NPC mechanics…

[Amycat]

Do they need one house per NPC? Or just one house?


How does their resource gathering work?

For example.....wood and stone.

Do they go and remove the nearest trees/rocks?

Or do they scavenge the resources from somewhere, making them magically appear?

[Hellsmoke]

All good questions, I'd be interested to know the answers as well as I'm just building all their facilities now and have no clue how they actually work. I built the control center and one house so far, next it will get power and water and then I'll try to find and rescue the first hostage.

Pretty sure you only need one house though, the other facilities have beds as well. There's one in the log cabin, there's one in the garden too. There's probably more beds in the other things as well. I'd start with one house.

[Robo]

The houses and other buildings just boost productivity .. they aren't essential for the NPC's to gather. You assign them through the white board in the control centre

[Felix McDaggart]

i think its like most of NOS, the framework is there but so much more can be expanded in time, i look forward to more in depth workings of npc's maybe even to the point of it being a game within the game much like sons of forest for help and npc missions for loot such as wows WoD bases,

[Ankido]

NPC's in this game are dumb. Literally dumb. They have a low IQ. I had an NPC stand in front of a fence and keep shooting me from a distance without any regards to move away from the fence to get a clear shot. All NPC's in this game are broken.

[Nocternaldaze]

Originally posted by Robo:

The houses and other buildings just boost productivity .. they aren't essential for the NPC's to gather. You assign them through the white board in the control centre

From what i read ingame it states that in order for a greenhouse not to fail production you need the greenhouse close to the command centre, so i think that is the only one needed if players don`t use Npc`s.

[Robo]

Originally posted by NocternalDaze:

Originally posted by Robo:

The houses and other buildings just boost productivity .. they aren't essential for the NPC's to gather. You assign them through the white board in the control centre

From what i read ingame it states that in order for a greenhouse not to fail production you need the greenhouse close to the command centre, so i think that is the only one needed if players don`t use Npc`s.

Sorry I meant apart from the 4 production buildings (greenhouse, quarry, lumber, animal)

[MIOLO_mole]

About these NPCs, how are the mechanics actually after the last update ? NPCs are still invincible at hordes and have infinite ammo ?

[Bracht]

I think: the NPCs should do more as helping by Zeds. I think, they shoud communicad with "me" and they need Clothing espsahaly for winter - Sorry i am drunk, threefore my english is not good

[MIOLO_mole]

Originally posted by Bracht:

I think: the NPCs should do more ... Plenty MORE !

[william_es]

NPC's don't change clothing to match the environment. Winter snow doesn't affect them.

I can't speak to the invincibility during hordes part. When I started the game world, the horde attacks were turned off by default and I never noticed. And I don't care. If I wanted horde defense, I would go play 7 days to die.

You can give them weapons, and as far as I know, they have infinite ammo. Mine have never fired a shot at a zombie.

Everything you build has to be a in a certain range from the command center. I have my command center directly across from my player base main building, and everything is radiating out from there. You have to build the control center first.

Making the control center will unlock npcs to be rescued. There are five of them, and they only appear in specific locations. Same locations every playthrough.

For NPC's to do anything, you need to do the following:

Make some kind of production facilities. Quarries generally will give you ores, stone, coal, etc Ore's are the most common, and you usually get 9 of each ore. Other resources spawn in different quanties (usually lower then the 9 for ores). Log cabins give you wood products like logs, sticks, etc. (log cabins are NOT living quarters, even though they show beds/cots inside the models).

Secondly, you need some kind of structure that increases productivity. Just having a control center and production facilities will give you a production rating of zero. The npc's won't do anything.

The structures that increase productivity are the canteen, recreation center, medical center, etc. And houses count too. I recommend building the main ones like canteen and rec center first. They give bigger bonuses. Build houses last, if you do at all. The production facilities all have cots, chairs, tables, etc. They look like living quarters to me, so I don't feel bad about not building them houses yet.

If you have more production facilities then npc's, you can influence which they use by a setting in the control center. If you have 3 npc's, 3 quarries, and 3 log cabins... you can set them to prioritize only the quarries. The should give you nothing but ores, stone, coal, etc. If you change it to the log cabins, you should getting nothing but wood products. I have 2 quarries, 1 log cabin, and 3 npc's. I just leave it set to general.

[Robo]

You realise multiple NPCs can work the same production building? There is no need to have more than one of any of the production buildings....

[william_es]

Originally posted by Robo:

You realise multiple NPCs can work the same production building? There is no need to have more than one of any of the production buildings....

Nope, I did not. Good to know. I just assumed 1 npc per building.

That's great though, since where the 2nd quarry is right now I had been planning to put something else. Now I can return to the original plan.

[MIOLO_mole]

This is the main point why all survival games still fail. NPCs should be the main focus in these types of games. Whenever these survivals depend only on us players, sooner or later they become repetitive and boring and make the players abandon them. Just think that if somehow, after being saved, we had to ensure the survival of these NPCs, all the games would become more challenging. This mechanic has had some small-scale approach, such as an example in the game ARK SURVIVAL EVOLVED, where the magnet follow of Dinos NPCs works perfectly, but needs to carry much more weight in terms of penalties for a player, every time an NPC dies. Open your minds to this potential, or always stay in these repetitive loot collectors. Cheers!

[MIOLO_mole]

See all the work that is proposed to us to save a single NPC and what is the return he gives us after that ... Is it worth all this effort? If NPCs are to be used in an adult way, as this game has captivated us, then there has to be a greater effort, so that this realism is not lost. Cheers!

[MIOLO_mole]

Every survival game attracts by the loot obtained. Every gamer, even an adult loves scavenger. If the NPCs help in this process and by example are the only ones to get special loot, we will be much more motivated, to rescue them from the bandits' fortified camps. Otherwise, we might as well play all the time, without trying to save them. This coherent logic should always be paramount in all updates, that you intend to make available in the future of the game. Cheers!