P.A.T.H.E.R System for NPC Behavior in Living Settlement

Conan Exiles PC Discussion Public Beta Client
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The P.A.T.H.E.R. system is designed to enhance NPC behavior in a living settlement by creating a dynamic and immersive experience. Each letter represents a key element in their daily routines:

  • P = Purpose: Every NPC has a defined role. A blacksmith, for example, is assigned to work at the smithing station, contributing to the settlement.
  • A = Amusement: NPCs occasionally engage in fun activities like visiting a tavern, juggling, or performing tricks to bring life to the environment.
  • T = Thirst: NPCs need to drink regularly to stay hydrated, adding a survival element to their routine.
  • H = Hunger: Ensures that NPCs eat regularly to stay nourished, helping them function effectively.
  • E = Engagement: NPCs will socialize and interact with each other, fostering a community-like atmosphere.
  • R = Rest: NPCs need downtime to sleep or relax, ensuring they remain efficient and well-rested.

This system would allow NPCs in a game to feel more alive, with a mix of functional and immersive tasks, contributing to a vibrant and realistic settlement.

The P.A.T.H.E.R. system could utilize bars similar to the player’s hunger and thirst bars to manage NPCs’ needs. Each bar represents an essential need (Purpose, Amusement, Thirst, Hunger, Interaction, Rest), and NPCs would automatically seek out activities or resources to fill their bars when they drop too low.

For example:

  • NPCs might need to eat or drink several times a day to keep those bars full.
  • For Amusement, NPCs would need to engage in a mix of varied tasks to maintain their happiness.

A cooldown system could prevent repetitive actions, promoting diversity in NPC behavior.

The current AI system is a solid foundation, but with these changes, it could become much less predictable and more immersive.

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I fail to see an actual suggestion here that differs very much from what is already being introduced.

All you have presented is an acronym in which one of the letters doesn’t even match.

I have some suggestions too:

The S.L.I.M.E.D. system:

S = Sleep
L = Labor
I = Idle
M = Mingle
E = Eat
D = Drink

The W.A.N.D.E.R. system:

W = Work
A = Aqua
N = Networking
D = Dinner
E = Entertainment
R = Relax

The T.H.A.N.O.S. system:

T = Talk
H = Hydrate
A = Activities
N = Nap
O = Occupation
S = Stomach

As you can see, these systems are clearly superior because all of the letters match, though regrettably, they still don’t really offer anything actually useful.

Coming up with acronyms is not very hard and an acronym is not a suggestion.

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Well, the aim here is to improve the current system. I’ve been observing closely, and I’ve noticed the NPCs often repeat actions, like standing and sitting to eat, without doing anything else—no drinking, mingling, or engaging in fun activities like juggling. My suggestion introduces a set of tasks and needs (like thirst, hunger, and amusement) that deplete at varying speeds, along with a system to randomize actions. This would help prevent the repetitive behavior and add more character to the Living Settlement system.

If your goal was to belittle someone’s suggestions for improvement, you’ve missed the mark. I’m here on the beta to provide genuine feedback on things that can be improved, and to report bugs. I’ll continue contributing what I believe is right and helpful for the game’s development. Have a great day! :blush:

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Nope, my goal was to point out what I said: “an acronym is not a suggestion”

Your second message looks a lot more like an actual suggestion. No acronym necessary.

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I still don’t quite understand what this suggestion is trying to address. It sounds like a suggestion for how to implement the Living Settlements AI, but players’ implementation suggestions are rarely going to be picked up by devs, because players don’t have access to the source code and therefore have no idea of what the current implementation looks like. For all we know, they might have already implemented something very similar to this.

The only concrete, actionable, player-facing aspect that I can find in your suggestion is this:

I’ll assume you’re talking about adding new elements to the GUI, otherwise you wouldn’t have called them “bars”, but something like “values”, “scalars”, or a similar word that doesn’t refer to visualization.

And frankly, I don’t think the GUI needs to have elements that the player can’t do anything about. Knowing your thrall is well-rested but thirsty adds nothing to the game, since there is nothing for you to do with it as a player. It’s a good debugging indicator for a system like that, but again, we’re not here to dictate the implementation details to the devs.

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The health of the settlement mentioned in the Q&A could then use such visualizations and make it clear to the player where the weaknesses of his settlement lie. I hope Funcom stays true to their current system and doesn’t overload the game with menus. A good option would be another NPC that comes with a workbench. The manager. He is like the treasurer, only with him you can settle things regarding the settlement. :thinking:

But of course you are fundamentally right. If the Thralls’ well-being doesn’t have a function like bonuses or something like that, then visualizations don’t make any sense.

