Jevasi wrote:
My main reason for this idea would be that it would enable the player to interact with"NPCs" in the same way that they would another player. That there would be no need to rig up dialogue boxes or explain away NPCs as being part of some AI system they could just be people either too lazy, or busy, to speak with you about anything that they wouldn't want to talk about, in a way it might be interesting to use this as an aspect of their personality. It could also be possible to make some of the possible responses obvious to the player through the dialogue in responses. Also if I remember correctly OHBot was capable of determining who had already spoken to it thus some of those subjects could be stated as part of the initial greeting and restated on subsequent visits.
An Example:
Via PM Jevasi: hello
bot:Hello Jevasi I'm Alex Kingsley I'm busy routing KI mail to and from other members of Subterranean Restorations right now but I consider it my duty to help explorers whenever I can, and I'm quite the expert on D'ni Time and am also privy to some information about the new ages pending release, so if you have any questions on that feel free to ask.
Obviously this is just a general idea but this is in the vein of what I was thinking.
AI's are dumb. They don't understand english. So they can never respond properly to everything that is said to them. That is why they won't work as envisioned by people. You would literally have to ask them questions exactly like they expected them, if you missed out some key words that they are looking for then it would fail completely and ruin the experience.
For example:
Stucuk: What is <AgeName>?
Bot: <AgeName> is a place where the D'ni setup a camp to watch some animals
Stucuk: What is the weather like in <AgeName>?
Bot: <AgeName> is a place where the D'ni setup a camp to watch some animals
Stucuk: So you don't know what the weather is like in <AgeName>?
Bot: <AgeName> is a place where the D'ni setup a camp to watch some animals
Stucuk: What is the camp in <AgeName> like?
Bot: <AgeName> is a place where the D'ni setup a camp to watch some animals
Stucuk: What animals were found in <AgeName>?
Bot: There are pigs, cats and donkeys in <AgeName>
Stucuk: Do animals in <AgeName> like to dance?
Bot: There are pigs, cats and donkeys in <AgeName>
Stucuk: It would be easier talking to a Stone...
Bot: The stones found in <SomeOtherAge> were used by the D'ni to do <Insert Something Here>
... I could go on forever with examples.
You also would have to have it so it could respond to languages other than English.
TOOO wrote:
Or, they could be rigged up something like Jeff Zandi - if you've been to certain spots, or have/haven't done certain actions, and you approach, he gives you clues on what you still need to do.
Could other NPC bots be set up something like that?
Personally i think that NPC's should only be found in public ages. Unless they are specifically designed into an age(Like Zandi was).