Got an idea for a Storyteller incident?

Started by Tynan, September 17, 2013, 06:49:36 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tynan

The way the AI storyteller works is mostly by invoking incidents from a selection that she has access to. These are things like:

-Pirates attack
-Trader arrives
-Muffalo herd arrives

So I'm always brainstorming new incidents and I'm curious if you have any ideas.

I think a good incident has a few properties.
-Simple, easy to understand and implement and debug
-Combined in interesting ways with the game situation. The game really blooms when you start putting together combinations of incidents and situations, so an incident should be designed as a component of a larger situation, not a mini-story in itself.
-Contributes strongly to interesting, weird, dramatic, or funny stories that people will remember and tell to others

So, anyone got any thoughts? Bring em on.

Here's the list of ideas from my notes as they stand:
•   Meteor strikes.
•   Herd: A herd of (usually) peaceful creatures passes through the area. Nothing happens, unless they get agitated and attack. They have flocking and group agitation behaviors.
o        Hunt them for food.
o        Agitate them and get them to destroy your enemies.
•   Megabeast: A generated mega-beast attacks the colony.
•   Weather conditions change. (this is already in the game)
•   Animal attack. Can attack your people or your enemies. Can use any animal â€" even squirrels. (this is already in the game)
•   Police drop. Police arrive, attack pirates, mill about, and leave.
•   Psycho drop. Psychotic killers drop.
•   The Thing. A colonist becomes a ravaging beast.
•   Premeditated murder: A colonist announces their intent to kill a prisoner.
•   Trade offer: A single trade is offered.
•   Earthquake
•   Tornado
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

Hypolite

That's a good list you have there, I would add a few from the top of my head :
- Virus outbreak: incapacitates a fraction of the colonists for a limited time.
- Depression: a colonists stops all work and stays in bed for a few days.
- Mine shaft collapse : a section of unpaved dug rock collapses, potentially trapping miners whose live are in danger
- Total eclipse: for a limited time, solar panel don't produce any power.
- Solar flare: for a limited time, solar panel produce twice as much power
- Electro-magnetic storm: For a limited time, powered devices don't work (current solar flare)

WolveNZ

- Strange Corrosion: Metal structures and whatnot start to rust away, Damaging/Disabling them

- Dust Storm: Maps arnt visible/Colonists cant go outside without damage/Structures damaged

- Fallout: Something happened somewhere, Causing Biological/Radiological Fallout, Colonists Damaged/Structures Damaged/Radioactive?

- Swam: a Locust like swam attacks the area, Killing crops, Damaging animals/Colonists (Slightly) that are outside

- Bad Coding: Computerized systems shutdown/Incorrectly operate (turrets, doors, Solar Panels) 

- Sinkhole: Random 'hole' opens up, swallowing a Outside Structure, Colonist, Animal etc...

- Scientific Party: a group of lightly armed people arrive somewhere and stay around for a day or two, then bugger off leaving supply's behind, Also has a chance of causing more pirates to come.

- Ship Breaks up on Entry: Items, Supplys, and maybe a Colonist gets scattered about the map (May or may not be hostile)

- Hunters/Poachers: Groups of Well armed Semi-Hostile dudes arrive, Hunt down whatever animals their are

XenoAcid


  • Crashed Alien Vessel - Think 'Aliens' Movie. Unleashes one strong/fast creature. Or more. Upside is it could also have advanced tech your colony could utilize (faster crop growth/energy efficiency)

  • Structural Integrity - Segment of a wall completely collapses (civilian with very low construction skill?)
Do not fear the darkness, fear the things that live inside of it...

WolveNZ

Following on from Xenoacid:

Bad Batch: Concrete (or spacecrete ^^) structures dont take as much punishment if built withen time-period

Stray Fire: Some stray interplanety/ship fire hits the area, a Few Explosions here and there

UsF

I am not a big fan of large disaster events that trigger randomly. Those can seriously screw you over and you have no chance to counteract them. What I do like are minor disasters that do not kill you or your structures outright like:

- Lightning Strike (warns you with a thunderstorm upfront, heavy rain)
- Distant Volcano (affects day/night cycle, worsens crop growth, maybe burning chunks of rock dropping)
- Earthquake (can damage equipment, can cause a cave-in trapping people underground until dug out, assuming that not everyone can dig)
- Greed (one or more people become more distrusting towards each other, have higher demands and their needs require more to satisfy / could be triggered by having a successful "fort" and could be done as a slowly growing event rather than a "pop-in" event)
- Apathy (one or more person requires less things to satisfy needs, but works slower / could also be done slowly if your fort is doing poorly socially and economically)
- Depression
- Gluttony
- Heavy rain / flooding (increased rain slowly turns the landscape into a swamp like area or even underwater, can be blocked by walls/doors and enclosed structures)

Generally I would be keen on more light events on the start. Think of animals wandering into your area, not doing things, just giving you a general idea of a living breathing world. As time passes and if you are doing well, things escalate somewhat as vicious predators or evil people come by and try to do various things (steal food, eat people, steal valuables). Then if things are still going well, a random event that changes the conditions of your area a little bit but for a while might be better than a dramatic short change. Those dramatic short changes like meteor strikes can be more annoying than fun, since they aren't events that you can/have to adapt to, you just have to clean up the mess they made.

