This forum is to be used for all discussions pertaining to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, its Knights of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions, and any user-created or premium modules.
GamesFirst!: How have the NPCs been revamped for Oblivion as opposed to Morrowind?
Gavin Carter: Reworking our NPCs is a major focus for us with Oblivion. Everything about NPCs has been redone from the ground up. For starters, all of their dialog is fully voiced. Being able to actually hear the characters speak out loud really adds to the atmosphere. We’re making revisions to how dialog functions in the game as well. Gone are the encyclopedic database characters of Morrowind who had lists of generic topics that scrolled off the screen. We’re trying hard to give all NPCs a sense of personality and keeping their topics down to things that are interesting and unique. The dialog system itself has been revamped to remove the hyperlink-style keywords sprinkled in among the dialog. You’re now presented with topics and dialog choices in between NPC dialogs. We find this helps you focus on the information (as well as our incredible facial animation system) much more, instead of just hunting through the dialogs for the colored words like in Morrowind.
The biggest change, though, is probably our world-spanning 24-hour AI system, dubbed “Radiant AI.” We use this system to provide a goal-based framework for an NPC’s daily schedule. We can dictate when they get hungry, where they sleep, what type of items they want to acquire, where they like to shop, and any number of other things. All of this is accessible through menus, so no scripting is involved. We’ve used this system to set up everything from normal NPC town schedules, to rival adventurers you run into in some dungeons who are out looking for the same treasure you are.
That's unbelievable, isn't it? Thus I don't believe it - until I can see it on my screen.
"Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy in a jar on my desk."
-Stephen King
I can believe it as Oblivion is gonna be on future consels and stuff, im really excited though. Thanks for posting that.
[QUOTE=Magrus]
Lesson of the Day:
Making up with someone after a nasty argument can be all sorts of fun, but leave you ridiculously sore and in need of bandages. Remember, band-aids are a kinky man's best friend late at night.
[QUOTE=Cyberspacer]<this post no longer exists>[/QUOTE]
Cypberspacer, that's hardly appropriate for this forum. Please try to control yourself.
Yeah Oblivion looks soooo awesome. I'm just so afraid that it will be like fable in that they will over promise and under deliver. Thanks for the links man!
Thing about Radiant AI is that the capability to do all that already existed in MW. Several modders showed as much by using schedules for their NPCs. What makes the difference is 1) how many new possible activities Bethsoft adds for characters/NPCs, and 2) to what level of detail Bethsoft uses NPC scripting. If they just send NPCs to a few locations each day, it'll be nothing. If they provide multiple paths selected upon the fulfillment of a variety of conditions which involve (potentially) your input and that of other NPCs--another matter, entirely.
To the Righteous belong the fruits of violent victory. The rest of us will have to settle for warm friends, warm lovers, and a wink from a quietly supportive universe.
It seems to be promising. I heard about a little accident at Bethesda. After a while all guards in a town killed each other because of the AI. One guard somehow got out of food and went hunting, what was somehow illegal. Thus the other guards attacked him. More and more guards got involved until all guards were dead. Dunno how far Bethesda will go, but playing around with the AI seems to provide enough fun .
As far as I know NPCs are said to be trying to get food if they are hungry, going to sleep if they are tired, trying to steal if they need money and if no guards are nearby. I don't know how much of that is confirmed. The official forums are my source and I've never ever seen any officials there so...
Anyway...HERE is a link to some nice screenshots. Most of them can be found on the official page, but some cannot. And those are worth a look...
"Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy in a jar on my desk."
-Stephen King
[QUOTE=Monolith]It seems to be promising. I heard about a little accident at Bethesda. After a while all guards in a town killed each other because of the AI. One guard somehow got out of food and went hunting, what was somehow illegal. Thus the other guards attacked him. More and more guards got involved until all guards were dead. Dunno how far Bethesda will go, but playing around with the AI seems to provide enough fun .[/QUOTE]
If they can give us these additional actions: NPCs thieving, seeking food, etc, as you describe, then I can see a wealth of modders creating some truly fascinating stuff for Oblivion. Let's hope Bethsoft itself uses all this to create a dynamic world whose people not only act according to perceived "needs," but whose factions and houses also pursue their own agendas whether you're involved, or not.
To the Righteous belong the fruits of violent victory. The rest of us will have to settle for warm friends, warm lovers, and a wink from a quietly supportive universe.
I totally agree. In a recent interview one of the devs stated that it will be possible that the player will meet a competing adventurer in a cave who is striving for the same artifact the player wants to get. I wonder if this makes guilds acting without the player's involvement possible - and if it does, if Bethesda is going to exhaust these possibilities. If not then I'm sure a handful of modders will be willing to do that.
"Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy in a jar on my desk."
-Stephen King
I don't like the way the interviewers handled it, too much hype. But it's a new interview nonetheless.
Ahh, btw, that interview is huge...
Here's something about the radiant AI I found rather interesting:
The radiant AI system is our world-spanning 24 hr. AI system for NPCs. It's one of the things we really set out from literally day one to improve over Morrowind, and this time around it's so much better that I refer to our NPC AI as a brand new feature. The "radiant" part just refers to the fact that NPCs will react with their surroundings - so they might examine objects they find interesting, they might go look for food if they get hungry, they'll sit on a bench and read a good book, they'll have conversations with other NPCs about what's going on in the world. The cool thing about it is that it's not scripted at all. It's all governed by rules we can dictate in the editor. We give the NPC goals, and they choose how to complete the goals based on their personality traits - aggressiveness, responsibility, confidence, etc.
"Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy in a jar on my desk."
-Stephen King
