27/04/13 - Male Anatomy Analysis

I've posted a few times before about my attempts to improve on drawing male anatomy and recently i read about a technique which is simply just drawing it them putting the image over the top to see where you've gone wrong. After a few attempts at this it reckoned that I'll start seeing patterns which will make it easier to train myself out of bad habits and improve. 

Source One.

Attempt.

Line of Original

 

Analysis

I didn't put a mark on the model's left leg because it's slightly off and i think i was trying to exaggerate the pose slightly... Might be why i ended up with such an extreme angle on the right leg too.

Source Two

Attempt.

Line.

Analysis

So everything seemed to suffer from a case of gigantism here. That seems to be a bit of a pattern, also the width of the models is always skewed but the height seems to be pretty accurate.

Source Three

Attempt

Line

Analysis

Focused a little more on the width but due to my angles being slightly off and a little bit of help from my gigantism creeping in again with the legs the height has suffered a bit.Also i seem to have simplified the pose after making it too exaggerated in the previous one, just need to concentrate a bit more. Definitely better than the last two though in terms of scale and proportion. 

Source Four

Attempt

Line

 Analysis

 Proportions are much better apart from the miniature leg. Generally it's just the angles i've slipped up on this time. Some of the definition on the torso is in odd places and the heads a bit small in this one.

26/04/13 - Showreel

I don't have anything really to post when it comes to final pieces at the moment. I'm going through the process of cleaning up the footage and readying it for Maya in motion builder for all the clips then i clean them up and then i'll put them in the scene with the player on the next pass. As there's a lot of clips i'm on a pretty tight schedule so posting isn't really my priority. I'll make sure to post up the final ones as they come and anything to do with showcase designs. In the evenings when my brain doesn't function as well i'm currently putting together my website:

www.Melophilus.com

Which includes my newly created showreel. I know it needs some tweaks and i'll need to add captions but here it is in it's current state.

A happy accident was that the music fits particularly well in certain clips.

21/04/13 - Setting the score part 4, Change in the overall system, System Dies

Carrying on..

Drawing a weapon or aiming a gun...

As i said previously the expected outcomes are Ulfric would draw his own weapon, Sully would have the default action, Wrex would mid to extreme fight and Ben would extreme flight.

again as before not changing anything would result in the reactions staying the same as the minor physical interaction results. Ulfric and Sully would come out as the default, Wrex would be the mild aggression and Ben would be Mid flight

So are there any factors which wouldn't apply in this situation?

Personality is a big group to discount and would be a major contributor in the individuals reaction
Reputation of the player will either help to put the player at ease or heighten whichever extreme that character is most prone to.
Past Experience of the player will do the same.
Environment, I don't think environment would change how someone reacts. Dangerous place or safe place, you would react the same in either...so discount that ones score.
Relationship to the player would probably still affect you in the same way past experience and reputation would.

Removing the environment however necessary actually doesn't help in this case though.

New scores without environment influence

Ulfric:0
Sully:0
Wrex:0
Ben: +1

It actually balances them out.. so maybe it's time to delve a bit more into the aspects of a characters personality and see whether certain aspects could be ignored.
I attempted to use the original three category split to work this in but honestly after finding that character design checklist (almost?) yesterday i figure it would probably be better to have that checklist make up the personality section for each character and then grey out the aspects that wouldn't affect each interaction. So the personality score would be more influential as it probably should be anyway...

So that means it would change the system factors balance. almost splitting it into three parts instead of five?

NPC related things, All the personality checklist.
Player related things, reputation, past experience, relationship.
Environment related things.. well just the environment really.

It's difficult to explain in purely text so here's the new version of how things would affect it.

So as i just said there's now three major factor sections. NPC, player and Environment.

Personality section has all of the traits mentioned here but there doesn't seem to be a place for prejudices so I've added that in too, also minus the physiology section because as already mentioned i'd need a different set for each build of character.

The player section would have reputation, past experiences and relationship in.

Environment has to be its own section as with body language context is very important.

