People. Only a few steps away from having crafted characters auto populate their worlds. The goal is for me or anyone else to be able to change and create characters the same way a person would write characters in a novel or screenplay -- by writing them. Each character needs a CAN file, an AskResponse file, and to be added to the character_inits file. When a realm loads, the system checks the character_inits file to see which characters should exist there. Then it takes each one and creates an Entity Null with their respective names, at the place designated by the file. Then the system takes each Null, uses its name to find a Can file for that character, and loads and parses all those cans (can fight, can sleep, can run, etc.) to populate the Entity null’s can list. Once that can list is at its end, the Entity null checks if it has a can exist tag and what its settings are (model, rig, animator, texture, voice.) and adds those things to the Null, thus creating a visible, interactable person you can walk up to and ask questions of. The questions call responses in that character’s AskResponses file. Otherwise the character will go about their daily schedule, as specified in their Can Schedule tag.
Again, the cool thing is that players can edit those files to determine who spawns where looking like what on what schedule with what abilities and with what knowledge and responses to what questions you can ask. It would be trivial to edit an AskResponse file and a character_init file to recreate yourself and your opinions and personal history, for example, or that of any character you’d want to create.
And the cool thing about the can exist tag and the manifestation tags, is that an Entity doesn’t have to be a human. it doesn’t have to be alive at all. It could be a talking door, or a houseplant that has guard duty and then drinks at the pub each night. As the level tasks take shape, I’ll build a prop array, and those props will be useable as models/rigs, too, as well as the unique models for created characters, which will hopefully have variety and can be used in new characters as well.
Right now it’s just about merging a few systems that each set overlapping details. Figuring out which take priority over others. And it’s about figuring out how to create completely new characters at runtime, which could be useful with magic to, say, enchant your kitchen sink and then marry it or teach it to garden.