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Yeah, I know they mentioned they might build on top of the Living Settlement system to make it functional instead of cosmetic, but they haven’t done so yet. When they do so, I trust we will have some visual indicators to help guide us in whatever gameplay mechanic they decide to attach to it.

That said, this suggestion doesn’t really propose a functional system, either. Like I said, I’m not sure what it’s about.

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Might I suggest “Engagement” because it starts with an E? :saluting_face:

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LMAO, I didn’t even realize I made that typo, but yes, it’s supposed to say ‘Engagement.’ That’s what I get for not proofreading the whole thing!

When you pointed that out, I initially thought it was just poking fun at my idea, but after reading @jmk1999 comment, I see I made a typo.

To answer both of you, yes, this idea points towards a potential optional server setting where taking care of thralls would come with ‘risks.’ I’ve said many times that I love the idea of adding more immersion and challenge for players who want it. Of course, this would have to be optional to avoid uproar in the community.

On the cosmetic side, even without functionality right now, it’s frustrating watching NPCs do the same actions repeatedly. For example, I’ve seen them sit, eat, and stand up 4, 5, even 6 times in a row with no variation or other actions in between. The AI system could use something to break these endless loops, as it gets repetitive fast. While it’s currently cosmetic, having more diverse actions would make the settlements feel more alive and engaging.

What I was trying to suggest is having a background system, like what exists in ‘7 Days to Die,’ where bars and timers silently manage NPC actions [So it’s hidden on the UI to us]. Bars could deplete at different speeds, triggering actions with cooldowns to prevent constant repetition of the same task. It would make the thralls feel more ‘alive’ even if it’s just cosmetic for now. Watching them drink, interact, or do something fun would definitely add more character to the settlements and make the system feel more immersive."

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They going to implement D.U.N.E

D = DOOR BLOCKING ACTION
Thralls will stay in the way in mid of doors blocking it secretely some thralls will speak “you shall no pass” it will have 90% sucess chance to happen when you die and need to retrieve your body fast.

U = UNDERMESH ACTION
Thrall will enter in foudantions to hide yourself it already are working right now

N = NOTHING TO DO
thrall brainless A.I will make sure they stay paralized done nothing like our fighter thralls when begin to use barehand punching to fight.

E = ENTERTAINMENT ENEMY ACTION
Thralls sometimes will have fun opening doors to let enemys enter , it action will have 95% chance to happen when a troll player are luring a world boss in your base.

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So this is Conan Exiles: Tamagotchi Edition.

I’m’a gonna pass.

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What would those risks be?

These two sentences are a concise, easy-to-read suggestion. I would love if Funcom implemented that. :slight_smile:

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I’d be fine with something like Skyrim’s Immersive Citizens mod. They don’t do stupid stuff like have level 1 peasants with iron daggers immediately try and kill a lvl 81 dragon. They hide with the mod. They go indoors when it rains, they have proper sleep cycles, etc.

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@CodeMage, let me make this 100% clear—all the suggestions I’m making here are optional settings that I believe should be configurable under server settings. To be clear, I’m not suggesting these as the default baseline for the game but rather as options to make the game more challenging for players who prefer that, like myself.

Now that I’ve clarified that, here are some of the risks I think could be added to the game through these optional settings:

Risks for Neglecting Thralls

  • Lowered Movement Speed: If a Thrall doesn’t sleep enough, they could become dizzy, disoriented, and sluggish. This would manifest through slower movement, staggering, going to the wrong locations, or stopping more frequently, with emotes showing exhaustion—like holding their head or wobbling while walking. If they are pushed to keep working without rest, they could die from over-exhaustion or randomly pass out. When this happens, other Thralls would move the passed-out Thrall to a bed, and this would lower their Loyalty Bar.
  • Thirst: Ignoring a Thrall’s thirst would lead to various negative effects. They might hallucinate—cowering in fear for no reason, talking to invisible people, or seeing things that aren’t there. Emotes would also be tied to thirst, showing fear or confusion. Lowered Movement Speed could also occur due to dehydration. If left unattended for too long, the Thrall could pass out or die, and this too would lower their Loyalty Bar.
  • Hunger: Not feeding your Thralls would stop their passive health regeneration. They might express hunger through emotes like clutching their stomach or moaning in pain. If hunger is ignored for too long, it could lead to death or passing out from starvation. This would also lower the Loyalty Bar, creating consequences for neglecting their hunger.

Emotes as Indicators

Emotes would serve as visual indicators for Rest, Thirst, and Hunger, showing what’s wrong with your Thralls. Whether it’s holding their stomach in hunger, cowering from hallucinations, or showing exhaustion through slower movement, these actions will visually communicate their needs and status.

