The trick, if it can be called that, is in trying to achieve a balance between the NPC not triggering too early - whilst the player is in another room for example, and/or unless there are compounding events triggering the NPC to changes its status (to become "alert") - and at the same time reacting reasonably to the player during interaction. To avoid this what tends to be necessary is a combination of making the NPC 'blind' and 'deaf' on spawn (non-reactive) so some sort of default action can be triggered, then as part of that sequence, changing the AI's properties to better suit the environment within which it's located.įor example, if an AI is placed into a small 512 x 512 room and never required to leave, its sensitivity can be reduced without necessarily effecting other attributes that might otherwise negatively impact its reactions to the players presence once in the same room. Whilst this is usually a simple matter of changing an "attribute" value, the inherent problem with this often has the player being able to walk right up to the NPC and literally kick them in the butt to no effect or avail!. Where triggered events are needed this overt sensitivity can be fixed by making the NPC 'dumb' or 'blind'. The upshot of this is a wasted event script.ĭefault 'alertness' distance of a typical NPC in RtCW set at 16,000 game units - NPC editing entity and some basic brush volumes show comparative size versus distance - the teeny-tiny red spot on the left stands next to a 128, 256 and 512 unit cube on a ground plain stretching out 16,000+ units to the far right Dumbing down NPC's ^ This disparity, between room/level size and alertness distance, typically equates to NPC's inadvertently triggering events prematurely, if those are ambient NPC actions (patrol, butt scratch etc.), the player will rarely see them because they (the player) is spotted long beforehand and the function cancelled or over-ridden by a reactive property ("attack" for example). A typical room might be 256 units high by 512 units wide/deep, so the NPC's default alertness value represents an extremely large active area of engagement in comparison (shown below). It's this latter aspect of working with NPC's that can take a long time to work out, tweaking and adjusting different settings to mitigate issues whilst trying to avoid making them 'stupid'.Īs an example of this the default 'sensitivity' (how reactive the character is to its environment) for an NPC in Return to Castle Wolfenstein is 16,000 game units - as measured using Radiant level editor. Having them react to the player, but not so aggressively they appear to be psychic or apparently pre-emptive, can take some cajoling, especially when they should be performing various actions whilst 'waiting' for the player - a patrol, butt scratch or some other ambient action that provides context and an reason for the NPC to be where it is in the first place. To answer the question posed in the heading NPC's are not really "stupid" but they can certainly be a real nuisance to work with at times. The following explains how understanding two core mechanics of most AI, that is their ' distance awareness' and ' all-round vision' can be used to control their behaviour, making NPC's and the situations within which they can be used, more controllable.ĭesign note: that although the following concerns editing Return to Castle Wolfenstein by way of explanation, the general principles should be applicable to any game where NPC's can be controlled to finer degrees by altering settings that expose their respective 'personalities' (the properties and parameters controlling their reactions and responses to in-game and/or triggered events NPC's are not stupid ^
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |