Are we ready for Civilians?

Liquid_Cow · Post by **Liquid_Cow** » 2007-03-02 00:22

So this is a "reality" mod, and in my mind one of the best, but there is one major point of reality that is missing, and that's civilians. Many of the maps' descriptions contian "the city was evacuated earlier." IRL there are always innocents getting in the way.

To the best of my knowlege, no FPS game has "neutrals" which interfere with the action (and should result in negative points if you kill them).

Think of the challenges of a map like EJOD with insurgents blending in with the locals. Shoot up a building to get rid of a sniper and a "squad" of civi's spawn at the front door and run away.

I know it would be a huge drag on system resources, and probably not doable with the BF2 engine, but I'm thinking maybe the next generation of PRM should have neutral NPC's.

What do you think?

Leo · Post by **Leo** » 2007-03-02 00:23

America's Army has it. AFAIK, not possible with the engine.

[PR]AC3421 · Post by **[PR]AC3421** » 2007-03-02 00:28

Unless there was a way top make them move around fluidly, and not look like ****, and not look cheesey, and not look clumsy.....etc. then no, I dont want them.

Guerra · Post by **Guerra** » 2007-03-02 00:46

It could be done, but servers and computers just can't handle all the civilians.

Maps like Basrah are already laggy and huge. Adding civilians would lag it to hell.

Blackhawk 5 · Post by **Blackhawk 5** » 2007-03-02 00:48

Yes you can add civilians already (zombies). Just lay them out there and they do nothing.

RuSM · Post by **RuSM** » 2007-03-02 00:51

How about a small percentage of each team is forced to have a civilian "kit"? If you kill them you get negative points.

dementt · Post by **dementt** » 2007-03-02 00:56

RuSM wrote:How about a small percentage of each team is forced to have a civilian "kit"? If you kill them you get negative points.

Now that is just stupid, nothing to add.

Who to heck would like to be running there with no weapon just waiting to be shot.
Even with slightly armed they would not be good at all as a kit. If they are to be placed they are be NPCs as long as that kit could really provide something awesome.

Randleman5102 · Post by **Randleman5102** » 2007-03-02 00:59

Civilians would be awesome.

Unfortunatley I do not think it is possible on this engine and at this time. Maybe if PR was to switch to a different engine then sure but for now, although I would love to see it, no.

Liquid_Cow · Post by **Liquid_Cow** » 2007-03-02 01:04

LEO, the civi's in AA, is that just in single player? I've never seen it in the maps I've played online.

dementt · Post by **dementt** » 2007-03-02 01:07

Liquid_Cow wrote:LEO, the civi's in AA, is that just in single player? I've never seen it in the maps I've played online.

Uhm? Nurses in Hospital, Pilot in CSAR for starters. Played the game for couple years and even without there is no need to be blind

{GD}StevenGarcia · Post by **{GD}StevenGarcia** » 2007-03-02 01:08

Liquid_Cow wrote:So this is a "reality" mod, and in my mind one of the best, but there is one major point of reality that is missing, and that's civilians.

IMO there are far more important "points of reality" that are missing from PR.

Post by **GeZe** » 2007-03-02 01:10

Civilian AI won't work, but what about a civilian class for the insurgents?

http://realitymod.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14323

Ecko · Post by **Ecko** » 2007-03-02 01:12

Screw NPC's, Have it a PC side. It could replace Spectator.

bigbossmatt · Post by **bigbossmatt** » 2007-03-02 05:23

Leo wrote:America's Army has it. AFAIK, not possible with the engine.

I quote myself from ages ago:
Civilians a possibilty?
With the new coop mod (hopefully working well in 1.4 patch) civilians might be a possibility.

Imagine in coop mode you had the AI only take certain kits. These kits have a civilian skin. Their behaviour is programed to be passive, to dwell in house and perhaps to have a pistol to fire when threatened (ie you enter a radius of like 3 metres and point your gun at them).

I can't see, with my limited mod skills, how this wouldn't be possible. The possibilities seem endless. On MEC maps, civilians with RPG, with little to no skill at them firing on US Marines. In china, some families in their rooms...

If you kill one you could lose points if and only if they havent begun fire on you. If they are programed to do this rarely it would be cool.

Perhaps have crowds of civilians (children and women too) crossing roads in Karkand at certain times. Would be fun..

Any way, the point of this post was to ask if in your better experience, and with the new coop modes, will this be something you think that modders will get into?
************
Point being: I think it is posible with ai taking kits with shit guns, passive waypoints and behaviour.

Whether or not it should be done comes down to the lag.

saxojon · Post by **saxojon** » 2007-03-02 07:35

I think civilians would be cool. It doesnt have to be thousands of them, but a few families that "didnt make it outta town" before US striked.

How cool wouldnt it be to scream "Dont shoot, goddammit, those are civilians" over VoIP?

sploit · Post by **sploit** » 2007-03-02 07:49

How is Americas Amry? I tried it and had to go through all this training and **** - I never really got to any online levels.

What is the deal with it?

Poi_Medic · Post by **Poi_Medic** » 2007-03-02 08:16

Would be nice to add civilians, it would add abit more realism to the game. But it would suck if you kill one

EPatrick · Post by **EPatrick** » 2007-03-02 08:23

Of course.

Post by **bosco_** » 2007-03-02 11:07

Mhh, the following is dreaming:
It would be really nice to have civilians like in Delta Force:Black Hawk Down.
They run around all over the place, throw stones at the player and stuff like that.
Added alot of atmosphere.

Liquid_Cow · Post by **Liquid_Cow** » 2007-03-02 13:01

bosco wrote:They run around all over the place, throw stones at the player and stuff like that.

Acually, when I asked the question I had not considered agressive civilians. Now that I think of it, they could be passive at first, but kill to many of them and they turn on you. That would really change the dynamics of the game.

I know you could do it with Coop mode, but then it would be just your side vs civilians, BORRRRRRING.

No, what I want to see is two player sides (I'm thinking of Basrah here) duking it out, with a 3rd team of NPC civilians. The insurgents look like civilians making it harder on the USMC side to attack anything that moves. A bomb goes off and a "family" runs from one building to another. You enter a building and find a "shop keeper" hiding inside. Accidentally kill a family and all the NPC's in a certian radius start yelling at you, reveiling your location, maybe throw stones at you. Kill several "families" and the civilians take up arms and join the insurgents against you.

If the modder was really sick, you'd punish US forces for killing civilians, but if the insurgents killed civilians you'd also punish the US.

Are we ready for Civilians?

Would you like to see Civilian NPC's in the game?

Are we ready for Civilians?