> Could you give the villagers a sense of their own agency, meaning that they have lives of their own that would continue whether the hero returns or not?
Yeah I'm currently considering working that in.
Right now existing game AI techniques can manage giving NPCs a daily routine, and I'm trying to focus on demonstrating something new, VS another solution for an already solved problem. But having NPCs just talk about the hero is boring. I'll likely get around to adding private life stuff for each NPC before I do an announcement and share the project more broadly.
Jokes aside, this is interesting because I have thought about this since the first time I killed the dragon outside of Whiterun. There is a brief change with the guards nearby where they are wowwed by your feat, but some of the standard NPC responses sneak in and make the immersive aspect of the game shaky, at best.
I always thought, overtime, the honeymoon phase of a hero's deeds would wear off, and the villagers would swing more into a negative mindset, asking things like "who is going to clean this up?" or "how will we be compensated for damage to our homes?" etc. Community disruption tends to devolve into a lot of cynicism about the people in charge, in my experience with everything from natural disasters (obvious negatives) to new urban shopping centers (less obvious negatives). Regardless of what actually changed to disrupt the community, eventually it is perceived as the source of problems.
I'm not a psychologist or civic engineer, so I am not sure if there is a name for the concept I am referring to.
Yeah I'm currently considering working that in.
Right now existing game AI techniques can manage giving NPCs a daily routine, and I'm trying to focus on demonstrating something new, VS another solution for an already solved problem. But having NPCs just talk about the hero is boring. I'll likely get around to adding private life stuff for each NPC before I do an announcement and share the project more broadly.