Larian Studios
Posted By: RagnarokCzD Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 02:27 PM
So ...

Today i finaly get to killing Ragzlin and then meet hostile vendor (that one in Goblin camp) ... and i fighted her.
You would never gues what she did.

She summoned a whole bunch of spiderlings around me!
I was quite confused at first ... but then it hit me ... just few dozen minutes ago i SOLD HER THAT SPIDER EGG from Harpers post!!!

Do you know what that means?
Vendor used item i sold her to fight me and it felt AWESOME!

No deeper thought here, i just wanted to share this, bcs im too exited about it. laugh
Posted By: mrfuji3 Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 02:34 PM
Excellent. One step closer to merchants having an appropriate level of power for the gear they're selling.
Posted By: 1varangian Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 02:37 PM
Next they need to learn to put their stuff in chests rather than carry everything on their back to allow easy pickpocketing.
Posted By: Tuco Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 05:10 PM
NPC AI has been able to use consumables and items their inventory since the days of DOS 2.
While it's a neat detail, it's not exactly new.

And it's one of the advantages of having a a dynamic AI rather than a series of basic "IF - THEN" instructions.

It's something Swen VIncke talked about even in the post-mortem of DOS 2 at GDC.

EDIT - from minute 47 going on (but frankly the whole thing is worth a watch):


Posted By: Topgoon Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 05:57 PM
This kind of dynamic AI can potentially make modding abilities (either changing existing ones or adding in new) easier since the AI should in theory auto-calculate.
Posted By: Tuco Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 06:05 PM
Originally Posted by Topgoon
This kind of dynamic AI can potentially make modding abilities (either changing existing ones or adding in new) easier since the AI should in theory auto-calculate.
Yeah, that's one of the potential advantages: you don't exactly need to teach the AI how to play in detail, as far as you are using "building blocks" it's already familiar with, it's theoretically capable to come up with its own conclusions and strategies.

Of course, the downside is that this can also potentially open to behavior that can be effective but not particularly desirable or fun to deal with, so a certain amount of testing and tuning is probably preferable anyway.
Posted By: RagnarokCzD Re: Appreciation: Battle with Vendor. - 18/02/22 06:21 PM
Huh ... thats new to me, thanks Tuco.
(Huh ... this was new to me too. laugh )
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