Mod Request: Bustling Cities

Purudaya

After playing SoD, it really struck me just how empty the original games' cities feel - Waukeen's Promenade is especially bad, with only a very small handful of non-shopkeep NPCs in what is supposed to be Athkatla's hub of trade and activity. Now that the Infinity engine better supports a larger number of sprites on screen, would it be possible to add generic NPCs (clusters + wandering) to some of the city maps? I know it could be problematic re: combat encounters, but I think it would really improve a part of BG that's always been lacking.

If somebody is already working on something like this, that's great! If not, how viable would it be to achieve?

rapsam2003

It would a very large scale mod. You would need to essentially create a bunch of NPCs (probably easiest to do 20 or so and keep re-using them) that are there purely to "fill space". Then, you would have to place said NPCs and have them use a script that basically has them do random walking around the map (the script is easy, because it already exists in the game). Every city area would need to have these NPCs added to them.

Reddbane

Does anyone remember the cities in Planescape: Torement? They felt alive not just because they had a lot of npcs, but because some npcs were constantly walking through the zone you were in, entering and exiting from the edge of the zone. So few games, even today, bother to do that.

Purudaya

Reddbane said:

Does anyone remember the cities in Planescape: Torement? They felt alive not just because they had a lot of npcs, but because some npcs were constantly walking through the zone you were in, entering and exiting from the edge of the zone. So few games, even today, bother to do that.

This is what SoD does so well in the Coalition Camp - a handful of NPCs enter and leave without serving any other purpose. I bet you could just import the scripts for those right over, change the paths, and assign them to standard commoners. I have no way of knowing how to do that, though.

rapsam2003

Purudaya said:

This is what SoD does so well in the Coalition Camp - a handful of NPCs enter and leave without serving any other purpose. I bet you could just import the scripts for those right over, change the paths, and assign them to standard commoners. I have no way of knowing how to do that, though.

This is much easier than what I originally thought you meant. I would need to look into that. Although, to be honest, this wouldn't be something that I'd take on at the moment. If someone else want to do it, go for it. I already have a mod I'm working on right now. /shrug