The Peds Are Boring

[Ambient_]

So one of the features that seemed good pre-launch with this game was the interactivity of the Peds. However,

 

- following them has taught me that they follow a script but when that script finished they stand in a corner on their phone.

 

- the BS with standing in their personal space making them call the police

 

- everybody is hostile?

[Stephan90]

So one of the features that seemed good pre-launch with this game was the interactivity of the Peds. However,

 

- following them has taught me that they follow a script but when that script finished they stand in a corner on their phone.

 

- the BS with standing in their personal space making them call the police

 

- everybody is hostile?

 

Haha, I just wrote about it in the thread the A.I. is garbage. Interaction with peds is like: "Hey what's up? ... You f*cking suck."

[DopeFresh]

The peds are extremely scripted. They aren't any different than the GTA 4 peds. Interaction sucks and consists of the player saying hi, and then saying an insult for no reason. The AI is easily the worst part of this game.

[jp9865]

You guys need to play the game more. There are some peds you can have conversations with. Not the white dot ones either. Yes the majority of peds do just say a greeting of some sort and then insult you if you try to talk to them more than once but there are others out there that will tell you their life story!

 

And i really hate the term scripted. It's a video game. Everything is scripted. Nothing happens because it wants to do it. It happens because it's in the script. Random events in Red Dead get alot of love on these forums because of their randomness except no one seems to realise that the randomness is part of the script.

[Stephan90]

I never had a real conversation with a random ped.

 

Do you know what would be really cool?! If you could make random women (and I don't mean hookers) get in your vehicle when it is a pimped out super sports car and you honk. similar to the gold digger prank videos.

[Homicidal Hipster]

You guys need to play the game more. There are some peds you can have conversations with. Not the white dot ones either. Yes the majority of peds do just say a greeting of some sort and then insult you if you try to talk to them more than once but there are others out there that will tell you their life story!

And i really hate the term scripted. It's a video game. Everything is scripted. Nothing happens because it wants to do it. It happens because it's in the script. Random events in Red Dead get alot of love on these forums because of their randomness except no one seems to realise that the randomness is part of the script.

yeah I've had a conversation with a ped before to, this chick was talking for nearly a minute I can't remember what she said though. Michael replied with " I shouldn't have asked"

[CaptainMental]

Remember when people were talking about peds living their own lives, going to work etc? Well, a lot of us knew that not to be true, not even Michaels family lives their own lives. Try tailing any of them and you will see.

 

The other day Tracy (Michaels daughter) yelled that Jimmy needs his own car and then she got into her Weenie, I managed to get in at the same time and she was pretty much just driving around the block until I got tired. I tailed Amanda once, same there. Same for Jimmy. I dont think its even possible to meet Amanda, Jimmy or Tracy randomly in the city.

[OurJud]

You guys need to play the game more. There are some peds you can have conversations with. Not the white dot ones either. Yes the majority of peds do just say a greeting of some sort and then insult you if you try to talk to them more than once but there are others out there that will tell you their life story!

 

And i really hate the term scripted. It's a video game. Everything is scripted. Nothing happens because it wants to do it. It happens because it's in the script. Random events in Red Dead get alot of love on these forums because of their randomness except no one seems to realise that the randomness is part of the script.

 

Just this... especially the last bit I've highlighted.

[Octane]

The peds are kinda interesting.

[Miscer]

it never gets boring running them over tho

[jp9865]

the peds having their own life statement got misunderstood and hyped that people actually believed that every single NPC would go about their day if followed etc.

 

What they actually meant was(and you can test this in game if you like, or look into the san Andreas hitmen thread on this forum) that peds will spawn in different places depending on the time of day. For example. Ped 1, let's name him Dave, at 9am leaves his house in Chumash. So if you are in Chumash at 9am you will see Dave. He works at, let's say the clucking bell factory. He starts work at 12pm. So if you're around the Clucking Bell factory at 12pm you will see Dave. Then on his way home around 8pm he will have a drink in Hookies. Again if you're at Hookies at 8pm you will see Dave.

 

if you don't leave the initial area where you first see Dave then he won't despawn and he certainly won't go through a pre programmed routine of driving to work, working, then driving to Hookies, then going home. There's not enough processing power to fully programme full lives for every single Ped in the game. That's just ridiculous.

 

Dave is an example that i quickly made up before anyone goes looking for him. Basically peds have different spawn points depending on the time of day to give the illusion that they have actual lives.

