Can we expect in the near future that NPCs talk with each other, even if it's using some default conversations? Ambient sounds like whistling when mopping the floor, grumpy noises, saying hi to passing NPCs seem to be quite a basic but immersive task.
TL;DRYes, NPC chatter and ambient life content is already recorded, but it will arrive later as the new AI system matures, along with a planned dynamic background murmur called walla.
Yes. The answer to this question is yes. You will expect these to happen. We've actually recorded a lot of this content already. There's a ton of content that is meant to go in that covers this life aspect of our game. The hard part really is that we've decided to take a really huge undertaking with our behavior in our AI and created this new system called Subsumption. And it is where we want to do these amazing things with it, but we need to learn to crawl before we run and fly. So there's a lot of the basics that we're really working out with the AI. And so the player interactions are obviously first and foremost. So the life element is definitely considered. Don't worry about that. We've recorded a lot for it. But it's going to be coming in a bit later. So definitely expect it as the AI matures and we can get more of that in. You will see that come in. Also, I wanted to add, this talks about actual real NPCs talking together and things like that. We also do want to add a layer, and you see this a lot in film as well, where there's just a bit of a murmur, this kind of background. It's more of actually an ambiance in a background. It's called walla, and it's very indiscernible. And we really want to add this into our game as well, but we want to do it a bit educationally, considering the fact that this is a live world with not just a bunch of NPCs running around, but also a lot of live players. And we want to actually dynamically change walla depending on the volume and occupancy and things that are going on in the rooms. And so that also is a huge undertaking that we're looking to do. And you will see more of that start to kind of trickle in. This is all under consideration, don't worry.
Can you give me an example of walla?
Walla, well, it's basically indiscernible. So it's like background chatter that you can't really pick out words.