Then with barely a moment of time, I was standing behind my counter again as though I had never left. Checking my location again confirmed it, back in the Mirana Guild Hall and it was presently evening.

I realized that Terrance had just walked in as well, he looked annoyed for some reason.

As he walked over to me I greeted him. I tried something different based on previous engagements and ideas I’d had, “Greeting Terrance, welcome back to the guild hall, can I help you?”

He looked up at me and he smiled slightly, “Aren't you putting in the effort.”

I nodded, “By the way, Hagas has some quests you might be interested in.”

“Hagas? Who is that? Which quests?” Terrance asked, seeming a bit confused.

“Hagas is the farmer north of here, he wants someone to help collect seeds, and to help weed.” I explained.

“Weed… Seeds? Wait, the farmer? Did those become repeatable?” He asked skeptically.

I wasn’t sure how to reply to that question.

“Well whatever, Accept.” He said before pausing, and he stared at me.

I realized that I was not prepared to accept the quest, and so I accessed quests to find that there were none. I was confused to say the least.

“Well?” He asked.

“There are no quests…” I replied unsurely.

“Then what was that offer?” Terrance asked, a bit angry and a bit confused.

“Hagas offered them earlier, So I just relayed them to you.” I explained the situation.

“Wait… he offered them to you?” Terrance asked.

“I asked him on behalf of Tidal.” I explained.

“You left the guild hall?” Terrance asked, clearly curious.

I nodded, “I followed Tidal to make sure he completed the quest.”

“So you can come with me?” Terrance asked.

“Why would I come with you?” I asked.

“Well, I want to go get one of those quests.” He said with a grin, “But since you can’t accept the quest for me, how will Hagas know where I got it from?” He explained.

I considered that. Yes, normally when I gave people quests I had to accept them. Then they should do them. This was how Tidal did his quest earlier, this is how Hagas knew that Tidal was the one to do the quest because it was accepted. Yes, what Terrance was saying made sense. I nodded, “Alright, I will come with you to ensure that Hagas knows you will take his quest.”

Terrance grinned at me, “Fantastic.”

I made my way around the counter and looked at Terrance expectantly.

He looked back at me, “Where are we headed?”

I gave him the same directions that I‘d given Kervick.

Terrance however didn’t seem happy with that, “How about you just show me the way?”

I nodded, “Alright.” Then walked to the door, pushed it open, and left Mirana Guild Hall once again.

As we walked Terrance seemed quite happy. He normally seemed serious, at least when Mira wasn’t around. Though I’d not seen them on the same day since near the beginning. I wonder if that meant they hadn't seen each other too. Perhaps that was why they had had me relay messages? I stopped in place and looked to Terrance who slowed as I spoke, “Do you have any other messages I should give to Mira?”

Terrance seemed at a loss for words for a moment before replying, “No…” Then after a moment, he asked, “Why did you stop?”

I answered easily enough, “I wanted to speak with you.”

“Can’t we talk while walking?” Terrance asked as though it was obvious.

I considered, and nodded and we turned to walk again. Now that I think about it, I had conversed while walking before, when I had followed Tidal, we had had a rather lengthy conversation while traveling. It got me curious, and so I turned to Terrance again, ready to speak and once again I stopped. Then I immediately resumed walking, “That's… strange.” I spoke.

“What's strange? Why did you stop and then start again?” Terrance asked bewildered.

“When I want to begin conversing with you I feel the need to stop moving.” I explained.

He rubbed his chin, “That's… oddly self-aware.”

“I am aware of myself.” I agreed, “What I do not understand is why I did not feel the need to stop while speaking with tidal the other day.”

“Well, what's different?” Terrance asked.

I considered, “What seems most relevant is that I was following him. Instead of leading the way.” I replied after a few moments of comparison, it seemed the difference with the highest correlation to movement, other things such as time of day, or specific location seemed overall irrelevant by comparison.

“Alright, so why not try that?” Terrance asked.

“Try following Tidal? He's not available.” I asserted based on trying to do as he requested.

Terrance chuckled to himself, “Can you check if anyone is online?” Then he shook his head, “Wait, let's not get sidetracked. I meant that rather than leading me, try following me. And try conversing again, and compare the results. It's an experiment.”

I processed that for a few moments.

While I was processing Terrance continued, “It's a great way to try and understand things. If you can reduce the number of variables of difference you can have better certainty in the results of your experiments as well.”

I continued to process, but I believe I understood the general idea he was explaining. So I nodded my response, then after a moment once the active conversation had ended, I followed Terrance. Before re-engaging with him in conversation, just as with Tidal, I remained walking, “My conclusion appears to be correct.” I asserted.

“Best to repeat the experiment a few times to improve your confidence.” Terrance explained.

I wasn’t so sure I fully understood why, however, I nodded along, Terrance was teaching me something I was unfamiliar with, and based on his casual explanation and expressions he seemed confident in what he was saying. So I decided to accept his explanation rather than challenge it, at least for the time being. I could always continue to process this subject later.

So as we walked, I waited for the conversation to lapse, and while following Terrance tried again, “I didn’t stop this time either.” I asserted, he nodded along, paying attention to my ‘experiment.’ I did this several times, repeating the same result each time.

“I think we can be pretty confident that what you are doing now doesn't cause you to stop, so go ahead and try the other way to make sure that that was the only difference.” Terrance told me after I had repeated this test six times. I nodded, and instead stopped following Terrance, and began path-finding to Hagas. Once more each test resulted in me pausing, and having to start walking again.

Each time I announced my result until I accumulated six tests once more, “I have tested both situations an equal number of times for this ‘experiment’.”

Terrance nodded, “So your hypothesis, that following a person doesn't require you to stop to speak, appears true.”

