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SlayerOfDukes
Village Dweller
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Posts: 1
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| How good are these games, in terms of NPC interaction/A.I.? |
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I really love CRPG's . The main thing I love so much about CRPG's is the NPC interaction/A.I(How NPC's react to your actions, day/night schedules, their own personality's and live's, Dialogue Choices, ect.). Unfortunately I have only played a couple of CRPG's and so I would appreciate it very much if someone could take the time to answer the following question. How good are the following games in terms of NPC interaction/A.I.?
Baldurs Gate
Baldurs Gate 2
Fallout
Fallout 2
Gothic
Gothic 2
Arcanum
Divine Divinity
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Morrowind
Knights Of The Old Republic
Lionheart
Temple Of Elemental evil |
Thu Oct 09, 2003 9:27 pm |
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MageofFire
Griller of Molerats
Joined: 03 Oct 2003
Posts: 1594
Location: Monastery of Innos |
Gothic: NPC interaction: good, A.I.: Not so good. People following you have trouble climbing ladders, will fall off cliffs to get to you, and will run away from a Scavenger (very weak monster) right into a Shadowbeast (very strong monster). However, Gothic is still a fun game well worth any RPG fan's purchase. Neverwinter nights has fairly good character interaction, and doesn't need to have very good A.I. since the landscape is always simple.
By the way, what does the "C" in CRPG stand for. I know what "RPG" stands for, but the "C". . .? 
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Thu Oct 09, 2003 10:36 pm |
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stanthony
One Smart Dog
Joined: 28 Oct 2002
Posts: 556
Location: Tallinn, Estonia |
CRPG - Computer Role-Playing Game 
Baldurs Gate, Baldurs Gate 2 - several options in dialogue trees, *many* NPCs, great story. AI is so-so, but some battles require strategic thinking and using group tactics.
Divine Divinity - Interesting and funny dialogues, however not many possibilities in conversations, NPCs are somewhat dull IMO. I ahven't experienced AI  Battles are pretty much hack'n'slash, you could you different tactics against different enemies, but overall I think AI was quite poor.
Planescape: Torment - Hehehe Best dialogue ever. Several ways to say one thing, dialogues directly influence your allignment. Very interesting story, great developed characters. AI is quite usual for Infinity games.
Neverwinter Nights - Simple conversations. Standard NPCs. AI can be challenging depending on the class of your character.
Morrowind - Specific system of conversation - you can select keyword from the list. New keywords add automatically. NPCs are static, but story is interesting. AI is straightforward, but in expansion packs there can be complex battles, too.
Knights Of The Old Republic - not released for PC yet.
Lionheart - Hmmmm... Few NPCs. They are interesting by themselves, but dialogues are poorly written, and very few comparing to hacking and slashing. AI is non-existant.
Temple Of Elemental evil - Great dialogues, though few  COnversation depends on allignment of your party. But story is lame, unfortunately. AI is challenging. Game is turn-based.
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Fri Oct 10, 2003 6:06 am |
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Zagorin
Village Dweller
Joined: 23 Sep 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Alexandroupoli,Greece |
The best interaction with the NPCS and with the persons in your group is in the Planescape Torment. Make yourself a favor and play this game. |
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Fri Oct 10, 2003 7:03 am |
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Zephyr Elvirion
Baron of the Court
Joined: 23 Mar 2003
Posts: 336
Location: New Zealand. |
You missed out one from your list - unless you don't have it of course and that's Summoner. There's excellent interaction between NPCs and amongst the others in your team. It's got a fabulous story too. And Summoner 2 (PS2 only) is even better - all round better I mean, better grafx, better interaction, better weapons, better magic, the only (slight) let down is the interface takes a tad longer to get used to.
As far as the ones on your list Gothic I & II are the stand-out ones for NPC interaction to your main character, Planescape:Torment for an interesting interaction between those in your team and some NPCs, and Morrowind for only necessary interaction - as in speak when they're spoken to - but an excellent CRPG non-the-less.
