Random Dynamic NPCs

What if NPCs could change careers based on their personal circumstances?

Just a crazy idea I thought would be fun to explore that spawned from the Virtue Questions thread with one of Margard’s questions. Starting with the idea of being able to hire any “jobless” NPC and possibly improving their condition. Obviously not something to be expected for EP1.

Something I’ve always enjoyed is being able take any character a game allows and building them up to the best the game allows.

The basic framework ties into the local and global economies (hopefully there will be a distinction between the two). The game would maintain X number of NPCs in Y number of possible jobs throughout the world.

Some ‘jobs’ could be..

Beggars
Couriers
Travelling merchants
Mercenaries / Followers
Craft Apprentice
Crafter
Store Clerk
House Servant
Thief / Criminal
Guard
Etc…

So let’s take a scenario with a beggar. He doesn’t have any ailments and is physically able to work. Going off some other ideas from other threads perhaps you can hire to do small tasks or just give him gold.

When the beggar has earned enough gold by whatever means he’ll get cleaned up and try to find a job. Likewise if there are job openings the game may try to fill them with existing ‘jobless’ NPCs (preferably local depending on the job).

The beggar would become a crafter’s apprentice or store clerk.

The number of certain jobs available could vary depending upon local economies. If a town is doing really well.. more merchant / crafter jobs open up and therefore there are fewer ‘jobless’ NPCs. If the town is doing very poorly some NPCs will be out of the streets begging or looking for work.. there may be more mercenaries for example because they have nothing else they can do or more thieves out of desperation.

The internal mechanics could be relatively simple and I don’t think people would notice much of a difference. Just set up a job availability table based on total town wealth.. or more complex and say something like.. the number of guard jobs might increase if there are enough criminals in an area.

NPCs could be randomly generated with different skill sets.. either random skills or templates depending on the design need which would influence the kinds of jobs they would look for. Someone with no weapon skill probably won’t look for a guard or mercenary job.

These NPCs could be killed off.. as a follower for example or during a town siege. So there can be a constant flow of new NPCs.

The big design challenge here is the multiplayer nature of the game. You could have 100 different people giving gold to the same beggar or trying to hire the same mercenary. So it might be a difficult balancing act. Especially if these players are in difference instances at the same time.. you would have multiple copies of the same NPC.

So at a certain point if an NPC is set to change jobs then they could basically be ‘locked’ for a time and maybe wander off on their own until every instance of the NPC accounted for with nothing ‘queued up’.

Example: 5 people in different instances hire the same mercenary out of 20 instances where they mercenary exists. They all hire the mercenary at the same time. The other 15 are ‘locked’ and wander off. The 5 that are hired do their jobs and they make enough money to do something else they’d rather do like become a merchant.

As each of the 5 finish their job they all disappear until the last one is finished. Assuming none of them died, once the last one disappears they reappear as a merchant. If one or more them died though then that’s it.. they’re dead and the game spawns a new random NPC.

Another thing you could do is simple allow only 1 instance of each NPC but spread them out over other instances which would probably work better. So if there’s 20 instances of a town at once on average then you’d have say 10-20 individual mercenaries.. except only 1 or 2 per instance at a time.

This really shouldn’t effect something like shop inventories and the like if new NPCs take over a shop. It would be more of a way for players to see a more dynamic world with new levels of interaction with NPCs.

Another thing I was thinking was that the NPC skills could be improved. If for example you gave a follower a sword and told them to do train on a dummy for long periods at a time they might improve their skills a bit.

I for example would hire a beggar as a personal house guard/servant. Outfit them with the best gear and/or try to improve their skill set to a point where they could do well on their own in the world and finally set them loose to make a new life for themselves and then go find another one. J

I would then have NPC friends all over that knew and had a high opinion of me and I could possible take advantage of their services or get information. If I could somehow manage to keep tabs on them that’s be pretty sweet too but I think that’s getting a bit too carried away. J

It occurs to me though that in doing something like this players could make an active effort to improve a local economy by directly helping the NPCs.

Just a few thoughts I though would be fun to put out there. I’m holding no expectations for EP1 or really at all. Never know where it could go though.

 

I like the idea tat NPC's could be hired and learn and hone skills. I like the idea, but instead of having the poor NPC's wandering in town hoping someone would hire them, why not have certain NPC guilds that you can hire npcs from based on your skills. Say if you are woodsman and you raised you lumberjack skill to a certain level to join the Woodman guild and after working your way threw the ranks of the guild you are then allowed to hire a NPC woodsman to work with/for you.

Your npc, if with you while chopping wood, could give you a bonus while chopping to have chance to yield more wood, or better quality wood. The longer he is with you in the wilds chopping wood the NPC's bonus and skills starts to grow.

Also you would have the option to pop open the map and send him alone to a hex and have him chop wood for you. Now at first he would be rather weak, and chop very little wood/hr. ( i don't know how much, that is for the Devs to decide balance) But as his skills grow the more wood he yields. But you also have to be mindful to keep him out of harm way, because if he dies, you must return to the guild to get another starter NPC woodsman. Would be wise not to send him out alone until he had a chance to fight a little with you and is properly geared to be able to protect himself. ( again the level of protection and fighting power would again be decided for balance )

I would think the ability to join 1-4 guild(s) would be fine with me.

 

When I was thinking about this I really had beggars on the mind. If you wanted a follower with a specific skill set then yes an NPC guild of some kind could serve that purpose.

But would an NPC hired from a guild ever change jobs? Or would it be an NPC randomly generated specifically for that guild for anyone to hire? Would he/she ever move on to something else for any reason?

An NPC guild could be set up with X number of open jobs for unskilled NPCs based on local economy perhaps. That would be one way to work the guild thing into the original idea.

 

I prefer the idea of players affecting the roles of the NPC's with in a city ... it would help make the city unique, a little more "lived" in and offers the opportunity to a player to see an NPC progress

Overall it helps to not make the city/village/town feel stagnant and frozen in time ... many MMO's do change "modernize" previous zones, but they are primarily cosmetic changes or "living improvements" (streamlining)

I have not seen NPC's that change professions, are lifted out of hardship or get promotions ... those are usually reserved for the protagonist (you) and usually only take place in single player games regardless of companions

It would be cool to see Guard Michael become captain Michael down the road solely because of player interaction not because his role was "written" to serve as a captain in the upcoming episodes

- For me; I would like there to be two approaches to what Owen is proposing - one that has already been done in several ways -

Individual connection to an NPC- where changes/benefits are restricted to the single Avatar ... these could be a farmer that is grateful for help rendered and provides our Avatar with a discount on veggies

Community oriented change - ... a change could be a pauper that becomes a server at the local inn, tavern, coach driver etc ...

The main idea - or at least what attracts me to this idea is that - it would help keep the game fresh for new players and provide an incentive for veteran players to visit older regions and make the community feel that they are affecting the world