Player and NPC characteristics

Note that most of these posts are not written in stone as I will probably make a lot of changes during the development. This post describes in greater length the statistics defining the player and the non player characters.



The game will use 2 kinds of NPC:

• Random NPC : Bystanders generated on the fly "à la" GTA in the player's area. Citizen will walk around, either randomly or from a side to another of the location. Security forces will, well, enforce the law, and gang members will usually wreak havoc. Such NPC will be generated with semi randomized statistics and won't be able to level up. They will follow a very simple AI (finite state machine) and will be wiped out when they (or the player) leave the area.
  
• Unique NPC : Those NPC will be able to level up doing the same things the player does and follow a much more complicated AI (using something similar to fuzzy logic) according to their allegiance and job. They will continue to act even if the player isn't around. Such characters may be gang leaders, shop keepers, quest givers. I've not decided yet if it will be possible for a random NPC to be promoted to unique if it achieve something interesting when the player is around. 

All NPC will use the same statistics to define themselves:

• Strength - Melee Damage, carrying strength
• Agility - Evade / Melee Hit chance
• Perception - Ranged weapon accuracy / Line of Sight
• Endurance - Hit points and fatigue
• Charisma - Trading, Relationship with other NPC

On top of that several skills (which have still to be determined) will give bonuses point while performing given actions. Here's a few that will make it a day or another: Lockpicking, Hand-to-hand, Medic, Weapon mastery, Trade, Crafting, Stealth... I may also add various perks (Fallout like) that may grant specific bonuses and downsides.

There won't be experience points and levels. At least not in the usual way. Statistics will be set at game start and will stay the same through the game (if you don't take into account special items). However skills will progress as the player use those. In other words, the more the player use a handgun the better he will be with similar weapons.

More will follow on jobs, group membership, and general NPC AI.