No catagory (yet) BUT....Non Player Characters is sort of general..so...any links and/or thoughts?

[Poenald Palen]

Game design is neat to me. I want to make games more than play them....which is odd. I loved the new thing where they allowed you to design your own levels (mods are something I never got around to messing with much) and the in world designer things are really fun stuff. It extends the game a whole lot more. This is a bit more complex, we will be abe to program or whatever a NPC, a Non Player Character. 

Now gamers already would know what this is, the others might not. But, 'bots' is the first sort of thinking...but this is a little bit more with much more powerful abilities, easier implementation OR at least more smooth functioning of movement. I think pathfinding was mentioned, so this is one big deal.....travellign salesman? I imagine spam rules will stop this lol. But, non the less....they might be usable for stores and other locations.

But, since the realm this word comes from is basically teh gaming realm (hence the word 'Player' being used!) well....I am thinking we might see some more serious games being created here!

So, here is  quick link: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/comparative-media-studies/cms-608-game-design-fall-2010/audio-lectures/ and basically I have NOT reviewed this. So, it might be instructions to build explosives, the communist manifesto or might simply be incoherent and stupid....not sure. BUT, I will trust that one of the world foremost technology universities would at least be able to fiind a decent game design professor/teacher/lecturer! So, I will post it after only hearing a few seconds of it.

Any thoughts on what type of neat gaming elements might be around? I am pesimistically predicting spam bots roaming the landscape engaging in chat...only sim crosses will kill them lol. Not only that, but roleplay will be able to have some really neat sort of demonic characters, one dimensional and focused due to AI chat stuff...but might work out to really be a lot of fun! RP will change I bet....but still be teh same at the core.

The obvious benifit is to game designers who are focusing less on peer to peer RP or PvP action. This is almost needed for introductions to some areas because no one is logged in some areas until all log in at a certain time. Plus, no sides to devide up to and less chance of worrying about a team member playing for the other team....now all persons joining the sim role play can work together against the NPC based opposition.

I wonder if any 'who done it' type of questioning will work it's way into a game? The funny thing is, RP can make use of this as well as any game specifically based on this! So, the AI or work done to create this can be used for these characters and any device/gadget and code might work out well to make a sim cater to many different gaming styles with out having to recruit. You can choose to ignore it and opt out, others join in and no need for that ONE extra person...the NPC can sort of replace it! I mean, IF it works well enough and people can work out this stuff. Which is why I posted the link, I figure some are like me and intrigued at working with the NPC stuff. I will no longer challange the timing gate alone with no grid...maybe.

Will this mean more people buy sims? Anyone have any thoughts, plans, ideas on how this stuff might be used? Any links?

Oh, I have one more that might have some interesting stuff....Gamasutra is a online magazine. I bet they have articles on NPCs! I will check there sometime myself, it is a lot of fun to read the behind the scenes stuff!

[Amethyst Jetaime]

/me Shudders at the thought of traveling salesman roaming SL and accosting people with spam and hopes that LL really thinks through the rules and acceptable uses for these AI bots before they unleash them inworld and a way to clearly identify them to people driven avatars.

It remains to be seen how sophisticated the AI bots can be and if they are really that much more advanced than the bots that exist now other than being able to follow a path or engage in very simple roleplay.

That being said, the residents of SL as a group are incredibly creative and I am sure will find many uses for AI bots that are valid and / or fun.  I bet there are people out there already laying plans for some new and unique idea they have thought of but won't let the 'cat out of the bag" until they are ready to launch.

Just off the top of my head without a lot of thought........Some people love the luxury lifestyle of SL and live in mansions.  I can see AI butlers greeting them and their guests when they arrive home and fetching drinks.  AI bots could be used as vehicle drivers that give tours of sims and answer FAQ's.  Perhaps we'll see bartenders or customer service AI bots in shops and AI bots as singers or performers in clubs shops or plays,  How about a AI bot in clubs such as ballrooms where you can't dance by yourself and at times there are not enough others around to assure you a partner?  I can even see them being used to help teach noobs some basic orientation skills.

 

[Poenald Palen]

Yeah,  Butlers and such! Part of RP of all sorts, if there is a chat back end. I am thinking that the post was laying down the very basics for us.

Avatars will be controlledable by scripts was how I read it. Pathfinding means we can instruct them via scripting. How one defines particles. They run client side, from what I heard in a sandbox, and they basically pass on variables and tell the client to use those variables for particles. But, with avatars...well, similar stuff happens for avatar accessories...sort of. The client is told to load a avatar, then all the info about it's attachments and all that is in the transmission to. So, this will happen. But, the big deal is...do we make attachments to trigger animations? What of all the restrictions on detecting stuff and rotating attachments ect. and can these NPC's have an inventory of rezzable items or does this all work from an attachment scripted in LSL...um, sort of like HUD's that people use to rez things right now.

Plus, will there be restrictions allowed by a sim owner if the NPC's are allowed to be owned by a player and kept in inventory....or is it sim owners ONLY who can make NPCs?

I am thinking sim owners get that perk in order to help them run sims, but I figure it would be great for all to be allowed at least one! Hours of fun alone fits the sort of thing for people who otherwise get bored with SL for gaming! I know I can use another game making system for making AI's. One is simple, and is open source to allow modification and extra environments and objects created AND extra code. Others are a little more from scratch, at least one having a marketplace to purchase pre made and even prescripted items to include in my creation. But, I already know SL building a bit more than any of these....so, it might be neat to work on games here instead! If they are fun, I could sell them to others and then they could rez that 1 or 2 NPC they are allowed, granted non sim owners are allowed them.