So to test the new system i'm effectively going to have to re do the character bios to follow this and then test each interaction again...here we go.

NEW CHARACTER BIOS
went all fancy and used Excel to keep it clearer

For the purposes of this one I've removed the key trait aspect that existed previously but kept the rest. I've done this more for simplicity reasons and then if its needed i'll consider adding it in again.



At the moment this new system is giving appropriate results for minor physical. Wrex would be expected to flip out at nothing, Ben would run away, Ulfric would be restrained but angry and Sully would probably not mind at all.

Ok to cut a slightly longer story short. I've just attempted to remove certain factors that i would think wouldn't affect a characters reaction for the major physical interaction but i'm running into quite a big problem. By taking out a trait such as the relation ship between characters it achieves the desired affect in 3 of the characters as it increases the likely hood of Sully and Ulfric to get angry and fight but it decreases the likely hood for Ben to run away and so confuses the system. this happens with other traits as well and basically shows that this system is also highly flawed in a similar way to the last one.

Why i think it doesn't work

The main issue with both approaches to the score part is that you can’t grey out the same areas for every character because it just doesn't work. Generalizing the reactions of individuals especially individuals that have been designed to be pivotal NPCs is too simplistic to produce the appropriate numbers required for credible performance.
In hindsight the traits that are used based on the Lankoski, Heliö & Ekman  method of character design aren't suitable guidelines to consider as they are focused on the characters perceivable personality and not the aspects of the character that are never going to be explained to the player apart from within stressful situations. In essence the whole concept of using characters perceived personality to dictate their reaction is flawed as in real life people’s subconscious will dictate their choice of action. A way to overcome this problem would possibly be too completely re-evaluate how pivotal NPCs are designed to help devise a comprehensive list of traits that would influence a characters subconscious decisions, however even doing this would not solve the initial problem of over simplifying human emotions. 

Well now that the system is pretty much well and truly dead which i'm not surprised about all that remains is what i'm going to show at the showcase.. I'll make a seperate post. This one is messy.

19/04/13 - Setting the score Part 3

I left off a little while ago just before i was about to test the system against the major reaction. The problem i was facing was that the default for major could be either mid fight or mid flight depending on the character and there wasn't really a generic middle ground.

If i made it so the default was the middle like with the minor a lot of reactions could seem unnatural as they'd probably end up being the same as the previous outcomes so Ulfric and Sully would come out as the default Wrex would come out as the mild fight and Ben would come out as the mid flight. Most of these don't make sense.

Expected outcomes:
I'd expect Ulfric to express mild or mid fight, Sully would probably be over ruled by his relationship with nate and do the default actually...,Wrex would possibly have the same reaction as before.. instinctively aggressive but restrained to minimal aggression and Ben to go to extreme flight.

So what if you cancel out some of the factors that don't apply to this situation. If someone punched you would you take into account their past actions towards you? Probably not so i'll discount that first.

Changes to result taking out the past experience

Ulfric : -1
Sully : 0

Wrex : -1

Ben: +2

Well... that worked nicely...
 I should probably mention that the other factors would need to be affecting the score still because personality makes up a massive part of the NPC's decisions, relationship would stop you from having as extreme a reaction to things and would add to what the NPC expects, reputation would make you either more cautious or more aggressive depending on what you expect and environment would also affect someone in the same way.


So to recap so far. Everything applies to minor physical and everything except past experience applies to major physical.

Should probably mention that yesterday i did the hopefully final set of motion capture i'm going to be doing and recorded another 2 interactions so i should probably assess my system using them as well. The two i recorded are Having a weapon drawn on you and witnessing the player destroy or steal something. I chose these two because they were also on the fight to flight spectrum and because you'd need to change scores for the other spectrum it just made sense.

So starting with weapon...

Ulfric would probably draw his own weapon, sully would probably try and calm them down and tell them to put it away, Wrex would probably draw his own weapon and Ben would run. Like never before he would run.

