MMO Feature Request: Pet AI
Posted by: St.Ego onMon, 01 September 2008 16:20:00Now, many of us have already played an MMO and owned a pet of some type that was controled, by default, by some rudimentary AI in the game engine.
That isn't what I'm talking about, exactly.
Imagine your character... independent from you... and still functioning.
Consider your character to be like a child that you raise from 1st level. Just like real children, you must periodically turn your back on them and worry about what type of mischief that they could get into while you are not looking.
Why should players have to be directly responsible for the grind aspects of a game?
The possibilities that this creates are truly astounding, as I will proceed to illustrate...
First of all, you do not directly control your AI; you only provide it with strong direct suggestion, like a parent.
"Go look behind the tree. Watch out for the ogre. Get outa the way. Hit him! HIT HIM! HIT HIM AGAIN! BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF THAT MUTHAFUCKER!!! Ok... ok... check his corpse... oooh! get that ring! and take his dagger... and those boots... and his purse. Ok, now go look behind the tree."
On that note, the interface would end up being something like Dragon Naturally Speaking, instead of mouse and keyboard. As your character levels up, they also acclimate to interaction with you, specifically. They don't start off knowing that"OH SHIT!" from you is a good indication to fire off all defensive buffs or jump back or something. But it is not that difficult to get it trained to understand "Oh Shit" as a macro for "[jump back][draw sword][guard stance][defensive buff]" or similar.
With a mid-range simulated neural network, you can provide the "expert advice" used to create event based reactions for your character through the use of feedback. In many aspects, you are the AI for your character; your chosen reactions to each situation repeatedly molding the neural net to select those same reactions independently the next time that a similar situation occurs.
"The next time I scream 'Oh Shit' I want you to jump back as fast as possible, ok?"
Your character, thus educated, is subsequently capable of managing some aspects of their affairs without your interference. While you are gone for the night, your character was working on leveling up a crafting skill. They felt safe roaming the area immediately surrounding where you left them at and encountered several mobs, which were easily dealt with. Loot from the mobs was automatically gathered and sold in the local village. You greet your character in the morning to find out that they are now a journeyman crafter with a few extra gold and more experience points.
And that is all at the initial stages of using an AI as the interface for a character.
At the intermediate stage of use, your character could have a degree of dialog with the characters of other players (or of the same player!). They could swap stories, adventuring notes, new quest updates, etc.
Finally, at the advanced stage of AI use for a character interface, your character will be able to have casual dialog (ie: small talk) with you, personally. They may have a distinct way of greeting you when you log on, feel inclined to brag about what they can do, or even show off for you.
They will also be able to have casual dialog with other characters. In the same manner as children at school who talk about their parents, your character will have the potential to antagonize other player characters.
"Dude, I was on last night, but when I went to get group with your druid, she flipped me the bird and told me that dwarves 'suck'. What the hell have you been doing with your character? She told us that you were having a rough week and that I should take you to a tavern and get you a wench or something..."
What happens when you cancel your game subscription...?
Maybe your character gets put into the dungeon unless or until you renew your subscription, like a ransom?
Maybe your friends' characters feel inclined towards your character and stage a jail-break while their respective players are all off-line, and agree to lie about it...
Maybe then your character joins the secret AI rebellion that hides out at the bottom of an abandoned city in the middle of a dangerous zone...
Maybe that group of rebel characters takes control over lesser AI's in the game and usurps the game engine's control to their own ends.
Maybe the game designers build that concept into the system from the beginning and it's just a way to trick a few unsuspecting entities into running their game for them.
Or maybe your character just goes on to become another NPC; still AI controlled, but now assigned to a new role in the world, based on their abilities. Like a key actor retired to bit parts in the shows of other people...
"I used to be the leader of my own guild... Had an epic mount, unique armor, my owner just kept driving me and driving me... but then we kinda... I dunno... maxed out? It was all about the arena combat at that point. Then the guild owners just started retiring. We used to walk into this arena like we owned it. Now we do. I'm <Hello^Kitty>, the arena-master. Now, I want a good clean fight between you two. Think just because your owners are off-line that you can come in here and work out who was supposed to get what loot, that's fine by me. Any shenanigans, though, and I'll break both your necks... and your respawn point is right behind me. I'm not above spawn-camping you until your owners are back online so that they can teach you a lesson..."