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There're 3 sorts of people who're good at maths - those that are and those that aren't. |
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Fri Oct 10, 2003 9:14 am |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
| Re: How good are these games, in terms of NPC interaction/A. |
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Guess I'll fill in for the ones stanthony and MageofFire missed.
Fallout and Fallout 2 - Excellent dialogs. The A.I. of your companions can be scary sometimes.
*Cringes when Marcus pulls out his minigun.*
Hit the enemy, not me!!
Interaction with other NPCs is great, they'll react to your reputation and choices. You befriend someone who is an enemy of someone else, then you can expect a chilly reception from that person.
Arcanum - Made by a lot of the same guys who Fallout, so expect the same good stuff and the same problems.
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Fri Oct 10, 2003 8:24 pm |
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MageofFire
Griller of Molerats
Joined: 03 Oct 2003
Posts: 1594
Location: Monastery of Innos |
Yeah, I've seen Fallout at a friend's house. It looked great!
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OMG! WTF?! MONKEYS!!!!
=Member of numerous usergroups=
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Mon Oct 13, 2003 2:25 am |
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StarkeRealm
Eager Tradesman
Joined: 25 Apr 2003
Posts: 38
Location: Louisville, KY |
| Re: How good are these games, in terms of NPC interaction/A. |
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quote:
Originally posted by Val
Fallout and Fallout 2 - Excellent dialogs. The A.I. of your companions can be scary sometimes.
*Cringes when Marcus pulls out his minigun.*
Hit the enemy, not me!!
That had more to do with the SPECIAL system than anything else, since every shot had a seperate roll. The fallout games are a little paradoxical; the first has an excelent story and dialog, the second had a mediocre story and NPCs but the AI was greatly improved. And Tactics wasn't a bad game (or an RPG).
Arcanum is a very good game for character interaction, I'd put it right under Torment. It had an excelent (if somewhat cleshed) story. How many "second comming" rpgs are out there anyway?
Planescape: Torment is probably the best CRPG ever, I haven't finished, or even gotten very far, but it's all ready demonstrated more character depth then all of Fallout 2. It's also almost unique among CRPGs in that it universally encouraged non-violent resolutions to quests.
Finally Morrowind, I love this game, but it really does have its falts, dialog is almost non-exsistant, minor NPCs are nothing but a collection of conditions that select their dialog options, there are numorus bugs in the 1.6 build (the latest), patching is nessicary for the game to be playable, to be kind combat is uninspired. It's also probably one of the most immersive games on the market today, the three main plots, and most of the major side quest lines in the basic game and its expansions seems well thought out, and meshes nicely with the setting, the game's spotty documentation actualy helps the game in the long run by compleatly failing to give you any warning as to what you are getting into forceing you to look for what the background story is in books internal to the setting.
Hope this helps
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The problem with programers is that we can type out 32 character long strings without errors, but we can't spell worth a damn. |
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Sun Oct 26, 2003 12:31 pm |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
If someone pulls out a mingun when they're standing behind you, then you're going to get a spray of bullets in the back. If the combat AI was good, then the NPC would move to the side where the party is out of the range of fire and then cut loose.
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Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
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Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:42 pm |
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~NOBODY~
The One And Only
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 1824
Location: Vivec, Jobasha's Rare Books |
| Re: How good are these games, in terms of NPC interaction/A. |
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quote:
Originally posted by Val
Fallout and Fallout 2 - Excellent dialogs. The A.I. of your companions can be scary sometimes.
*Cringes when Marcus pulls out his minigun.*
Hit the enemy, not me!!
Interaction with other NPCs is great, they'll react to your reputation and choices. You befriend someone who is an enemy of someone else, then you can expect a chilly reception from that person.
You had the opportunity to change NPCs' behavior, and Marcus using a minigun isn't the best choice. He hit you because he doesn't have high minigun skill. |
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Sun Oct 26, 2003 9:53 pm |
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Val
Risen From Ashes
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 14724
Location: Utah, USA |
Oh believe me, I switched him to hand-to-hand weapons. That didn't stop him from pulling out whatever extra junk I had him lugging around. 
