Wouldn't it be kewl to see well known faces and characters in different games on BYOND? I'm not talking about other players either. Take this sinereo for example:
Imagine walking into town, and lo and behold, there's Pula the traveling minstrel! The same minstrel that gave you the clue in that other RPG that led you to find the kick-butt sword you're now weilding. Hey, he recognises you, and comments on your new shiney steel. After playing a short didy profiling your courage and grace, he fills you in on some of the best places in town. Thanking Pula, you wander off taking in the sights, and feel somewhat special, as if you were a close friend.
Now, to achieve that vision would require a lot more than you might realize. It's more than having the NPC's icon and name in the game. The NPC's character must remain consistent throughout all games, to keep the feeling of continuity and believability. The NPC would have to have a memory that remained intact from game to game.
From the game developer's point of view, the NPC would have to pretty much plug and play. There would be room for a bit of customization, so the NPC can recall facts and events from the current game, but furthur than that, the individual developers would have little control over the NPC directly. Also, the game should be fairly professional, as well out of the alpha stages before the NPC would "take the job". This would keep the reputation of the NPC actors high, and could be used as a way for players to know that the game they are playing is of the highest quality on BYOND.
I think this would be a great addition to BYOND, something that is entirely possible, and very unique. Alot of professional games do something similar to this, having the same character from a previous version greet you in the game, and it's always nice to see a familiar face in a strange land.
Perhaps a group of developers and managers could be in charge of, well, managing the NPC actors, approving roles, and creating new stars. Developers could retort with requests for specialized characters and features.
What do you think? Would this be feasible, or is it just doomed to fail?
~X
ID:153856
 Nov 28 2002, 8:05 am
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Nov 28 2002, 4:08 pm
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Daemon5532
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Yea, that's actually something I wanted to do for my game, along with several other things. The only problem I'm having are icons...I can't do them well at all, so basically I'm stuck practicing for a while till I get atleast decent.
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Heh. That's an awesome idea for a great RPG. There's a text MUD called 'Threshold' that came to mind when I was reading your comment. It's a great medievil game set in middle earth, I think. You start off being able to pick your race. Races are like Catfolk, Canis, Kestrel, Salamae, Human, ect.. Then you get to pick your attributes. Your attributes are affect what guild you get into. Some guilds are Fighter, Thief, Mage, Sorcerer ect.. Once you master the levels in that guild you can then go onto a stronger guild, for example.. Most Mage's turn into Necromancers. Once you've chosen your stats you get to pick your path, such as Urchin, Scholar, ect.. Then you're set in a town called Sable. This town has it's own government, economy, currency, and areas to travel around in. It's quite a game, you should try it out. Oh yeah, and they have key NPC's on here too. There's a tavern called the Green Griffon Tavern and the owner is Emirikol. Emirikol is the most respected NPC in the whole entire city of Sable.
~Kijokiha.. | |
This isn't exactly related, but it's similar.
I'm giving one particular nod in Haven -- you can buy magical glass beads called dantoms. Readers of BYONDscape will know what I'm talking about. I suspect that dantoms appearing in games will not actually be an uncommon phenomenon, so it should be something of a continuity, in a similar way to your NPCs. =) | |
Sounds really neat...
It definitely would require a bit of work, though... In order for the NPCs to remember people and other things from game to game, there would have to be a central storage place for their savefile... You'd have to create their file, then export it to some webspace, and then anyone planning to use the NPC would have to import the file from that server to set up their instance of the NPC... I suppose a nice way of doing this might come in the form of hubfiles... Alternatively, I suppose you could save the info on each player's savefile, and just have the NPC check the player's data to see if they "know" them from another game or whatever... But this requires that developers design their PCs with the same saved info... So, it would ultimately be easier to control if the NPC was self-contained and didn't rely on player-saved data to operate... But anyways, this is a really neat sounding idea... Might be a bit difficult to carry out in practice, though... | |
My question is: where does the 'pasta' in Supasta, come into the picture?
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From a character on SNL. I believe a poorly made movie was released featuring that character, though I don't recall the name of the character, actress who played her, or the title of the movie.
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Yeah, hubfiles was what I was thinking of when I wrote that. On furthur inspection, though, I realized a few problems with this.
1.) The character you're playing in one game is not (usually) the same charcter from another. It would actually seem odd for the NPC to comment on something you did with a totally different character in an un-related game. 2.) There would be little keeping the developer from modifying the NPC as they wish, and no way for that NPC's manager to regulate the distribution of the NPC's files. 3.) Um, there is no 3. :P ~X (still, it sounded good at the time) | |
Yeah, I'm surprised Dan and Tom haven't made any cameos in some of these games. I realize the more respectful developers would not slip them in without first checking with Dan and Tom, if they did at all. It's just surprising they aren't popping up in some of these games, though.
~X (oh, even more off-topic, check your wallet) | |
DBZ SPAR had Dan and Tom in it (they gave you some newbie clothes)
Super Hero Bash had Dan and Tom in it (they were random NPC's spawned with funny names) | |
Xooxer wrote:
Yeah, I'm surprised Dan and Tom haven't made any cameos in some of these games. I realize the more respectful developers would not slip them in without first checking with Dan and Tom, if they did at all. It's just surprising they aren't popping up in some of these games, though. By random chance in CTF1 two guards next to each other got randomly named Dan and Tom :P. | |