Whether to be locked in only solo/friend lobbies, or to be allowed in huge servers, I think it could be cool if randomized NPCs (just ai with randomized looks of regular players) roamed around. I think it would be nice because it would give players a sense of how big the game is, player wise, even if they aren’t on a huge server.
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I believe this will be taken care of with the System that Zak envisioned.
The system, if implemented, would get player positions for a vast number of other servers, and ghost other players in to your server. You can’t really interact with them of course, they are ghosts, but even in small servers, it will make it seem super populated and bustling with life.
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As long as I can tell who is and isn’t actually a person on the server, this would certainly be a nice feature to have.
Hence them being ghosts, see through.
NPCs appearing as ghosts practically make them worthless (or ill-fitting) in all settings outside of a Halloween-themed event.
That being said, NPCs as Arekan explained them would be great. It’d give the game some atmosphere. Of course, there can always be an option to disable them.
Alright, so how do I tell them apart?
Generic names, simple clothing (perhaps of the same color palette). It wont be rocket science.
I dunno, I think having generic ass NPCs walking wouldn’t wouldn’t make it more lively. It just would make it seem inhabited. Seeing people from other servers flying around, jumping around, moving with there friends, that seems more lively to me.
Having an expansive yet empty world seems a bit of a waste. Not every server is going to be widely popular, especially independent or private servers.
An option to disable them has already been mentioned, so there’s no forcing you to use them. It’s just like bots on any game.
Funny, I was playing around with the AI system the other day…
I wouldn’t say we’re gonna have AI in the lobby/plaza, though.
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Why not, exactly? Those AI, even though primitive, seem to function pretty well.
In my opinion, NPCs that walk around the lobby sounds like an unfitting feature in TU. They don’t have a supposed character to them, and they just aren’t players. This is usually a good feature in some other games, but I don’t see how this can be implemented without giving the feeling that the Plaza/server is just empty. Players will know said bots are not other players (hopefully) and honestly it’s easier to tell when players join in if there are no bots running around.
On the contrary, I would like to see some sort of NPC movement. Perhaps the shopkeepers can walk around the Plaza and sit down on one of the benches for a little bit while on break. Anyone who wanted to buy from their shop could simply either be able to buy from their shop while the shopkeeper is out, or they would have to find the shopkeeper in the Plaza to buy from them. It would be easy to tell the difference between a shopkeeper and a player (I’m sure), so therefore players shouldn’t get the shopkeepers confused with the other players on the server.
In conclusion, I don’t think cloning players with bots or having random bots walk around is a great idea. It would be better to have the shopkeepers walk around instead on rare occasion as it adds more realism to the characters we already know.
(Also, you gotta implement Cleverbot or something similar into the AI speech! You may need to get permission to use them, however.)
Jesus that was terrifying.
This is honestly terrifying. The way they persistently chase you, those creepy, blank eyes… ugh. (shudder)
I like the idea of including the movements of other players, though I’d rather not have them see-through. Maybe they could have a unique nametag/name text colour, or an effect (possibly a particle effect?) around them that indicates they are players but not actually in your server. And, because as much as possible should be optional, you could turn this on or off, maybe with a third in-the-middle option to have ghost players, if one does so prefer. I also really do like the idea of shopkeepers moving about, walking through their store and messing with display items, or walking around just outside their store for a “break”, or something. If there’s food-eating animations, maybe have them go through those every once in a while, outside their stores. You could approach them to shop, or there could be self-service-machine-looking things placed strategically throughout the store that would take you to the same shop screen or whatever. Also, Cleverbot integration, while resulting in utterly nonsensical conversations, woulkd still be fun, though I don’t think it should be considered an “essential” thing.
…How long after release will you be adding new features? Because there’s a lot of great suggestions on this forum, but I don’t think you’ll be able to get to them all in time.