I was just pondering on what aspects of a humanoid NPC make them seem smart/dumb. Personally I find that the moment an NPC loses believeability I stop treating them like a character and start treating them like an obstacle, a puzzle or a resource to be mined. It also becomes frustrating because I tend to lose my suspension of disbelief. What aspects do you think make the most difference? I have a few examples below:
- Bad pathfinding
- Lack obvious abilities, e.g. climbing stairs or fighting
- "Forget" that they know you
- Completely predictable
- Repeatedly fall for the same moves
- Bad/no gaze tracking, including talking to where you were when you walk away
- Lack of context, e.g. will talk to you about the weather when in danger
- Keep to script even when it makes no sense, e.g. talking to a dead comrade
Look forward to hearing your responses.
JT
However I judged that it would touch on enough technical topics to fit here.
