NPC Friendly Fire (Not accidentally slaughtering entire civilizations)

Discussion in 'NPCs and Creatures' started by RedMattis, Dec 21, 2013.

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How should NPCs and friendly fire be handled?

  1. Add a "hostile" mode which enables hitting friendly NPCs

    61.4%
  2. Make the first few attacks enrage the NPC without killing them.

    12.9%
  3. Make NPCs become "injured" instead of slain, letting the player resurrect them.

    28.6%
  4. Make NPCs respawn

    22.9%
  5. A combination of the above

    20.0%
  6. Something else (please comment!)

    5.7%
  1. RedMattis

    RedMattis Void-Bound Voyager

    The suggestion is simple, make accidentally killing NPCs less likely to occur.

    Reasoning:
    1. When a player does something it is generally good if the characters action mirrors the players intention. If a player is not trying to brutally murder an NPC they should by this rule not do so.

    2. The standard for side scrolling games is that friendly NPCs cannot be harmed, and if they can be harmed, it takes deliberate effort to do so. This sets up a expectation that flailing around with your weapon (or clicking outside shop windows) will at least not instantly kill them. This creates an perhaps unnecessary learning curve for dealing with NPCs.

    3. Currently, when NPCs die they are gone for good. This means that eventually any village you hang around for too long will become a ghost town, whether by your careless hand or due to flying bugs which happily devour villagers
    Solutions:
    1. Add a "Hostile" mode which enables hitting friendly NPCs. NPCs are otherwise treated the same as other players (player attacks do not affect them).

    2. Make instantly killing friendly NPCs less likely by making them take a max percentage of their max health with each attack until they turn hostile ("Hey, watch it!" "I'm warning you!" "You're getting it now!")

    3. Make NPCs become "Injured" and prone when "killed" after which they can be saved if help reaches them within a set time.

    4. Make NPCs respawn with at least shop keepers respawning the same.
     
  2. Aquillion

    Aquillion Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    For villages, respawning seems best. Possibly just make it so, if there are a certain number of NPCs nearby and certain furniture nearby, they naturally spawn other NPCs up to a set limit, repopulating the village. That way you could wipe out a village if you deliberately tried to, but wouldn't be likely to do so by accident.

    For NPCs created with spawners, I think they should turn back into a spawner when they die, like pets. (Also, the timer for removing dropped items needs to be increased or, perhaps, removed entirely while there is a PC on the planet -- or on your ship, anyway -- but that's another issue, just something that would affect this.)
     
  3. Unit-2417

    Unit-2417 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    Alright, how's this?

    Hit NPC > NPC now has max health, maybe gives a warning > When health drops to zero, they say a word of yielding, on the ground, unable to act > At this point, you can stop, and leave the NPC to heal, or proceed to kill the injured NPC.

    I like this idea a lot.

    But I don't think villagers spawned naturally should respawn. It adds to the effect of "Guess I shouldn't have killed that merchant after all."
    I
    for one, have always been a fan of action and consequence when it comes to games like these.
     
    ObsidianDragon13 likes this.
  4. Monochromegoggles

    Monochromegoggles Phantasmal Quasar

    I cannot begin to count the times when I have unintentionally slain some poor npc because I was busy arranging my inventory and hotbar. The countless "Oh shit! No, I'm so sorry random friendly npc. :'( " situations get tiresome (especially when said npcs are scaled to the difficulty of the planet, and you have higher tier weapons).

    It's also frustrating when coming accross deserted areas where traders stood moments ago before some random hostile mob aggrod them. That and attempting to rescue them through beating thier agressors is just as dangerous if not moreso than leaving them to get mauled.

    There should be a "give aid to fallen npc" if you posess bandages, red stimpacks, medkits, or food that provides health regen. It could be as simple as walking up to said npc with item in hand and press E. That way there is no arbitrary kill then revive without penalty problems. And yes, I agree that there should be a 'turn off friendly fire' option or some sort of 'three strikes' to be certain that you really are trying to kill them, in which case all npcs in the immedieate vicinity become vunerable.
     
    The_Farlander likes this.
  5. Tenyoken

    Tenyoken Subatomic Cosmonaut

    So much yes, to all these suggestions. I can't stand friendly fire, especially in a sidescrolling game. Its inevitable unless some failsafe is put in.
     
  6. SeaJay

    SeaJay Space Kumquat

    +1 to a "hostile" mode. The amount of spawner NPCs onboard my ship that I've accidentally killed is beyond count.

    Make sure the "hostile" mode allows you to fight back against friendly NPCs which start attacking you later. For example, guards that start to attack you for carrying weapons around for too long.
     