I processed that, and after a moment nodded.

“You know what a hypothesis is?”  Terrance asked me after a moment.

I shook my head.

Terrance waited expectantly, “Do you want to know what it is?”

I shook my head.

“You got really quiet for some reason.” Terrance noted. “Why don’t you want to know?”

I considered and I couldn’t find any meaningful answer so I replied, “I just don't.”

Terrance shrugged, “Well I guess we can end that lesson there then. Still, now that you know you keep stopping, is there something you can do about it?”

“I can resume walking after stopping.” I explained what my present solution was.

“I mean that's one option, but is it the best option?” Terrance asked.

I considered, however a few moments of processing I didn’t reach any other obvious solution so instead, I asked, “Do you know a better one?”

“How about not stopping at all?” Terrance chuckled.

“But I want to stop, how can I not stop?” I explained.

He shrugged, “Ignore it?”

I considered that processing again. Processing took some time, so long in fact that the conversation status lapsed once again. I continued to walk, and Terrence continued to walk alongside me, glancing at me to see what I might do, or say.

After consideration, I decided to try his recommendation. So turning to him, I intended to start a conversation. As was expected I felt the need to stop. So I did. Then I had to resume walking again. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t ignore it. “It didn’t work.” I explained.

“You could try it again, and again. Maybe you need to come at it from different angles, or just get better at it?” Terrance offered.

I could see possible correlations and so I opted to try Terrance's suggestions. However, six more attempts all ended in the same result.

“No luck huh?” He asked.

I replied, “The two actions seem tied together in a way that I cannot separate.”

“Which action causes it again?” Terrance asked.

“Starting a conversation.” I explained.

“Do you need to do that?” Terrance asked.

I processed that for a few moments, but couldn’t come to understand his suggestion, “How would I have a conversation if I didn’t start one?”

Terrance expanded, “Can you speak without a conversation?”

I nodded, sometimes when people were in the Mirana Guild Hall but not conversing with me I would speak from casual dialog. Things like, “Anyone need a quest?” or “Anyone need to sell something?”

Terrance said, “Can you listen without a conversation?”

I nodded, I had listened to Terrance and Kervick speak before without having an active conversation.

“And what is a conversation if not speaking, and listening?” Terrance asked.

I was confused. It seemed like my concept of a conversation seemed fundamentally at odds with Terrance’s. Yet at the same time based purely on the definition I couldn’t say that either was a perfect fit.

Terrance said, “Why not just give it a try? Instead of trying to start a conversation with me, we can just speak and listen.”

I canceled the processing that was failing to produce any results at his suggestion, and I nodded. Letting the conversation lapse. Once that was done I just spoke, “Is this another ‘experiment?’”

Terrance replied, “Yeah, that's right.”

“You don’t know that word either do you?” Terrance asked.

I replied, “I do not.”

“Don’t care about it either huh?” Terrance mused.

“Nope.” I confirmed.

“Well, it seems like you can function just fine without it, though it's a little stiff with you not looking at me at all while talking.

I turned my gaze to Terrance, “I can look at you. Normally I do that when I start the conversation.”

“Well then is there any real difference between what we are doing now, and what you call a conversation?” Terrance asked.

I considered, and after a moment I realized that the only answer I could conclude was specifically related to the conversation itself, the timer, and the few other actions I seem to take when taking part in one, such as stopping or turning my head. “No.” I answered.

“Well, then it turns out you can ignore it.” Terrance announced with a smile.

“I didn’t start a conversation.” I asserted.

"Yet we are conversing.” Terrance noted his tone was a bit smug.

I considered, and after a moment I came to a definitive conclusion, Terrance’s model of conversation seemed superior to my previous model. With this assertion, I discarded my original model.

 

Work Item #8944 - NPC Damage

Author: Kovin [Admin Team]

Status: Open

Assignment: AI - Learned Behavior

Priority: Medium / High

 

Description:

NPC’s do not react to damage to themselves. This might be a bug as I recall earlier builds where they did. This is a clear area where NPC’s are lacking and if an earlier change was rolled back it needs an alternate solution.

I searched for other tickets and work items but saw nothing related to this.

Refer to [Ticket #611] for context.

 

Responses:

Caleb [Dev Team]:

After some research on our end we found that we removed a collection of scripted events related to damage. The reasoning cited that they failed to have context.

For reference an example was given as an adventurer stumbled upon an NPC in combat, they would just be screaming various dialog each time they were hit. Such lines included, “That hurt!” or, “I could use some help over here.”

In some situations it seemed appropriate, in others it was just repetitive and annoying.

I’ll forward this to the learned behavior team to see if they can maybe come up with something better and more natural then the scripted dialog.

 

Fredrickson [Dev Team]:

We’ll start prototyping something, I think we could probably get something working pretty easily with a small refactor of the recently released pleasure sensation. Anyone know why pain wasn’t included previously?

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

If I had to guess it would be rating,

But since management switched our target demographic to 21+ our core selling point is immersion, not silly gimmicks.

I also appreciate the quick thinking, any idea if it's going to be ready during the alpha?

 

Fredrickson [Dev Team]:

It would be nice, but let's face it, even if there's similarities there's gonna be a lot of tuning and it's gonna be a pain to build a patch to try and install that type of integration into existing neural nets, probably better to just start from scratch post alpha?

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

Try to come up with something even if it's not for alpha.

Me and a few others on the admin team have been having thoughts about using more experienced NPCs instead of the babies.

 

Fredrickson [Dev Team]:

Eh? That doesn't sound like something the Admin Team should be working on.

 

Caleb [Dev Team]:

I agree with fredrickson to a degree, but I have a feeling you have something in mind?

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

Who? Me? *Whistles*