NPC Companions

LadyNalcarya · February 2016

Spottswoode wrote: »

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Yeah, you said it yourself - a bot cannot think, it can only repeat its script. While we need strategy for certain dungeons, so the bot would need special set of commands for every encounter that includes special mechanics. Just "dodge roll out of red and spam breath of life" wont suffice unless you make the bots immune to pretty much anything, which would be pretty op and unfair to those who prefer to run dungeons with friends.
Lets see how it would work in particular boss fight, Gamyne Bandu (spelling?), second boss in Fungal Grotto.
She has some special tricks - catching a player so the rest of the group must focus one of the adds and a beam that can be broken if affected people run away from each other. Both of these mechanics are pretty unique, so they would need a special script. Because if a player is caught by shades, and mobs will be randomly attacking different shades/boss, that player will die. Or if the mobs wont break the beam, they will also die. Universal AI patternt wont work in this case as these are unique mechanics.
Building even semi-working AI for this purpose will require enourmous amounts of time and money and will likely cause a ton of QQ on forums ("I bough a team, and it cant carry me through WGT, **** Zos!"). So imo its not worth it. A mediocre team is easy to find anyway.
P.S. Micro-control is not the best idea for eso as well, as this game's combat in pretty fast and requires some degree of situational awareness. So having to control the bots will make fights harder than they're supposed to be.

That's not that complicated. Really the bots just need AI script loads for each boss that supersede their normal scripts. The scripts don't have to be perfect, just well enough for the bot to change priorities as needed throughout the fight.
It would require a lot of testing and be expensive though...you're right about that. This would definitely be crown store dlc.
Micro control isn't the idea....let's say you have 4 modes:
-Attack
-Evade
-Recover
-Flee
and there's a 5th mode
-Auto
Each of those modes has an automatic script and runs according to a role and available resources.

It is complicated, since it has to be written from scratch. Because at the moment there's no AI assets for npcs that can be used to emulate a real player. They're just randomly casting abilities and heavy/light attacking.
And there's another problem - balance. If mobs would be tuned up to ensure a succesful dungeon run, it would be P2W at its finest, because with real pug it always depends on luck. If they will be too weak, the forum will be filled with QQ.

Gilvoth · February 2016

nightblade shade allready has code
sorc pets allready have code

LadyNalcarya · February 2016

dwemer_paleologist wrote: »

nightblade shade allready has code
sorc pets allready have code

Nb shade is invincible and just randomly attacking. It cant perform any dungeon mechanics.
Sorc clanfear can tank due to hardened wards and built-in taunt, but it also cant perform any mechanics.

Spottswoode · February 2016

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

It is complicated, since it has to be written from scratch. Because at the moment there's no AI assets for npcs that can be used to emulate a real player. They're just randomly casting abilities and heavy/light attacking.
And there's another problem - balance. If mobs would be tuned up to ensure a succesful dungeon run, it would be P2W at its finest, because with real pug it always depends on luck. If they will be too weak, the forum will be filled with QQ.

We have differing definitions of complicated here. It would be a crapload of work, yes.

Balance is a definite issue. The bots would have to be limited for the encounters and not the other way around.

WalkingLegacy · February 2016

Spottswoode wrote: »

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

It is complicated, since it has to be written from scratch. Because at the moment there's no AI assets for npcs that can be used to emulate a real player. They're just randomly casting abilities and heavy/light attacking.
And there's another problem - balance. If mobs would be tuned up to ensure a succesful dungeon run, it would be P2W at its finest, because with real pug it always depends on luck. If they will be too weak, the forum will be filled with QQ.

We have differing definitions of complicated here. It would be a crapload of work, yes.

Balance is a definite issue. The bots would have to be limited for the encounters and not the other way around.

Do you know how much this script would have to be updated every new boss encounter, ability updates, etc etc etc. What a waste of development time that could be spent else where to make this MMO better.

Spottswoode · February 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Do you know how much this script would have to be updated every new boss encounter, ability updates, etc etc etc. What a waste of development time that could be spent else where to make this MMO better.