It's getting a bit late so i'll carry this on tomorrow...


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Side note for future progress with this system:

I'm very aware that my system is basically using a series of educated guesses based on the character bios i found but given the time frame and all the time consuming issues i've had with cleaning up motion capture it's the best i can do for now. If i was to properly look into it i would probably look to use the aspects of a characters personality outlined by Lankoski, Heliö & Ekman 2003, and based on Egri 1960 to help create a new character bio for each of the characters.. this would keep the amount of characteristics uniform and the score system less erratic.

2003, www.uta.fi/~petri.lankoski/characters_in_computer_games.pdf (25.12.2003).
1960,  The art of Dramatic writing, Lajos Egri

Not really a proper post... just business card stuff.

The main problem I'm having (other than it took forever to decide on this layout) is I don't really want to put my telephone number on there. I'm more likely to be contactable from all the other methods I've put down but is it enough?

I should probably put it on anyway... but I don't want to. I've ordered them... bah it's done now.

17/04/13 - More final clips

I've got another four clips batch rendered out now for a total of 5 which means i'm over half way through one interaction. Yay! I've got another mocap session booked in for tomorrow so i should be able to get more than the two interactions done by the time the deadlines roll around.

Heres 3,4,5 and 7 respectively I've cleaned up 7 a little as i said i would and shortened it in line with the others.

3

4

5

7

16/04/13 - First clip finished... Minor 6, Quadruped Cycle

Here's the first clip out of the 14 minimum i'll be using to demonstrate my system. This is Minor 6 the second most extreme flight animation. The player is there and I've played with the render settings and things. this is only a rough version to show i'll be putting them together better later on.

Not really sure what else to say other than I've cleaned up 5 and 4 and obviously the players clip. I also animated a horse because i wanted to have a go at a quadruped cycle. Horses are hard and made harder by the fact that the digital tutors trial ended before i'd seen the any of the tutorials to do with animating the body. I had a go using reference footage and the poses i could find on the internet and it turned out ok but i'll definitely be revisiting it.

Rig is downloaded from digital tutors project files.

I'm not convinced with quite a few aspects of this. the ears aren't quite right and i know the tail is off but it was only a fairly quick attempt and for my first quadruped i'm fairly happy.

13/04/13 - Motion capture cleanup minor 6 & 7

Technically i cleaned up 7 yesterday but i'm looking at it today and i'm not entirely convinced it's finished anymore....

Minor 7. Post cleanup

Things I've changed

• The head was moving far too much so i toned it down a bit
• Arm fixes
• Hand twitches
• Torso needed correcting at points

Even though he's meant to be on edge and a little twitchy which is why the stretch is there.. it doesn't really feel convincing for me. I think i'll leave this one for now and come back to it another day when I've done a few more and have a better grasp on what needs to be done. It might help looking at it with fresh eyes.

Minor 6. Before cleanup

I may have accidentally left it on half speed when recording... 

Minor 6. Post Cleanup

The things I've changed

• Adjusted the head movement so he doesn't move quite as much
• Fixed arm rotations
• Added in hand animation.
• Exaggerated certain poses slightly.

Just because this video quality isn't great i also did a close up of the hand movement.

As this is the second most flight one i added a slight hand movement where it looks like he's scratching his thumb.. this is a nervous habit for a lot of people and is a sign of self comfort.

11/04/13 - Mixamo

So all my problems have now been fixed. (yay!)

There is a mystical tool available online called Mixamo...

You give Mixamo a mesh.. not rigged.. doesn't even have to be in a T pose and then you place certain points that it gives you.. like this...

It then does some sort of magical trickery and churns out a skeleton for the mesh and skins it. It even rigs and skins the fingers.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

This new skeleton is labelled for use in motion builder which means i can characterize it and add the motion capture that i've already done.

Then i bring the newly rigged file into maya and there's more trickery. Mixamo comes with a script that makes this handy little window pop up...

And there it is.. the answer to all my problems.

