Chapter 75 NPC Generation
Chen Ba couldn’t trust the system.
Mainly because of the painful lessons of "Star Emperor", he did not dare to hand over some core game programs or codes to the system for generation and optimization.
It’s undeniable…
The underlying core of the system is indeed very powerful, such as the chicken-blood optimization of "Star Emperor". Even if it is given ten years, it may not be able to optimize the game to this extent.
But precisely because it is so powerful and so advanced, if there are bugs or errors, Chen Ba has no ability to modify it.
Moreover, sometimes he doesn't even know where the problem is, and it has to be discovered by the player.
"First make one yourself..."
Chen Ba feels that we should not develop the bad habit of relying on the system. As long as the system is reliable, don't worry. If you still rely on him if the system is unreliable, isn't that asking for death?
There is a set of core algorithms for automatic NPC generation. He had seen a teaching post posted by a certain industry leader on the Dream Building Forum.
Based on this set of algorithms, he wanted to make a generation program himself to see how it worked.
If you can achieve half the level provided by the system, then the system solution will not be considered.
If the difference is really far away, and the generated NPC templates are generally highly mechanized and dull, then let the Tiehanhan system take action.
Just do what comes to mind.
It took about half a month, until the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when the decoration DLC of "The Simulator" was released, and Chen Ba finally managed to generate version 1.0 of the NPC.
I have to say, the effect is very poor.
This set of NPC generation logic can be summarized in the simplest sentence, that is, "the quantity is large and the management is full".
The generated NPC...
Probably in many online games, players see NPCs wandering around on the streets of the main city. If you block their way, they will take a detour.
Chen Ba optimized it.
From version 1.0 to version 1.2, the newly generated NPCs have made certain improvements in terms of clothing, appearance, height, and movement trajectories.
But “everyday behavior” remains a difficult nut to crack.
Chen Ba hopes that in the game "God's Grace Continent", every NPC will have his own daily life, and it will fit in with the story background.
For example, a fruit vendor on the street has his own home. He pushes fruit to the city in the morning to sell it. When a customer appears, he will "introduce the fruit" to him. When it gets dark, he returns to his home...
He doesn't expect the NPC to be intelligent.
With current technology, it was impossible to make NPCs answer questions as fluently as real people. He only hoped that these NPCs could have a reasonable daily life trajectory.
Instead of an NPC, wandering at the city gate in the morning, wandering at the city gate in the afternoon, and still wandering at the city gate in the early morning!
Don’t laugh, go and see for yourself in the game. In most games, whether stand-alone or online, most of the NPCs are this kind of wooden stake machine...
There are only a few games that focus on experience and immersion, and will arrange their own action trajectories and daily lives for NPCs.
Such as "My Time at Portia".
As a simulation business game, in this game, NPCs perfectly follow the daily routine of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
Not only that, they usually go to restaurants to eat, hang out by the river, go to the farm to take care of chickens, and get together to join in the fun when events are held in the town.
This is the effect Chen Ba wants.
But NPCs like "My Time at Portia" basically have one preset plan for each person. Since there aren't many NPCs, just take your time.
But "God's Grace Continent" cannot.
There are too many NPCs in the new game. Even the smallest map has dozens or hundreds of NPCs active in it.
If Chen Ba had to design an action plan and lines of dialogue for each NPC, how daunting would the amount of work be?
So batch generation is a must.
Without batch generation and relying purely on manpower to do this, the development cycle of "God's Grace Continent" is estimated to be longer than that of AAA masterpieces.
"This algorithm doesn't work well."
Chen Ba abandoned the big boss's plan and chose to start from scratch, introducing the most popular AI technology to generate a large number of NPC groups.
The effect is slightly better.
At least with the help of AI, NPCs will no longer have the same face.
However, the movement trajectory is very confusing, and there are even cases where dozens of NPCs crowd together and block the road due to overlapping routes...
Version 2.0 failed.
Chen Ba was also helpless. The NPCs generated in batches by algorithms were too poor and could not meet the requirements at all. If you want to make the game "God's Grace Continent" well, you really cannot lack the NPC generation core code provided by the system.
[Game Name: Divine Grace Continent]
[Planning: 85 (can be upgraded)]
[Program: 80 (can be upgraded)]
[Art: 82 (can be improved)]
The system panel is as simple as ever, like a text adventure game from the early 3G Homeland. Apart from basic information, nothing else can be seen.
But Chen Ba is used to it.
"God's Grace Continent" is okay in all aspects, at least there are no particularly serious shortcomings. Open the secondary menu and you can see targeted improvement options, including NPC generation and optimization.
[Generating 1%...5%...]
After waiting for the progress bar to run out, the NPC generation and action dialogue program provided by the system is loaded into the game project file.
The program score increased to 90!
Chen Ba tried running for a while, and the effect was satisfactory. The generated NPCs were not only large in number, but also each one was vivid and had its own personality and action trajectory.
For example, a gangster NPC.
His action trajectory is very simple. He robs other NPCs in the alleys, gets money and then goes to the weapons store to spend money to get better weapons, and then rob more people...
This fits the character’s background very well!
NPCs not only have different personalities, but also have their own life and behavior trajectories, and even their dialogues are different.
"Is there any trace of AI?"
Chen Ba studied for a while and finally concluded that the source of these NPC dialogue interaction texts should be dialogues randomly generated by intelligent AI based on the identities of different characters.
Not to mention, it’s quite interesting.
For example, the tailor apprentice will tell the player interesting things he saw in the tailor shop, and will also secretly tell the player how attractive the figures of some of the ladies who make clothes are.
"As expected of a system product!"
Chen Ba was amazed. NPCs of this level are nothing if they are alone. Anyone can make them with a little time.
But don’t forget, this is one of the NPCs generated in batches by the program! There are hundreds or thousands of NPCs like this...
A bit of black technology!
The difficulty of creating thousands of NPCs with different personalities, dialogue lines, background identities, and reasonable action and life trajectories in one go can be imagined.
Anyway, Chen Ba feels that these NPCs are already very realistic.
If "God's Grace Continent" were all about this kind of NPC, the immersion it would bring to players would be absolutely great, and the core gameplay would be maximized.
After all, who doesn’t like smart teammates?