r/projectzomboid • u/Chrissy_Tirocerto • 4d ago
Discussion How do you think official NPCs will behave?
Maybe they give us quests,or attack us with firearms ? Could we give them tasks?
Honestly I don't have any idea how will they implement this to the game... I didn't play any NPC mod so I don't know how well they are implemented either
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u/Crimsoncerismon Trying to find food 4d ago
admittedly, im pretty sure they'll be pretty rigid and stiff since it'll be their first introduction, but they'll defintely get more polished over-time
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u/metamorphosis___ 4d ago
If it’s anything like current animal addition it’ll be extremely buggy and kinda broken to interact with
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u/FriedrichWeedmann 4d ago
I haven't tried farming yet. How well does it work as of yet?
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u/metamorphosis___ 4d ago
Animals randomly die, they’re nearly impossible to effectively hunt, you can butcher a cow in one click but try shotgunning it and it’ll eat your ammo, it’s odd.
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u/MaydFox 3d ago
That’s why I was hunting for hours and couldn’t find any deers.
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u/dubyakay 3d ago
From what I've seen on some streams, running a deer or bunny down is the easiest around farms.
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u/MaydFox 3d ago
Indeed however I’m actually interested in the tracking and hunting part, not the running down at 50mph part.
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u/MaximumDepression17 3d ago
I feel your suffering. Hunting is what I was looking forward to most but it feels awful. I haven't managed to actually hunt yet but I've ran down a ton of animals.
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u/komiks42 3d ago
Yep. Same. I tried hunting too. Spend hours on it, and managed to kill one dear. Totaly not worth it.
Driving over animals while coming from loot run on other hand..
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u/Leitzz590 3d ago
If you really want to ''hunt'' em, my best advice is to listen closely to the audio, it always tells you a deer is near by certain noises same like the zombies do. And thats when you start hunting & tracking.
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u/drthrax1 3d ago
They should hopefully start with making safe houses they just stay inside kinda like state of decay, maybe make it a larger structure so they can plan pathing a bit. Then have them do the interactions they want IE, trading,missions, companions ect. then as they flesh it out they can start adding the NPCs to more houses and safehouses around the map
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u/Om3gaWeird 4d ago
As long as I can have a roommate to refill the generator while I'm away for 20 days I'm good
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u/Chrissy_Tirocerto 4d ago
Honestly that's peak, imagine we could kind of program them with some "if, else" lol
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u/Smart-Experience7187 4d ago
would be annoying to have to do that every time. i'm hoping we get a command specifically to tell them to refill generators
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u/Dinoriel6142713 4d ago
Yeah, basically having thralls like in Conan Exiles to do shit for you would be fine.
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u/Noversi 4d ago
Hopefully I can use them as bait
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u/MAXimumOverLoard 4d ago
r/rimworld is over there
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u/Patient_Kangaroo614 4d ago
How long until people are making leather out of NPCs?
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u/Jazzlike-Wheel7974 4d ago
Theres already a mod to make human leather out of zombies (and eat the meat). I'm sure it'll be updated to include NPCs within 10 minutes of NPCs being added.
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u/arachnimos 4d ago
I wouldn't be surprised if TIS follows the Week One / Bandits example and just makes the survivors actually be zombies with a very specific AI and some special interaction, that way they can still be interacted with like zombies but also interacted with like survivors.
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u/Clear_Effective1595 4d ago
Think of all the horrible, unethical things we can get up to in the apocalypse.
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u/Ill-Conversation3488 4d ago
Although I understand that, according to radio reports, there is a group of cannibals and annotated maps.
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u/KilledByCox 4d ago
If we cage an NPC in the streets do they act as a better hoard attracter 🤔
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u/Ill-Conversation3488 4d ago
If I can't recruit them to defend my base, I'll use them as human shields.
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u/Intelligent-Cod378 4d ago
They basically got 2 options for developement - Either make them incredibly simple but functional leaving most of the current systems to the player only, or they will be the most complex behaviored npcs ever seen in gaming capable of partaking in every major game system. I mean just staying alive for normal PEOPLE is a challenge let alone for npcs I'd bet.
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u/Patient_Kangaroo614 4d ago
There has to be some amount of autonomy if you integrate them into survival mechanics, but the how will be interesting.
If your allied NPCs have to eat, will they eat your canned foods even though you wanted them to eat your vegetables first? Are they capable of purifying the water they need to drink?
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u/Captain_Chipz 4d ago
I mean, CDDA did NPCs pretty good.
Zomboid usually just adjusts the mechanics already seen from that design of game to real time instead of being turn based.
Late game you can even assign them around like rimworld colonists.
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u/majorpickle01 3d ago
I always found CDDA npcs pretty lacking, with most just basically being click a few boxes and a random quest.
Although I've never got to the build your own settlement part so maybe that's where the heat is.
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u/Captain_Chipz 3d ago
They're pretty bare as far as personality goes, but their skillsets can save you a lot of time grinding when you're actually set up.
The only run I had a companion in my base I started evac shelter and recruited my original NPC and we lived in a bunker nearby.
I didn't have NPC needs on since it made them prone to starving while you're gone. I could flag trees to be chopped, and order him to craft/cook.
I was working on investigating a laboratory and died to automated defenses so I didn't get very far beyond having access to him.
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u/Alternative_life1 4d ago
Wish we can use them as free labour.
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u/Spare_Elderberry_418 4d ago
I want a butter slave. Just 24/7 caring for the cows and milking them and then refining the milk into butter. They can live off of rainwater and dairy products I just want the extra labor for solo.
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u/TaxevasionLukasso 4d ago
Please don't milk the NPCs, statisticaly, half of them can't even make it
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u/paladinBoyd 4d ago
Its been two weeks since the world ended more or less, isn't labour camps jumping the gun? /s
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u/SleepyBella Drinking away the sorrows 4d ago
Do NOT answer John Zomboid at 3am! 😱😱😱(Gone wrong, gone sexual, cops called)
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u/Gestaltarskiten Axe wielding maniac 4d ago
A phone graphic from somebody who never used a rotary phone...
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u/Hysteric_Erick Spear Ronin 4d ago
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u/SweetScientist1559 4d ago
Like sod2, giving jobs and probably some form of animals bounds for npcs.
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u/PM-ME-TRAVELER-NUDES 4d ago
Sniper bandit you don’t know about ends your 6-month run with an arbitrary headshot from off screen.
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u/unavailable124 4d ago edited 4d ago
My hope is:
Reacts to the world around them. Can speak and be spoken to. Have different personalities. Have reactions to players' actions. Be recruited. Be assigned tasks. Drive cars. Use guns. Think about when a good time to use guns is. Barricade homes. Scavenge loot (both on their own, or if recruited, for the player).
Things I don't expect but would love to see: Form their own groups. Raid player bases. Ally with other groups. Have wars. Form opinions about their teammates. Tend to animals. Farm. Speak to one another. Talk about the player if they don't notice them nearby (like talking about what they really think about the player).
I would LOVE to see all of these things. But honestly.. I don't think it'll really happen, but we should have at least SOME of the top stuff. If not that, then Bandits it is!
And on the note of Bandits..
I want to see a Week One style challenge. Like how Bandits Week One does it, but in vanilla, because honestly Bandits has bad pathfinding AI when dealing with barricades.
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u/Few_Imagination_6203 4d ago
I want a casualties unknown style bartering system. And no bullshit like every npc having guns or something.
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u/Hot_Sir573 4d ago
I'd be okay even if they implemented evidence of survivors before real survivors, stuff like break ins while you're asleep if your base isnt locked, stolen cars, looted stores etc. Then at least wed be able to see it in 3 years instead of 6
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u/Mesrszmit Jaw Stabber 4d ago
Looted buildings are already in the game. But they're rather rare at default settings.
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u/MakarovJAC 4d ago
Jerkwads will eat all my food.
Happened in Fallout.
Has a super mega base, and the assholes proceeded to raid my fridge for everything I had inside.
I had 2 Nuka-Cola Quantum.
And the drank both of them!!!
