I've been thinking alot lately about Minecraft and NPC's that could roam the world of minecraft.
We already have NPC's in the form of monsters that are hostile towards you but how about the idea of non-hostile NPC's that you can discover around the world?
I've come up with a few ideas that I'd like to share with you all and hopefully this will branch out into a huge discussion of what "could" be a great feature to an already great game in developement.
Lets lay down a few ground rules here. We are talking about NPC's here so we don't need to get into arguments over currency or trade, thats an entirely different discussion that can be had elsewhere. We also don't need to go over quests or things of that nature. I'd just like to discuss how NPC's could effect the look and feel of the game.
Wouldn't it be nice to be mining or exploring a cave and find an NPC mining away at something? Having NPC's changing the shape of the map in the same way we do. They shouldn't be everywhere but just spread far and wide.
Other explorers as well. NPC's who have a basic little shack which they live in where they go hunting cows/pigs, chopping trees for firewood and maybe exploring at night killing creepers or something.
Personally I don't think having villages or big towns would work well with the atmosphere of the game. However at the same time, I'm a little contradictive towards my own view because I think it would be nice to have NPC's who can go out chopping trees for you and mining out caves and stuff. Tending your crops and killing animals for hide and meat. So when you sit back and look at the big picture you end up with your own settlement full of NPC's.
I think it would work really well though having the odd hermit here and there off doing his/her own thing, surviving like yourself.
I feel they would ruin the game. They'd steal your resources, and would in general **** you off. They could interrupt your building projects.
Play in a multiplayer server. That should suffice.
Though "abandoned" cabins with some fairly common resources stored in a chest would be cool.
I feel they would ruin the game. They'd steal your resources, and would in general **** you off. They could interrupt your building projects.
Play in a multiplayer server. That should suffice.
Though "abandoned" cabins with some fairly common resources stored in a chest would be cool.
Well the idea is that they would be very scarce, infact you may only ever encounter 1 or 2 during the large majority of your game. They could be designed so that they won't remove any blocks placed by a player and if they were as rare as I suggest I doubt they would interupt your building projects.
I'm not suggesting having tons of NPC's all over the place, I just mean "once in a while" it would be nice to see a random NPC out doing his/her own thing much like we are.
I think this idea has it's ups and it's downs, but I think it should be kind of like changing the difficulty mode, you can turn them on and off in options. But, being as rare as they are you might aswell keep them on all the time.
And perhaps, they have to stay like, 10 blocks away from player-placed blocks, so if you do see them, they can't ruin any projects you are working on.
If they were killable by the player regardless of standing, I don't see why helpful NPCs would be much of a problem. Don't like em? TNT it! Hopefully however, they'll be quite uncommon, as too much helpful NPCs might become redundant, though, if you could get them to follow you back to your base...
I don't know about NPCs doing work FOR you. That would defeat the purpose of survival (unless there was some game mode that revolved around NPCs or something--ooh ooh Dwarf Fo-- I mean, Midget Castle mode please!) Some human NPCs in general would be nice though. The occasional farmer in a hut somewhere, a random miner plucking away in a cave, or the very rare town or village.
It would indeed change the feel, but I don't know about "ruin" it. Could always have an option to turn them off. Or put them in separate game mode altogether.
I would feel that NPC would mess with the survival aspect of the game.
However, I believe adding such item as used camp-site, camp fire, small abandoned structures that can feasibly be left behind by a previous NPC would be nice. Gives a sort of feeling that someone tried to survive here, but either left or did not make it.
I think the hardest part about adding NPCs would be setting up the AI to not be stupid. I posted a rather large thread about setting up a simple AI that, while geared towards SMP, does have some bearing here.
My basic feeling is that as you survive and expand filing out your world with player directed NPCs would seem like a logical progression. when you finally finish that giant castle it would be nice to populate it with some defenders. being able to summon in NPCs to do simple things for you like guard walls and deep passages would be a great thing to have. i think anything more complicated than patrolling or following you would require a cpu intensive AI, and would raise issues of what would happen when they were in an unloaded chunk. a simple patrol route does not raise these issues.
the only thing i can reasonable see random NPCs doing is sitting in their hovels, and maybe becoming player directed NPCs if you give them enough food or something. anything else would require a more advanced AI, and i don't know if Notch wants to delve into that (if he does great, but i get the impression that he wants to avoid it)
I think NPCs are something Minecraft could benefit out of, they can give more life to the world and give you things to do and keep an eye on. I read this thread and I think he had a really good idea. You meet the merchant NPC and the more you buy from him, the next time you find him, he'll have friends. And when you've helped them even more, they start a little village which can then evolve into a town.
Doing it this way will satisfy both those who want NPC towns, and those who don't want them. Cause there will be an easy way not to have NPC towns, just don't trade with them and they'll leave by themselves. This will also remove the chance of griefers using them against others, as players won't command them.
So I can just sell my 200 stacks of cobble and have 25 diamonds?
merchants are all bad.
And please don't use the "just don;t use them argument".
We can have nukes! Oh you don't like them? just don't use them.
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I personally think minecraftians as a people should be all real. Of course this doesn't rule out finding villages and peoples of different sentient races throughout the infinite world. Which is what I'd expect to find. Merchants maybe not but surely people (err things) to trade simple things with. Possibly even crafting recipes so that those who don't know them can find in-game solutions.
