"Your arch nemesis on the other line asking about the rendezvous. What should I tell him?" Imagine that you're playing a multiplayer game where you have direct control of an avatar but can influence the AI denizens of the game world into doing things. How would you design this influence system? Although it could work for other genres, I've been thinking of this in terms of a space game. The key feature would be that you have a network of information and strict resource limits. A pirate, for instance, can't just see all the traders in a system and go after them; nor can a police ship simply see all the pirates. Since cruising for cruising's sake would be expensive, the player would need to rely on alerts sent by NPCs: Distress calls, informants offering info in exchange for money, double agents, and NPCs that could be coerced / bribed. The network would be unreliable, however. Players would have some measure of how much influence they have and how much they could trust an NPC. To add challenge, players could dirty the network up for other players, misdirecting them, causing them to waste resources, or even lead them into a trap. A player would be able to script certain responses for an NPC in advance, and the NPC would (somehow) weigh whether to go with the player's info or its own. Because humans need time to think, I'm thinking I could use natural pauses ("I'm thinking it over") both in single and multiplayer mode as cover, as well as minor time lag. What stats or options would you use? How could they answer the question above and lead their human or AI enemy into a trap?

Would this space game be the kind of "open" trader-fighter-miner-mission-runner deal? Or would it be more of a story-based game?

What you are proposing (in terms of interacting with and influencing computer NPCs) I think is very necessary to space games, and is existent in a lot of classic games: Wing Commander series, Star Control series. In those games, however, there wasn't a system in place... just the illusion of a system. I think in terms of narrative space-games, this will be very effective and hard to beat with a system involving stats and AI.

In an open-style space game this would be super tough! Do you think it would be possible to do a simplified version of what you are trying to accomplish? I don't think it would be possible without having a very long list of pre-set "actions" that would have certain criteria for "keywords" and "targets." The player might make "notes" of specific ships, locations, objects, etc. in the game and use them as "keywords" while in conversation with computer AI.

So you might take a note of.. let's say "trader bob." Then when you contact the pirate there would be a "keyword" list on right that says "trader bob." Once you click on "trader bob," the game would automatically match all of "trader bob" keyword's qualities (trader, ship, alliance info, etc.) with the qualities of the NPC the player is conversing with (pirate, etc.) and automatically pull out the appropriate actions from that very long list. Certain actions might be unlockable while other actions might be dependent on NPC factions, or associated actions like paying bribes and the like.

In terms of the level of influence, I would probably use a basic "reputation" stat in combination with faction standings for how much the player is influenced. Of course, certain actions would inherently be more or less influential.

Dunno if that's the kind of thing you were thinking of.

Cheers,
-Pin

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Original post by PinWang Would this space game be the kind of "open" trader-fighter-miner-mission-runner deal? Or would it be more of a story-based game?

I'm thinking the former, but with not as much space as they typically cover-- more a single solar system that's about to be opened.

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Do you think it would be possible to do a simplified version of what you are trying to accomplish?

I think so if I could break this into what dimensions would be interesting and that could also be turned into a fill in the blank system.

Location would be one: "I saw _________ heading toward __________" or "I saw ______ near ______"
I could also come up with a set of hints, such as the ability to notice aspects about a target-- repairs, for instance, that could only be made at a handful of locations. ("He was leaking Omicron particles pretty bad..." would map to a specialized damage of a particular module, like their FTL drive, which could only be fixed at two bases in the solar system.)

What I can't quite figure out, though, is how you'd tell that the NPC was lying or telling the truth. I could be hamhanded and have a Plausibility stat or something, but I'd rather the player deduce it themselves.

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I don't think it would be possible without having a very long list of pre-set "actions" that would have certain criteria for "keywords" and "targets." The player might make "notes" of specific ships, locations, objects, etc. in the game and use them as "keywords" while in conversation with computer AI.

I don't think it has to be an exhaustive list unless this was the central feature of the game. Location, some very specific plans of action (Plans to raid base X, is looking for a ship with cargo Y, etc.) as well as some state information (they're heavily damaged, they're low on fuel, etc.) I think would be rich enough to at least get the player thinking.

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Certain actions might be unlockable while other actions might be dependent on NPC factions, or associated actions like paying bribes and the like.

I like this, especially if it comes as a matter of building confidence with an NPC.

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Dunno if that's the kind of thing you were thinking of.

It was! Thanks!

Telepathy, Wavinator, is the answer to all your questions!
Seriously, how awesome woudlnt it be to have PSI telepathic crew members on your ship for the sole purpose of trying to figure out who is lying and who is not? This could be indicated eithier by a probability meter or an icon appearing in a thought bubble over the NPCs head. This would help you decide wether you should listen to the info or not, and also it might help you decide wether you are going to threaten the poor guy or give him a nice bribe.
Also if you have multiple factions or anything of that sort you could make it so that the player would have to figure it out by context. So the martians hate you and think you are an asshole, and now suddenly they are trying to give you hot info? Smells like a trap to me!