[Stephan90]

Yeah, everything needs to be programmed. Content and A.I. don't appear out of nothing. Rockstar must decide on what they allocate their given resources, to make the game as satisfying as possible for the customers. But there is no point for Rockstar to program a second real world, because the costs would explode but they wouldn't sell indefinitely more copies of the game.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Stephan90

[Homicidal Hipster]

Peds in this game are very over dramatic. I remember this one time I was Michael and I called franklin to hangout, I picked him up from his house on forum drive, I honked the horn to attract his attention but it wasn't the only attention I had attracted,everyone else on the street started looking my way when suddenly they all turned hostile 10+ red blips appear on my radar , even people streets away started running In my direction i had attracted every families gang member In a ten mile radiusI couldn't even see half of them just red blips coming towards me , I then got pulled from my car and started to get beat , all because I honked the horn, they apparently saw it as a act of aggression. 10 + guys just hammering away at me when suddenly franklin got out a combat mg and shot them all dead , he protected his homie from his other homies. And of course the cops got involved and refused to listen to reason and started shooting at us. So what I had hoped to be a relaxing hangout session with franklin turned into a massive shootout just because I honked the horn lol

 

I love the peds it's hilarious how over dramatic they are, when they call cops on you for standing near them or when stuff like that happens, a lot of people don't like it but I think it's very entertaining if it was like real life it would be boring.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Andreas

[ClaudX]

I disagree. The interaction with the peds is accurate to the interaction between random people I've met on the streets. "Hey". "Hey". "F*ck off." Yup. pretty realistic.

[GtaFanatik]

This is something I miss from Watchdogs. The animations, the voices, the shock events. All of them were amazing. That level of detail that they put in peds is what Rockstar doesn't did even in protagonists... Something that I Hate is that if you rev your engine near to a bunch of peds, there's always one that says "I'll call to the police ....*dials*.... police, I have a problem here", then one star. Worst thing? There's no any mark to see who the hell is calling, not even in the minimap. In WD, was a red triangle with a timer warning you to run to that man and disable his phone..

[HoleInTheSky]

On one hand, the pedestrian spawn system is basic as f*ck, you just know how many peds are going to spawn on which street corner. Every time. It got old quickly and broke immersion almost instantly. I wouldn't call it "routine", because they don't do anything but stand and look bland. On the other, Rockstar probably made their NPCs extra touchy to reflect current times. So, job well done. Mention of Watch_Dogs; their ped system is head and shoulders above GTA V's, which is a real shocker coming from Ubisoft.

Edited February 20, 2015 by HoleInTheSky

[Alpha Demigod]

You guys need to play the game more. There are some peds you can have conversations with. Not the white dot ones either. Yes the majority of peds do just say a greeting of some sort and then insult you if you try to talk to them more than once but there are others out there that will tell you their life story!

 

 

I want to believe this, but I'll have to see it first.

. Mention of Watch_Dogs; their ped system is head and shoulders above GTA V's, which is a real shocker coming from Ubisoft.

 

Many people refuse to admit this because of their own bigotry, but Watch_Dogs did many things much better than GTAV.

 

• Gun combat and gun gameplay
• Gameplay innovation (hacking and manipulating the environment as an offensive/defensive tool was more unique than anything in GTAV)
• Stealth system
• Side missions (W_D had a plethora of relevant and engaging side activities, not random sh*t like Yoga)
• The side-missions in W_D can be approached many ways. They are all mini-sandboxes of their own. Look at gang hideouts and CtOS bases.
• CtoS towers actually require you to use your brain a bit, something that you will never ever do in GTAV nor 90% of games nowadays

   

• Mission design

  (GTAV's missions still follow the same formula from GTA3 in 2001. Go here, shoot this, blow this up, deliver this package, drive while dodging these guys, follow this guy secretly then kill him, etc.) and they can only be played in a scripted way.

   

   

  In general I believe W_D to be a very underrated gem of a game. The graphical downgrade from E3 set the community ablaze during its release, and this collective outlash totally distorted how people should have looked at or appreciated the game. Everyone was so focused on "omg the grafix got downgrades this game sux!!!" that they went completely past the gameplay, the atmosphere, the innovation, and all the other stuff the game does so well.

   

  And of course, GTAV being a member of the world's most popular and successful game franchise naturally ignites a biased view in some people. It's the Harry Potter of the video game world. People will back it relentlessly due to commercial popularity and reputation alone. Even if another fantasy series comes out and does many things better than Harry Potter, people will still stick by and say "HP is better because more sales and more numbers and yada yada"

Edited February 20, 2015 by Dark Bordeus

[Osho]

Frankly, its not shocking. Its likely that the console limitations maybe affecting the many features, mechanics, and design of the content which we can clearly see here ( for ex: peds behaviour ) and know that this needed more working so that'll result in a higher level of satisfaction compared to previous and even other games on the market which V fanboys somehow seem to easily find this game better. I don't really see how?

GTA V is quite simply a below average game for me that excels on only one thing - Graphics!

Rockstar can still improve by releasing a final patch for SP on either or both console versions to make the gameplay more decent.

Lets see.

[GtaFanatik]

 

You guys need to play the game more. There are some peds you can have conversations with. Not the white dot ones either. Yes the majority of peds do just say a greeting of some sort and then insult you if you try to talk to them more than once but there are others out there that will tell you their life story!

 

 

I want to believe this, but I'll have to see it first.

. Mention of Watch_Dogs; their ped system is head and shoulders above GTA V's, which is a real shocker coming from Ubisoft.

 

Many people refuse to admit this because of their own bigotry, but Watch_Dogs did many things much better than GTAV.

