This module demonstrates a fully functional cottage that might be used for a player character during play of a module, campaign, or persistent world environment. Nearly everything in the areas can be used by the player character! Take the time to explore and try everything out when you play. Extensive use of the Aurora Editor 'Invisible Object' item has allowed even graphic area-drawn items to be incorporated into game play. Certain area-drawn graphical objects, such as the bookcases and the second floor wardrobe, required their 'trigger' to be placed on the floor in such a way that at least some of the drawn object is covered by their area of influence. Every usable object has an appropriate 'examine' description, as well. The only objects currently unusable are the large corner cabinet on the first floor (there is a barrel in front of it) and, of course, the upstairs beds.
Take special note of the process involved in preparing a meal on the first floor, and the 'washing' ritual that can occur on the second floor. UPDATE: 07/23/2003 - This version of the Player House adds a roommate to the mix! Meet Alana; an NPC roommate of the player house. I have instituted some simple, needs-based assessment routines to give her an AI feel to her actions. She will roam the house, eat when she's hungry, wash when she's dirty, and so on. And, if that wasn't enough, Alana has a pet dog, as well, who uses similar scripts and is self-controlled. Each of these characters and their scripts are self-contained, so if you want to use the house without them, all you have to do is delete the characters. Enjoy! I look forward to your feedback, comments, and criticisms. Feel free to contact me if you can think of any improvements to this concept.
This is a compilation of the old system into a single score. There were 1 that made this score of 10 then rounded to 10.
Posted by Ralph Stadig ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2004-01-02 21:07:00
I plan to, yes.
But my current effort at module development is stopping that, for the time being. Sometime soon.
Posted by Ron ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-12-29 15:13:00
Ralph, were you planning to update to 1.61?
Posted by Ralph Stadig ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-28 21:13:00
I didn't go that far with this one, Hulk, though others have attempted it. With this one, I was more interested in adding a little "life" to the cottage area for the player.
the npc Alana simply uses the same objects, scripts as the PC when she puts about fulfilling her objectives.
I agree though: a successful and seriously easy to implement set of scripts for this purpose would be awful useful; especially if they didn't increase a module's hearbeat lag significantly.
Posted by Incredible Hulk ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-28 14:59:00
Welp from what ive read so far it sounds really really cool just downloading it as i type this. But i had this idea for a sims like mod where you can goto a furniture store buy a couch wich is really a unique power item that summons a couch set on a one time use. Would also be cool to see an item that you could use to rotate the placables in game and of course the placables would have it to be persistant =X. i think a system like that mixed with this could make for ver interesting and DIFFERANT gameplay.
Posted by Anonymous ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-24 13:27:00
Sweet......
Posted by Steve G ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-10 23:23:00
Much obliged, I shall have a read. I had a quick glance, it seems related to 'heiraretical (Scuse spelling) behaviours". Thats often used in robots to simulate insect like behaviour. This seems to raise the level up, replacing simple motor behaviour (sensor detects wall turn left) with 'human' needs and motivations. Hmmm.. might have to do some research.
Thanks for that. Look forward to seeing your AI roomie (does he slowly get angry if you leave things lying around?)
Posted by Ralph Stadig ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-10 19:38:00
Not off hand, Steve. Most of this came from dusty old tomes (the modern versions :-)
But I'll do a webferret search this weekend and see what I can find.
almost done with that mod I described (scheduled, needs-based ai npc's), but I'm being haunted by a rather nasty error that interrupts and suspends "actionmovetoobject' commands when a npc transitions between floors of the house :: frowns ::
Posted by Steve G ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-10 13:38:00
Ralph,
That thesis sounds interesting, do you have a link?
Posted by Ralph Stadig ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-05 22:02:00
LOL, DoppelGanger!
I'm BUSTED! :-)
Actually, their "scheme" is a public domain one. I've been doing AI theory development for several years, and I'm fairly familiar with it.
They (and the update to this mod I'm working on now) use a public doman thesis written by a Dr. Margeret Thurman during the sixties that was entitled "Human Motivations based on Needs-Based Assessments". It's a fairly simple algorythm.
I'm nearly to the point where, in this demo module, the player has a roommate with complete needs based scheduling and pseudo AI processes. It's coming along well. Others have done this, and mine will require some user-defined event coding to use, but I think I can keep it light-weight, contention free, and simple enough to make it viable.
And, it'll be optional: the existing demo capability (providing full RP player interactions in a "house") will be usable without it.
I'll reply here when I update.
Posted by Doppelganger ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-05 10:36:00
Using invisible objects to make places more interactive is a good idea. BTW, are you a "Sims" fan?
Posted by Finniksa ( ..xxx.xxx ) at 2003-07-04 12:05:00
This is a cool house, and combined with a persistent world setting it could really be fun. Also, combined with the interior tileset hak that has no pre-arranged furniture, you could add useable beds. A butler npc could be added for a rich home, as well as a birdcage and tons of other neat features just based on this work. This has a lot of potential!
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