Avatar NPCs

I know this is highly unfeasible but, it would be really cool-

What if we could script Avatar NPCs? They would only have simple functions, like walk from point A to point B- or they could act as merchants. I certainly wouldn't expect this untill like.. 1.8 or some thing, if at all... but wouldn't it be COOL?

Actually, Cory mentioned that they'd be discussing NPCs in the 1.5 timeframe. Whether those discussions lead to the implementation of avatars-as-prims is pretty much a matter of demand. Is this something enough of us want to see?

Personally, I support this 100%. I want to be able to script avatars and have them move and play animations how I see fit. That would be infinitely cool.

I want a 100% easy, trivial, and 200% obvious way to tell a real player from an NPC in all cases. Maybe their names are a different color and always say (NPC) as their title, or something. But I think it should be more than that, because someone will find a way to cover the name. So make it so all avatars get an aura when you hold down a key, and NPC color is very different than PC color.

I'd even go so far as to make the key a toggle. Perhaps a way to always see the "NPC" aura/icon/title through other object so people couldn't obscure it? It'd be like View > Object Beacons or View > Highlight Alpha. View > Highlight NPCs?

Click on find, type the NPC's name, and presto! NPCs dont have profiles
Actually, if we right clicked them,it would always be obvious from the pie menu. We cant rate an NPC, but we can rate its owner and creator, etc.

I suppport this idea/feature.

I'd say (NPC) title, plus an aura that can be toggable (on by default), and maybe show them on the mini-map?

While that works eggy, it doesn't meet my three criteria of "100% easy, trivial, and 200% obvious". Sure I could take the time to click on all 20 avatars standing around an area to see which ones are and aren't people, and continue that process for each new avatar I see but that is a PAIN in the postierior. I need a way that is obvious not only for me and other veteran players but for new players who can read a sign that says 'Press and hold Z to see a players aura! Red auras are Non Player Characters (AI) and Blue auras are other people!'

On another note, I would like to make it expensive to create them. And not expensive in L$. The biggest resource drain seems to be avatars in a sim, part of that is due to the work a sim does for each player, but part is the complexity. I don't want someone with 100prims available on their land to be able to make 100 AVs.... or even 10 AVs. At a minimum the cost of an AV prim should be 25 prims, if not 50 or 100. I own 4096 sqm of land, and if AV prims cost 100 prims I could rez 8 or so. Not that I would because I want a house, but I'm just saying that even 100 prims isn't that unreasonable - it would allow 150 AV prims in a sim if you wanted to max it out.

That and I like the idea of AV NPCs being a sort of elite and rare item. But that doesn't fit in with the clothers needs.... maybe discounted rates for partial manaquins? 10 prims for a torso, 10 for legs, 10 for head or 50 for a whole avatar? That would benefit cloth shops who could rez 5 pieces for each whole AV someone else would want to rez, and make whole NPCs still a unique item.

Right, it needs to be patently obvious to a newbie that the person they're talking to is really a piece of software, even if the feature that allows them to make the distinction can be turned off.

When and if this was ever implemented, I'd hope to see some additional advances in the rendering engine and sim handling of multiple avatars. Each release since 1.0 has increased the performance of groups of avatars in both rendering and sim performance terms. Don't quote me on this, but I believe a statement was made at one of the town halls saying something like a 50-100 av limit was ultimately possible if they spent the time working on it.

Catherine said so!

Ok Ama, but if we're going to have avatars as a prim, they are probably not going to have a neat floaty name on top of them, unless you use settext, in which case the font will be different, and we're not sure if they will be able to perform all the neat animations we can do or just be a very realistic statue, plus if they will be a "prim" as it has been mentioned then it will be hard to put real clothes on them, and while you can certainly fashion a realistic texture for them, or even grab your own baked texture with some minor cache hacking, they will still talk in green, and not have a dot on the map, etc.
Even if they talked, I doubt they would ever fool anyone with half a brain.
I'm not against the aura thing, I'm just saying that having realistic NPCs isnt really that dangerous or confusing to the average person. IMHO at least. A permanently visible NPC tag would just suck though.
If I were LL, I would start by adding the low-LOD mesh as a test of the whole av-as-a-prim idea. It opens a lot of possibilities, actually, you could probably do the same with a low lod mesh that you could do with the full lod one, it would be uglier but would have less lag, and be less confusing to the brainless noobs.
Later I would prolly just have a separate detail slider for av prims.