This button then adds a control rig to the mesh..and after importing the animation using the fbx i export from motion builder and copying the animation to the rig.. I can use the animation layers to modify it!

TA DA!

The only thing it doesn't provide is facial animation controls and it also seems to have gotten rid of the eyes but i can always solve that in a little while after all the main work is done. 

09/04/13 - Motion Capture Cleanup Part 4

Back to this again.

Last week i struggled to get the marker data to transfer quite so cleanly to the skeleton as the first take did. Grant has worked out the system needed and it's slightly different to my own and should speed up my pipeline a hell of a lot.

I'll document it today, there's a couple of key things that need to be remembered to get it to work.

Bring in Grunt to the window. He needs to be in the T pose and just for convenience later on I've renamed his joints and saved him out again so i can easily characterize him for the other takes. Create a Ctrl rig for grunt.

SAVE FOR LATER

In a new file, bring in the motion capture data as before and this time delete everything apart from the label solvers. Use the top node here to rotate the motion capture skeleton to face positive z (important for later).

Then characterize the motion capture skeleton too. I've saved this here in case things go wrong but you can then go on and create a file with the animation in. (File--> Save animation)

Open up the characterized control rigged model again and this time use file and load animation.

When bringing the animation in check plot to control rig (if you want to do any animation modifications in motion builder) This should cause the animation to play using the grunt rig. After modifications, use the character settings to plot the animation to the skeleton ready for saving to an fbx ready for maya.

Heres the reason you need to make sure they're facing the right way when exporting the animation....

So i have maya ready files for all of the interactions for both the major and minor physical interaction apart from the two extreme fight ones which both go weird in a slightly different way to the bug above... the tell tail mark is that they don't start with their legs crossed or in odd places and its mainly the arms that are going wrong...

Other than that the only ones i have to do now to get the full two sets are the player motion captures. I'll do them once these are cleaned up a little more so i can judge which one will be most suitable. Timing will play a key part in this..

05/04/13 -Life drawing, Progress for everything else

LIFE DRAWING

Life Drawing! More Male anatomy .. although there's still a fair few problems with big head mode and limb length and things i feel the muscle definition and sense of weight is starting to improve.

I liked this method. Working with just the highlights to begin with i think showed up well.

Wood stain is not my friend.

Big head mode but i like the elbow...

Need more work on the chest...

ONE WEEK LATER

all on one sheet! Lots of annotations of things i need to improve on. Top right is showing the angles  as they were causing me grief. Twisty poses are hard.

EVERYTHING ELSE

So update on everything else. Obviously now it's 5 weeks till the end of time as we know it (or at least it feels a little like that) and i'm gradually becoming more panicky as to what i'm actually going to have to show. I've tried to find ways round the problem with moving the animation over from one skeleton to another (the IK rig overrides the FK rig which was what was making the weird peck dance happen) but i havent got another way round it and time is a marching onwards. Lynn reckons she can write a script that will automatically sort out the problem using a web of constraints and things but obviously she'll need some time to do that but thats ok.. cause i can spend this time getting all the other files i have to the point where i can use the script on them. If i can get all of them or even most of them done by monday then i should be able to have something for the showcase and my worries will be less and it may even seem achievable to do some more interactions.
  In other news i got feedback for my dissertation and i feel like i will be able to sort my lit review out so it's all done and stuff with the information i have. I also reckon i can totally get the case study done as well.

 so now i'm at that wonderful point where all i need to do is buckle down and get it done. No more problem solving (for now) just graft, and i'm pretty sure i can do that.

03/04/13 - Setting the Score Part 2

Continuing!

I think i forgot to fill in the expected outcome for Sully which again i think is meant to be default considering how well he knows Nate's character in the game.

The results given by the purple system still match the expected outcome for Ulfric and for Sully but both these expected outcomes were the default and there seems to be a lot of traits that pull the score back towards the middle. So what about a more extreme character?

Moving onto my third character Wrex from the Mass Effect Series.