Loyalty Bar Mechanic

I can’t take full credit for the Loyalty Bar mechanic—that idea came from @Anglinex in another thread. Here’s what they said:

[quote="Anglinex, post:11, topic:261199, full "] While we’re at it let’s add a betrayal/loyalty system. If you don’t take proper care of your thralls they kick you out of your own base. You lose ownership of everything you have built up to that point. The only way to get your stuff back is to build up from scratch and siege down what was once yours. Your reward for taking proper care of them is that they don’t kick you out.
[/quote]

I loved this idea, and I’d like to expand on it by suggesting that if the Loyalty Bar of too many Thralls drops too low, one of them would start a rebellion. The player would return to camp to find a hostile NPC challenging them to a one-on-one fight. After the battle, the player would have three choices: Kill, Pardon, or Exile the Thrall. Each option would come with a cutscene, showing the result of your decision. If the rebellion succeeds, you would be kicked out of your own camp until you defeat the rebellious Thrall, at which point you can regain control.

Positive Effects

If Thralls are well-fed, well-hydrated, and well-rested, they could gain up to three passive effects:

  1. 10% Passive Crafting Speed: This would stack with the workstation and Thrall effects.
  2. Peak Fitness: A 5-10% bonus to a random weapon stat, such as increased damage, reduced weight, or faster attack speed.
  3. 10% Durability Bonus: This would stack with the existing Thrall and workstation effects, adding a little extra bonus.

P.A.T.H.E.R. System for NPC Behavior in Living Settlements

The P.A.T.H.E.R. system is designed to enhance NPC behavior, making them feel more alive by following dynamic routines. Each letter in P.A.T.H.E.R. represents a key aspect of their daily tasks and well-being:

  • P = Purpose: Every NPC has a defined role. For example, a blacksmith would work at the smithing station, contributing to the settlement’s productivity. NPCs must feel like they’re fulfilling their purpose, whether it’s crafting, defending, or gathering. If they aren’t doing so, they could lose motivation, lowering their efficiency in crafting or combat. I envision expanding this by adding an economy system where NPCs are paid daily wages from the Treasure Coffer. Crafters and fighters would use their wages to buy food and drink at the tavern or request better equipment from blacksmiths. This creates an economic loop where NPCs feel like individuals contributing to a living, breathing settlement. The Treasure Coffer would serve as more than just a storage chest, becoming a critical system for managing your settlement’s economy and ensuring your Thralls stay motivated.
    • Expanded Crafting System: To further intensify the consequences of neglect, crafting stations would only function when a Thrall or the player is present to operate them. This means that if a Thrall passes out from lack of rest, thirst, or hunger, the crafting station they were assigned to becomes unusable unless the player manually operates it. This would add an extra layer of strategy to managing Thralls, making it essential to maintain their health and loyalty.
  • A = Amusement: NPCs also need fun to prevent them from becoming resentful. If amusement levels drop too low, Thralls could display negative behaviors like reduced crafting speed or a -10% durability penalty on crafted items. Thralls might visit the tavern, juggle, or perform small tricks to stay entertained. This adds life to the settlement and makes the environment feel more vibrant and realistic.
  • T = Thirst: Just like the player, Thralls need to stay hydrated. If thirst levels drop too low, they could experience slower movement and reduced work efficiency, potentially hallucinating or passing out from dehydration if left unattended. This would also lower their Loyalty Bar.
  • H = Hunger: NPCs need food to maintain passive health regeneration and avoid hunger penalties. If hunger is ignored, their health won’t regenerate, and they might express their hunger through emotes. If left without food for too long, they could pass out or die, once again affecting their Loyalty Bar.
  • E = Engagement: NPCs need social interaction to feel connected. If they lack engagement, they could feel isolated, leading to slower work and less efficiency. Emotes would show low morale, with NPCs working slower, taking longer breaks, and producing fewer or lower-quality items.
  • R = Rest: NPCs need downtime to sleep or relax. If they don’t rest enough, they could become sluggish and pass out from over-exhaustion. Rested NPCs, on the other hand, would work more efficiently.

Economy Expansion

I have more details to flesh out for the Purpose system, but I’ll save that for another post. Ideally, the Treasure Coffer should do more than just store currency; it could be used to manage your settlement’s profits. Your Thralls would effectively recycle the wages they earn by purchasing food and drink, but external visitors who spend money at your tavern would add profit to your settlement. A system like this could help your settlement thrive while creating more immersive gameplay. I’d also suggest adding new storage items for food and drink that work like Thrall Pots but slow the decay rate for tavern supplies. This would allow you to manage your settlement’s needs without constantly worrying about food spoilage.