I support this BUT as a matter of priority locking down one's land against exploits is number one.

It'd be great to have the possibility of using NPCs in a game, but it'd be better to have a game without NPCs that's actually playable, that can't be hacked/exploited around.

Lance says around 1.8/1.9. That sounds reasonable, on the basis of getting locking in 1.4 (but I'm not holding my breath...)

Azelda

I am all for the introduction of extra avs, in any form, be it a mannequin, a set of legs or a fully animateable and scriptable av.

Soooo...

we'd have avatars, and... avat-arenots ?

=SV

Sinclair...just ouch.

Maybe their names could be preceded or followed by (NPC) in chat. For example.

You: Hey, how's it going.
(NPC) Joe Blow: Not bad.

I assume holding the mouse over them would show their name, description, and owner just like regular objects.

The SL sex industry will have fun with this idea.

In theory, would someone just have to buy a lifetime account and leave that avatar sitting around in one place? I haven't tried running two simulaneous instances of SL on one computer, but I doubt that could happen. You'd need two comps, perhaps.

OMFG it's kohne! Welcome back ye crazy cat

AAAARGH

*showers Sinclair liberally with prim peanuts*

oh the avatar-nity!

Seriously, though -- I fully endorse and support the idea of making it obvious to a blind person which are the real people and which are the muppets.

the only problem with npcs is some one could raise a army and attack people in kill zones

This is the only problem, Barracus?

Whether it's animated soldiers or a single prim, attacking people is easy. Personally, assuming it were it not a terrible performance hit, I'd actually welcome being swarmed by a band of oompa-loompas or ninjas over getting killed by a single homing script. At least the former would take some level of skill and creativity to execute.

Eggy,

I am not in the least concerned with you, myself or anyone who has played the game for a month or more being able to tell an NPC from a PC. I am concerned for the first time player. The player who logs in and wanders around the world and wonders why everyone is a jerk to them because of poorly programmed AI. And I worry for increasing the amount of 'Are you a computer?' questions the mentors get.

I want all NPCs to have a name, and I want that name to have (NPC) in front of it (of course then a group will make their title (NPC) but they will get what they deserve from that).

I want the name to be a different color.

I like the auras.

Again, I couldn't care in the slightest that you will be able to tell an NPC from a PC in 0.35 seconds. I want new player 01 to be able to tell an NPC from a PC in the first .35 seconds they are online.

KOHNE!!!
Long time no see

But back to the point, you indeed can run two instances of SL on your computer, you just cant log in to the same account. Just run newview.exe with the -multiple flag.

Of course, this practice is not advisable on people with inadequate computers.

==Chris

hehe thanx, guys
I'm sorta half back. My new apartment won't have internet access till late August, so I have to depend on the university's computers. And that's a bus ride away. We'll see how often I can get on. :/
Eventually (when I have cash for a new computer), I'll be able to leave SL running 24/7 ^_^

NPCs were a good idea in the PC version of the Sims. You, the player, were essentially always in God mode. In a virtual world that simulates real people, I'd rather not have any NPCs. If absolutely necessary, maybe LL could enforce a "robotic" look for NPCs.

...Then again, the Stepford Wives were robots and they were all beauty queens.

"I thought you were my friend. I thought you were my friend."

Actually, Barraccus, thats one of the reasons I want them :B

1.5, you say? Can we get a linden comment?


>_< I wants them!

WELL THANKS ALOT FOR RUINING THE MOVIE FOR ME!!!!!!!!! *Angry look*

Anyways, I think I understand what an NPC is, put what does it stand for exactly??

This sounds interesting. It reminds me of those white manikin things from the power rangers. lol They scared me.