Messages

16

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

« on: May 07, 2019, 12:35:16 AM »

Hi guys,

Thanks for the interest!

Regarding the issue of the starting distance (the distance between player and NPC right after the auto-zoom), I think it is realistic that most of the time you'll see/hear each other coming, so that distance will be well beyond personal space. BUT, in a few occasions, you will almost bump into each other, and yes, if within personal distance a freak-out can occur.

Let's establish this 2 extra rules:

1: probability of starting distance < personal space = 5%

And:

2: If player has any weapon ready while spawning withing personal space, the NPC WILL go into attack mode. Otherwise, the friend-or-foe dialog occurs.

This mitigates the advantage that player has zooming in fully armed: there is a small chance that it will provoke an attack by spawning too close to a startled NPC.

The pseudo code needs to be changed for that possibility. Your homework, dudes :-)


 

17

Suggestions / Rules of engagement for adventurers in the wild

« on: May 06, 2019, 10:24:51 PM »

Hi everybody,

I would like to propose a set of simple rules for making the interaction between the player and adventurers or hunters found in the wild more realistic and less prone to exploitation. Sami has said that next version is all about NPCs, so I wonder if there is still time for a simple fix regarding this aspect of NPC-player interaction.

As you know, when the player stumbles upon a pacific NPC in the wild, said NPC basically acts as if nothing interesting is happening. A completetely unknown person appears from nowhere, pointing a broadhead arrow to the NPC head. Nobody says anything, not even "hello?" or "hi, I'm gonna murder you while you are all alone here!". The NPC walks around, bored, looking at the trees, turns his back to the player and bang!, free equipment/clothing and food. Not that realistic. Luckily it is easy to remedy, in my opinion.

Two basic considerations:

First, if the NPC sees the player for the first time, the NPC should be able to react.

Second, that first-time reaction should depend on the distance from the player. If the distance is outside the "personal space" of the NPC, the NPC talks, asking if the player is friend or foe. If the player is inside the "personal space" of the NPC, it will assume aggressive intent, and the NPC will attack at once.

If the player said "I'm a friend", can he treacherously attack later? I'll say either no, or give the player such bad karma that is almost suicidal. I prefer that the player be prohibited from attacking, so he can't exploit, again, a naive NPC.

The player still has the advantage here, as he can still zoom in with weapons ready and at range while the NPC won't have his weapons at the ready, and has the option of stalking the NPC and shoot it with impunity. But once discovered, it is either challenged about his intentions by the NPC (if far) or directly attacked if too near.

The logic is pretty simple. In pseudo-pseudo-pseudo code:

if (player_not_detected)
      do nothing
else
      if (distance > NPC_personal_space)
         NPC asks if player is friend or foe
                if (answer is foe) NPC attacks; else nobody can attack,
      else
         NPC attacks
     endif
endif

As you can see, it is nothing particularly complicated and solves the naive adventurer NPC exploit.

What do you think?

Regards,
Utumno

   




 

 

18

Modding / How to spawn an animal?

« on: July 08, 2018, 02:11:24 PM »

Hi everybody,

Just a single question: is there a way to spawn an animal in a particular place? I want to test a couple of ideas and I need a bear near my settlement for that. Is it possible?

Regards,
U.

19

Off-topic / Re: is there any Latin America people around?

« on: July 06, 2018, 07:13:24 PM »

En efecto. 

20

General Discussion / Re: A safe place for cows

« on: July 06, 2018, 07:10:21 PM »

Thanks!

I suppose this configuration works because the animals (probably) follow a shortest-cost pathing algorithm, like A*. So, even is say, a bear, could crash through 2 fences it won't even try it if it "sees" only one fence in the way...and doesn't see the trap, so it is fooled and the cost is not just crossing 1 fence, but its life  .

Anyway, I haven't seen how a bear would manage against this holding pen, but I guess it could work.

Off-topic: To me the Silmarillion is at least as good as the LotR trilogy! And very Finnish in parts  .

Regards,
U.

21

General Discussion / Re: A safe place for cows

« on: July 05, 2018, 10:00:46 PM »

A live example. The wolf tried for hours to get to the bull and only breached the first ring. Never got into a trap, probably because my char is useless with trapping and the wolf realized they were there. Eventually the wolf got breathless and I moved in for an easy kill...

22

General Discussion / A safe place for cows

« on: July 05, 2018, 08:32:37 PM »

Hi everybody, first post in this new forum.

Just to share a design for a cow's pen (or any other animal) that seems to be safe from predators. It is like this:


   X X X O X X X
   X X X X X X X
   O X F F F X O
   X X X X X X X
   X X X O X X X


F = free space
X =fence
O = Trap pit with stakes

The idea is as follows. First, build the 1st ring around the free area, where your animal will reside:


   X X X X X
   X F F F X
   X X X X X


This will not stop any predator, so you add...traps!


           O 
       X X X X X
     O X F F F X O
       X X X X X
           O 


And, to make sure the predators will be funneled to the traps, make a 2d ring in such a way that there are always 2 fences between the exterior and the free space, or a trap. Like this:


   X X X O X X X
   X X X X X X X
   O X F F F X O
   X X X X X X X
   X X X O X X X


It looks like a 4-point castle, and it is amazingly effective. I think predators can only penetrate one fence, so, if they don't realize there is a trap, they try to take the shortcut and...bingo! A new wolf skin.

It also works with elks and the like, just bait each trap with elk-meth, aka turnips, and you are done. Last time I did this, I got like 4 elks and a wolf, while my bull Benicio el Toro (what else to call a toro?  ) just looked on, amused.

Try it and tell me how it goes!

Regards,
U.