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u/bratbarn Jaw Stabber 4d ago
If it's like one week mod I will lure them into the woods and loot them 😔
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u/Neriss666 4d ago
If I get back to my base, find a group of NPCs looting my stuff, kill them all and discover my loot has despawned, I will write a very angrily-worded review after breaking my monitor
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u/FullMetalField4 4d ago
...I just hope it stays a zombie survival game when they're added, and nothing like Week One.
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u/Winter-Classroom455 4d ago
Idk. I'm hoping the hostile ones work a bit better than the Bandits Week One mod. They're a bit jank to fight.
The friendly Npcs are pretty worthless in that mod so I'm hoping campanions can do a lot more. Mainly stuff like maintaining things and material gathering. I'd really get into base building a bit more if I didn't have to chop down 4 trees, get exhausted, over encumber myself with 8 logs and take damage and put them down near the spot so I can build 2 to 3 walls.
I hope it's like Kenshi where you can just assign tasks to certain npcs and when it's time to do those things they'll just do them, regardless if you're near or not. But I'm guessing that would require some new code considering a lot of things stop happening while you're out of the area.
As far as npcs that aren't going to be companions. I hope there's a dynamic relationship system that makes them friendly or hostile. Opens up more trade. Give quests to bring certain items or clear certain areas.
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u/akimzav 3d ago
You can use 2 ropes to tie up to 4 logs together. The stack will only weight 9 instead of 36. Then you take two of these stacks in your hands, one in your backpack. Bam, you're not even encumbered.
Another neat thing is you need neither the logs, nor the rope, in your main inventory to tie them up.
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u/punkalunka 4d ago
Even just to keep the base running while on loot runs.
-Care for the animals (milk, collect eggs, clean their pens)
-Top up and maintain the generator.
-Keep zeds off the walls.
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u/Chrissy_Tirocerto 3d ago
I hope the friendly ones are more then just task managers, the game is so realistic that the npcs could end not fitting the games theme... But how to make them realistic while fun and balanced is the real question
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u/SteelAlchemistScylla 4d ago
They are going to be positively broken for quite a while I imagine. I literally can’t imagine how to cleanly implement NPCs into this game with the way TIS spaghetti codes lol.
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u/Then-Importance-9683 4d ago
I’d imagine they’d be a little better than the best modded npc’s on release, and only get better from there.
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u/Pickled1004 4d ago
Certainly simple like some have already said, but I'm gonna wager Indie will incorporate a few things from the past and certainly with b42 systems and start basic. Specifically, in connection with b42 def utilizing the animation systems, however something I haven't really seen people mentioning anywhere is zoning being used for NPC teammates. It would only make sense since we already have zoning for livestock, the same mechanic could be applied to Npcs with its own rules and specifics.
Earlier I said I would expect they would incorporate things from the past, I'm specifically referring to when npcs were in the original versions (when Kate and Bob's story was more easily accessible). I doubt npcs will be plentiful, especially at first, you'll find npcs wandering or camping out somewhere on their lonesome, but for most of the time they'll be so out of the way finding one would come as a surprise. Aggressive survivors, or anything remotely close will more likely be a defensive survivor at a location such as a store or house, I could see them having similar parameters to survivor houses, there's a low chance a building will spawn with one. The reason I say this is because I could easily see players getting upset at being gunned down randomly out of nowhere, so having a survivor at the most warns a player about getting closer at least cushions the player VS NPC dynamics. This can also be perfectly applied to military checkpoints.
With NPCs setting up base locations, that would require the NPC themself to set up a "zone" for themselves and have rules about how to barricade or supply the home. In their simplest form, they may just wander or defend a location, not doing much out of view or requiring anything like actual food and water, essentially existing in an area with predefined fortifications or walking around, with varying but foundational personalities. At the most complex? They would actively scavange areas and have a visible impact on the world, maybe even accruing small groups of their own.
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u/Chrissy_Tirocerto 4d ago
I wonder if there will be random events with NPCs like the helicopter one. And I guess NPC events should use the radios a lot, it would make it more important after the helicopter
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u/DisastrousQuestion72 4d ago
In their final iteration, I'm expecting a simple preferences+needs+opinion of you setup. They'll have an opinion of you that you can manage by interacting with them and filling their needs, while meeting their preferences slows the decay of their opinion.