I like the current lonely feel, and I think NPCs would just end up disappointing both people who want them and people who don't want them. They would instantly destroy the sense of isolation, and they wouldn't be advanced enough to please the people who want realistic AI. Making NPCs that do anything more than bounce around structures would need a lot of coding that could be spent on features the player could directly use. I think something like a tamable wolf that guards an area and pretty much nothing else could solve the problems. It would be a stable companion for people who don't want to be lonely, but wouldn't be as isolation breaking or code hogging as people. If you wanted to mine with other people, multiplayer would really be the way to go once it's fixed up.
I think that once beta comes out notch should introduce a storyline of some type for example: Your voyage boat was sinking so you climbed aboard a life raft (a normal ingame boat) and then you find an abandoned country. Only armed with a hatchet. and flint and tinder you try to survive the mysterious aggressive inhabitants and you try to develop a good base until rescue comes, if it ever does so....
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There could be a toggle, NPCs on or off, like there is for monsters.
I liked the idea of encountering a lone NPC, if you help them, they found a little settlement, if you ignore them they stay there waiting for you, and if you kill them, they go away. :biggrin.gif: It'd be up to the player that way. It would just have to be rigged so that if they die to monsters or falling, they respawn, and it only counts as 'killed' if a player does it. And maybe some basic following code so you can guide them to the spot you want them to build on.
I don't know how well controllable NPCs would work but it could probably be done in a way that worked well within the game, but that is probably something for a distant update.
We already have NPC's in the form of monsters that are hostile towards you but how about the idea of non-hostile NPC's that you can discover around the world?
I've come up with a few ideas that I'd like to share with you all and hopefully this will branch out into a huge discussion of what "could" be a great feature to an already great game in developement.
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Lets lay down a few ground rules here. We are talking about NPC's here so we don't need to get into arguments over currency or trade, thats an entirely different discussion that can be had elsewhere. We also don't need to go over quests or things of that nature. I'd just like to discuss how NPC's could effect the look and feel of the game.
Right.
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Wouldn't it be nice to be mining or exploring a cave and find an NPC mining away at something? Having NPC's changing the shape of the map in the same way we do. They shouldn't be everywhere but just spread far and wide.
Other explorers as well. NPC's who have a basic little shack which they live in where they go hunting cows/pigs, chopping trees for firewood and maybe exploring at night killing creepers or something.
Personally I don't think having villages or big towns would work well with the atmosphere of the game. However at the same time, I'm a little contradictive towards my own view because I think it would be nice to have NPC's who can go out chopping trees for you and mining out caves and stuff. Tending your crops and killing animals for hide and meat. So when you sit back and look at the big picture you end up with your own settlement full of NPC's.
I think it would work really well though having the odd hermit here and there off doing his/her own thing, surviving like yourself.
Lets discuss.
Play in a multiplayer server. That should suffice.
Though "abandoned" cabins with some fairly common resources stored in a chest would be cool.
/thread
Well the idea is that they would be very scarce, infact you may only ever encounter 1 or 2 during the large majority of your game. They could be designed so that they won't remove any blocks placed by a player and if they were as rare as I suggest I doubt they would interupt your building projects.
I'm not suggesting having tons of NPC's all over the place, I just mean "once in a while" it would be nice to see a random NPC out doing his/her own thing much like we are.
And perhaps, they have to stay like, 10 blocks away from player-placed blocks, so if you do see them, they can't ruin any projects you are working on.
Only if they helped you in any way.
If they were enemies who could raid your stores or destroy your walls then definitely not.
It would indeed change the feel, but I don't know about "ruin" it. Could always have an option to turn them off. Or put them in separate game mode altogether.
However, I believe adding such item as used camp-site, camp fire, small abandoned structures that can feasibly be left behind by a previous NPC would be nice. Gives a sort of feeling that someone tried to survive here, but either left or did not make it.
My basic feeling is that as you survive and expand filing out your world with player directed NPCs would seem like a logical progression. when you finally finish that giant castle it would be nice to populate it with some defenders. being able to summon in NPCs to do simple things for you like guard walls and deep passages would be a great thing to have. i think anything more complicated than patrolling or following you would require a cpu intensive AI, and would raise issues of what would happen when they were in an unloaded chunk. a simple patrol route does not raise these issues.
the only thing i can reasonable see random NPCs doing is sitting in their hovels, and maybe becoming player directed NPCs if you give them enough food or something. anything else would require a more advanced AI, and i don't know if Notch wants to delve into that (if he does great, but i get the impression that he wants to avoid it)
So I can just sell my 200 stacks of cobble and have 25 diamonds?
merchants are all bad.
And please don't use the "just don;t use them argument".
We can have nukes! Oh you don't like them? just don't use them.
Imagine walking around in an unexplored frontier with tons of exploitable resources, but not finding a single person except yourself.
I liked the idea of encountering a lone NPC, if you help them, they found a little settlement, if you ignore them they stay there waiting for you, and if you kill them, they go away. :biggrin.gif: It'd be up to the player that way. It would just have to be rigged so that if they die to monsters or falling, they respawn, and it only counts as 'killed' if a player does it. And maybe some basic following code so you can guide them to the spot you want them to build on.
I don't know how well controllable NPCs would work but it could probably be done in a way that worked well within the game, but that is probably something for a distant update.
And a tamable wolf would be sweet.
PlanetSide 2 Megathread because why not?