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MMORPG project - Story / quest Generation Engine

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
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Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
Hey, guys. For those of you that are interested we are progressing quite nicely. We have our pre-alpha (just a test to see if we can, in fact, get a server & account registration system working) server up and have begun dissecting the nex t stage of the programming work.

I thought I'd let you know about something intriguing. One of our newest members is an Irishman who recently published his PhD dissertation in Comp Sci on creating a Multiplayer Story Generation Engine.

Here's the published document:
http://www.thealmosfunkband.com/backup/SGOPIATE.pdf

In addition to all of the usual MMO fare...plus all the enhancements to questing my team and I have come up with, we will be attempting to bring this new idea (actually he has made a good deal of progress already) to fruition.

The intended result? NPCs with greater interaction and a world that responds to players with much more detail and in story fashion.

Hajo...this is much like the link you gave me to your friend's wiki page. Ive contacted him with only sparse replies :( But I kept going and found Chris!

Read the doc and tell us what you think.
 

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
3,910
Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
[bad french accent]Zaht eez zee test of its imporantance, no?[/bad french accent]

If part of their text is descriptive or for creative value only (as much as a computer can create such things) there of course has to be quest info, info on other npcs and players that is given out so that players will NEED to pay attention.

That's part of the point. This isnt to create random works of literature, its to make a "naturally" responsive MMO world through NPCs.
 

Vykromond

Scholar
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
341
Vykromond detects an "its"/"it's" error on the bottom of page 24. SEARCH AND DESTROY.

(Btw, as soon as I find a scanner I'm uploading the rest of my corrections to your design doc, because I got sick of retyping them pretty fast.)

From what I've read of this document so far (the English-major section ^_^), it sounds extremely interesting. I think I see where it's going, but I haven't read the more analytical part of it yet.
 

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
3,910
Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
The document in this post isnt the game design doc...its the PhD dissertation of one of our collaborators.

Im glad you like the direction the game doc is going. If you have any questions about it feel free to mail me.

The doc above is about how to create a self-generating quest engine....so that NPCs are made to react over and over to new player actions and it becomes part of a storyline.
 

Vykromond

Scholar
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
341
Dude, I'm not stupid. O_o I'm well aware that the document you posted in this post is the guy's PhD dissertation. I just finished reading it a few hours ago. Five posts down in this forum, you have the design doc, which I made a bunch of grammar corrections to a few weeks ago. That's what I was referring to in the parenthetical part of my post.

Oh, and the paragraph after that was my initial response to the dissertation.
 

DarkSign

Erudite
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Messages
3,910
Location
Shepardizing caselaw with the F5 button.
When you switch subject without telling anyone, you have to expect that you wont be understood :)

Ill be glad to review your changes - thanks.

I guess Im kinda disappointed in these forums. Everyone here talks big about game theory...wanting to discuss ideas...knowing what makes a game good...

but its like pulling teeth to get anyone to talk about an actual live project.

Its a shame when I thought people had something to contribute - especially on this groundbreaking story creation engine topic - no one can be bothered.

I remember a different Codex.
 
DarkUnderlord

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,368
Me: "AHA! My litle boy is spying on your wood pecker in the clearing!"

Other Player: "Dude, you moved your pawn. WTF? That's it. I'm never playing chess with you again."

Seriously though, some nice arty farty air-head thinking but it won't actually work in any "non-stupid" and "non-generic" way in a computer game anytime soon.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
It was back when policemen were older, kids were more polite, colors were brighter and music wasn't so loud and you could understand the words.
 

Balor

Arcane
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Messages
5,186
Location
Russia
OMG, 16 megs!
My poor dialup.
But I got to see this!
On the other hand, I doubt that it means more then semi-randomized quests akin to Space Rangers.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
I think you should ask more specific questions if you want better feedback. Your game will be slagged if it sucks because you made a shitty game.
 

Fez

Erudite
Joined
May 18, 2004
Messages
7,954
Feel free to ask specific things though, such as "does this interface look shit?" or "does this dialogue thread or writing arouse you as much as it does me?". You are bound to get some definite answers for that.
 
DarkUnderlord

DarkUnderlord

Professional Throne Sitter
Staff Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Messages
28,368
If your quest generation system sucks, I get to say I told you so.
 
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