Crni Vuk said:
Wintermind said:
I'd fucking kill somebody for a good Fallout mod of Jagged Alliance 2. Or 7.62 if I ever get to lay my hands on it.
A combination between Jagged Alliance 2s game play and some Fallout game with a few improvements here and there (imagine what we could do if most of the hardware is used for the AI and NPC simulation) would be absolutely awesome.
I see many times revolutions in the visuals of games. Yet I think the improvements over the years to the rather hidden characteristics have been almost completely neglected. I even think the exaggerated focus on fully voiced NPC lines even limits the development of new ways.
What I mean would be dynamic changes of the world and more important the NPC reactions to the players choices and actions. This would eventually make a "reputation" or even "karma" system somewhat redundant as the NPCs would now decide on the individual basis what to "think" and how to "react" toward the character. Much of the hardware goes in to visuals. Though I think they should spend time on the AI of the games. particularly with RPGs.
I really hoped in the past to have one day a game where you for example visit a village, use mines to lure bad guys in to a trap, leave the area just to return later and hear that a child walked in to some explosives and now the villagers are trying to find out what happened. All in real time. Without any scripts.
If I had the free time, I'd totally start work on one for JA2, right now. Or 7.62mm, if I had the game/a machine that could run it.
While immediately trying to simulate a lot of mental activity would possibly be difficult (Not really familiar with the state of AI at the moment), I think that stuff like that could be done fairly simply. Basically have NPCs generated at the creation of a new game, and when they are, have them automatically go through a very fast 'life' that would instill in them certain feelings that could be applied to see how they feel about the players actions.
Start with factions they might support, and apply those factions to them, then apply things they might've learned from their life and decide how conflicts should result. IE, they may become religious and feel that any bloodshed is a waste; so they may never be fond of you, and won't help you or may actively mislead you. Though this may benefit you, as if should you kill someone close to them, they won't seek revenge in some way.
On the otherhand, they may not love bloodshed, but feel it's a perfectly acceptable way to solve problems. Should you wrong them they may come after you, or even gather up a posse to come after you. But if you don't wrong them they may respect your militaristic ways and offer tactical advice (which may be good or bad depending on how smart they are or how skilled they actually are) or information about whatever you're asking for.
Likewise, a person who is direct, and prefers a direct approach might both give you advice to attack a place head on, or that you just go and shoot someone, etc. Someone who prefers an indirect approach might recommend/give information about a sneakier or at least subtler way to handle something. Doing direct/indirect actions would increase/decrease your respect with such people.
I'd keep a reputation stat, but rather than it just reflecting how a town feels about you, it would affect how quickly people heard about you, and a certain point your reputation would precede you and when people realized who you were, their disposition would change rapidly. Eventually you'd have trouble trying to be someone else because people would recognize you, thus requiring more and more cunning disguises.
If it would be "realistic" then you would die after the first gunshot, wouldn't find much ammo, not even speaking of guns etc. Surely that sounds like fun eh? You come up with wild guesses for why there is thing X or Y - it is simply there because it adds fun and variety to a game.
