AI plug-in...?

[chris421]

The new WotC hardcover release "Dungeonscape" (pages 76-77) touched on some inspiring NPC role ideas, some of which could be modeled and automated via a modified AI system with profound results.

"The Aide", "the Broker", "the Captive", "the Commander", "the Deviant", "the Enigma", "the Explorer", "the Guardian", "the Hook", "the Inhabitant", "the Killer", "the Lost", "the Lunatic", "the Pariah", "the Seeker", "the Schemer", and "the Worshipper"--all great archetypes to randomly populate a dungeon.

Who says a top level branch in a perception script couldn't convert yet another boring fodder NPC into a henchman/ally, an escort, a taskmaster, a turncoat or a sadistic foe...all depending on the PC's alignment, health, wealth, level, race, and behavior at the precise moment of the encounter?

Improvements to hack and slash tactics, spell/feat/skill usage, formations, lengthier, smarter engagements--even if they occasionally best the PC are not enough! We want a twist. We want to believe the illusion of thought in our opponent. That's entertainment.

If someone could template these role-like behaviors you'd bring something truly unique to NWN2, and an absolute boon to PWs which otherwise have to hand code each NPC's individuality.

Given the logical desire to model large scale encounters on a poor, single-cored script engine, maybe a NWNX4 "AI Offload" plug-in would be in order. Already have proven the data is faster to access from outside the game engine than from within. Why not crunch the AI there as well, streaming perception data out and decision actions back to the NPCs…?

[Papillon]

Phillip Saltzman and Robert Zubek already experimented with a plugin like this for NWN1: Shadow Door.
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Papillon