WREX (Mass Effect)

Personality

Natural Warrior -1
Rebellious -1
Strong beliefs 0
Honor-bound +0
Intelligent 0
Disapproves of being a mindless warmongering people +0
Bounty Hunter -1
Rarely loses his temper +0
Quiet +0Enemy of my Enemy is a friend +0


-Prejudice
Prejudice against taurians and solarians 0

-Fear
N/A

Reputation of character/player
Shepard is a Spectre who works for the council. Wrex does not like the council. -1


Past Experience of player
N/A

Environment
Semi Hostile territory (back alley of the citadel) -1

Relationship to Players character (Shepard)
N/A

Player: Shepard

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected outcome: First level of Fight (Minor 3) Due to his ability to stay calm but not be walked over. From his description is seems like he would be more likely to make an inward comment of disapproval and aggression than external.


Choice Notes: Natural warrior means hes more inclined to aggression. This would be his underlying drive and so should be the most important trait.


PURPLE
WREX

Personality +0
Reputation -1
Past Experience N/A
Environment -1
Relationship N/A

Overall -1


This still works for Wrex but it did need some work towards finding out what his opinion of Shepard. As i'd chosen the first time they met for the setting this video helped a lot to establish that. I assume any developers that would follow this would know enough about their character to construct this fairly easily...maybe.

On to Ben!


BEN (walking dead)

Personality

Caring 0
Inept combatant +1
Runs away when things turn bad +1

Stands up for self after persistent abuse -1


-Prejudice
N/A

-Fear
Greatest fear, being eaten alive 0
Fear of blood 0

Reputation of character/player
N/A

Past Experience of player
You try and help him +0

Environment
Woods +1

Relationship to Players character (Shepard)
Stranger +1

Player: Lee

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected Outcome: Mid level Flight (Minor 6) Character is of a nervous disposition and due to being a stranger and the environment this would add to his nerves.


PURPLE

Personality +1
Reputation N/A
Past Experience +0
Woods +1
Stranger +1

Overall +2


YAY! So at the moment the Purple system works for this interaction but i do have a few queries and problems anyway...

Problem : It keeps nagging at my brain that all of the characters have different amounts of characteristics but im not sure whether this is actually a problem or not... It does make me wonder whether its easy to come up with more traits to help balance things out the way i want them to be. I don't think ive added anything wrong though...i guess we'll see how the next interaction works out, can't add any more now.

Ok moving onto the next interaction Major Physical... instant problem is im not sure how to figure out what the default should be... would the average person cower or fight back?


oh dear.

02/04/13 - Case Study Outside Perspective

I know i don't normally like posting more than one post a day but i didn't want to clutter up the other post with this as it's not really something i can use and more for my own record...

Picture from here

As i may have mention i've been looking at the character Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite and her animations for part of my case study. I've played it myself and watched another person play. Despite having two perspectives they are both influenced by my research. I'm obviously going to critically analyse everything and pay much closer attention to the performance than the average player to the point where i cant help but break the immersion slightly. The person i watched knows everything about my project and so will have a similar if not quite as extreme version of this which will skew their experience and any feedback i get from them.

Because of this it occurred to me that i should probably ask others their experience of Elizabeth, not to use as references due to questions on quality but more so i could have a couple more impartial opinions to think about.

I asked two people who luckily both will have had different levels of immersion due to their backgrounds. The first is a student at Abertay and due to the nature of his own project he will be looking at certain aspects of the game more closely but wont be looking at animations at all. As far as i know he's never looked into animations too deeply and so that wont sway his opinions. He has seen a load of the stuff before hand though which may have encouraged him to pay closer attention as Elizabeth has been a big focus for bioshock infinite.

In an attempt to avoid spoilers I'll trim the feedback down to just some key quotes which don't reveal anything and fill in the gaps myself in a more vague non specific manner.

"so far I am really liking the character development. There are some really authentic lines of dialogue, that from a game point of view,is what makes her well rounded and implemented well."

" I think that the way that she moves and interacts is very well done."

