[HELP] Implementing NPC Relations

[dpbBryan]

Hello everybody, nice to see all the useless help posts and some fimilar names.

 

Something that I've been working on is creating your own 'Instance' of the world independent of what other players do. To create a bit more of a dynamic role playing situation for players I've been wanting to implement relationships between NPC's. I'm currently using standard interlude L2j from the nightlies folder (r1434) incase you're wondering, though I'm wondering more about the concept of it rather than the practice.

 

The idea to paint an example of what I mean:

 

There is Tom and there is Joe. Tom is a trader. Tom receives his supplies from Joe and resells them. Joe is a traveling NPC which travels from location A to B. Joe dies, either by the hands of the player or a hostile NPC. Because Tom no longer has a supplier he cannot sell supplies anymore to the player.

 

Obviously it won't be so specific every time and it was just to illustrate what I mean but I want to implement something generic enough that I can define an entry point interface ( like checkRelation or something ) and from there script it myself in specific classes. However I'm running into trouble with a good implementation with the current system of npc's and spawning.

 

1) My original idea was to have the NPC's have a Map with the NPC id as the key and the value being some kind of relation interface (classes implement this with a doCheck as stated above, or something when the player interacts with the NPC). However NPC's can have multiple spawns, which means this is unreliable (or it can be managed if I'm the one managing the custom npcs)

 

2) The second idea is to use the spawn id's of npcs, however this wouldn't be known at compile time. To manage this I'd have to completely overwrite the current spawn system to make something to keep track of it then, which would then have to spawn things inside of a relation 'group'.

 

Anybody maybe have some kind of idea about how to go about this?

 

 

 

[Tryskell]

It's interesting, but I'm not even sure you can rely on npc objectId after server shutdown. As CtrlIntention, you can make a Enum with all possible actions, and code any action.

 

About individual behavior (such as your Tom/Joe), I clearly doubt you can do something global. Each A type enters in a "case" you have to code. It could be patrolling an area, you have to give an area manually, or based on actual region.

 

How will you manage to say Tom and Joe are related, for exemple ? I see mostly a "clan" system. How will you manage to make them walk ? I see a pathnode system.

 

You could also do as L2J currently make, aka coding any single behavior. It is very long.

 

Anyway, even on The Sims, you haven't such relation, and it's a game based only about relations between NPCs.

 

You should better take a look on AI systems from others games.

[adenaman]

i got a bit lost:

"Instances": check how postIl did it, but it must be just controling knownList or smth like that

 

Relations between Npc's you can create a manager that save the info (Joe alive?) onCreate() turn it true, onDie() false [no idea if Npcs have onCreate(), they must, because some make an animation or a skill, i dont know] that manager may be static so you can access it easy.

 

AIs, there are some usefull information about this, i have read long time ago something about birds/fish simulations that are based on 3 keys:

- they follow a leader

- they have a formation

- they do random moves inside that formation

or something like that

 

Edit: http://www.red3d.com/cwr/boids/

[vampir]

If u would like to make relation between single npcs(each npc spawn have got different relations) and u want those relations to be saved after restart. Npc = spawn, if spawns would be indexed it would be very easy, except that there is no option i think :/

Now, when something happends = relation is changed, it would have to be saved somewhere, best option is new Sql table with spawn relations. When relation has been removed(for example when 1 npc died) it can be just removed from database very fast.

 

Now about relations, u will need to create enum of them. I dont know what relations u want to do but i think that u will need to make each class for each relation so it will be easiest way. Seems like something not really hard to do :)

[dpbBryan]

Well I'm going to start with something simple to begin with. I have an enumation object with 2 statuses. Either the NPC's are going to like each other or they're going to hate each other (two poles to start simple). Let's just say they're both merchants. If you deal with Merchant A, Merchant B is going to hate you, and vice versa: If you deal with B, A is going to hate you. For now deal 2 is going to the player additional as I will have to add things in the L2PcInstance for that. Deal 1 my focus now is how the two NPC's see each other and how to bind them uniquely.

 

I'm making the decision right now that all boss NPC's and all interactable NPC's are only going to be allowed 1 spawn. I'm blocking spawning two uniquely identified NPC's from being spawned at the same time. This way the NPC id is going to become a reliable key for looking up relations.

 

I don't want to make a global solution for the implementation but I'd like to have a generic interface with a function

( RelationInterface.CheckRelations(L2Player ) ) with classes that implement the interface based on whom you're talking with.

 

public interface RelationInterface { public Something getRelations(); }

 

Keep in mind I'm focusing on simple relations of NPC's right now, the addition of players will come next (need to take this one step at a time since it's quite ambitious).

 

Adenaman: I'll take a look at the link and give it a read over, thanks for the link.

 

[Tryskell]

If you deal with B, A is going to hate you.

It means player got a role to play. Your system (even that simple one) can't work without player interaction.

 

For such "simple" exemple, you have to register every player. You have also to create a static link between both L2Npc (another map ?), which you have to feed by yourself (or at least finding a particular variable to make checks on, like ALL Gludio merchants hate ALL Dion merchants - in that case, the region).

 

Basically, for a global table, as simple as possible, I see something like :

npcId EnumAction parameter

The parameter being related to EnumAction. Could be a Location model (patrol), a L2PcInstance (trade), another L2Npc (follow/escort), a monster (hunt).

 

SQL table feeding a ConcurrentHashMap, which can return all stored interactions following npcId. Then the AI will act following priority of action.

 

---

 

About a PURE relation system, just do like the SIMS. One variable put to 100, at 0 it means hate, 100 love. Following npc template, react according other npc template.

[adenaman]

You can copy the Varka/Ketra system, if you add the Tryskell idea

-100 to -20 = love completly Varka

-20 to +20 = neutral

+20 to 100 = love Ketra

 

If you want any interface then it must be something like Comparable (or Comparator dont remmember now) but i dont think that you need it.

 

if it is personal player based (love Dion or love Heine) then just add a int / boolean at L2PcInstance and some help method "boolean isDionFriend()" or "int getDionHeineFriendship()"

 

if it is not, (like Hellbound levels more or less) then you need a manager that store that var, it can be singleton because there will be only one (no 2 Dion-Heine relationship)

 

Btw the link is about behavior simulations, dont think that is relevant