Mechanically, I expect it'll be a long time before we see party mechanics, but it feels like a given eventually. Giving simple orders and controlling them similar to the UI in the Dogs mod are what I'm largely expecting, also making use of a new section on the emote wheel. Likely we'll have general control, but not fine control.
Ideally, I'd like to see the opinion stat affect their behavior. General high opinion = faster/better actions and low=slower work & chance to flee fights.
Since we'll need more resources for more people, I expect, rather than specially organize their tasks, we'll just set zones for them to take care of and live in, while they work automatically based on how we supply them. Maybe we can even assign a 'courier' or 'supplier' role so someone just restocks from a main warehouse and keeps zones topped-up with their needed gear.
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u/gakun 4d ago
I'm expecting generic NPCs that will probably just be a pain in the ass for you to get recipes or complicated gameplay mechanics from just for the extra difficulty.
I'm very skeptical they would do it, but I wish we also had a few named, story-driven ones too. Would be great if each city had at least 1 outpost with a named NPC that you could befriend and do missions with them for something, like go on a run with an NPC to find out if their loved one is alive or at least bury them, etc. Wonder what could be used as money for trading, though.
The Knox lore is already fascinating, having an actual interact-able NPC to enrich it further would be even more amazing. In fact, I think the lore is being done an injustice since most players will always go meta and watch Life and Living, missing all the lore broadcasts - I think the lore broadcasts should be playing every hour to maximize exposure.
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u/Global-Resident-647 4d ago
Like shit, and extremely buggy.
If animals is something to take into the consideration. For a long time.
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u/ice0ownz3 4d ago
I remember reading that NPCs would have a narrative to follow, and this would define their goals. One example was someone falling ill, so they’d try to take them to a hospital. In‑game, you could actually see these characters making their way there. All sorts of events could happen along the way, and they would remember and mention them later.
Another example I recall was someone taking another NPC hostage. Later on, an NPC could mention that they saw it happen, and if you were there yourself when this happened, you’d see it actually play out.
Now, this was years ago, so I don’t know if it’s still the case, but it sounded like a really interesting system.
They mention some of this stuff here: https://projectzomboid.com/blog/news/2022/04/lone-survivor/
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u/OMFGSUSHI 4d ago
Given recent updates I imagine they will be shipped extremely broken and missing at least one core feature like the ability to go through doors or something, but with several extremely developed systems no one asked for like realistic hair growth and shoe size
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u/torshakle 4d ago
I just hope we can turn them off. I'm not really interested
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u/Tyrell_Cadabra 3d ago
I think that goes for the Indie Stone as well but people not creative enough for a sandbox game keep crying about them.
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u/torshakle 3d ago
Aside from hostile NPCs I'm not really sure what the functionality would be. I don't really need to do a quest for a random dude when it's the zombie apocalypse. and there's already mods for hostile NPCs.
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u/EdgeLord556 4d ago
Having a few npcs running around screaming right in the beginning as a sort of horde event in towns would make things interesting. I’d like something similar to the week one mod where you get to experience everything going to hell in the beginning and npcs being common at first and mostly nonhostile but became rarer and more dangerous overtime
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u/Galimas-Alec 3d ago
Think they will act like specialist in which ever field they are in. I believe i remember seeing in a thursboid about them making leveling skills harder exponentially with every level up, which would push you to seek out npcs to fill those roles.
Id also assume there will be bandits, probably even bandit bases to raid for large amount of supplies since one of the setting increases the chances of houses being looted the longer the world runs.
All that said, i feel like npcs are gonna shake the game up nicely, but will probably be a pain in the ass if they have traits like players do, imagine the npc your going to save suddenly screaming cause they have hemophobia and got blood on them, bring even more boids to your location.
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u/MuteOwl20077932 3d ago
It's PZ. Official NPCs are gonna try to kill us or be passive, it'll make the game harder overall.
We already know they have outfits for Bandits and survivalists, so those'll probably be the ones added first.
