Random Personality -gen
Author
What about random personality generation ? Think about games like X-Com, where you had troops with individual statistics. Now add to this personality traits .Pessimist. Optimist. Irrascible etc.
Add in some Sims style stuff. Make a relevant game background RPG style which can also impact the game, which details the characters that he is related to etc. Ie. When they die, war film style, they give you the letters to their mother back at the home-front. ? (Wouldn't that be sad, of course you wouldn't want this to be seen as an rpg style quest that you had to go and do).
1. Character >skills , stats?
2. Personality traits, angry, melancholy, boring speech, Determines how they react to situations. (like the mumbling guards in Thief, but with different speeches depending on pers. type)?
+ Philosophy and morals ie. won't kill innocent civilians (like "Platoon").
3. Physichal (?) features. Ie. Any outstanding marks, ie. scars etc. These could be partially based on their personality type (and background) ie. scars if they are very aggressive.
4. Background, who they know, where they have been, (do these people exist in the game world?), how they got here etc. Some of this can impact onto the game in the "future" or "present" of the game-world.
Of course a lot of this is semi-related... etc.
This would be a LOT of work, and maybe a smaller amount of predefined characters would be better for some games, but how in a non-gen world do you keep a steady stream of new recruits to replace any characters that they lose in combat or to disease etc.
Edited by - Ketchaval on 10/3/00 5:06:16 AM
You could start with a "standardized test". There are these psych tests (sorry, can''t remember what they''re called) people take and after tallying the results, the person is given 3-4 letters representing things like "introvert vs extrovert" and similar traits.
Whether or not you believe/agree with such tests, it could provide a useful model for a game. If you only assign 4 trait values (2 choices each trait), each character has 16 possible combinations which, when relating to another with one of 16 possible combos, results in 256 possible interactions.
That might be a way to start...
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Blue programmer needs food badly. Blue programmer is about to die!
Whether or not you believe/agree with such tests, it could provide a useful model for a game. If you only assign 4 trait values (2 choices each trait), each character has 16 possible combinations which, when relating to another with one of 16 possible combos, results in 256 possible interactions.
That might be a way to start...
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Blue programmer needs food badly. Blue programmer is about to die!
The test you refer to is the cool one at The spark.
Actually very true, in my case
another method I like a lot is to simply use Astrology. There is a truckloads of things you could do with that, it jsut requires that you read the proportional amount of books on the topic. *very* interesting (and no, there are not just 12 personality types, it''s much much more complex than that). The only problem I still have, is how to put comple notions given in the birth charts into usable game elements/stats. But it''s an interesting read anyway.
youpla :-P
Actually very true, in my case
another method I like a lot is to simply use Astrology. There is a truckloads of things you could do with that, it jsut requires that you read the proportional amount of books on the topic. *very* interesting (and no, there are not just 12 personality types, it''s much much more complex than that). The only problem I still have, is how to put comple notions given in the birth charts into usable game elements/stats. But it''s an interesting read anyway.
youpla :-P
I don''t like random game - is it the same as a game without focus without real content. Random contradicts story.
Random map generation sucks. Random character generation sucks. Let put real content in to game not something that everyone clearly can see is generated.
Just my opinion.
Jacob Marner
Random map generation sucks. Random character generation sucks. Let put real content in to game not something that everyone clearly can see is generated.
Just my opinion.
Jacob Marner
felonius go read Ketchaval''s Generated vs. Crafted thread, Ket, Wav etc give some interesting views on this.
Felonius or anyone?, if you read that thread Generated vs Crafted (and Wavinator''s The Sims meets TNG), do you not think that it is possible to CRAFT characters and their interactive backgrouunds well ? Ie. Let''s say that we restrict it to tough fighter characters.
There could be a tough scarred fighter who was in Nam & has the scars to prove it, he would pick on the grunts trying to order them about.
Or a fighter who joined up thinking that he was serving his country, but finds out that he made a mistake and starts writing letters home, you have to deliver his final message.
You can create things well by having a good selection system. Also check out Landfish''s Writing Character thread in the game writing forum (use the last 30 days tick box).
There could be a tough scarred fighter who was in Nam & has the scars to prove it, he would pick on the grunts trying to order them about.
Or a fighter who joined up thinking that he was serving his country, but finds out that he made a mistake and starts writing letters home, you have to deliver his final message.
You can create things well by having a good selection system. Also check out Landfish''s Writing Character thread in the game writing forum (use the last 30 days tick box).
How much processor time would this take up? Wouldn''t it be rather complex to have many people each doing something different? Just wondering...
Beware... it is the §ign of the Æther...
Beware... it is the §ign of the Æther...
Aether,
Depends on the purpose of your game. If you''re trying to do a 3D real-time FPS with a bazillion levels of detail, realistic physics, and completely destructable levels
then yeah, it''s a bit much.
But if this is what your game is *about* then no, I don''t think so. (Level of detail being an issue, of course)
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Just waiting for the mothership...
