Let's Talk NPC's In Sandbox

[Wade]

I realize this topic has been broached in one form or another and if there is a topic strictly for this, feel free to link me to it.  I have reached a point in the game where I can no longer seem to escape boredom.  Interloper is challenging, but I actually like to find items laying around in a house.  What I am looking for are ideas about what a small amount of NPC's in the sandbox would be like.  What are their purpose?  Do they have backstories?  This thread is merely for entertaining chat and ideas, so it would be preferable if there were no "no that wouldn't work because of x or y or z", or "no I don't want to see that because of x, y, or z".  Someone mentioned somewhere that maybe you could have a trader that occasionally shows up from region to region.  Maybe they trade rare items for pelts or just have a random inventory.  That is just a basic example about what I am looking for.  Ideas, Ideas, and creative ideas.

[KinoUnko]

I don't expect sandbox NPCs to be more than bear or wolf in people skin. In one version they will rely on the player to survive for various duration. from brief encounter and requesting a bit of food then moving on, up to Jeremiah like, totally bed bound for some period of time. Brief encounters will offer no reward other than satisfaction in doing a good deed. Longer encounters might have some reward once the NPC's conditions are fulfilled. Yes, more fetch quests. The other incarnation would be Methusla like, or the Old Man from The Road. Completely harmless, survives on nothing, and either stays at a single location or wanders between a few locations like a bear. You can listen to them talk on and on if you ever want to be alone with another person. The Old Man type may do some minor trading... scrap metal for a granola bar, a pair of socks for a baseball cap, or the like. but nothing serious like hatchets or knives. There could be a roving survivor type that passes through once in a while, maybe little higher level bartering, outer layers and animal hides. Anything more will make the game feel too populated. to borrow Raph's tweet... what do people expect, cannibalistic cults? nubile maidens?

I doubt NPCs would ever be hostile or the player will be able to kill them, that's just invitation for a flood of PvP multiplayer requests.

[The_Materialist]

3 hours ago, KinoUnko said:

I don't expect sandbox NPCs to be more than bear or wolf in people skin. In one version they will rely on the player to survive for various duration. from brief encounter and requesting a bit of food then moving on, up to Jeremiah like, totally bed bound for some period of time. Brief encounters will offer no reward other than satisfaction in doing a good deed. Longer encounters might have some reward once the NPC's conditions are fulfilled. Yes, more fetch quests. The other incarnation would be Methusla like, or the Old Man from The Road. Completely harmless, survives on nothing, and either stays at a single location or wanders between a few locations like a bear. You can listen to them talk on and on if you ever want to be alone with another person. The Old Man type may do some minor trading... scrap metal for a granola bar, a pair of socks for a baseball cap, or the like. but nothing serious like hatchets or knives. There could be a roving survivor type that passes through once in a while, maybe little higher level bartering, outer layers and animal hides. Anything more will make the game feel too populated. to borrow Raph's tweet... what do people expect, cannibalistic cults? nubile maidens?

I doubt NPCs would ever be hostile or the player will be able to kill them, that's just invitation for a flood of PvP multiplayer requests.

I pretty much agree on those points. Their behaviour will anyways be limited because everything else requires a shit ton of rescources. I think hostile NPC's should be an option since the "how far will you go to survive" thing they mentioned a few times. It should be a risk reward kind of thing. Should I kill him and loot what he has got and maybe risk to lose the trust of other NPC's? Or should I trade with him and earn his trust. He will probably be able to help me later?

I think NPC's should be not highest priority because other things like new regions, better crafting system and skill system are more urgent IMO. But speaking of trading. Let's assume that trading will be a thing and jsut leave that not up for discussion. I wondered so many times what the currency in this post money world would be. Money is basically tinder or scrap metal. So what else do we got, that is limited, everybody wants as much of it as he can get his hands on and is reasonably portable. I think there are only a few options there which really could be currency. 

#1 bullets: I think bullets are a reasonably choice. They cannot be created from anything (at least not yet), they are limited and very usefull if owning a gun. The first thing I move to my base from a looting trip is always: bullets, arrow shafts (crafted for less weight), maple saplings and matches or firestrikers.

#2 Matches: Fire is life and matches are fire. So matches are life. Everybody wants to live so everybody wants matches. They are protable abundant and not renewable.

#3 flareshells: well the "you are not mauled by a bear or wolf"-card in the game is pretty desirable so pretty much everyone will want to get his hands on as much of those as he can. The only drawback is, that they are very rare and trading for small items is not going to work out with this as currency. I can imagine myself paying 1 match for a pair of old sport socks, but 1 flare shell? That better be some brand new climbing socks otherwise I do not even consider this as a remotely fair deal! 

 

There are of course other options like arrow heads, arrow shafts or even maple saplings. My personal favourite is matches, because of its practicality and their ability to trade for big and small items. Maybe also a combination of currencies are acceptable. Maybe one character will take bullets another one matches and the third one arrowheads. What do yo think?

[KinoUnko]

good points. Hostile NPCs is definitely possible, though I'd expect a hostile close encounter to be very very high risk, far more deadly than bears, and limited to Stalker/Interloper levels.

Trading is iffy... too much or too often the feeling of isolation is gone. As for currency, it'll naturally emerge given enough trading, but I doubt there would be enough of trading for that to happen. It would require multiplayer really. If it's single player, trading would be limited by whatever direct exchange system setup by game designers, they have no way to predict the use and exchange value of each item to a player at any given moment. An AI merchant will always take one scrap metal for a granola bar, with a finite set of variations. If the AI merchant is setup such that they have information about player's inventory, it would allow for more dynamic trade, but the player will feel cheated. A real player might need one more scrap for a knife, and is willing to trade 3 pairs of wool socks or heavy wool sweater for it, while another player just want a few more arrow heads because they are more comfortable with 12 arrows instead of 9. and is only willing to trade a cotton toque or fleece mit for it. 

Best case scenario would be a bartering cum credit system. The AI merchant would remember all past trades with the player, and adjust future barters to reflect past debts. In this case the player might still feel cheated, but at least it might take longer before player feels that way.

[Blinkin]

I would love NPC's in survival mode. Even it was only sounds with text dialogs.
I'm think along the line of the very first concepts like these:

 

[AZHockeyNut]

NPCs if only to mess up your camp and steal your stuff (hoarders be damned) or bring you news of new regions /Intel on what they have seen or share a map with you that they made? 

Somehow you have to have the possibility that you come back to a busted up camp and missing items from a bear attack or another survivor trying to get off the island. 

Nothing as immersive as story mode though. 

[KinoUnko]

Wow, TLD's come a long way, and seems direction changed quite a lot. That early video makes it look like it was gonna go the direction of ARK or Rust, except in northern canada.

That said... different kinds of people knocking/banging on the house door at night would be pretty unique. Although it'd be tough to explain why you could waltz right into any house and others are locked out. Perhaps lock picking is the surprise part of the update.

[JAFO]

5 hours ago, KinoUnko said:

Although it'd be tough to explain why you could waltz right into any house and others are locked out. Perhaps lock picking is the surprise part of the update.

Not that hard to explain. The door in the video was barred from the inside. Which is only possible when someone is inside. If nobody is there, it can't be barred.

[Blinkin]

Haha I've been thinking about locking doors too.
Just as with story mode it would indeed make sense to be able to have doors barred from the inside.

[KinoUnko]

if you seen "It Comes At Night", something like that in TLD would be a really great mood setter. Specially if Raph is serious about pushing the game in the horror direction like The Thing.