Messages

991

Development News / Re: NPC hunters gone wild

« on: May 23, 2019, 05:35:45 PM »

Which brings up the question of stealing prey? How will a non party hunter react to me butchering his prey? Until Sami teaches them manners are they all going to be bird thiefs? On a side note that would be cool if one did steal and I could cast a spell some old man me to make them reveal themselves.

Currently they won't react at all to their preys getting stealed, and yes, they could also start butchering player characters prey.
Additions like this bring in many ifs and wild variables, and that flood of ideas as well.

Historically the downed prey was marked owned by cutting (a certain) piece of its carcass. Whoever did it first, the prey was his, even though he hadn't actually downed it.
This is because sometimes two people might have hunted for example the same elk for a long time, and whose arrow was the fatal in the end, couldn't be easily resolved.
So, whoever was the first to cut the carcass became its rightful owner. So maybe we'll apply this kind hunter ethics as well. If you get to cut NPC downed animal first, they give it to you, if you cut whats theirs they'll probably get angry. And vice versa.

992

Bug reports / Re: [Graphics] Indoor spaces built on rock don't display the correct graphics

« on: May 22, 2019, 05:22:51 PM »

Yeah, this needs tweaking.

Actually the cottages of the era only have earthen floor, and the "ground" tile is there only to indicate that something (ceiling) has been built at the location, and that this is rain-proof location etc.
With introduction of new ground foundations (crags, base rock etc.) they overruled the way ceiling/floor tile is handled.
In perfect unreal world, to reflect how the construction really is done, it should be so that base rock or crags or whatever ground there is is actually what the floor looks like.
And of course, in sensible unreal world people wouldn't really want their floors to be cold, hard rock.

Well, since these things are s possible, it requires a bit more thinking from my behalf than just mere tile adjustments.

993

Development News / NPC hunters gone wild

« on: May 22, 2019, 05:11:50 PM »

I've had amusing and laborous times with testing and tweaking how NPCs now behave in the wild with their newly added wits for example to actively hunt and process the downed animals. New blocks of AI always make things a bit crazy at first as unimaginable and unpredictable conditions harness the power of new algorithms.

I've witnessed NPC hunter running after a squirrel swinging a sword, and exhausting himself by circling around the tree with no better understanding of the target being out of his reach. After awhile my character decided to help the guy out and shot the squirrel down for him, after which he correctly proceeded to butcher and skin the carcass. Without manners of saying a proper thanks, though.

Another NPC came (or was actually forced to by the means of black debug magic) hunting at the site where I had just lost one of my party members. After he had succesfully shot the hare he was after he proceeded to approach the corpse of my passed companion. My character and his dog watched in confusion this guy just stand on the corpse with no intention to move anywhere. Later on I found out that the crazy NPC hunter had an unbearable craving to skin and cut the corpse of my dead companion, but the moral restrictions came in between and he ended up in endless "Should I? No, you must not." limbo.

On a brighter side of incidents I traded a loop snare from a wandering woodsman for a fresh salmon. Soon after, the woodsman decided to light a fire and roast the salmon. A simple little thing but it made a nice difference.

All in all, NPCs in the wild seem a bit more intelligent, but also bit more crazy at the moment. Craziness is surely refreshing, but tweaking and testing still need to be continued.

994

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 09:16:23 PM »

Hi Sami, nice to hear from you!

The rules of engagement I am proposing are limited to one-on-one encounters in the wild, not to villages, where they would indeed be quite tedious.

The rules I'm proposing don't assume hostility or peacefulness. That's the whole point. They assume that you don't know what are the intentions of the other guy, because this is the first time you see him. And besides, you are in the wilderness, meeting someone completely unknown, miles and miles from help if something goes wrong. It is natural to be careful (more so in tribal times!). And that's the idea: to be careful, and have some interaction to determine intention. And also, to give a fighting chance to the NPC, if it is the PC  the one not that peaceful, otherwise it is open to an obvious exploit.

Yes, I understand you talked about wild encounters, but we like to think that when two woodsmen meet in the wild they are by default more friendly than suspicious.
This is the cultural basis we are building on. (Things would be naturally different if there were known hostilities like tribal wars etc.)
The problem also is that if the same woodsmen keeps circling at your area you would basically have to define your good intention every time you meet him.
Or, if you would have to say it only once, and then could later approach the same NPC with wielded sword or readied bow the exploit would be right back.
Believe me, people would get bored to constant "friend or foe?" questions and they would sometimes forget to unwield their weapons, and unexpected mistakenly initiated troubles would arise.

There will be people to exploit, the innocents to attack, for those who are into it and as it's not (hopefully) the leading playstyle it's not even all that worthwhile to start cutting it down with laborous mechanics. As we've noticed of this thread already that exploit-proof intention declaration towards NPCs is hardly going to be exploit-proof at all.

If the exploit itself really is the problem then kind of "negative karma" is the best way to fight it. There are several folklore based means that include for example the restless dead souls haunting their murderers, but it could be also made so that one day, when murderous player character happened to turn their back at random seemingly peaceful woodman they got attacked instead. Now that would be karma. And probably also encourage to be polite towards fellow woodsmen. 

995

General Discussion / Re: Exploit - overloaded traders

« on: May 08, 2019, 08:43:54 PM »

This actually hasn't been the case since introduction of limited carry weight for NPCs since that's been active for a decade or two, or who knows for how long.
I believe this came along with the current version (3.52). Previously there was a bug which caused excess items obtained in trade to disappear, but now they are put on the ground.

The exploit will be taken care of in the next version where foreign traders simply refuse to accept player trade proposals they actually can not carry.

