Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2004 21:29:03 GMT -5
Thank you. I ask this because my 7 cities are all big enough to have like 90 townspeople per city, and 630 townspeople is a load of memory, so I was thinking I'd repeat some townspeople that say something generic like, "Go away! I'm working out here." So what do you guys say? I've made 49 townspeople so far (for the prequel which only needs about 90), and I still have a lot of work left. Oh, also, just to let you know, I've been making a lot of the townspeople interactable with - which you'll see in the video demo that Doan'll be making for my game soon. I must say though, the townspeople that explain stuff about the game/their world are a bitch to make. Two townspeople combined cost 10,000 memory!
|
|
|
Post by vespuleth on Dec 6, 2004 21:58:56 GMT -5
so what is the question?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2004 22:48:29 GMT -5
Oh, sorry, the question is, do you mind some repeating of townspeople?
|
|
|
Post by Doan the Nado on Dec 7, 2004 2:53:33 GMT -5
I voted no. This is very understandable given the reasons you presented us with (memory and time). One idea would be to use the same event with a different script, so that in one town, a mayor says, "Go away!" and in another town, he welcomes you. You could do this without needing to create a separate event. Let's say you use the same town mayor in every town. You could write something like:
Load Game Info Sort Map Number Apply If 1 (town 1) Call: Script - "Welcome to my wonderful town!" To End Apply If 5 (town 2) Call: Script - "Go away, I'm busy." To End Apply If 8 (town 3) Screen Display: "Our town is really in trouble. Can you help us out?" User Input..... ... Branch End
So you see, scripts like the first and second one can be used by many different townspeople in many different towns (chef, maid, worker, anyone). The final one, however, is exclusive to one town mayor, and you can write a complicated script there. That way, you can use the same event again and again, another way to cut down on memory usage.
But yeah, repeat people, repeat some text... as long as it's not extremely noticeable (like 5 different phrases repeated in every single place), I don't think it would be a problem at all.
|
|
|
Post by Dungeon Warden on Dec 7, 2004 10:26:52 GMT -5
I also voted no, because 1) many professional games using repeating characters. If the pros do it, there is no reason you can't. 2) With the number of NPCs you plan on creating, it would not be very noticable to the casual gamer that so repeat, particularally if the responses are pretty generic. 3) If the same NPC says different things (like Doan suggests) they won't seem like the same people even if they look the same.
The only time I get annoyed with repeating characters is if there are several identical characters in the same area that say the same thing. I feel I an wasting my time hearing the same thing over and over but I still have to talk to everyone to make sure I don't miss talking the a character who might have some helpful information. Since you are thinking of doing 90 different NPCs per town, I'm sure you also play to make them all say different things as well.
You know, I think 90 NPCs per town is too many. I understand your wanting to populate your towns, but there is a reason RPG towns are small besides memory limits. Making large towns with lots of people who have nothing to do with the quest/ story are boring to talk to. The City of Balder's Gate (in the PC game of the same name) was full of people, many who were unhelpful, but some that actually had interesting things to say. I spend hours talking to everyone and exploring the city and only gathered a small amount of helpful information. I hope your towns' NPCs won't be similar time wasters.
|
|
|
Post by Jugem on Dec 7, 2004 16:13:31 GMT -5
I voted "yes", and my reasons are sort of along the lines of what DW was saying. If you have to start repeating townspeople, then you probably have too many of them. 90 per city sounds like way too many. I also like to talk to every character, and I can only imagine myself becoming insane talking to 90 people in each town.
