NPCS in Practice - Stealthgaming Australia

[Calanen 2]

There have been many threads requesting NPCs, or saying how they would not work or that they would in Dayz.

The Admin of Stealthgaming Australia, (who is also called Stealth) has been trialling NPCs in the form of the British forces

from Arma and also introducing the novel concept of dogs following the players around.

There server is here: 192.31.185.203:3136

I have nothing to do with the server at all, nor do I know them in any way. But I found it interesting playing against NPCs,

and I can say that it works. It is definitely something that you would consider for Dayz, because even when there are

no Players about, the NPCs are still having a go. The NPCs also shoot at zombies.

Dogs are also introduced - with a player being able to have a dog that follows them along. Dogs are acquired by

walking past a dog kennel placed throughout the map, and scrolling the mouse wheel to ask the dog to follow you. Dogs

get in cars, and choppers and are very useful. They bite zombies drag them to the ground and kill them.

Word to the wise however - Stealth doesn't appear to like players who kill other players on his server. There seems to be a distinction drawn between pointlessly

killing people, and killing people for a purpose. I wasn't able to follow the reasoning, so I've erred on the side of caution and not shot at anyone.

So perhaps heroes and friendlies only. But to have a look at how NPCs play and how dogs work, you might want to check it out.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Calanen

[-Gews- 7443]

Stealth doesn't appear to like bandits on his server. Heroes and friendlies only.

Sounds fun!

NPCs are never going to gain traction with the crowd here - they could be wonderful, but they don't fit "our" (speaking for the people who think like me or quote Rocket on the subject) vision of what DayZ should be.

It's like telling a Muslim he should try bacon - mmmf, delicious!

Not gonna fly...

[mr_chabowski@live.co.uk 2416]

I fucking love bacon.

If NPCs end up in DayZ though, all the bacon in the world won't stop the Hulk-outs.

RAAWR! CHABOWSKI HATE PUNY "NPC" SUGGESTION

EDIT:

The combination of including NPCs and disallowing PvP in one server made me black out a little bit there.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Chabowski

[Calanen 2]

NPCs are never going to gain traction with the crowd here - they could be wonderful, but they don't fit "our" (speaking for the people who think like me or quote Rocket on the subject) vision of what DayZ should be.

I was pretty skeptical too, and would have been a firm 'No' until I saw it in practice and thought it was fine, and actually pretty good. I was expecting I guess, for NPCs to be retarded, but they were very capable and cunning enemy.

It's like telling a Muslim he should try bacon - mmmf, delicious!

Not gonna fly...

I guess that's the difference between the idea and the practice. In practice might be less offensive than the idea. The NPCs are also not puny, they really give you a run for your money.

The combination of including NPCs and disallowing PvP in one server made me black out a little bit there.

Not what I would do - but as Stealth will tell you if given the opportuniity - it's his server.

No one said anything about the dogs either - I think they worked well too. People can try it out themselves and see what they think, and say whether they had a good or a bad experience with it.

[Edit - I know that 'No NPCs' is an article of faith, perhaps more important to the true believers than the bacon example might suggest. But then again, zombies are NPCs too. Just mindless retarded ones - so we are really talking about the difference between able and disabled NPCs.]

Edited March 28, 2013 by Calanen

[CreepySalad 108]

ok guys come on quit it

[godtoldme2killu 2]

I do not support this suggestion.

Keep it zombies, please. They have no minds of their own.

[HashSlingingSlasher192 29]

Sounds fun!

NPCs are never going to gain traction with the crowd here - they could be wonderful, but they don't fit "our" (speaking for the people who think like me or quote Rocket on the subject) vision of what DayZ should be.

It's like telling a Muslim he should try bacon - mmmf, delicious!

Not gonna fly...

no its more like trying to get activision to be innovative

[Very Ape 748]

The player-NPC dynamic in DayZ is perfect.

You can 'perfectly' imitate zombies in video games, because they're already mindless... well, zombies.

But you can't have NPCs perfectly imitate humans. I don't ever want to go around and ask, "Is that an NPC or a player?" But I sure as hell don't mind asking, "Was that a zombie or a person?"