba has a goal "marry
>   Buffy", then if Bubba's first scheme to do that is thwarted, it
>   makes sense that he'll try another one later.  If Bubba goes after
>   a different princess every few months, things will seem less
>   consistent.

This statement I agree completely.  The Mobile's _must_ know a couple of
things:
 
 - They Must Know their Own Goals
 - They Must know the 'shape' of the World
 - They Must know how to get things done.

>The first two can be handled by a simple random event generator like
>the one the you've described, and ones that have been described here
>before, but personally, I find the last one most interesting.  The
>question, then, is what kind of information would we need to keep
>about NPCs to make this work, and what do we do with it?

>Let's start with the information.  It seems to me that we need at
>least two types of information about NPCs:  attitudes and
>capabilities.

>Attitudes tell how an NPC feels about things.  Some attitudes may
>stand alone, while others require an object.  For example, "violent"
>can stand on its own, but "desires" needs to have an object for that
>desire.  So, Bubba the Evil Warrior might have these attitudes:

> - desires Princess Buffy
> - dislikes Buffy's Father
> - violent
> - dishonorable
> - desires money
> - desires followers
> - hates paladins

What if we start at even a more basic level.  Erwin S. Andreasen, and
Brandon Downey came up with a Bartle-Quotient test.
(http://www.andreasen.org/bartle/) To determine what 'suit' players fit into
on a mud.  It seems logical to me that we should do the same to for the
NPC's.  We can then use these to determine what type's of activities and the
NPC is most likely to participate in.

>You could use a system like that of the paper RPG Pendragon for this.
>In it, characters have "passions".  There's a set of passions that all
>characters have to have ratings in, and these are arranged in opposed
>pairs.  Characters are given numerical ratings in the passions.  When
>a passion is tested, a roll is made using it.  On a success, the
>character is influenced by that passion.  On a critical success, the
>character is strongly influenced by that passion, and cannot hide it.
>On a failure, the character may be influenced by the opposite passion
>instead; a roll is made with it, and treated the same way.  If neither
>passion succeeds, then how the character feels is up to the player or
>GM (depending on whether it's a PC or NPC).

>(Note that this is an optional rule in Pendragon.  It's meant to
>simulate how the characters in Arthurian fantasy sometimes do
>things that we moderns might consider to be way overboard.  In this
>case, though, I'm only proposing using it to determine NPC behavior.)

>Pendragon also has "directed passions", which are like the "desires
>with an object" above.  These are optional and do not have opposites.

Passions
  This is perhaps one of the most innovative ideas that I have heard of in
dealing with NPCs If we use the Bartle Suits to give 'weight' to a set of
passions, and then randomize it to give it a little variability, we can
match or 'shift' the direction of our npc's  If we have to many killer
NPC's/Players we can give weight to the algorithm to shift more of the npc's
to an explorer or achiever goal.

>Capabilities are means that the character has available to affect
>things.  These can be inherent abilities, such as being able to use
>magic, but could also be external things, like having an army or a
>magical item.  They could even be social connections, like being
>friends with the local Duke.  Bubba might have a set of capabilities
>like:

> - level 10 warrior
> - personal army
> - allied with Boffo the Evil Wizard
> - lots of money

>(This system could also be used to describe organizations, kingdoms,
>etc.  One could have a set of ideals that it generally subscribes to,
>and can have capabilities in the form of significant NPC members,
>populations, etc.)

Capabilities
  Each suit would have a set of capabilities.  With the Bartle Quotient
Test, we get a percentage of what we are.  If we use those to determine
which Capabilities are available to a NPC, we can have a NPC with a wide
array of Capabilities:

 Achiever				Killer					Heart
 -----				--------					--------
 5%   -> Has Money		5%   -> Level 1				5%  -> Has Weak Ally
 10%  -> Has Item			10%  -> Level 5				10% -> Allied with a Guild
 20%  -> Has Position		20%  -> Spell Casting			20% -> Has Medium Ally
 40%  -> Has Power		40%  -> Has 'Armor'			40% -> In Favor w/ a God
 80%  -> Has Followers		80%  -> Special Combat Skills		80% -> Ally w/ Pow.
Guild
 90%  -> Has Artifact		90%  -> Level 50				90% -> Ally w/ Power Ally
 100% -> Has Organization	100% -> Level 100				100%-> Something Cool

And then as you describe, we can use these capabilities to come up with a
set of goals that is applied to the NPC.

>Major and minor characters:  Characters who have many strong
>personality traits and the capabilities to do something with them
>would be more likely to be have scenarios centered around them than
>other characters.  This creates a natural division of NPCS into
>major and minor characters.  Allowing for scenarios to change an NPC's
>personality traits and/or capabilities can allow the status of an NPC
>to change over time.

To make the system work and feel dynamic, this would be a necessity.  We
would have to be able to have minor characters who can rise to major
character.  But, you could and shouldn't ever do it in reverse.  A Major
Character that plot is canceled and they are thrown off their seats of
power, they can still work on re-building their previous position and
hunting down the Player that did.

>PC involvement:  Plots could be generated with PCs as objects -- e.g.,
>Bubba might put a price on the head of a PC who thwarted his plans,
>causing the system to search for NPC mercenaries who might decide to
>go after that PC.  I'm not sure how good an idea this would be -- it
>allows for "natural" solutions to certain problems (like paladins who
>are misbehaving), and can reward PCs who take an active interest in
>doing things on the mud by giving them more attention.  On the minus
>side, however, it may focus too much attention on those characters.

Players need to be an integral part of the Plots.  If Bubba is trying to
destroy a certain temple, He should know how powerful it is (How many
players attend there) and know that it will make it more difficult.  So he
will go about trying to frame others for the job.  Or even to go so far as
to hire players to be a part of his plot.  Bubba hires a group to raid a
guildhall, and bring him back a specific Item, which he will use to destroy
the temple.  or whatever.

Anyways,
-Lord Ashon

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