Like camel mounts?
Face it, if it's 3600 crowns a pop, it's money.

LadyNalcarya · February 2016

Spottswoode wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Do you know how much this script would have to be updated every new boss encounter, ability updates, etc etc etc. What a waste of development time that could be spent else where to make this MMO better.

Like camel mounts?
Face it, if it's 3600 crowns a pop, it's money.

Like new trial and dlcs

WalkingLegacy · February 2016

Spottswoode wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Do you know how much this script would have to be updated every new boss encounter, ability updates, etc etc etc. What a waste of development time that could be spent else where to make this MMO better.

Like camel mounts?
Face it, if it's 3600 crowns a pop, it's money.

There comes a point in time when the cash shop development outpaces the development of the rest of the game and that's when problems with population and longevity occur.

To take the cash shop team and push them on this massive undertaking might take resources from the other teams and that isn't a good decision. A camel or any mount for that matter is not on par with a limited AI companion.

And look at their reskins of mounts and pets, you think the cash shop team could handle this anyways?

Spottswoode · February 2016

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

There comes a point in time when the cash shop development outpaces the development of the rest of the game and that's when problems with population and longevity occur.

To take the cash shop team and push them on this massive undertaking might take resources from the other teams and that isn't a good decision. A camel or any mount for that matter is not on par with a limited AI companion.

And look at their reskins of mounts and pets, you think the cash shop team could handle this anyways?

Making numerous NPC's to sell with mild reskins and ability reassingments? Yeah. The beginning designs aren't going to be their jobs anyway. Once a basic template is created, it's not going to be that hard from there.

KoshkaMurka wrote: »

Spottswoode wrote: »

WalkingLegacy wrote: »

Do you know how much this script would have to be updated every new boss encounter, ability updates, etc etc etc. What a waste of development time that could be spent else where to make this MMO better.

Like camel mounts?
Face it, if it's 3600 crowns a pop, it's money.

Like new trial and dlcs

Money is money. I expect 20 camel mounts by the end of the year before we get any Non-announced DLC.

The real question is, would enough people buy it to justify the expense? And I don't have an answer for that one.

NewBlacksmurf · February 2016

This game had fighting mercenaries for a short time

Spottswoode · February 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

This game had fighting mercenaries for a short time

I would like to see mercenary guilds. I'm just not sure how to guarantee payment unless you have a contract system with automatic deductions, which would be trollable.

pgorbas_ESO · November 2019

LiquidSchwartz wrote: »

TheTwistedRune wrote: »

Its a good idea. Some MMO's have this feature. It would enable those of us who dislike grouping to play content that we would otherwise be unable too.

Hopefully this will be added at some point.

If you dislike grouping play something that isn't an mmo???????

Almost every MMO, supports some level of SOLO play.
Many people find it extremely difficult to find a group to play together with every day - or JUST when they can play.
A solo friendly game is a "good" game.
None of my friends or family play computer games, so I am forced to play solo most of the time. I also dislike groups where the other members run around as fast as they can, blasting everything in sight, ignoring the advantages sneaking can give any character and ignoring the story.

Kiyakotari · November 2019

Holy necro, Batman!

Dusk_Coven · November 2019

bedlom wrote: »

I would very much like to see proper companions added to the game, only a couple you can keep (rewards for certain hardship) but most you have to hire, and they can carry for you and most important, they fight for you and fight well.

ZOS already has balancing issues in PvE. Allowing companions would add another variable they have to balance, and frankly I don't think they can do it without screwing things up.

Maybe limit it to instanced content like dungeons to fill spots, but even then, it just opens a huge can of worms when people complain about over/under performance of the companions.
That said, some games do have instanced content where it's made for 4 people but you can enter solo and get 3 clones of other players that the AI plays. So it's not reinventing the wheel or anything.

Gythral · November 2019

Ever met an Elderscrolls NPC companion or NPC that you have to lead somewhere that is not:
a blithering idiot
does not gets in the way,
does not find every red to stand in
does not then looks for more way to die
?
in any game in the series...

Just group up with friends

(guildmates or just plain randoms)