Idiling and interactions

Suggestion: When a villager is idel(i think thats how you spell it) he/she should do things.
I will be mentioning things that have not been added or comfirmed in the game.

Note: The actions does not take away resources and wont be priorotized.

Class specific.

Farmer:
-May give fruit or a random crop(like carrots) to another villager.

Smith:
-May sharpen a blade(wont affect stats)

Soldier:
-May show his skills to another villager(it looks diffrentley depending on level)
-May give his/her sword to a blacksmith
-May boast about his battles(even thoe he never have been in one)

Hunter/trapper
-May give meat to a villager.

Kids(if added)
-Play hide and seek
-Follow parents
-Play with toys

Everyone:
-Talk, joke, argue, laugh
-Play a game(Rock papper scissors)
-Dance(during festival)

The next part is only if your villagers can have familys and own a house.

-Cook food(in house)
-Have dinner(in house)
-Invite friends.

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Similar to how in Rimworld when one of your ‘villagers’ is idle, they will work on something without being instructed? It’s definitely something that needs to be implemented at some point, kind of annoying when you have 2-3 villagers just kinda standing around. It would add a feeling of the game world being “alive” in a sense as well.

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first, I believe you meant to title this “Idling”… I can’t seem to edit the thread title on my phone for some reason, however…

second, I absolutely agree with the basic premise, and like your suggestions… :+1:

third, I think we have a similar thread, no?

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I’m pretty sure as the game develops more we’ll see a more lively scene. For right now though I think it’s not too necessary seeing where we are in alpha, but yes I would like to see something like this implemented later on. ’

The one thing I wish is you could set up a task list that the settlers would do over a period time. For instance the farmer, I wish you could setup when he/see sow seeds, water crops, fertilize, and harvest. Then he/she would restart all over again, and in the meantime of that he/see would do regular settler things (gather, build, fight, etc).

But I do believe classes should have some type of idle features.

I think it could be this one because this other discusses whether idling or helping the worker classes.
Although in those topics are discussed many other things. Maybe there’s another topic out there, or has been merged.

Hm, well, I think that sounds like it’s a bit more micro-managey than the developers probably are willing/intending to go. Not sure if I would like to do that sort of thing regardless. But who knows, it’s worth bringing up if it’s something you would like to see, I suppose :slight_smile:

Hmm. It might be fun to see them crafting (cost-less) trinkets. For example, an idle carpenter might fiddle around making a toy or something. It wouldn’t do anything, and heck, might just disappear after the animation, but it’d help give the illusion of activity that isn’t organised by the player.

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On that note, I wouldn’t mind some things they do during downtime that actually do contribute, either. Like having the above-mentioned toy crafted and then actually stick around for kids to play with, perhaps contributing to town happiness. Perhaps some fraction of ‘idling’ could be spent that way. If it seems overpowered, it could cost some small amount of material, in which case perhaps it could be turned off as an option in a general management screen by the player.

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Oh sure - I mean I suggested it being resource-free or w/e to avoid complaints about dwindling stockpiles of materials etc, but it’d definitely be nicer if you could do it like you suggest.

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Well, there are various possible ways to do it, I was just kicking around a couple alternatives. But I agree, I would like it best if it actually has some effect on gameplay, or, failing that, if there is at least some sense of constancy (kids could play with the created toy even if it doesn’t affect happiness). The balancing would have to be right, of course, not only in terms of finding the right cost in terms of time and other resources relative to the benefits, but also in the sense that I don’t think it should have too big an effect, so as not to get the player to feel like the town could run perfectly well without any input. (Another way to attain that, of course, is to only have certain needs met by these ‘automatic’ behaviors, and not others; e.g., entertainment, not sustenance.)

I understood that as a different idle animations with more effect… Heh, that would be good.

Well, it could bring a little more live to our settlements, sometimes with additional things. For example:

  • Citizens are sitting near the campfire. A person with high Mind+Heart could for example start telling other settlers a story.
  • even simple playing with their ‘class items’ (Trapper sharpening their knife or Carpenter playing on his saw like that: Britain’s Got Talent - Playing the Saw - Austin )
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Love the idea of having the citizen’s characteristics/personality come into play in it. Good job thinking of that :slight_smile:

Do you think the settlers should speak English, or should they just show images in dialogue bubbles?

I like the speech bubble idea, but they could also easily speak nonsensical stuff. Think of the villagers in Age of Empires* etc. “Ooga booga jibber jabber” and all that.

*Actually, I think they were using real phrases etc, but you get the idea.

Bubbles. Bubbles definitely. Remember we don’t see their mouths :stuck_out_tongue:
Or we may focus on the gestures and

AoE: I’m 70% sure it’s a real, but extinct language.
AoEII: Each nation has their own real language. Most of them were said using the rules from VII-XI century. Just look at the Japanese. Click on a villager, then a tree. “Ki wo kirimasu” (“I am cutting a tree.”)

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I like this idea. It makes the game more lively.

“I cut trees”, technically. “I am cutting a tree” would be “Ki wo kitteimasu” (「木を切っています」).

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Could be kinda like the Sims. You know a speech bubble with a picture and if the other villager likes it then it shows the picture in there bubble, if not then you see the image with a red X over it. Simple but gets the point across of them conversing.

i dont recall if “happiness” was a topic of discussion at the time, but i do recall Radiant mentioning idle animations that fell into this category… units who might sit by the water and simply gaze… or run around town and fly a kite, play with a ball, etc.

the addition of having another unit craft the goods, as well as how the idle activities impact a units happiness are both excellent suggestions…

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Need to read my learning book again then. xD

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