A virtual village, I thought it would be good to combine my thread “Look it’s a man in the woods” and “A living blacksmith” into a new thread a virtual village. In this thread I hope we can collectively design a virtual village and the processes that run in the background to make the village function. To begin with we will start with the Blacksmith. Occupation: Blacksmith Needs: [Forge Tools] [Coal] [Water] [Metal] [Wood] [Furnace] <Structure> Produces: [Forge Tools] [Cooking Tools] [Hunting Tools] [Farming Tools] [Building Tools] Person: Needs: [Food] [Water] <Home> Now that we have a base outline of the Occupations Blacksmith and a Person we can begin to derive new Occupations from them. Blacksmith: Need -> [Coal] -> (Coal Provider) Need -> [Water] -> (Water Source) Need -> [Metal] -> (Metal Provider) Need -> [Wood] -> (Wood Provider) Need -> [Furnace] -> Builder Need -> <Structure> -> Builder Person: Need -> [Food] -> (Food Source) Need -> <Shelter> -> Builder (Coal Provider) Merchant -> Needs -> [Coal] -> Miner -> Needs -> <Mine> Miner -> Needs -> <Mine> (Water Source) <River> <Well> (Metal Provider) Merchant -> Needs -> [Metal] -> Miner -> Needs -> <Mine> Miner -> Needs -> <Mine> (Wood Provider) Merchant -> Needs -> [Wood] -> Miner -> Needs -> <Forest> Woodcutter -> Needs -> <Forest> (Food Provider) Merchant -> Needs -> [Food] -> Farmer -> Needs -> <Forest> Merchant -> Needs -> [Food] -> Hunter -> Needs -> < Hunting Ground > Farmer -> Needs -> <Farm> Hunter -> Needs -> <Hunting Ground> So after analysing the Blacksmith we have the following new Occupations: Merchant Builder Miner Farmer Hunter New Commodities Forge Tools Coal Wood Metal Water Food Furnace Cooking Tools Hunting Tools Farming Tools Building Tools New Locations Mine Forest Farm Hunting Ground River Well Structure Home

I think the first step would be to do some reasearch on villiages of medievil europe. Find out how they were structured, why people settled there, the different occupations, what exactly each occupation does.. etc..

Then we could build a basic villiage structure around that (both archectually and populated with people), then work on the AI. Once all the NPC's core AI is set, then work on the social AI. Give the Blacksmith all the information he needs to be a blacksmith from materials needed, what to make, what to charge, when to work, etc.. then build its social life like where it lives, who it lives with and all that. I'd imagine that all NPCs core AI should be pretty close to done before building anyone's social AI, since most of the social intelligence is based around it's interaction with other NPC's core intelligence.

Quote:Original post by Garmichael
I think the first step would be to do some reasearch on villiages of medievil europe. Find out how they were structured, why people settled there, the different occupations, what exactly each occupation does.. etc..

I don't think that is really necessary instead an evolving approach would be far more suitable to achieve results. With each poster building on the existing work by defining new fields as they are identified and making amendments to existing ones.

For instance posters could define the new occupations identified in the analysis of the Blacksmith, which in turn may identify new occupations, locations, commodities or entirely new types of fields. After all it is not necessary to have every possible occupation in the design merely the ones need to satisfy the requirements of the design.

Don't forget to go the other way as well, expanding the products:

[Forge Tools] <- Needs <- Blacksmith
[Cooking Tools] <- Needs <- Cook -> Produces -> (Taste++, Safety++) -> Food
[Hunting Tools] <- Needs <- Hunter
[Farming Tools] <- Needs <- Farmer
[Building Tools] <- Needs <- Builder
--
[Weapons] <- Needs <- Soldier/Bandit/Etc


Occupation: Cook
Needs: [Coal]
[Water]
[Oven] (optional)
[Spices]
[Unprepared Food]
[Cooking Tools]

and much more. I don't have time to go on rigth now though =-/


Soembody needs to make a website with a script to autoexpand and link this data so building a web would be easier

How deep do you want to go with this? There are a ton of occupations in and around the fantasy style medieval village you can consider.

Tailor, Shoemaker, Innkeeper, Chef, Bootlick, Alchemist, Fletcher, Cooper, Lumberjack, Courier, Doctor, Nurse, Maid/Servant, Guard, Pickpocket, Banker, Loan Shark, MerchantMiner, Hunter, Builder, Driver, Stableboy, Craftsman, Scientist, Astrologist, Prostitute?

I'll go through one in attempt to contribute to the virtual village


Occupation: Alchemist

Needs: [Plants]
[Minerals]
[Chemicals]
[Water]
[Wood]or[Coal]
[Furnace]
[Containers]
<Structure>

Produces: [Potions]
[Explosives]
[Acids]
[Refined Chemicals/Minerals]

following the same analysis he depends on the following occupations:
Merchant
Miner
Gatherer
Herbalist
Apprentice
Builder
Glass Worker (I know there's a proper name for this)


Already this introduces a few more occupations than I could think of off of the top of my head. I see this becoming really complex.

As ever,
***Cosmic***

Quote:Original post by Cosmic One
How deep do you want to go with this? There are a ton of occupations in and around the fantasy style medieval village you can consider.

Tailor, Shoemaker, Innkeeper, Chef, Bootlick, Alchemist, Fletcher, Cooper, Lumberjack, Courier, Doctor, Nurse, Maid/Servant, Guard, Pickpocket, Banker, Loan Shark, MerchantMiner, Hunter, Builder, Driver, Stableboy, Craftsman, Scientist, Astrologist, Prostitute?

Well, the amount of complexity we introduce will change over time I think. For now though I think if we should keep it simple and merely define and analyze the occupations we already have and the ones that result from that work. This should provide a basic social dynamic that we can then begin to build on.

I've taken what has been done so far and created a xml document, containg that information, so that people can easily see what has been done so far and still needs to be done.
Virtual Village

So keep the additions comming.

[Edited by - TechnoGoth on December 2, 2004 10:41:25 AM]

GUARDS!!!! GUARDS!!!!

:)

How would a guard fit into this scheme, or would he / she?