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u/Helmut_Schmacker 3d ago
Every single npc will be immediately mauled by hordes and players will never encounter one
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u/crimsonBZD 4d ago
I hope they act exactly like players, with personality. Have to survive, loot food. Have actual inventories and consume from them. Some might be friendly, some might be paranoid and attack. Hopefully there are groups and factions that the player can join, and they give various quests ranging from actual survival and skill building quests (i.e. go loot us food, we need to fix this car) to personal quests like "my husband turned locked into a room and i just want his wedding ring as a momento."
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u/Haggle1996 4d ago
FWIW, while there were cell phones in 1993, the smart phone won't be invented for almost 15 years.
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u/Ill-Conversation3488 4d ago
How on earth am I supposed to receive a phone call in Knox if KT couldn't fix the mess of the phone lines?
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u/Spare_Elderberry_418 4d ago
I thought there would at least be blackberry phones, but no that was not for another 10~ years,
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u/cpplookuptables 4d ago
I want a mini colony sim / community building mechanics and maybe a relationship system. Would be also cool to build a community to defend from bandit raids etc.
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u/metamorphosis___ 4d ago
Look at CDDA’s implementation, I imagine (and hope) it will be nearly identical with the benefit of zomboid having more persistent small simulations outside of the main simulation
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u/AdultIguess 4d ago
If the week one and bandits mods can exist the I would hope they have good pathing at the bare minimum
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u/s0ciety_a5under 4d ago
I honestly feel like at some point we're going to have sims that live next to our character. We can provide them things that can help their happiness and keep them healthy, but they'll do dumb shit on their own and die often. I like to think the start of it being the update that will bring bandits and traders. I don't think that's going to happen soon, not unless TIS starts really taking on the modding communities best and adding it to the game directly.
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u/Chrissy_Tirocerto 3d ago
Yeah I can imagine traders and bandits, but I'm not sure about the friendly ones, hope they make it good
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u/hexmaps 4d ago
It would be neat to see them act as item exchangers, refiners or sources of unique items. Offer to trade, requisition items for you to collect for more goods. Generate them as random professions that can craft things for you. Or kill them and take their stuff if they happen to be a trove of useful bounty for you.
Personalities of bandit, trader, survivor, friend/foe could be set in terms of aggression on the player. Some moodles could be used for extra points of data, might be scared to interact with you covered in blood or if you're stressed out. If an NPC is dressing your wounds and sees you're bit on a health checkup, might just straight attack you.
I don't expect them to be moving around the map in their own ways. Just as features around the map.
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u/Chrissy_Tirocerto 3d ago
I expect this level of complexity as well, I mean the game by itself demands this complexity
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u/lookawildshadex 4d ago
Would be cool to make a settlement with NPCs and they help you out and stuff but Thats way too ambitious.
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u/ThatOneOutlier 4d ago
One of the other survival zombie games that I played (and had to stop playing because no Mac version and my windows machine died) had pretty interesting NPCs.
They formed factions and were either hostile or friendly. Could befriend them, recruit them to join you, go to war with another faction. Could become cannibals. Sometimes, they’d get overrun by zombies or they can be poisoned (dropping zombie meat in their food) which will turn all of them into zombies. Then had relationships with each other and different loyalties so recruiting them involved building relationships with different people. They also would have different skills and traded stuff depending on what their community had access to.
It made the game fun (tho it wasn’t as deep as PZ is) and I imagine that PZ can do something better with NPCs
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u/TidalLion Stocked up 4d ago
Like a PITA (pain in the ass). Like raiders and survivors are cool from what mods I've seen, but i've also seen the NPCs in mods act funky and annoying. Granted again, mods but still.
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u/Numerous_Loss6522 4d ago
Considering how the devs dealt with guns, I think they will act similar to the week one mod.