996

Suggestions / Re: Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 08, 2019, 11:40:12 AM »

All this assumes that most of the time human <> human encounters in the wild are hostile. They are not, in our opinion, and in (our) NPCs opinion too - though it seems to be many play the game differently. So, to me, this is a wrong point of view to start with.

Back in the day, as people still want to play the game the hostile way, we had a system where villagers would react to player characters entering the villages with wielded weapons. Coming too close, the villagers would attack. Nobody really wants this system, and we removed it too, as it's so burdensome to constantly answer to NPCs if you are friend or a foe.
And you make mistakes too, and get attacked even though you would want to play really peacefully.

997

Suggestions / Re: Fix Robbers

« on: May 08, 2019, 11:26:07 AM »

This will be taken care of in the next release.

The fights which deal with special consequences for the player character's party upon defeat will continue on their own until the true result is resolved for all the participants.
This includes both fighting the robbers, as well as some village fights where villagers choose to deal with the nuisances with non-fatal manners.

998

Development News / Re: Roast cooking for NPCs, and also as companion command

« on: May 07, 2019, 10:39:52 AM »

Moreover, roast cooking is also added as a new companion command. Unlike player character, companions don't leave the meat by the fire and pick it up when it's done, but they stay put by the fire while roasting is being done. Companions roast ten pieces of meat at a time, and if not given another order they try to keep on cooking until everything is roasted.

These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.52.

That is awesome!  Can a similar dynamic be added to NPC commands for smoking, drying, or salting meat?  If they have in their possession cords, a knife, and/or salt, can that be added to their repertoire of commands?

Those are more complex cookery deeds, and not coming this time. Basically everything can be done, but unfortunately the time is limited and masses of other features are shouting and waving "please add me, please add me."

999

General Discussion / Re: No f*cking way i would play.

« on: May 07, 2019, 10:37:26 AM »

There's so little details in your post that it's impossible to say anything. Screenshots showing the actual situation, and penalties, and distance would help to analyze.
(And they're not buckler though, but roundshields.)

Sorry, this time i didn't make a backup.

But before death i tried to cheat all skills=100 and dexterity at 18, then 36 and then 80. And didn''t evade enemy arrows.
Something strange?

Evade from what distance, with what penalties, how many battle rounds were inspected, what were the game messages?
No, with this little details I can't say if there's anything strange there. Except that putting dexterity (or any attribute) above it's natural level may have game math go wonky with unimaginable results.

People often mistakenly think that in UnReal World 100% skill level and 18 attribute level means success everytime within every deed you may try.
This isn't the case. An ultimate never failing warrior kind of thinking isn't our cup of tea.

I'm happy to investigate many cases like this in more detail IF the details are given. Savegame is often enough, as there are the logs and the situation to be seen.

1000

Development News / Re: Roast cooking for NPCs, and also as companion command

« on: May 04, 2019, 03:45:22 PM »

Do they have to be holding the meat? Or, can it be a stack on the ground? Carry weight limitations are difficult to guess with a npc.

They need to be carrying the meat.

1001

Development News / Re: Roast cooking for NPCs, and also as companion command

« on: May 03, 2019, 05:35:57 PM »

Nice! Does the "active" cooking means they won't process skins of killed animals, or will they do what I do, i.e. first process the skin and then cook (in my case it's typically dry/smoke, but roasting is plenty good enough for the time being) until the skin is ready for the next step? It's a natural extension of the system (as well as something that would be useful to order companions to do), but might be a bit of a scope bloat currently.

Active skin processing ability for NPC is pending to be added, it's not yet there.
Companions naturally do thing in the order you command them, but eventually - when there are more and more tasks - it naturally would be good to have them working self-imposed.

1002

Development News / Roast cooking for NPCs, and also as companion command

« on: May 03, 2019, 12:44:45 PM »

As we continue with focus on NPCs, which becomes the core content of next release, they have now been given wits to actively roast raw meat or fish in their possession.
This feat is mostly witnessed by player character when meeting wandering NPCs who can now actively cook the meat of the animals they've hunted and butchered.
It now becomes an actual game created scene possibility to meet a wandering woodsman sitting by the fire and roasting the meat of hare he just happened to hunt down.

Moreover, roast cooking is also added as a new companion command. Unlike player character, companions don't leave the meat by the fire and pick it up when it's done, but they stay put by the fire while roasting is being done. Companions roast ten pieces of meat at a time, and if not given another order they try to keep on cooking until everything is roasted.

These are future additions - not yet functional in current version 3.52.

1003

Development News / Re: "Religion in digital games", lecture in finnish

« on: May 02, 2019, 10:27:24 PM »

Hmm. That's extremely interresting.
Sami, I might have a project where this talk might find its place...

It was interesting, and I'd like to put translation available some day.
But now you also got me interest, drop an e-mail, will you.

1004

Not bugs / Re: Wiki Issues

« on: May 02, 2019, 09:11:37 AM »

Thanks to Erkka we're back in Wiki business ie. Wiki is up again.

If you spot any oddities please report back.

1005

General Discussion / Re: No f*cking way i would play.

« on: May 01, 2019, 06:12:19 PM »

I tried to attack a njerp (from uphill) with a bow, and every time fk i miss.

Then i tried to change all chrs to max 18. (cheating, yes)

Aaaaaand. Nothing changed.

Daf*k. How can a buckler shield 60cm in diameter protect from an arrow flying at 100m/s?!

And this repeated for 20 times until my death.
What was changed it the targeting system? How this happened?

There's so little details in your post that it's impossible to say anything. Screenshots showing the actual situation, and penalties, and distance would help to analyze.
(And they're not buckler though, but roundshields.)