Potential Radiant Storyline?

ID:863506
 
Jul 11 2012, 7:06 am
I've always wanted to create a game where even I would be surprised by the story in some points. The key to this would be good AI.

Let's say I create two characters. One would be the antagonist of the story in some way.

For instance, Guy 1 is some farmer, Guy 2 is a wizard.
Guy 1 also has a "Social" personality variable. By a randomized chance, Guy 1 asks Guy 2 where to learn advanced magic. Guy 2 tells Guy 1 that he must first learn the basics by chance, he "hands" Guy 1 a spellbook. The player comes along. Guy 1 tells the player that he needs someone to practice with. If the player says no, there is a half chance for 2 events.
One event would be for Guy 1 to practice on the Wizard by force, only for the spell to backfire.
A quest starts to retrieve some healing herbs. The player can ignore this, which will cause the farmer to die, or he can go get some herbs, only to find either the farmer's dead body on the ground because the wizard killed him(starting a potential new storyline)
or the farmer waiting for his herb.

The other event would be the farmer saying, "Fine".

There could be so many radiant storylines created by the rand() proc, and a few personality variables.



I'm likely going to receive a lot of hate for suggesting something this complex or something that sounds this noobish, but I'm prepared anyway.
Jul 11 2012, 7:12 am
An appealing storyline is a deep and believable one. This idea you have does add some consequence to your action (maybe), but it's not really ... radiant, I'd say. Just sometimes different.

Perhaps the example didn't do the idea justice?
Jul 11 2012, 7:18 am
Didn't do much justice at all. There could have been so much more possibilities with the storyline. Every step you take alters your next move. You can do something that doesn't have anything to do with you "main" storyline, but that could affect it! This type of AI is what I mean for making random events happen:
mob/NPC/var/interest
mob/NPC/var/personality
mob/NPC/var/line
mob/NPC/New()
    var/genderroll
    genderroll = rand(1,2)
    if(genderroll == 1)
        src.gender = "male"
    else
        src.gender = "female"
    if(src.gender == "male")
        src.name = pick("Joe","Victor","Charles","Danny","Kyle","Thomas","Jacobe","Michael","Jack","Steven","Gary","Edgar","Rich")
    else
        src.name = pick("Jan","Violet","Heather","Anna","Molly","Sidney","Millicent","Mary","Shelby","Alex")
    src.icon_state = rand(1,4)
    src.interest = pick("Medical","Blacksmithing","Tailor","Banking","Merchant","Law")
    src.personality = pick("Mad","Goofy","Social","Serious")


of course, with the movement, and all...

So if a Goofy Merchant who sold important goods kept bothering a serious doctor, and the doctor poisoned the merchant, it would create a mysterious plot. Or it could create a sidequest where the doctor could ask the player to get the merchant to f**k off.
Jul 13 2012, 2:22 pm
I'm enjoying Dragon Age 2's story so far. I like the fact that what I do has an impact on what's to come later in the game. It makes me actually think about the options I choose during cutscenes.
Jul 13 2012, 2:51 pm
In response to EmpirezTeam
I was really disappointed in DA2, but I can say that the choices were really cool. Though it doesn't make up for the game world that has like three maps, the terrible characters, the lack of diverse creatures in the game, and the underwhelming ending.
Jul 13 2012, 3:37 pm
I play the game mainly for the combat. I just like how it's tactical, but it's not the put-you-to-sleep tactical gameplay like turn-based strategy games are.

I also don't mind the map aspect. One thing I dislike about Skyrim is having to walk halfway across the map to get somewhere. In DA2, you get a quest, walk to one of the exits in town, click on the map area you need to go to and bam - you're exactly where you need to be to complete your quest. No 5-6 minute stroll through the woods or up a mountain or down a waterfall to get from point A to B. I just want to fight stuff, level up, and get new loot. I can do without the exploration factor.
Jul 13 2012, 4:08 pm
In response to EmpirezTeam
Well how far are you in the game? Because you may get tired of running through the same city after a while. And the same caves, and the same houses. Not to mention there are some down right lazy things done in the game, like the copy paste boss fight with the varterral. They literally send you back to the same cave and you fight the same boss all over again. Its ridiculous.
Jul 13 2012, 4:30 pm
In response to EmpirezTeam
EmpirezTeam wrote:
I play the game mainly for the combat. I just like how it's tactical, but it's not the put-you-to-sleep tactical gameplay like turn-based strategy games are.

I also don't mind the map aspect. One thing I dislike about Skyrim is having to walk halfway across the map to get somewhere. In DA2, you get a quest, walk to one of the exits in town, click on the map area you need to go to and bam - you're exactly where you need to be to complete your quest. No 5-6 minute stroll through the woods or up a mountain or down a waterfall to get from point A to B. I just want to fight stuff, level up, and get new loot. I can do without the exploration factor.

I understand how you feel, but TES is really a role-playing game. That's what the open-world contributes to. Which is why I often use console commands to just skip to where I need to be, because I'm no role-player.
Jul 13 2012, 4:41 pm
In response to Boxcar
Boxcar wrote:
Well how far are you in the game? Because you may get tired of running through the same city after a while. And the same caves, and the same houses. Not to mention there are some down right lazy things done in the game, like the copy paste boss fight with the varterral. They literally send you back to the same cave and you fight the same boss all over again. Its ridiculous.

Not too far. I'm at the part where you kill that mage woman that turns into an Abomination.
Jul 21 2012, 8:19 pm
This is an interesting idea and one that I've thought about myself. My conclusion is that I had no idea how to add good, dynamic elements to a story. Modern games that do that are quite complex, and I think that faux choices, such as decisions you make in Chrono Trigger, would fall well short of what you are looking to do.

I'd say, try to flesh the idea out a bit more and then see if it would be feasible.
Aug 17 2012, 10:47 am
BeignetLover, I think maybe instead of trying to devise a whole ecology and psychology of the world and hope it dynamically generates stories that are engaging and makes sense, you would get better results if you tried for the sort of branching storyline that a lot of commerical games offer but with the added wrinkle that people will (within intelligently designed liimits) play random parts.

For instance, if a plotline requires for a character to be a traitor, make who betrays the cause and even to some extent how and why be flexible, but don't just pick a suspect and a motive from the list. For this to be an effective mystery, everybody who *could* be the traitor would need to have existing reasons why they could be.