Weekly Torch - the barrel of questions

Writing Quests and Dialogs sounds easier than it probably is. How hard is it for you to put the right amount of humor and surprise in the Quests/Story? Are you more of a romantic or a Humorous or do you have a dark soul? :slight_smile:

PS: Why is your Desk so damn empty and clean? :hushed:

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Most random quests are boring(bandit quests, headhunter, hunting).
What will KCD make better?

Has KCD little sidequests which start inconsiderable and turn then into something breathtaking, epic???

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@Ondřej Ask yourself a good question and give us the answer. I couldnā€™t think of any. couldnā€™t be bothered to try but I really wanted to I swear and as lazy brethren you understand my plight.

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Since you had done before P&P roleplay and LARP how different was it to write quests for a historical PC-RPG without magic?
I guess you also had to check out a lot of historical facts. Happend it often that a idea for a quest couldnā€™t been realised, because of the historical facts? How many ideas for a quest where inspired by by history research?

Maybe a useable pice of chalk or charcoal could help.

After the described brainstorming was it still more teamwork or had every disigner his own bunch of quests to formulate?

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Seems that i did not post my questions yesterday As i only found Them saved As a draft.
Well i am going to post Them this late anyway Just in caseā€¦

1.Was a job at gaming industry something you have been long aiming for? ā€¦or was it rather an unexpected oppportunity? Whats cool About working in game development And what sucks?
2. Do you want to talk About your test Quest that you wrote when applying for the position at Warhorse? How different it would be now after the full-time experience at warhorse?
4. . What is your biggest challange with writing for kcd
2. Do you like brain-storming your ideas with other writers? How does the process work And is everyone happy with the final result or is it all About arguing And compromises?
3.Could you Win an argument against Dan in case you dont agree on something or is the boss always decided in his vision?
4. Do You have some favorite quests from other games? Whats Made Them So fun for you?
5. Can you share some Quest/design idea of yours that you really wanted in KC, but it Will not be in the game in the end?
6. Who is the biggest history nazy in the writing room?
7. What other realisting setting would you choose for kcd if not 1403 bohemia?

Do you argu

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When I was a GM for P&P-roleplay, I remember that sometimes players came with some brilliant, crazy or stupid ideas etc.
Did testers or players also suprised you and your team sometimes with a out of a box idea for KCD?

How well are secret operations and the every day life of peasants documented for this medieval period? How much freedom for creating a quest or a interesting story exists there.
Who describes the character of a NPC to imagine and to program her or his behavior? Is it possibly to describe a example?

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Makes me wonder, what was the most surprising/most funny incident during implementation of Inception AI? :slight_smile: Regarding NPC behavior and their reactions especially :slight_smile:

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What professions will be NPCs able to do?

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Even after nearly 25 years, Ultima VII is still my reference in open world NPC behaviour. Why is it that modern games constantly fail to achieve this level in simulating a living and breathing world (Dwarf Fortress aside)? Will KC:D do any better? Examples?

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I really like the idea of an adaptive AI and I hope I can see some nice AI behaviour in the game.

I am also working by my own on an AI which remembers everything what the player/opponent has done and the AI will recognize the players/opponent behaviour even when you start a new game or shut the game down. I think this is what makes the AI to an AI. The ability to remember things and use them in the future. If a situation that had already occurred comes again the AI know what to do.

This means the AI will improve itself with every move you do as a player and will counter you, obviously.

At the end I try to develop an AI which can solve problems by only give it a few parameters. So it solve the problems nearly by itself.

Example: I only give the AI the moves (evade, attack, block, etc.) and the AI will try it against their opponents and will remeber which moves are the best against each type of opponent (archer, swordman, etc.).

If I can help you with the AI I would be pleased to do so :slight_smile:

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What is your favorite Space Marine Chapter?

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NPC which are far away habe only a basic AI. Which abillity has the basic AI? Which abillity has the advanced AI?
Has every NPC the same abillity in general, or have we some genius/fools?
WhatĀ“s with affiliation? Can a bandit turn it a soldier, or a farmer into a bandit?
Can normal NPC make a crime? Steal or murder? All the other NPCs, can they adjudge him?
WhatĀ“s the difference between NPC-AI and Children-NPC-AI? Why was it imposible to implement a reduced AI for children in KCD?
What was really difficult to implement (but works now)?

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The AI programming seems like to be pure math. So it is logic.
Once I readed that most of the human decisions are gut decision and often the invidual person tries to explain his/her decision after it was made.
Can we expect such unlogical decisions in the game? For a example would a NPC get so angry that he would attack a stronger, better equiped and better traind character?

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From the picture it looks like the NPC:s are driven by some kind of behavior tree. If so, do all NPS:s share the same tree or are they ā€œhandcraftedā€ for each npc/npc type? And how does your system differ from other behavior tree implementations like UE4:s, what makes you proud of it?

Also is your PhD thesis avalible in English?

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Why is your nickname ā€œvegetaā€? :slight_smile:

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How many properties / parameters must the AI per NPC process? (As moody, always hungry, curious ā€¦)
Did you think about a global fallback if a NPC runs in an undefined state? How will the AI deal with an logical exception (Like a shepherd how lost all his sheeps)

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Hi, before Tom replies to your questions I though you could find some answers here.

Unfortunately he is on vacation right now, so it will take a few more days till he will be able to answer.
But that does only mean, that you all have even more time to ask him some questions. :smiley:

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How do you solve the issues when what one NPC does affects the goals/states of another NPC(s)? To my layman eyes this possibly can create a long chain of cross-interactions between various NPCs that can affect the game in unforeseeable ways. Seems mind-boggling to work with this when also having the player change the world by advancing quests. As far as I understand this was why Bethesda ultimately trashed their Radiant AI system they tried to implement in TES: Oblivion (at least thatā€™s what they said :slight_smile:) . Is this an issue or have you guys solved this somehow?

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Oh, thanks. That video looks really interesting from reading your subtitles. It would be awesome if they translated it or did an english livestream with Tomas Plch.