 

• Gun combat and gun gameplay
• Gameplay innovation (hacking and manipulating the environment as an offensive/defensive tool was more unique than anything in GTAV)
• Stealth system

 

Yes.. kind of. Yes it was innovate, but almost all missions are about hacking (minigame that you need to move bridges to let the blue stripe go to the end node), killing enemies in a red square in the map in sealth mode, then follow the final enemy in car and press square 2 or 3 times to explode some underground pipes or trigger the traffic lights to make him crash, that's it, mission ended.

But yes, the detail (not graphics) put in the city, cars and PEDS were much better than in V, the AI is so realistic that shocks, and the motion capture yes, it's far better than in GTA V... I think these are the only better things in WD than V. Keep in mind that those two games are completly different each other...

[Vice City criminal]

I hate them. they are always calling the police on me.

[GtaFanatik]

Frankly, its not shocking. Its likely that the console limitations maybe affecting the many features, mechanics, and design of the content which we can clearly see here ( for ex: peds behaviour ) and know that this needed more working so that'll result in a higher level of satisfaction compared to previous and even other games on the market which V fanboys somehow seem to easily find this game better. I don't really see how?

GTA V is quite simply a below average game for me that excels on only one thing - Graphics!

Rockstar can still improve by releasing a final patch for SP on either or both console versions to make the gameplay more decent.

Lets see.

Patch fixing peds AI? Very unlikely, at least if (IF) Rockstar decide to release a patch (which involves new Motion capture, voice acting, etc) it will not be free, of course. There will not be a patch for this. The game is selled and distributed as is, and I don't think that they would release a patch which changes a big portion of the gameplay for free. They wanted you to buy the game. You did it? Enough for them. Sadly this is true.

Do you want new AI? Wait for a new itineration. GTA 6? Vice City? I don't know. But I expect a new game, a new engine approaching the new features of the current gen version, not an overhauled last gen game. The core of Rage engine is 70% the same as in IV, and IV had almost 4 years of work. If you put it in that way, GTA V is running in a eleven years old engine.

The answer? : The time says all. we need to wait. No more than that.

[Vertighost]

Was it GTA IV where if you do a burnout or donuts the NPC's start jumping and cheering? Or am I thinking of Saint's Row or something.

[LightningLord]

Was it GTA IV where if you do a burnout or donuts the NPC's start jumping and cheering? Or am I thinking of Saint's Row or something.

Saints Row did that. Doing donuts and burnouts make GTA V NPCs freak out, run, get angry, or call the cops.

Edited February 20, 2015 by LightningLord411

[Vertighost]

You probably all know by now, you can stop the NPC's call to the cops by falling into them or running into them so they fall over, after they say they're calling the cops.

[LightningLord]

You probably all know by now, you can stop the NPC's call to the cops by falling into them or running into them so they fall over, after they say they're calling the cops.

 

 

Franklin: "Hey girl, how you doin'?"

 

Female NPC: "I'm calling the police, bitch!"

 

Franklin: *runs away and trips npc*

 

Female NPC: *forgets what just happened and runs away*

GTA V NPCs in a nutshell.

Edited February 20, 2015 by LightningLord411

[Red DEAD]

The same "one liners" and stupid convos get boring fast...

 

IV's NPCs actually do a crap load of stuff. I seen a IV NPC lean against a wall with one of their foot on the wall just posted up like he was chillen and some NPCs actually use the binoculars in the game. I seen one actually go into their pocket and get change (you can hear it) and the NPC puts the change in and uses the binoculars.

 

Do NPCs use the binoculars on top of Mt. Chiliad? Nope...

 

V NPCs only eat a damn donut in the game.

 

In IV, they eat candy bars, burgers, (actually buy a hotdog from a food vendor and walk away holding eat and take a few bites) and buy a pack of nuts from the vendors too.

 

V is a step backward from what IV was in terms of a "living-breathing open-world". IN MY OPINION.

Edited February 20, 2015 by Red DEAD

[The Green Sabre]

I'm willing to give Watch Dogs some credit here, Ubisoft did a great job with the pedestrians. The many things that they do, the amount on screen at once, and their ability to not call the Chicago PD on you for the tiniest things puts them head and shoulders above V's pedestrians. I think that if Ubisoft takes what made Watch Dogs work and removes the bad in the next game, then Watch Dogs 2 might be pretty awesome.

[PhillBellic]

I hated them, to be honest. I couldn't enjoy the scenery at all, without hearing that they were calling the cops on me.

[John The Grudge]

Of course the peds are scripted. Giving each ped true AI and a full life would be a tremendous amount of work. They are essentially meant to be little more than set dressing. I'm confident you won't find better peds in any other open world game. The expectations some of you guys have for GTA V are outrageously high.

[LightningLord]

Of course the peds are scripted. Giving each ped true AI and a full life would be a tremendous amount of work. They are essentially meant to be little more than set dressing. I'm confident you won't find better peds in any other open world game. The expectations some of you guys have for GTA V are outrageously high.

It's not high expectations; the NPCs do too little. Most of the time, they're on their phones or smoking. Military soldiers? On their phones and smoking. Bikers? On their phones and smoking. Gangsters? On their phones and smoking. College students? On their phones and smoking. Police officers? On their phones and smoking. Hipsters? On their phones and smoking. It's getting old. Edited February 20, 2015 by LightningLord411