Will AI crew require food, toilets, or sleep? And will they abandon us if we can't meet their needs? Can we provide a toilet for our AI?
TL;DRChris likes the idea of AI crew having needs like food, toilets and showers that affect their performance, though the extent is still to be seen and depends on whether it reads in game.
The extent of it, we'll have to see. But I know Chris likes this idea of the AI having needs. And they will have to go to the toilet, and they will have to have showers, and they will have to have decent food on a ship. And their happiness is important. You're the captain. You're not there just to fly a ship. That's the pilot's job. Your job is to keep everyone on the ship happy and in tip-top condition. So whether you hire someone that's a cook, which will probably provide better food for everyone else, or just bring them frozen food that they can dump in a microwave, that will matter. If they're not happy, they will do their job in a worse manner. They might, again, not take an order just because they don't like you anymore.
But even from the player standpoint, CR wants, in layman's terms, it would just be buffs and debuffs. So if you haven't eaten, then maybe your reflexes are slower or your morale is lower or you bleed out quicker, those types of things. So it's something where, when we talk about these, part of it is just prototyping and playing it and seeing: does it actually read in the game? And so a lot of this, even before it gets to the players, we're playing it and thinking about: does this read? Does this come across as I have low morale? And does this come across as I haven't eaten, or I'm bleeding out faster because of this reason?
And also, interactions with other NPCs will be a problem if you haven't taken a shower in quite a while. So if you stink, they'll go like, just go away, I don't even want to see you. So we will have conditions in the behavior: let's say, if your cleanliness or hygiene level is under a certain threshold, then you will not be able to talk to an NPC.
Are you being serious right now?
Yes.
Shower Citizen. We're not saying every five minutes.
No, no, no. But there will be conditions that you go through that will decrease your hygiene level. And after you go through various swamps and, I don't know, sweaty planets and wherever you go, when you enter, let's say, a nice clean station, you might find out that the vendor actually upped the prices by 10% for you, because you're not exactly belonging there.
Well, we've got to get it working and see if it comes across. I don't know if it's like Pigpen and you're seeing dust all the time in front of you or something like that.
Small particle flies flying around.
As long as you're seeing something from a player standpoint and it reads, then we'll put it in.