Depends on the purpose of your game. If you''re trying to do a 3D real-time FPS with a bazillion levels of detail, realistic physics, and completely destructable levels
then yeah, it''s a bit much.But if this is what your game is *about* then no, I don''t think so. (Level of detail being an issue, of course)
--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...
Ketchaval,
Know that I attacked this one at least 4 times, man! Yeesh! It definitely is a rabbit hole!
I saw three areas where you could do this and make it very versatile:
Color, Environment, and Gameplay
-Color-
These are personality traits that don''t really affect anything, but round out a character. They can be mannerisms, like a character that chews on their knuckles or looks thoughtful a lot. They could be dialog style, like a drawl ("Y''all"), or King''s English ("One would certainly think...") Or they could be tied to ambient animations, like a character that scratches his ear or leans against walls alot. But they would only be for atmosphere.
-Environment-
This is trickier, but it involves character interactions with their environment and other characters. I can see this as being a set of more significant types: Habits (scratching frequently, spitting, flirting, etc), Communication Style (dismissive, wheedling, fair handed, etc), Personality (dominant, rebellious, placating, etc) and Needs (luxury, security, freedom, etc)
You could detail these categories and add to them, but the basic idea would be that the environment and other characters are encoded with these factors. How the randomly generated character would respond would be based on the environment, and their own internal variables.
-Gameplay-
This for me was the harder part, and where the rubber meets the road! It''s one thing if a character doesn''t like Protein Mash, or if another hates Gospel Metal music... but what do you do about it. What makes all of these more than just interesting textures on a level, so to speak. What makes it matter?
The personality options *have* to have a deep impact on gameplay. If you take X-Com, the stats had a direct impact on what you could and couldn''t do. So you''d need to come up with a similar context. If the game was about managing group dynamics, I could see this working well. You''d be choosing who worked with whom, resolving personality conflicts as they arose, etc.
You could tie this to AI, and as you were suggesting in another thread really exhibit personality thru this. It would require players to not think of their X-Com or Baldur''s Gate group as just tokens to accomplish their own ends, tho''. And for that, you probably need to shift the game''s focus somewhat from task accomplishment to group management.
--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...
Know that I attacked this one at least 4 times, man! Yeesh! It definitely is a rabbit hole!
I saw three areas where you could do this and make it very versatile:
Color, Environment, and Gameplay
-Color-
These are personality traits that don''t really affect anything, but round out a character. They can be mannerisms, like a character that chews on their knuckles or looks thoughtful a lot. They could be dialog style, like a drawl ("Y''all"), or King''s English ("One would certainly think...") Or they could be tied to ambient animations, like a character that scratches his ear or leans against walls alot. But they would only be for atmosphere.
-Environment-
This is trickier, but it involves character interactions with their environment and other characters. I can see this as being a set of more significant types: Habits (scratching frequently, spitting, flirting, etc), Communication Style (dismissive, wheedling, fair handed, etc), Personality (dominant, rebellious, placating, etc) and Needs (luxury, security, freedom, etc)
You could detail these categories and add to them, but the basic idea would be that the environment and other characters are encoded with these factors. How the randomly generated character would respond would be based on the environment, and their own internal variables.
-Gameplay-
This for me was the harder part, and where the rubber meets the road!
It''s one thing if a character doesn''t like Protein Mash, or if another hates Gospel Metal music... but what do you do about it. What makes all of these more than just interesting textures on a level, so to speak. What makes it matter?The personality options *have* to have a deep impact on gameplay. If you take X-Com, the stats had a direct impact on what you could and couldn''t do. So you''d need to come up with a similar context. If the game was about managing group dynamics, I could see this working well. You''d be choosing who worked with whom, resolving personality conflicts as they arose, etc.
You could tie this to AI, and as you were suggesting in another thread really exhibit personality thru this. It would require players to not think of their X-Com or Baldur''s Gate group as just tokens to accomplish their own ends, tho''. And for that, you probably need to shift the game''s focus somewhat from task accomplishment to group management.
--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...
Ok, this has basically nothing to do with game design, but I just took that test on theSpark.com, and here is what it gave me:
pt
Like just 11% of the population you are a HELPER WHO FINDS MISSING CHILDREN OVER THE INTERNET (SICF). You are very tentative in the world and introverted with people--which means you are the shy and silent type. Hence the Internet. But behind your reserved exterior lies a dedicated person with a passion for the concrete truth who wants to, in his heart of hearts, help find missing children. God bless you.
LOL, this was funny...I am indeed the shy and silent type, but where the freak did they get "finding missing children over the internet" from?
However, you could make npcs that look for missing children over the internet,
pt
Like just 11% of the population you are a HELPER WHO FINDS MISSING CHILDREN OVER THE INTERNET (SICF). You are very tentative in the world and introverted with people--which means you are the shy and silent type. Hence the Internet. But behind your reserved exterior lies a dedicated person with a passion for the concrete truth who wants to, in his heart of hearts, help find missing children. God bless you.
LOL, this was funny...I am indeed the shy and silent type, but where the freak did they get "finding missing children over the internet" from?
However, you could make npcs that look for missing children over the internet,
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