This statement was followed by a few examples but interestingly most were either referencing dialogue or the sort of in game cuts cenes that a lot of games now use to try and help maintain immersion.
He then went on to explain that Elizabeth's nature is in keeping with her background but doesn't go to the extreme where it could become irritating implying that the balance that they've achieved is creating a likeable character that  the player is able to form a connection with.


The other person i asked is someone whose finished an animation degree 5 years ago but hasn't really acted on it since, they also only have a basic knowledge of game development process and animation for games and so they will have the knowledge to judge performance but probably wont be actively looking for it, allowing them to achieve a level of immersion I'm not able to. Finally they haven't seen any previous footage in regards to the development process so their comments are uninfluenced.

"I'm impressed with the way she seems interested in things. I like how she sits down if she gets bored. I adore the fact that she tells you not to worry about her, and that she can fight for herself (I have a personal hatred of Protect The VIP missions in games)
In fact, she doesn't act like a game NPC She acts more like Rapunzel from Tangled, as if she has been animated at every turn by the chaps who did her"


It's interesting that he picks up on the general vibe mentioned by Ken Levine in his Bafta interview/presentation they were going for in regards to the Disney princess type actions and also that he seems to speak as if she has a mind of her own and that she's thinking about where she is and what's happening around her, this is key to creating a character seem believable in Film animation.



I've asked both of them to let me know if they have any thoughts as they continue playing.

02/04/13 - Setting the score

This post will be me working through the system figuring out what scores should affect what and using the character bios collected yesterday to help test it. Basically it's going to be me rambling to myself and hopefully coming to a logical conclusion that works to some degree. I'll make sure to point out problems i notice and any methods i come up with to fix them.

Before really starting I've already hit a problem...

Problem: If the score is used to influence the scales then an issue will arise when i need to choose which of fight or flight corresponds to the positive or negative number. It's not easy saying that running away is positive or fighting stuff is positive.

Short term Solution: Have two separate scores that kick in for the different scales. For the purposes of this test if i only include those interactions that range from fight to flight then the scores won't need to be applied to multiple scales which don't correlate. So because of these the interactions from the list i produced previously would be limited to:

• Minor Physical
• Major Physical
• Gun Aim
• Destroy/Steal
• Inappropriate action

This isn't that bad because this is actually just over half the interactions listed. For the purposes of this first trial for the numerical value of the score i'll use +1 for a more flight reaction and -1 for a more fight reaction in line with the numbers of the interactions 1 being the most aggressive and 7 being the most submissive. Starting with Ulfric's character

ULFRIC (skyrim)

Personality

• Religious +1, +0, +0
• Military trained -1, -1, -1
• Guided by honor +1, +0, +0

-Prejudice

• Prejudice against non-nords -1, -1, -1

-Fear
N/A
Reputation of player

• Kahjits are not to be trusted -1, -1,-1

Past Experience of player

• Escaped Helgen together +1, +0,+0
• Part of the stormcloak army +1, +0, +0

Environment

• Home (well guarded palace) +1, +0, +0

Relationship to player's character (Kahjit)

• Colleague +1, +0, +0

Choice Notes: The military training will give the character an impulse reaction that they are trained to have resulting in a more aggressive response.

Player: Female Kahjit Allied to the Stormcloaks, chose to go with Ulfric at the beginning of the game.


Interaction: Minor Physical

Default: Neutral 4

Expected outcome: Default. He has positive past experiences of the player which should help balance out his prejudices which are already quite passive due to his sense of honor. He isn't afraid of the playerespecially with him being on home turf which should help him feel at ease and as the player is on his side this should lessen fear as well

In theory the conflicting aspects such as the  attitude towards non-nords and the general view of kahjit's should be balanced out by the NPCs past experience of the player and their relationship.