Final Note: The main goal here is to make these features optional settings that add depth and challenge for players who want it, while leaving the base experience unchanged for others.

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I think that’s exactly the wrong approach. This makes the gaming experience worse. Such a system should only work through positive reinforcement. So not through debuffs, but through buffs.

Sleep: If the Thralls’ need for sleep is sufficiently fulfilled, they receive a speed bonus.
Thirst: If the Thralls’ need for thirst is sufficiently filled, their health regeneration increases.
Hunger: If the thrall’s need for hunger is sufficiently filled, their maximum health increases.

Something like that would work better in my opinion. Players who don’t want to pay attention to the system can continue playing as usual without being penalized.

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As mentioned twice in my post the settings I posted were optional server settings for players that want to have negative effects for poor management. Nothing I mentioned is something I would want to be the default settings.

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Many people in the forum have already explained very clearly why something like an optional setting will not implemented by Funcom. A company doesn’t work on something for 6 or more months, praise it as the big new feature, and then make it optional. Funcom hasn’t done this with any update yet. Therefore it would be more than wasteful to build a castle in the air on this hope. Either you design a system so that it fits seamlessly into the game without annoying as many people as possible, or you leave it alone. Funcom has already experienced one or two (or more!) crash landings with complete revamps of features (new purge, coloring of armor and many other things). None of them came with a checkmark in the menu for “Would you rather keep the old version?”
So why not put some brain power into an idea? Apart from that, the possible and theoretical system behind a settlement system may already be in place. And no matter how good our ideas are, they will have no impact on what is to come.

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Unlikely to happen. Whenever extensive changes to core gameplay mechanics are implemented, the developers do so because they expect them to be part of the baseline game experience, and any configuration to turn them off or tweak them is meant for a customized game experience.

The only times they implemented something and left it turned off by default – thrall cap and DBD – were the times they knew their implementation had problems they couldn’t deal with yet. Thrall cap eventually got activated, when they decided they were ready for it.

In short, whenever you propose an off-by-default change like this, you’re wasting your time. Either no one will take it seriously, or it will be considered and debated as on-by-default.

This seems weird. A rebellion is not the same thing as one rebellious NPC. If your thralls’ loyalty is low across the board, that should spark a full rebellion. One heroic NPC challenging you to a one-on-one fight is way too romantic.

First, this is not a single-player game. It does have a single-player mode, but all of the mechanics need to work just as well in multiplayer. As such, cutscenes are pretty much a no-no.

Second, what are the results of the decision? What’s the difference between “kill”, “pardon”, and “exile”?

How? What does “kicked out” mean in gameplay terms?

It’s exactly the same in the end. Players tend to maximize. When you have states A and B, where A is less desirable than B, players will want the state B, regardless of what you call those states.

Maybe some PVE and PVE-C players will not bother with the chore of managing their thralls’ well-being, but PVP players look for every single advantage they can squeeze out of this game.

To be brutally honest, this is not about adding “depth and challenge”, it’s about changing the game into a different kind of game that you prefer: a simulation game.

Conan Exiles started with a relatively simple concept, compared to what it’s like now. Over the years, they’ve been bolting on new mechanics, often in a way that left a lot to be desired.

For example, thrall leveling didn’t exist as a game mechanics at launch. They added it because it appeals to the RPG and Pokemon crowds, but it’s half-assed, because the numbers are only comparable between the instances of the same thrall “archetype”, i.e. you can’t compare the attributes of a Darfari Fighter III and a Cimmerian Fighter I because of all the hidden multipliers.

What I’m getting at is that adding new mechanics just to appeal to yet another niche (for this game) crowd is just diluting the cohesion of the game design and making the game into more of a mess as it is.

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That actually sounds kind of sweet. PVP players these days are hard to get excited about anything other than nerfing or buffing weapons. I think it’s a cute idea how they build beds for their thralls and make stews for them just so their defense is 5% better. :rofl:
#pvpersarepeopletoo

edit:
That being said, such a system would still need some sort of reward spiral. Simply leaving the Living Thralls system as it will be with Chapter 1 of Age of Heroes would be a real shame.

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I would rather they left it at that until they’ve ironed out the bugs in it :smiley:

As for the rewards, the new system opens a door to new mechanics, some of which the players have been requesting for a while. For example, the same system of experience, attributes, and perks that you have for normal followers could be expanded to your crafters, and applied to their crafting skills rather than combat capabilities.

But adding a whole bunch of new chores? Meh. Miss me with that. I’d rather go play something like Sims, where that’s the core gameplay mechanic, instead of having to fiddle with a half-assed implementation bolted on as an afterthought on a game where I’m supposed to be a barbarian overcoming adversity :wink:

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