_________________
Freeeeeeedom! Thank heavens it's summer!
What do I have to show for my hard work? A piece of paper! Wee!
=Guardian, Moderator, UltimaDot Newshound= |
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Sun Oct 26, 2003 10:50 pm |
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Arma
Mysterious Lady
Joined: 24 Oct 2003
Posts: 1230
Location: in the middle of hell |
Well I must say that in my opinion Arcanum is a little more after Baldur's Gate 1/2 and PlaneScape Torment ... It has a great story, a character creation system far better than everything I have seen in any CRPG, an quite sufficient AI to make it worth th while, interesting dialoge options (I haven't tried it out yet but someone told me that if my character was diplomatic enough I could make the Arch Villain commit a suicide and beat the game without confronting him ... and I have not seen such a thing in any CRPG .. ) |
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Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:13 am |
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mkreku
Keeper of the Gates
Joined: 22 Oct 2003
Posts: 112
Location: Uppsala, Sweden |
One thing about Gothic/Gothic 2 (that I think people before me forgot to mention) is that you're always happy to find a new NPC. If you find an NPC in, for example, Morrowind, it feels like a punishment (almost) because the dialogue is so incredibly boring and you KNOW what the character is going to "say". Old women can give the same advanced battle tactic tips that the soldier guarding her door can. They all say the same, no matter what race, profession or age.
In Gothic/Gothic 2 you can always count on the NPC saying something of value. More often than not the NPC hints you in the direction of a new quest, gives a quest himself, sells something or has the ability to teach you one thing or another. It never feels like a waste of time to talk to a new NPC in the Gothic-series. To me that's what good NPC interaction stands for.
The AI on the other hand.. Let's just say that NPC's in Gothic/Gothic 2 can be seen as.. a tad bit suicidal. 
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Swedes visit NordicGamers for the latest game reviews in swedish! |
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Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:49 am |
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~NOBODY~
The One And Only
Joined: 15 Sep 2003
Posts: 1824
Location: Vivec, Jobasha's Rare Books |
quote:
Originally posted by Val
Oh believe me, I switched him to hand-to-hand weapons. That didn't stop him from pulling out whatever extra junk I had him lugging around.
Strange, I think it's a bug. He never did this to me... |
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Mon Oct 27, 2003 12:16 pm |
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Jaw
Village Dweller
Joined: 27 Oct 2003
Posts: 3
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Baldurs Gate 1 is all about hack'n slash if you ask me, but combined with Baldurs Gate 2 and TOB it becomes (in my opinion) the best CRPG story ever made. BG 2 also has a detailed party with members that can think for themselves, hate you or fall in love with you.
Torment is also a GREAT game the dialogs are even better than those in BG2. Great partymembers to choose from. It has only one ending though.
The Fallout games has even better dialogue. In fact I played those games mostly because of the dialoge. You can choose from all kinds of party members (that has a brilliant AI), and you can be and do almost anything you can think of.
ToEE was a HUGE disapointment, after you leave the first town, it's just hack'n slash all the way. And you can't really interact with your partymembers, wich I think is its greatest flaw.
KOTOR is a great game too. You can do anything you like, as long as you can handle the consequenses. Your party members respond to you diffrently as you approach the light or dark side. And you can sway some of them either way. It also has a surprising storytwist. Now I've been a dark jedi, a good jedi, A Jedi that destroyed ALL the other jedis and now I'm currently playing a blaster wielding deathmatch champion.
Morrowind is also good. But you should have both of the expansions and it needs to be modded a bit. It has a uniqe modding community with a ton of great mods, people are making content that is much better than what bethesda did themselves. Dialogs aren't as good though, as people can't start talking to you. It's more like clicking links to gain information.
This is the one I have played the most, after Fallout 2
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“Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.” |
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Mon Oct 27, 2003 2:11 pm |
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