RED: Initial score test

Personality 0
Reputation -1
Past experience +2
Environment +1
Relationship +1

Overall +3

If i used the system that the score modified the reaction by 1 notch for every positive or negative then this would lead the reaction to be +7 which is the most extreme fight reaction... for a battle hero such as Ulfric this doesn't make sense. The main problem here seems to stem from giving a plus or minus 1 to each of the attributes in the factors where some of them wouldn't make him more likely to run they just make him less likely to fight. But i can't just leave them as 0 because then there wouldn't be anything to help balance out the negative modifiers and he would just end up with a heavily aggressive reaction.

New theory... what if the aspects that are used to balance others are labeled as +0 which brings the score closer to the default?

BLUE: Modified Score 1

Personality 0
Reputation -1
Past experience +0
Environment +0
Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+2)

Using this modification does give the expected result but one of the issues which im not sure if it is an issue until i test it on another character is that the past experience section would have a double +0 as it's outcome. I'm not sure whether you'd need the double + to carry over to help balance or not... we'll see.

NEW CHARACTER

SULLY (Uncharted)
Personality

• Father Figure +0
• Military Trained -1
• Driven by money 0
• Explorer +0
• Compassionate +0
• Thief +1

-Prejudice

N/A

-Fear

N/A

Reputation of player

N/A

Past Experience of player

Over ruled by the relationship to players character

Environment

• Hostile area -1

Relationship to Players character (Nate)

• Father Figure +0

Player: Nathan Drake

Interaction: Minor Physical

Expected outcome

Choice Notes: The explorer trait will mean that Sully is used to unexpected things occurring and will help stop him from being startled. The thief trait will ad an instinct to run to avoid being caught.

Interesting point, if the players character is one that is a pre-planned and established character such as Nathan Drake, Shepard from Mass Effect and Lee from the walking dead then the past experience of the player will be over ruled by the relation ship (if it exists) 

The problem i have when applying this to Sully is that his core underlying drive is his greed but having everything equal in the personality section doesn't reflect this, now i think about it the same applies to Ulfric's sense of Honor. Maybe it would make more sense to have a bonus score added to what could be seen as the NPCs core personality trait that will always win out over others. Obviously when it comes to the fight or flight scoring Sully's greed wont affect him quite so much but it will affect Ulfric. And it's also good to note for when applying this scoring system in a slightly different way to the positive negative spectrum some of the other interactions need.



GREEN: Including Core Personality trait bonus.

Ulfric

Personality +0
Reputation -1
Past experience +0
Environment +0
Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+3)
Sully also brings up the point of what personality traits should be considered for each spectrum. His greed wont play a part in his reaction to being punched so surely it wouldn't score at all? Giving it a value of 0 would effectively discount the trait for this spectrum.

PURPLE: Excluding traits that have no influence on the interation

Sully

Personality +0
Reputation N\A
Past Experience N/A
Environment -1

Relationship +0

Overall 0 (+1)

Continue tomorrow...

01/04/13 - Character bios, Skyrim NPC generator

As i mentioned previously, to test my systems and adjust the score part i'll be using existing characters in games and their bios. I've chosen four characters to begin with, each from different games and with slightly different drives behind their personality.  They are:

Ulfric Stormcloak:  (Elder Scrolls: Skyrim)

Picture taken from here

I've chosen Ulfric because he can be viewed mainly as an unlikable character. He is a nationalist, so much so that he will leave cities of non-nords to suffer from bandits without a second thought. Despite being unlikable he does have a redeeming feature in the fact he is guided by honor displayed by his restraint when using his Thu'um.
Information taken from here

Traits
Extremely Nationalist
Extremely Prejudice against Non Nords
Religious (went to war for the right to worship Talos)
Military trained
Rebellious nature
Hates the Empire
Doesn't use the Thu'um unless it's absolutely necessary but will use it for battle.

