While on the way back from uni today, an interesting idea popped into my head.
As any private server veteran knows, one of the most sought-after things in this world is the ability to produce completely custom content; to not only mirror Blizzard's offerings, but to provide more content with similar quality and an official look and feel.
This is extremely difficult, however, because the scope of what we are able to do is quite limited. While we can add custom quests and items, any other "new" things we add are actually reusing Blizzard material. That new boss you created? She's in Scholomance too. That new quest NPC? He's the Ogrimmar auctioneer. This isn't even mentioning buildings, which are limited even further - you're stuck with either the Blizz map or one of a meager selection of WMO gameobjects.
This is where my idea comes in.
While the standard NPC unit only supports a minimal level of equipment customization, there is another unit that can be fully clothed. This unit is your ordinary player character.
We already have had WoW playing AI for ages in the form of bots. What if the bot layer was forgone entirely, integrating them directly into the server core? That's right. You'd have AI-played characters that would operate without need of multiple instances of WoW or botting software.
"But why would I want to bot on my own servers?", you ask. To be honest with you, I can't say I'm sure, but one must look at this from a different angle. Hitting is by far the least creative use of this capability.
With server-played characters (henceforth referred to as SPCs), we can do a number of things that were previously impossible. Some of these include:
- Totally customized NPCs. While we might not be able to directly assign clickable quests to these SPCs, they can still offers quests by way of scripting. For example, the SPC could offer the quest if emoted at or if someone says a word within a certain distance.
- Synthetic population boost. Well-scripted SPCs could simulate real players, even lellveling and changing equipped items, to make a server feel more alive.
- "Natural" automatic AH postings. SPCs could farm items, herbs, and ores and post them on the AH, allowing us to boost the AH market while staying within the server's node spawn loop.
- Server event integration. Add SPCs to a world event to make it more immersive and convincing. For example, an SPC could be scripted to run mounted into cities and announce what's going on outside the gates. "Umm guys, why is there an army of demons at he city gates?"
- PvP stimulation. Want PvP to gravitate to a certain area? Have random automated SPCs gank in your designated zone.
- Machinima making. You'll have as many fully customizable, fully scriptable movie actors as you need!
I'm sure there are many other applications for the technology that I haven't even thought of yet.
Now for the problem - this idea is just that, an idea and nothing more. I lack the skills necessary to write something of this calibre, only having toyed with Objective-C. I wonder if it's interesting enough to be picked up by someone more capable...