Posted September 12, 2020 by Julian Day
For the last couple of months, I've been working on an update to make NPCs a little more interesting. Previously, NPCs were pretty straightforward: they were hostile or not, had ranged attacks or not, had spells or not. They had rudimentary decision making capabilities on whether/how to attack you - and that was about the extent of it.
This release makes NPCs a bit more interesting, and hopefully more dangerous. Now, creatures can pick up and use wands, wield weapons and armour, and pick up ranged weapons such as rocks and bombs and use them against you. I'm hopeful this will make the game a little more interesting, and turn otherwise unassuming creatures into threats if they can grab a lightning wand or strap on some plate mail.
In addition to the behavioural changes, I've implemented hirelings. Hirelings can be found in a few set locations (Isen Dun, Yew, Carcassia, Gnordvar), and have a chance to be generated in the random villages around the world as well. They can be low level, or high, and can be any of the races and classes that you yourself can start off as. Once you've paid a hireling (or hirelings!), you can give them orders via 'o', and they'll follow the same behaviours as other NPCs, picking up weapons/armour better than their own, putting on rings/amulets, grabbing wands...
Here's to a more vibrant world!