What player data is saved and can it be used against players?

[Omnires]

I ask this question after talking with some friends about games with things like a nemesis system. Where the game will make an NPC who's whole goal is to be a challenge to the player. This was done in a number of ways in the past and most of us agreed that best ones and the most memorable ones all came from games they give the NPC nemesis at personal touch to them. And it was done by using the players own data against them.

For example, a lot of games track things achievements and stats like how many enemies you killed and what is your most used weapon. So going by what kind of data the game keeps track of the game can build an NPC to personally counter the player and force them get better or use different tactics. And these nemeses have the ability to evolve with the player as their data changes. Like they find a new favorite weapon or class or like aim for head shots over anything else. The game would use that data to change the NPC over time to counter that.

In some games these types of NPCs are just one offs like end game boss before you bet the game. But in some other games the never really kill them, so they always find ways of coming back. And some times rather than just a making a custom NPC to counter the player, some games just make you fight a doppelganger. And doppelganger fights are also challenging in their own way as you are more or less fighting against an evil clone of yourself using your gear and tactics against you.

I bring this up because I remember the Death Squads in Fire Fall. Who was group of Chosen who was meant to take out players who was doing a little to well at the time. So if Em-8er is also planning on having things like death squads come after players lets make it more logical and fun. After all the enemy we are fighting are meant to be smart, right?

1. The enemy leaders take notice of the player. So order troops to focus attacks on them a bit more than others.
2. When that doesn't work they place a bounty on the player. The makes it more likely that higher rank enemies will target the player more.
3. When that doesn't work they study the player and form a team designed to take them out.
4. When that doesn't work they design train a person using all the data they gathered on you with solo goal of targeting you and you alone. And also gearing them in such a way to make most of your normal tactic useless.
5. When that doesn't work they try to clone you and send your doppelganger out fight you.

 

[Pandagnome]

I have some questions

- If you really like playing a way and something happens to make you play another way should it be done often depending on the event or the actual npc?

- If we are in a team and we compliment each other does that mean the npc's will take us into account as a whole or the 1 or 2 players who are carrying the team?

- Would the npc's have different kind of intelligence, some may be smarter than others depending on the rank of the npc and their role?


I hope that it will still be a challenge for those skillful and those who want to improve they can develop this by some of the friendly npc's in HQ that may suggest doing some task objectives or practicing in the training simulator etc

E.g. then they will say you have been given security clearance pasta bake level 10 for your improved performance so you can get more access to the HQ and tricker tasks/destinations even make advanced pasta bake for better energy stability!

 

[Omnires]

I have some questions

- If you really like playing a way and something happens to make you play another way should it be done often depending on the event or the actual npc?

- If we are in a team and we compliment each other does that mean the npc's will take us into account as a whole or the 1 or 2 players who are carrying the team?

- Would the npc's have different kind of intelligence, some may be smarter than others depending on the rank of the npc and their role?


I hope that it will still be a challenge for those skillful and those who want to improve they can develop this by some of the friendly npc's in HQ that may suggest doing some task objectives or practicing in the training simulator etc

E.g. then they will say you have been given security clearance pasta bake level 10 for your improved performance so you can get more access to the HQ and tricker tasks/destinations even make advanced pasta bake for better energy stability!

Good questions. I think part of it would be linked to events and others linked to the driving force behind the NPC's actions. Like practical reasons (I'm targeting you because you are a threat to our plans) vs personal reasons (I'm targeting you because you did this and I hate you for it) because those will often play out in how and if they chose to attack you or not. For example a practical nemesis might only target you when they feel you are standing in the way of their current goals but otherwise would tend not go after you if they feel there is no point to it and/or a waste of resources, outside of an attack of opportunity because they are aware that you might be weakened at the moment. While a nemesis who doing it for personal reasons might take every opportunity they can to try and end you. Now that doesn't mean that a person couldn't also have more than one nemesis going by how the game plays.

I kind of like the idea of if a player spends most of their time in teams the game could take note of that and so the nemesis they'll face would also be one that works better in teams rather than solo. It could also be that nemeses of different people can team up to from their own alliances and groups if you often play with the same people over and over again. Meaning your nemesis less of a lone agent more of team designed to counter your team.

Having NPCs of different intelligence levels could also play out in how the game choses to try and counter a player. After all, for the most part you need use different tactics to counter say a person who is of the spray and pray play style vs someone who is of one shot kill play style as their goals and targets tend to be different things. So if the game tries to counter a player by the use of brute force than the NPCs sent after them don't need to be all that intelligent they just need to be powerful. But if the game tries to counter a player using tactics then the NPCs need to have bit of intelligence make it a challenge to the player (for example things like sniper duels and assassin duels are famous for being long drawn out battles of both the mind and skill as each tries to out think the other and avoid falling into traps.).

Although now that I think about it. For important events in the game all the normal bounty hunters and death squads could be replaced by only groups of nemeses as the enemy knows that this is important so they sent their most powerful units out do it. Be it fight over a new area full of resources and artifacts or there is an incursion event around key map point like a base or portal generator. So it might end up looking one of those super heroes vs super villains lineup moments. For the people who don't know what I'm talking about the intro the 90's X-Men cartoon is an example of this.