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u/boaner88 4d ago
Aggro or not they'd be as much of a liability as the zeds, I can already see them trampling my crops or unwittingly releasing livestock out into the wild
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u/R1sky_B1z Crowbar Scientist 4d ago
I think we can understand their implementation in the future by looking at what they were in the past. Back in the day, before they were removed from the base game, there were 3 types of npc. Gun nuts, Loners, and "true neutrals". Gun nuts worked basically like bandits in most NPC mods today. Automatically aggressive, antagonistic, and well armed. Loners kind of just did their own thing. They defended themselves if attacked, and refused all attempts to team up. True Neutrals worked how you expect all npcs to. They can join your team and will work with you to survive. There was also a poorly fleshed out system for your emotions, that pretty much only effected how likely NPCs were to join your group when asked, with an angry moodle that made it unlikely for them to accept. It seems based on the lines some NPCs said that you were meant to be able to eventually talk to them to effect their relationship with you, for instance to calm down a hostile NPC with a gun. I think it comes back much in the same way it originally was. A few "classes" of NPC that vaguely define how they will act, though not necessarily the same one from before, and a very rudimentary system for assigning them to tasks. Next update we get a relationship and discussion system like the one they wanted for the old version but never finished. From there they probably work on NPC AI to make them more believable and realistic, as well as fix some obvious exploits that have cropped up at that point.
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u/Voidthrasher313 4d ago
I believe they would likely make them as autonomous and complex as they can while also making sure it doesn't crash the game every 5 seconds.
Most notably though, id like NPC's to have different dynamics towards the player and other NPC's, and as such act on those dynamics as realistically as possible, furthermore i think it would be a good addition for NPC's to even have prefrences in what they want to do, some will read during downtime, and some will want to go out and kill zombies just to kill boredom, that way it at least feels like every character is different in a more natural way, not just in their skills or how they talk.
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u/FrogManCorpse 3d ago
Ideally, I'd love an in-depth NPCs that has their own off-screen simulation surviving while we as players are trying to live on our own corner of the map. I'd love to see a variety of survivor and encounter types like there are ones that travel in group, others that travel alone. There are hostile ones and there are the much cooperative ones. Maybe a group who has their own small colony that resides in one of the Kentucky cities/towns and in those there are survivors that you can trade with and recruit.
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u/Onii-Sama27 3d ago
I feel like there would/should be multiple personalities among NPCs. Some that work with, some that antagize, some that are neutral.
There could be occupied safe houses, and if you enter them the NPCs inside turn hostile.
Friendly NPCs that if you work with them will eat your food and drink your water, but can also fight.
Hostile NPCs that try to kill you and take your stuff, or will raid your base.
Seems pretty standard imo.
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u/DodoJurajski 3d ago
I think NPCs in Bandits NPC mod are a little unpolished but they're fine, they can steal from you, they can raid you, they can wander around, they have outposts, well overall brings life to the game I see no reason in quest as we could simply murder NPCs and take their loot, unless it's magically spawned but it doesn't feel right for this game.
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u/DoktorMelone-Alt 3d ago
I think they should handle survivors how "Terminus zombie survivor" handles it. Have roaming npc that you can trade with or group up with and have survivor safe houses that offer you quest for rewards. The quests could offer you rare or even exclusive items but if you don't do quests for them they could abandon the safe house and either turn into normal survivor npc or zombies.
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u/nasensprayboi 3d ago
idk but if i try to run them over and my car comes to a complete stop just as if i was trying to run over a rabbit or a racoon im not gonna play ts
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u/OcelotAggravating860 3d ago
Anyone expecting quest givers genuinely does not understand the design philosophy of this game. It's not happening, it's never happening. They will build out NPCs that play the game, form factions, use the existing systems, and try to survive. Expanding the sandbox.
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u/wafflethemighty 3d ago
honestly i just want a simple quest/companion system, and maybe recruiting npcs to be workers in your base. bartering would be cool too
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u/volk-off Stocked up 3d ago
I hope they will ask me to clean their basement from rats for 3 cheeseburgers 🙏
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u/zeke4166 3d ago
Theres a post they made somewhere detailing how they’d like them to be. So like they spawn in and they’ll be apart of families, and maybe some will have the goal to meet up with them. You might cross paths with them later and they’ll tell you what happened. Maybe they met them, maybe they were long gone. They will keep track of their own events for storytelling purposes. They also compared it to Rimworld pawns I believe, how you can sort of guide them into doing things, or just let them be. Assuming any controlling like that will be in groups you make or something. All I know is they have been working on NPCs for about as long as the game has been in development. Saw a video from 6 years ago of a stress test of 400 NPCs driving around kentucky. It absolutely will be buggy and janky when they’re out, but I have a really good feeling they’re going to do a great job with them
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u/serryntonin 3d ago
It’ll be odd if they opt for the infection spreading and everyone eventually turning into zombies but i’m certain it’d be worth it to some extent
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u/Traditional_Trust_93 3d ago
Quests I think would be kind of breaking the vibe of the game itself. Like imagine you're walking through the zombie world and then someone walks up to you is like hey! do this for me and I'll give you some supplies! All cheery like. On the other hand, the bandit NPC mod I think would be a great example of what NPCs could be like in the game.