Plus, realizing that you're talking to someone who says the same thing as earlier characters can detract from the experience. Now, if the player doesn't notice it, then that's another story.
|
|
|
Post by The Final Rune on Dec 7, 2004 16:16:04 GMT -5
I voted "NO" because repeating is ulmost unavoidable given that there are only so many character models available. Also, if you are making a climate or culture specific town, its only natural that the people would dress/look similiar.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2004 19:44:37 GMT -5
Thank you very much, it's all been very great feedback so far. Yeah, I like your idea a lot Doan, especially since I do this for my messages. Text Box: "Mayor" Text Message: "blah" Input: Buttons: Constant Wait Close Message Window Close Text Box and could repeat everything but the Text Message line too. I'll do what Doan said of course (I already have a variable for tracking that anyway). So far what you've all said's how I felt too, so I understand all your of your feelings. I've been trying to make most of the people have some purpose (sometimes humor, sometimes item giving/buying/getting something/telling something), but some still don't. I think it'd suck too to have 90 townspeople that all just said one stupid message. The 90 townspeople also include Class Masters, shopkeepers, etc. too. It's looking like I'll have more than 90 though, since I've made 54 or so and I'd estimate that I need 100 to 110 for Holmstine. And if I do blatantly just reuse the exact same townsperson twice they'd be farther apart from each other so the player hopefully won't remember. I know I will using Doan's method (which isn't really reusing townspeople), and'll probably do it a little the other way (the bad way) between different towns, but I'm still interested in hearing what everyone has to say. Pretty much, I made my city with everything I'd planned to have in it and it took up 6 screens of 512 blocks each connected to each other. To give you an idea, it's very compact and close together, and since it's a city it should be pretty full with people too I figure. I have tons and tons of insides of places to make (estimate maybe 20-40 different rooms total). (I've already made all the inside "Buildings" though, and they match all the outside "Buildings," so the "Buildings" are getting reused a ton (but with different object and event sets look very different) so the memory's not really a problem there.) _________ Keep talkin' though, I'd still like your thoughts on this if you haven't said anything yet or have more to say!
|
|
|
Post by Doan the Nado on Dec 9, 2004 6:46:39 GMT -5
Here's an idea... with a city that big, I don't think it would be too bad to have some people who don't talk to you at all. I mean, how realistic is it for every single person to stop what they're doing and say something to a complete stranger? Keep in mind that I was also saying (with my "tip") that the script "Welcome to my wonderful town" and "Go away, I'm busy" could be used by other events, too. So that in one town, the mayor could say it, and in another, some random housekeeper could say it. I think people would notice repitition like that even less.
|
|
|
Post by Dungeon Warden on Dec 9, 2004 9:03:01 GMT -5
I am planing to have one very large town in my game as well. I don't know how many NPC's I'll need, but I do know that the market place will be full of people that the party can't talk to. They will be wandering around the square and not have time to talk to the party members. This was going to be my suggestion until Doan stold it (just kidding )
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 10, 2004 2:52:02 GMT -5
That's a good idea, it's kind of like the "Get outta my house, ya bum." I thought of doing. Hmm, I'll have to think about that...
|
|
|
Post by Jugem on Dec 10, 2004 14:26:39 GMT -5
They will be wandering around the square and not have time to talk to the party members. As long as they have time to tell the party that they don't have time to talk...I can't imagine being ignored by a videogame character.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Dec 11, 2004 1:27:29 GMT -5
Brave Fencer Musashi gave me the idea of making some people open the door to their house and tell you to go away. I might do that some too. That'd also leave some possible ways to get into these houses too. Hmmn...
Yeah, I was planning on having people that say stuff like "Go away, I'm busy." or "Get outta my house, ya bum." like jugem said. I'm pretty sure I'll do that some too.
|
|
|
Post by vespuleth on Dec 11, 2004 11:15:09 GMT -5
i have people that just say '...' to infer that they wont talk to you.
|
|
Kumo Shinagi
RPGM2 Helper
aka Cloud the Humar
Kumo Shinagi: The one and true master of Chi.
Posts: 151
|
Post by Kumo Shinagi on Dec 13, 2004 22:55:24 GMT -5
I voted no. It's pretty much unavoidable with RPGM. You will eventually use soem character models more than once. 90 people per town though.... That's a alot of NPC's.
|
|