Greater diversity in Denizen behavior

Silvarien

Hi there,

I was hoping to suggest that more diversity be coded into the denizens doing things while they hang out in a room. For example, I am a Phaestean in the Brewery of the Temple of Phaestus and the Siren bartender, if you LOOK at the room, is listed humming to herself while she cleans a mug. Why not make it so each denizen, if not fighting or healing from a fight, may be doing one of several things. The thing to be doing is randomly generated, and must be logical for that denizen's behavior, the denizen does it for a while, then switches to doing something else, also for a time. So, with this Siren bartender, she might be cleaning a mug for about a minute real time, then if you LOOK at the room, she's now polishing the wooden bar counter with a clean rag, pouring a drink, etc. In Jaru, a man that's walking down the street might pause to daydream and admire the clouds/stars/clear blue sky, etc. Together, these sequences encompass what a given denizen might be doing with his or her time; and the variety will create and enable a richer fantasy life.

This would take some coding so the behavior is logical (they shouldn't switch what they're doing every 5 seconds,) but I think once done it would be very good for the game.

Thank you for reading my idea.

Ahmet

Chances are they'd have to be randomly selected from a list for each denizen instead of generated on the fly (if I read that right?), which means multiple lines written for around 4000 denizens instead of people making progress on new content or fixing things that need to be fixed.

Not knocking the idea, and definitely would be neat to see happen, I doubt it will. *shrug*

Skarash

not really, they could create profiles, for like townspeople, warrior, bartender, under each type they'd have a pre-created set of reactions, which could go off on a randomized timer 180 seconds+(1-99 seconds) for example much like the area flavor broadcasts you often see in cities (such as ashtan's tentacle rats).  I'd say this already exists and to a much more granular level, as many of the denizens seem to have flavor actions that they do randomly. It's probably more a function of the area builder chosing to use it.

Goryllin

I would like to see this, though I am unsure how much we would notice since we take so much of the verbose description for granted and just skip it.

Kayeil

It does sound like a lot of work, but also how often do people stand around in areas just to check out what actions the denizens are doing? Outside of cities and temples a lot of people just go through areas to kill said denizens and don't usually pay any attention to whatever emoting the denizens might be doing. Of course, there are those who will take their time in an area while exploring to look at everything more closely, but I think a large number of the Achaean population does't usually bother.

Aylek

Personally, I'd like to see more things IN cities - citizens strolling around - lovers in a park - street-cleaners tidying - gardeners etc. The cities seem so barren a lot of the time. 


A Mud I use to play had loads of denizens that went around their cities and it just made it feel like a more vibrant place (even if the MUD is now dead, sadly)

Skarash

extra defenders!

Sobriquet

Aylek said:

Personally, I'd like to see more things IN cities - citizens strolling around - lovers in a park - street-cleaners tidying - gardeners etc. The cities seem so barren a lot of the time. 


A Mud I use to play had loads of denizens that went around their cities and it just made it feel like a more vibrant place (even if the MUD is now dead, sadly)

I would love this. Although in reality it just gives raiders more things to kill for their name in the city logs.

Finkle

I think you're missing an opportunity just by saying raids.  Imagine hilarious interactions such as

(Hashan): Henry, the stonemason exclaims, " I swear to the Gods if a meteor hits what I carved again I am moving back to Tasur'ke!".

Henry flings his tools to the sky in frustration and storms off to the north yelling, "Be a stonemason father said!  Leave an immortal legacy mother said!  I should've been a damn adventurer!".

Henry rolls his eyes passing rubble and mutters, " I don't get paid enough for this crap...".

Skarash

I dunno it does sound shiny and new novel and cool, but frankly I ignore most denizens from the mhun's who bitch about their backs  in moghedu to the guards wanting a drink in ashtan

Kayeil

Skarash said:

I dunno it does sound shiny and new novel and cool, but frankly I ignore most denizens from the mhun's who bitch about their backs  in moghedu to the guards wanting a drink in ashtan

Also poses the potential risk of having a bunch of denizens like Lucca in Ashtan, who really needs to go. So annoying.

Kresslack

Would be wonderful to see more activity between denizens to give the world a more 'active' feeling. As mentioned, making certain predetermined profiles for certain types of denizens might be an easy way to implement it. Even if it's just reactions on random timers like the guards in Ashtan have.

Greys

While cool, I think this would require a significant amount of administrative oversight just to implement nevermind creating all the things.