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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2016 4:28:23 GMT
These are animated plants which prey on animals and people. How should such plant-life be represented? Based on treants at least, it seems to make some sense to have other forms of (sentient) or man-eating plant creatures as NPCs. Could they also be in-room objects combined with scripts and perhaps actual items in the room?
NPC Type: A man-sized algae mold/slime-like plant with barbed and poisoned tendrils is an NPC with two types of tendril accessory (items), which act as a weapon / armor with a creature class limit. Players can loot the tendrils, to use in potions, or cook, etc..
Room Object Type: An ogre-sized cactus that shoots flames when agitated, it grows a flower and also baby cactus shoots, which also act as a weapon / armor with the creature class limit. Players would try to harvest the flowers and shoots by interacting with the cactus in the room. The cactus would have a script which counts how many times a player interacts with it, being more likely to become agitated and shoot fire each time sequentially.
At the moment the cactus I would like to make is an NPC, but after watching it interact with the other npcs, it just seems to fit better as a 'background' scripted experience. Maybe this thread could be useful to someone in the future when thinking about evil plants and zombie treants... heh
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Post by Afara on Apr 7, 2016 15:34:31 GMT
I think that this has to be evaluated by a case-by-cases basis. But as a general guidelines I think that If the plant should be killable it needs to be an NPC and if it should not be killable it should be an item or room object.
It is harderd to decide between the room objects and the items. Maybe we have entered the wrong path with introduction of action/interactions with room objects, maybe they should only contain information? I'm not sure. I think it is kinda important to have a streamlined GUI/UX and the current options may be too many?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 9, 2016 5:28:46 GMT
Yeah, that's the same method I intend to use regarding the room obj VS NPC/item issue. It doesn't feel like the wrong path to me, as it is all a matter of implementation / style. We've only added in room objects / scripts in several zones, but once there is enough content where interacting with the different elements of gameplay is ubiquitous, it would be unlikely to have any second guesses. Perhaps, if we come to the point where we have significant races of sentient plants, to go ahead with a plant race. Especially if we do anything with vampirism / blood. Probably the same time we would want to add a mechanical / golem race. lol
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