Victor Sullivan: (Uncharted series)

Picture taken from here

As a direct opposite to the setup of Ulfric Stormcloak, I chose Victor Sullivan (known as "Sully") from the uncharted series due to his likable nature and tendency towards acting in a fatherly manner. His friendly persona is only broken when you realize that the only thing more powerful than his loyalty is his greed and that he will trade up even Nate to rid himself of debt.
Information taken from here

Father figure (more forgiving to drake in particular when hes older due to raising him and opts to protect children he doesn't know)
Antique dealer (affects Item transaction)
Explorer
Navy/ Military trained (Disciplined)
Hired Thief
Observant
Compassionate (Stays to comfort wounded)
Driven by Money ( walks away from opportunity when no money is to be gained, is in debt at the beginning of uncharted 2 and despite loyalty to drake informs rival treasure hunter)

Urdnot Wrex: (Mass Effect)

Picture taken from here

I've chosen Wrex from the Mass Effect series due to the fact his isn't military trained. His people are natural warriors implying they battle more from instinct than disciplined routines. This combined with the explosive rage that can occur when his character is pushed too far makes him a good example of extreme negative reactions after repetitive negative action.
Information taken from here and here


Natural Warrior, (Naturally violent but with no military training)
Rebellious
Strong beliefs
Honor-bound (turns away from own people and father at one point because of this)
Intelligent
Disapproves of being a mindless warmongering people
Worked as a gun for hire
Rarely loses his temper
Doesn't voice his thoughts often but when he does. you listen.
Don't get on his bad side.


Ben Paul: (Walking dead)

Picture taken from here

As with Sully, Ben from the walking dead series has been chosen to mirror the characteristics of Wrex. As opposed to being a natural warrior, Ben is the epitome of the "dirty coward" trope and is driven by his own sense of self preservation and his fear of being eaten alive to the point of putting other more vulnerable characters in danger.

Greatest fear, being eaten alive. Over rules all other urges including relationships
Inept combatant
Runs away when things turn bad
Fear of blood (Would pass out if asked to cut arm off)
Stands up for self after persistent abuse


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I've been sidetracked for part of the day by one thing or another but party because i came across this while looking at Ulfric..


Skyrim NPC personality generator for background/minor NPCs
(including followers and potential spouses)

Taken from here, the website found describes what happens when an NPC dies within the world. A new NPC is randomly generated using the following three stats. It mentions that the aggression level will differ depending on the "faction combat modifier" which is similar to the relationship factor I've included in my own system.

Aggression

There are four possible values for aggression. Together with the faction relationship combat modifier this governs whether the NPC initiates combat.

• 0: Unaggressive
• 1: Aggressive
• 2: Very Aggressive
• 3: Frenzied

Confidence

There are five possible values for confidence:

• 0: Cowardly
• 1: Cautious
• 2: Average
• 3: Brave
• 4: Foolhardy

Morality

Morality determines whether or not an NPC will commit various crimes, and controls whether or not a follower will agree to do certain requested actions. There are four possible values for morality:

• 0: Any Crime. NPC is willing to commit any requested crime.
• 1: Violence Against Enemies. NPC is willing to commit violence against enemies, as well as property crimes. NPC is not willing to attack innocent people.
• 2: Property Crime Only. The only crimes the NPC will commit are property crimes (e.g., theft).
• 3: No Crime. NPC is not willing to commit any crimes. Followers with this morality will still not report crimes that they witness you committing (with the exception of crimes against them, such as stealing items owned by the follower).

I'd be interested to see if i could find anything else that goes into how this system was created. As I've noted in my case study post, which I've been accumulating for a fair few days now and haven't actually posted yet, the problem i have with the skyrim animations is that the performance doesn't change anywhere near enough for exaggerated characters for example Cicero with his amazingly eccentric voice acting that doesn't come across with the sound off. This example may make a character more aggressive in how likely it is to start a fight but its more to do with how it initiates combat and it doesn't seem to factor in the possibility they might want to run away or hide? I know it has cowardly in the confidence section but does that over rule a character with "frenzied" in the aggression section or vice versa?
The morality trait seems to be an interesting idea though... would the relationship and personality factors of my system be enough to influence the outcome of an event where the player asks you to do something? Would that be better factored into the list of interactions than adding a new factor?