Trigger Happy
curiosity is bigger, the creature will investigate; if its agent of fear is bigger, he’ll run away.” Meanwhile, if the player accidentally or deliberately kills a friendly alien, the rest of them have their agents of helpfulness instantly adjusted downward: they will be far less inclined to help the player in his quest, or even to talk to him. Sure you can have a little fun with the rocketlauncher, but then Outcast quite surprisingly makes you feel guilty for having done so. Joyous deathdealing À la Quake this is not. In order to regain your friends’ trust after such an aberration, Outcast sentences you to the equivalent of community service: giving money to beggars, for instance, or helping with agricultural work.
In the future, Masclef would like to see computer algorithms such as the agents expand and take on an ever larger role. “We’ve developed very clever AI for the behaviors and the life cycles of the characters, but sometimes the player doesn’t see it,” Masclef says. “Speech is one of the things that is not generated on the fly [in this game]. They speak this funky English— why not generate it on the fly? And then other characters’ responses would be a continuum depending on your reputation and actions in the game.”
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