Cognisant
cackling in the trenches
- Local time
- Yesterday 9:57 PM
- Joined
- Dec 12, 2009
- Messages
- 11,393
In a book or a movie there is no freedom when it comes to interacting with characters, they are simply as they present themselves to be, a presentation that can be incredibly convincing. Whereas in games you can interact with these characters and that makes it incredibly difficult for them give a convincing presentation of themselves.
Why doesn’t the king-guy in Dragonreach have me thrown out when I go table diving? He may complain a little but that's all.
The problem here is twofold, on one hand the game designers have given me far too much freedom, on the other I'm expecting far too much from the AI of this character, I can't annoy it because it doesn’t have the emotional range to be annoyed.
To address the first issue there's context, there's no reason why my character shouldn't be allowed into the great hall, there is however a very good reason why I shouldn't be allowed in. Put simply I'm unpredictable, if the player has the means to do something no matter how absurd or counter-intuitive it may be they'll do it, if only to see what happens. So the game designer should treat me like a madman (perhaps literally have the characters regard me as insane) and only let act in an appropriate context or punish me if I start acting inappropriately. In the above example if I touch anything or do anything strange the guards will immediately throw me out (for a day or two) which is appropriate for the regal context, even moving too fast will draw attention to me, as will moving to close to somebody (especially the king-guy) just like in a Hitman game.
The idea is to set very tight behavioural parameters on the player in socially sensitive contexts so they don't undermine the other characters, whereas by contrast if they were out in the wilderness they could do whatever want, it doesn't matter out there.
Now as for expecting too much of the AI one really ought to consider how the player interacts with the AI, how there's a give and take between the player and the AI, and how this can be exploited to create a much more convincing experience. As a general rule players will do whatever it takes to get a reaction from an npc, they want the feedback, so when designing game AI one should be very mindful of what kind of feedback the player is receiving at any given time.
An npc walking along a trail or working in the fields is alright, those are true to character behaviours, but an npc shouldn't walk pass the player without a nod, wave or a scowl, because if there's no acknowledgement there's no feedback and if there's no feedback the player will do something to get it. If the player is standing relatively close (about 5m away) this should be acknowledged, and if the player is just standing there (for more than ten seconds) this should be acknowledged; think about it, if you walked up to an npc, stood there, then the npc took the initiative and came over to talk to you I bet you'd be a little freaked out wouldn't you? That's oddly realistic behaviour and yet it's so simple.
That initiative, that's feedback, the more feedback the better!
And it can be used in so many ways
Imagine if instead of rushing up to attack you a wolf saw you then followed you from a safe distance, just following you, if you approach it runs away, if you stop it'll strafe around you a bit then after a time stop and lay down, still watching you. That's incredibly simple behaviour and it's incredibly creepy, the dogs in STALKER do something like this, avoiding you until you're wounded or there's enough of them to try overwhelming you, and it makes these pathetic little runts arguably the most frightening creatures in the entire game.
If the Bloodsuckers did that... *shudder*
Why doesn’t the king-guy in Dragonreach have me thrown out when I go table diving? He may complain a little but that's all.
The problem here is twofold, on one hand the game designers have given me far too much freedom, on the other I'm expecting far too much from the AI of this character, I can't annoy it because it doesn’t have the emotional range to be annoyed.
To address the first issue there's context, there's no reason why my character shouldn't be allowed into the great hall, there is however a very good reason why I shouldn't be allowed in. Put simply I'm unpredictable, if the player has the means to do something no matter how absurd or counter-intuitive it may be they'll do it, if only to see what happens. So the game designer should treat me like a madman (perhaps literally have the characters regard me as insane) and only let act in an appropriate context or punish me if I start acting inappropriately. In the above example if I touch anything or do anything strange the guards will immediately throw me out (for a day or two) which is appropriate for the regal context, even moving too fast will draw attention to me, as will moving to close to somebody (especially the king-guy) just like in a Hitman game.
The idea is to set very tight behavioural parameters on the player in socially sensitive contexts so they don't undermine the other characters, whereas by contrast if they were out in the wilderness they could do whatever want, it doesn't matter out there.
Now as for expecting too much of the AI one really ought to consider how the player interacts with the AI, how there's a give and take between the player and the AI, and how this can be exploited to create a much more convincing experience. As a general rule players will do whatever it takes to get a reaction from an npc, they want the feedback, so when designing game AI one should be very mindful of what kind of feedback the player is receiving at any given time.
An npc walking along a trail or working in the fields is alright, those are true to character behaviours, but an npc shouldn't walk pass the player without a nod, wave or a scowl, because if there's no acknowledgement there's no feedback and if there's no feedback the player will do something to get it. If the player is standing relatively close (about 5m away) this should be acknowledged, and if the player is just standing there (for more than ten seconds) this should be acknowledged; think about it, if you walked up to an npc, stood there, then the npc took the initiative and came over to talk to you I bet you'd be a little freaked out wouldn't you? That's oddly realistic behaviour and yet it's so simple.
That initiative, that's feedback, the more feedback the better!
And it can be used in so many ways
Imagine if instead of rushing up to attack you a wolf saw you then followed you from a safe distance, just following you, if you approach it runs away, if you stop it'll strafe around you a bit then after a time stop and lay down, still watching you. That's incredibly simple behaviour and it's incredibly creepy, the dogs in STALKER do something like this, avoiding you until you're wounded or there's enough of them to try overwhelming you, and it makes these pathetic little runts arguably the most frightening creatures in the entire game.
If the Bloodsuckers did that... *shudder*
