Pathfinding, NPC Behavior, and how you can help!

I got pathfinding working. Now a frightened schoolgirl can find her way to a specific place inside of a school environment with multiple floors. It may not be the most exciting feature to look at, but it’s one of the only features I felt worried about, so I’m really happy that I got it working. This feature enables a lot of other features, such as giving each student a set “routine” and having them follow a schedule, allowing you to stalk students and learn when they are alone and vulnerable.

Here, a schoolgirl witnesses murder and then flees the school in terror:

To continue working on the game, I’ll need your help. I need you to answer some polls for me. I need you to tell me how you think NPCs should behave. For example, if a classmate witnesses a murder, should she…

• Take out her phone and snap an incriminating photo of you
• Call the police
• Run a specific distance away from you, then call the police / send the photo
• Run and try to warn other students
• Run to the nearest teacher
• Run out of the school
• Try to fight you

It’s easy to say “Every student should have a different personality, and should react differently! Some might try to fight you, others might flee!” but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now. Instead of thinking about students having multiple personality types, let’s decide on the “standard” response for now. Maybe I can add multiple types of reactions later.

If a student can instantly snap a picture of you and send it to the police, that’s a 100% guaranteed immediate game over. That might be fitting for the hardest difficulty mode, but an instant game over upon being spotted sounds really harsh to me.

Most people probably don’t think fast enough to instantly take out their phone, snap a photo, and send it to the police, all within seconds of witnessing a murder. But if the school atmosphere is extremely tense and the students are aware that a serial killer is on the loose, they might be expecting to find a killer, and they might be prepared to whip out their phones at a moment’s notice.

What do you think? http://strawpoll.me/2348435 (This poll allows multiple answers.)

Calling the police and reporting you without evidence might have different consequences. The student might call the cops on you, then run away, allowing you to clean up the crime scene before the cops arrive. The cops arrive, find no crime, and assume that the “witness” just hates you and wants you arrested. Or perhaps eyewitness testimony is all that is necessary to lock you up, regardless of whether or not there is any evidence lying around.

How do you feel about this? http://strawpoll.me/2348528

If a student witnesses a murder, what should their immediate response be? http://strawpoll.me/2348561

AFTER a student reports you to the police, what should they do next? http://strawpoll.me/2348608

How should teachers be different than students? http://strawpoll.me/2348670 (This poll allows multiple answers.)

If you can think up any other behavior that students / teachers should have, let me know. Just keep in mind that, for now, I would like to implement ONE response that ALL students will have. Student “personalities” and multiple types of reactions is something to consider later, after I have one response working properly.

Thank you for your help!