xTAMERx

-after horded a big amount of money, big SIEGE of Pirates :) only beatable with special defence perimeters

-able to find special artifacts in the mountains, or valleys, and then mores SIEGEs

-diffrent beginnings, you choice at the beginning
-> 3 Prisinor escaped -> raids of Police or Swat Troops
-> 3 Occultist -> raids of Inquisitors ^^
-> 3 Slaves -> Headhunter raids
and lot more
->and special building for them

-another group begin to built near you base

-thieves which can stealthy get to your base and steal something

-raining, snow, storm, heat and other weather effects

more later  ;D

Belmakor

Quote from: UsF on September 18, 2013, 03:30:43 AM

- Apathy (one or more person requires less things to satisfy needs, but works slower / could also be done slowly if your fort is doing poorly socially and economically)
- Depression


First off you would need some sort of morale system.  Each colonist has a different maximum morale that they can obtain and a different threshold at which the following effects kick in.

In addition a tether system would be really useful.  Imaginary tether between two or more colonists.  They basically move around together and share tasks/experiences. 

Events:
Depression (reluctance to get involved in tasks, reducing moral of other colonists).  Triggered by a death or major event, or even lack of good food or entertainment. More prone so some people than others.  Spreads quite slowly but among st everyone.  You could even go a little further and make it the result of a full moon (of which there might be multiple) happening set period with only certain individuals susceptible.

Leading to;

Melancholy (inability/unwillingness to do any tasks).  Triggered once morale drops below colonists specific threshold.  Impossible to get out of on your own.  Tether another colonist to this person to essentially baby-sit them back to normality (both partake in tasks).  However, tethered individual will lose morale while tethered to the depressed person and risks falling into it themselves. 



 

Tynan

Quote from: UsF on September 18, 2013, 03:30:43 AMGenerally I would be keen on more light events on the start. Think of animals wandering into your area, not doing things, just giving you a general idea of a living breathing world. As time passes and if you are doing well, things escalate somewhat as vicious predators or evil people come by and try to do various things (steal food, eat people, steal valuables). Then if things are still going well, a random event that changes the conditions of your area a little bit but for a while might be better than a dramatic short change. Those dramatic short changes like meteor strikes can be more annoying than fun, since they aren't events that you can/have to adapt to, you just have to clean up the mess they made.

There's definitely going to be an escalation of the goings on. Depending on your choice of AI Storyteller, of course. I can't guarantee Randy Random won't send you a devastating meteor shower or something a few days into the game. But most of them will try to be reasonable and match your ability to absorb punishment somehow.
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

UsF

Quote from: Tynan on September 18, 2013, 04:12:22 PMThere's definitely going to be an escalation of the goings on. Depending on your choice of AI Storyteller, of course. I can't guarantee Randy Random won't send you a devastating meteor shower or something a few days into the game. But most of them will try to be reasonable and match your ability to absorb punishment somehow.

I still think that "meteor showers" are a bad hard event that you basically have to clean up after it happened.

Check out some more ideas in the other thread. http://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=11.msg166#msg166 :D

Tynan

You're right, I think there are other things that should come before meteor showers (which are basically just unstoppable random devastation).

And hey! These are all really great ideas, I'm taking notes as I go down the page here. Keep 'em coming!
Tynan Sylvester - @TynanSylvester - Tynan's Blog

mori

Im thinking about global incidents, like economic crisis, war, hyperflux, and so on.
For example war could mean that the faction player is associated with will demand
something (like if fleet passes by, they demand you supply some food/fuel etc).
Enemy can demand you to pledge to other faction and so on.

Local incidents like
- Mistake in tourists travel plan (ship with tourists land and stuff like that, you have to decide what to do with them,
like good/bad decision)
- Some sorts of hidden persons (like spy, maniac, thief, corporate raider, social engineer(steals your money/stuff in really huge amounts,
and you don't even know where it's gone).
- Some semi global like if planet you're landed on slowly forced your crew to mutate in certain way.
- Time paradoxes, and such "strange" events (inspired by Solaris and 2001)

WolveNZ

Quote from: mori on September 18, 2013, 04:23:37 PM
- Some sorts of hidden persons (like spy, maniac, thief, corporate raider, social engineer Government Official(steals your money/stuff in really huge amounts,
and you don't even know where it's gone).

Fixed ^^

but would be good to have 'Seasonal' events? ie, Breeding season, Migrations for Native animals, Springs, summers, winters etc...

But having allot of the smaller things will really help create the enviroment, and if I remember anything from that Evil Genius game, its really dammed annoying if you get spammed with bad events, constantly..


Kalesin

#14
I wanted to put a diagram ideas or suggestions to inspire you to create events procedurally (to see if I find time and I do), while, there are my ideas:

-Artifacts an alien civilization (event both increased research or possible attack)
-Infection (low health, death, psychosis, ...)
-Rebel Droid
-Discovery of native culture on the planet (possible trade, alliance, war, ...)
-Crashed starship (possible new settlers, can be a prison ship with which criminals would have threatening the colony, ...)