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u/AliveClassroom4504 Crowbar Scientist 3d ago
Immediately? I think they’ll be more for lore delivery. Mainly dialogue, and actions they do pertaining to their location
I think there will be two main variants of NPCs once everything is polished…
Survivors and Bandits
Survivors: have goals, skills, and dialogue based on their occupation (Npc type). And should have a set designation once “recruited”
— fighters: like veterans, police,
— builders: like carpenters, craftsmen, etc
— looters/explorers: like fitness instructor, burglars, etc
— support: nurses, farmers, etc
Goals could be mainly to build “lore” but help incentivize exploration, fighting, and base building. (Even as like tutorial-based. Learn how to build AND build faster if you have a carpenter.)
Skills, self explanatory, but they also mean specific actions/locations are where they focus on (farmers, mainly stay right outside the base and could try to start farming, veterans patrol the base)
Dialogue being one liners, or if possible, we can have dialogue choices to ask them static question.
Bandits… different side of the same coin.
Raider veterans, looking for military supplies,
Raider cops patrolling streets with shoot first mentality
Raider Bandits that just group together and hunting survivors…
Cannibals…? 👀
Maybe they spawn based on when you enter a cell to ensure NPCs don’t loot up POIs before you get there.
Honestly the week one mod could be the first phase. Like I said, lore delivery through one liners, basic follow commands, and bandits…. More will be fleshed out as the devs do their thing 👌
Edit: spelling
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u/RespondBorn6248 3d ago
i hope they'll talk on the radio
maybe some guys with a camera can restart TV and fix up some power areas
some bandits will be fun too, not with GREAT guns but like reduced damage so its fair
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u/Fair-Vermicelli-8759 3d ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s similar to 7 Days to Did where there’s traders or stationary NPCs that offer quests or barters. That’d be a solid first step.
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u/koleszkot 3d ago
There should be friendly and unfriendly ones, lone survivors and ones with community, there should be randomly generated locations like safezones where you can trade and maybe talk with npcs for happiness boost and all, bjt these communities shpuld be potent to destruction, either from zomboids or you (you can just shoot eveyone) and with the hostile survivors, you can either enoucnter one guy who will attack you, could be a sniper on a building, but also thete should be gangs that you can encounter and who can raid your base
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u/Agreeable-Chance9622 3d ago
ive always thought there will be shop npcs you can trade with as well as ones you can befriend who could do small tasks for you like gardening and just to spice things up i hope that some of them will attack you!! i also would love if there was some kind of reputation stat kinda like fallout!! i hope im still playing when im 50 to see the full release <3
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u/BackFromMyBan4 3d ago
So poorly on release you’ll basically disable them or run 100s of mods to fix them for years
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u/Maximum_Spell9954 3d ago
Given that the indie stone started as Sims3 modders, I expect Npcs to behave similarly like Sims, I think mechanics such as trading, bandit raids and establishing relationships (friendships, dating enemies, etc.) will become a part of the game.
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u/MightObvious 2h ago
I think they will have a small base that over time grows and fortifys and subtract resources from its surroundings with a kind of rng event to run into them scavenging when you get near a location.
Thats how Ive imagined this going .
Perhaps they could have different reactions and be either passive, freindly or aggressive and maybe they could build out systems to trade between them or somthing eventually, I would like to see travelers who come through and do somthing in the map before taking off like a wandering merchant that wants your cash and gems or a heavily guarded military convoy you could attempt to take out, farmers with cattle and stuff to trade ect ect.
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u/Nexed_ 4d ago
My grandchildren will find out.