A simplified model
Say all autonomous characters have the same list of possible actions to choose from. The likelihood of a particular action being chosen is defined by a value. When petting the cat has a value of 0.8 and climbing the tree has a value of 0.5, then the character will be more likely to pet the cat.
Different personalities can be defined by different values for the actions of each character.
Every time a character performs a certain action, it is rewarded or punished for doing so by respectively adding to or substracting from the value of the action. This way a character can grow and its personality can develop.
Whether a certain action is rewarded or punished is defined by the author. The author could, e.g. define starting values and desired ending values for each action, that way ensuring that the character will develop a certain way.
Objections
The requirement to come up with a value for each action of each character is not a trivial task. Not only could it be a lot of work, it is potentially a very tricky balancing act that would require thorough testing.
On the one hand, perhaps it’s worth the trouble.
On the other, perhaps it is possible to value actions in groups.
The value of an action depends on the situation. Eating a cake on the verge of indigestion is a bad idea and should be punished. But when the character is hungry, it should be rewarded.
Correct. Rules could be added to decide when an action should be punished and when rewarded. But then the authoring workload becomes even larger and the system a lot less simple.
Also, continuously rewarding a character for doing the same thing, will end up having it do the same thing even more. So the system would culminate in a “monoculture”
Perhaps randomness can come to the rescue here. Perhaps it can even replace the rules mentioned above. We could, periodically change the punish or reward response to actions. This may coincide with the attention span idea, mentioned elswehere. That way we would also reduce the workload for the author since desired ending values become irrelevant.
But you’re still stuck with defining the values of the actions to begin with. These are a very powerful way to define personality and cannot be left to chance.
Yes. Maybe the author will have to do a bit of work here.
Posted on May 31, 2006 at 1:27 pm
[…] This follows the individualistic model of describing personality and character growth discussed here. The idea was to lead evolution of a character’s personality by punishing and rewarding it for doing certain things. Whether an action would be rewarded or punished would be switched randomly once in a while, to avoid singlemindedness. […]