But....yeah, tonnes of zombies from the Roaming Zombies Group (fictional group I made up) would end up swarming areas of SL's mainland or even used to collectively greif people....so, I am thinking only sim owners....not sure though. One man and his alts could build an army. But, as of right now the pathfinding is a bit tricky BUT not impossible for a person to map out and make a system to correct if off course. In fact, a group of bot clients could be run from a cloud that supports OS's and enough software to run radegast or whatever light client can be used...so, I mean...this means that RIGHT NOW an army of avatars controlled by bots could roam the mainland and spam!!! So far all I have gotten spam from was simply the greeters that people put scanners to reach over into the road area because I went buy well on the other side of the road...they just placed it like that and do not care much. Seriously, there is like 8 traffic or less than 10 almost every day....that is like 4-8 people only and many will mute the item and never get the info, even if a great sale is on they might have enjoyed lol. So...not sure if it will count...BUT, noobs float around and look for people to ask questions of and maybe even hang out with! So, you do have an issue that new people do buy things and it might be worth it to some companies....strange to think of it lol. I am sure it would becoome a game to knock them off the sims and block them at sim crossiings so they crash lol. I predict sales of earth movers and bulldoser go up if this trend happens lol. Maybe even weapons...I beleive there are no rules about shooting on SL roads!! SO...open season will bring a lot of players in with huge firepower!

[Void Singer]

hah! travelling saleman... I love it... you've given me a great idea, so now I've got to do it even better.... MISSIONARIES!!!!

just remember, their responses are limited, you must ask the right questions =)

[Monti Messmer]

Hi, thats a looong post

I think it is a bit early to get lost in ideas and worries. Lindens just announced to bring NPCs into SL. We have no further information on how they can be controlled - what they will be able to do.

In some games NPCs are just dumb targets in others they are great companions who can really support a player. But then, alot people go online play a MMORPG just to take NPCs in their group. That happened to Guild Wars, for example. Loved this game about the social component when you needed to build a group of random people.

Hopefully NPCs won´t replace dancepartners or even more, then i wouldn´t see the point in going online in the WWW just to hang around with "ghosts".

Monti

[Sassy Romano]

I've forgotten the name of the computer controlled avatars that were bouncing around the grid that you could interact with but given some experiences i've had, the NPC's would be able to hold a more intelligent conversation than some human controlled avatars.

[Void Singer]

cleverbot...

[Audra Siemens]

I see "Hal the Cyberbot" floating around infohubs a lot.. they're sometimes intelligent, sometimes interesting, generally annoying, but definitely get people talking.  

[Tara Chester]

I can already see a bunch of jehovah witnesses bots knocking on Linden homes doors, flying around SL clubs and beaches lol

[Uallas Borgin]

Trust the creators in second life to take a technology and come up with uses no one ever thought about, the best and the worst. NPC in games, different kind of training devices for combat sims, models, extras to create atmosphere in role play, butlers, greeters... but also traveling salesmen, griefbots, breadable horses that break out of their enclosure and roam the grid.

Also people on SL are happy to part with their money, a special amulet to keep your avi from not being a vampire, food for virtual chicken that lay eggs you can't eat, fodder for pixelhorses you can't ride and the prehistoric ancestor of the rabbit called meero. My guess is that someone will come up with the next new craze that involve collecting different variations of the same thing and injecting a regular stream of cash into it. My ideas are pandas that study kung fu, with a one in a milion chance of having one who learns all the moves from a Jackie Chan movie and chihauhuas that scavenge in sandboxes in searc of dinosaur bones.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

Hookerbots! From now on sex-emporium owners won't have to pay residents to be their prozzies. Or take a cut or however it's done. No, they'll simply deploy an armada of hookerbots. Never mind the travelling salemen. Coming soon to a welcome area near you: The invasion of the zombie gorean furry bdsm retro-future space-age steampunk vampire hookerbots.

 

^^^ The Future of NPC's in SL. Bet they never saw that one coming. Just wait 'till they pass the Turing Test. It'll be the bot rebellion. Or something of that sort. Or maybe they'll just unionize and put their prices up.

[Alazarin Mondrian]

I could see a 'Leisure Suit Larry' type of game scripted using NPC hookerbots. The more you score, the higher your score ;-)

[Dillon Levenque]

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Void Singer wrote:

hah! travelling saleman... I love it... you've given me a great idea, so now I've got to do it even better.... MISSIONARIES!!!!

just remember, their responses are limited, you must ask the right questions =)

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Don't you dare. Unless, of course, they are representing Our Lady of the White GoGo Boots. Reverend Billy has got it together.

[Void Singer]

Actually I was thinking of invading both Caledon and Babbage with Church of the Builder street preachers and flash mobs =D

you think I'm kidding....and I do have a smile on my face.... but it's not because I'm joking (although I do intend to be laughing maniacally)

ETA:
ooooo another fun idea... traveling vendors dressed up as flashers (a la the guy in the trenchcoat with fake rolexes pinned on the inside....) because what good is an idea if you can have fun twisting it! (said traveling sales-flashers will periodically yell "I want teh sex!")

[161488303349]

i think that NPCs will probably not have intersim teleport capability to start with. will be to easy to greif-crash a sim otherwise by overloading it maybe

 

 

 

 

[Melita Magic]

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Poenald Palen wrote:

Will this mean more people buy sims?

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Sorry most of it was tl;dr.

People will buy more sims if tier drops. That's all there is to it. Maybe game companies and other groups with deep pockets will buy some sims to offer in world demos of their stand-alone games or products.

That would be one possible use of NPCs.

Also I'd look for people to offer human and animal companion NPCs.

[Jesica Dragovar]

as I've mentioned before I'd like this as an extension of the interactive prim babies as an ability to raise your baby from infant to adult without having someone RP your kid

[AnCuDubh Docherty]

ooh could you re-phrase that to-

interactive mesh babies...

all else applies.