  7. Tenyoken

    Tenyoken Subatomic Cosmonaut

    Agreed, just the option to basically "turn the safety on" for your weapons so they do not hit any Non hostile npcs would be nice. I'm thinking of Fable 2 in particular. Say what you want about that game, at least it added The safety switch. I remember all the times in Fable 1 where I was helping guards fight a monster, and accidently hitting them. They would try to kill me, and that would be it.
     
  8. StrikerTheHedgefox

    StrikerTheHedgefox Void-Bound Voyager

    I'd love to see this as well. Pisses me off when my friends don't watch what they are doing and end up slaughtering the NPCs on my ship.
     
  9. The_Farlander

    The_Farlander Aquatic Astronaut

    I'd love the addition of a mode where you don't hurt npcs from attacking them. Too many times I've tried to save an npc only to end up attacking and killing them.
     
  10. Ruti

    Ruti Big Damn Hero

    It is a little annoying that you can accidentally harm a neutral NPC. +1 to friendly fire off by default (but able to be turned on by more malicious characters.)
     
  11. Stealthant

    Stealthant Orbital Explorer

    Can the makers of the game PLEASE make the NPC's that I spawn (whether citizens or guards) more able to withstand attacks from birds/creatures? Every time I spawn new people they are dead in about 2 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is super frustrating and it makes creating them completely useless and a waste of time/pixels. However, I love seeing people walking around my town... I don't want to keep them in 'jail' just so that they don't die.

    I also agree with all of the above suggestions. Often while trying to help the NPC fight a creature I end up killing the NPC or having the guard turn on me with their weapon.

    Please give the NPC's more health points and the guards better weapons so that they have a chance! Thanks.
     
  12. Ruti

    Ruti Big Damn Hero

    I would go for NPC toughness being based on Threat Level of the spawned planet, so that they can survive longer..
     
  13. emdylaim

    emdylaim Void-Bound Voyager

    Make It so NPC have an Angered Mode where if you Hit them once they won't trade with you for a minute and only say things like "Watch Where You're Pointing that thing" and "What Was That For!" but won't take damage or enrage guards
    :poke::mad:
     
  14. neurogeo

    neurogeo Tentacle Wrangler

    I'd like to see a friendly fire mode combined with a relationship and/or reputation system.

    At the moment, NPCs seem to have three possible attitudes toward player characters: passive, aggressive, and fearful. (Mechanic-wise, aggressive and fearful seem to be the same attitude "level," just expressed differently depending on whether the NPC is a guard or not.) Within this system, it would be great to have a "safety" that can be set (maybe from a new button among the set on the right side of the screen) so that passive NPCs are never targeted. This would help a lot.

    However, the system could be extended if a more sophisticated relationship/reputation system is implemented as well. NPC attitudes would take on a broader range: aggressive, fearful, passive (maybe subdivided into friendly, neutral, and distrustful for dialog or merchant purposes), and allied. NPCs coming from player-placed spawners might default to allied. Then the friendly fire mechanic could be extended to an "aggression level" mechanic: defensive (targets only aggressive NPCs), marauder (targets passive and fearful NPCs as well), and traitor (targets allied NPCs as well). For roleplaying purposes, some players might even enjoy having a pacifist setting where only mobs are targeted; even aggressive NPCs aren't touched.

    I like the idea of the "injured NPC" system as well. (Though given Starbound's cloning system when player characters die, it might be more in keeping with the tone to do something similar for NPCs -- maybe a cloning device needs to be constructed or used for fallen NPCs.) It would be interesting to extend it to include NPCs reviving other fallen NPCs, making it much harder for a settlement to be slowly destroyed by mobs. (This could in practice just be implemented as respawning "injured" NPCs when there are no player characters around as long as not all NPCs in a village are dead.) Allowing NPCs to revive each other could also make dungeon exploration more challenging; if you die having explored only part of the dungeon without clearing it out fully, by the time you return, all the NPCs you had taken out have respawned and you have to try again from scratch.

    The "injured NPC" system could interact nicely with a reputation system as well. Perhaps one way to improve reputation with a village would be to revive NPCs killed by mobs. A lot of players seem to want to be able to "settle" in an NPC village; this might provide a way to allow those NPCs to become allies.
     
  15. oceansRising

    oceansRising Pangalactic Porcupine

    I totally second this.

    Can be rather annoying when wanting to do stuff.
     
  16. ObsidianDragon13

    ObsidianDragon13 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    i agree with this it also could be used for relocating them to your own city or base you made
     

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