Virtues among the NPCs

So I was chatting with a friend of mine, and she had some really great input for the virtue system:

It should affect NPC and Mob behavior.

She suggested NPC reactions to a player's virtue status, such as NPC's that surrender and beg for mercy when faced with an honorable character who's reputation suggests he would accept, or, if the character has a reputation for merciless violence, would go berserk and fight like mad at low life because they KNEW he was going to kill them.

Another thought she had was the idea of Mobs in the field HAVING virtues, to some degree. An enemy you meet may well engage and fight like all the others of that type, but if it DEFEATS you, then suddenly, near death and out of options, it will stop, and give you a chance to surrender.

Similar concepts for the other virtues, varying degrees of courage, humility, honesty...

There are numerous oportunities for NPC's and "sentient" enemies to react much more interestingly than the old 'aggro on sight and fight till killed'.

 

Sounds intriguing. And what happens when a player surrenders to an NPC?

 

Awesome thread Malak. Seon, if you surrender to an NPC, maybe they'll request some loot for your freedom.

 

If I accepted an NPC's surrender, I would expect some loot for my trouble. I was gonna kill him and pick over his corpse. So if I surrender to THEM, (the NPC was about to kill me after all) then I guess I lose some coin, maybe a few items from my backpack.

 

Hmm this is cool...I like the idea of the monster stopping(depending on virtues and intelligence). Have them go through your bags and loot you instead of death...neat.

 

Keep in mind that another aspect of her suggestion was that there be random variety. So, you see an orc, MAYBE it's a typical orc, maybe it's a virtuous orc, and if so you don't necessarily know what virtue. It might be merciful, it might be courageous.

Basically opens the door for minor RP with the monsters you fight.

 

Fantastic ideas here. I believe they are developing AI now or soon, and it would be really nice if a range of behaviors like these would be incorporated.

 

A bit late to chime in, but I like this idea. It would open up a lot of options, both for players to actually consider the NPCs rounded characters (instead of simply tools, like enemies who all fight to the death or shopkeepers who have no reaction to your buying or selling habits) as well as for quest opportunities. If you surrender, a foe may take a vital plot item back to their base, or they might take you there, requiring you to escape. Could even lead to some surprises, like enemies that will take you back to their base to heal you and offer you help, since you fought honourably and accepted your defeat. ^_^

 

Some of this may already be in their plans -- at least in how NPCs react to each of us differently:

He doesn't explicitly say it but "reputation and similar flags" could imply virtues, since it's been said NPCs are virtue sensitive. And as they're planning it for the conversation system, that would mean the NPC AI has to take this into account and their disposition to you takes that into account.