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Future of RPG Games - Bannerlord and ChatGPT (GPT integration in Mount & Blade: Bannerlord)

AImalexia

AImalexia

Prophet of Truth
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Aug 31, 2021
2,426
Title is from the video


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=akceKOLtytw

The following video will demonstrate the using ChatGPT in Bannerlord with a custom build story engine for NPC dialogue interactions.
In the video, we will go to Battanian village, Imlagh and start chatting with random NPC's. NOTHING is scripted in this video.
This implementation allows the player to interact with random NPC's in the game directly by typing, in a more natural way.
All the stories in here are generated on the fly, with correct information (factions, locations, occupations, near-by events, rulers etc) with a custom story engine and ChatGPT. They provide you information about the world they are living in.
This is a demonstration project for showing the possible future of RPG Games and the way we interact with NPC's.
I also added, "word by word" text processor to give amplify the "chat" behavior for NPC's (similar to ChatGPT's built-in system) and gave mouth/face animations for NPC's to make them look more alive.

Sorry for the typos in my inputs, I was trying to be coherent and fast while typing :)
Overall it took 2-3 days to finish, including custom story engines and such. But it's still not finished.
More videos will come soon (With Imperial towns, taverns etc)
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A glimpse into the future? Add some voice generation and you have pretty competent side dialogue 🤔 . I don't think we are too far from the AI, or a more traditional game system, assigning some template quests to some of these interactions. A modder did this in 3 days, interesting to think about how a triple A developer can exploit this technology over a dev cycle.

Some open world games already make use of procedural side content, like bethesda games or recent AC games, this seems like a logical next step in that field, obviously still very far from stuff like this being main quest/important sidequest level.
 
LightKiosk

LightKiosk

One Winged Slayer
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Oct 27, 2017
11,479
Now imagine this but with speech to text inputs.

giphy.webp
 
Bengraven

Bengraven

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Oct 26, 2017
26,754
Florida
Gotta be honest, with chat AIs getting better I can see this. This and using voice recognition to speak to NPCs and have conversations.
 
Tagyhag

Tagyhag

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Oct 27, 2017
12,477
Yeah stuff like that is exciting in very specific cases.

Super open ended or small indie games could make great use out of AI text and voice chat.

But I don't want to see that stuff in AAA games for the most part.
 
MadLaughter

MadLaughter

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
13,092
Rather than being 'the future of games' or whatever, I think it could be a fun, goofy thing that exists in its own lane. Might be fun to stream games with some AI dialogue in there, since every stream would be unique for example.

But ultimately I think the masses will stick to hand-crafted stuff, especially because there is so much media out there, people have to pick and choose how to spend their time.

For example:


View: https://twitter.com/TVMoJoe/status/1613615598050906113

And there might be a huge roadblock: I don't know that AI will ever truly learn how to be funny -on purpose-. I am completely pulling that out of a hat right now, maybe people more knowledgeable about the tech can dispute that.
 
Foot

Foot

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Mar 10, 2019
10,841
Watched a bit of the blacksmith conversation and WHEWWW that's boring.
 
Vincent Grayson

Vincent Grayson

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Oct 27, 2017
5,852
Mount Airy, MD
Bengraven said:
Gotta be honest, with chat AIs getting better I can see this. This and using voice recognition to speak to NPCs and have conversations.
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The whole thing about AI/algorithmic generation and ethics aside, this particular thing is something I've wanted to see happen in games for so long that I'm eager to see how it develops. As a long-time D&D player and DM, the prospect of video games perhaps approaching some capacity for the dynamic changes allowed when using a real human to run your game is pretty exciting.
 
Jintor

Jintor

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Oct 25, 2017
32,404
my gut feeling is it would only work in areas where you don't actually want to handcraft things, i.e. places where you don't actually have anything of worth to say and just need vibes. But perhaps thats just my increasing ludditism coming to fore lol
 
Orayn

Orayn

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Oct 25, 2017
10,936
Video games are one of the only places where I'm less opposed to this stuff, since we already have things like Radiant AI and Dwarf Fortress. This would only serve to supplement existing systems by providing an alternative to boilerplate NPC dialogue, and there's still work for writers to do in terms of fine-tuning the different ways it can respond and adding bespoke bits for specific pieces of in-game content.

I don't hate AI when it's promising to do some novel little dynamic thing on the fly, as opposed to blatantly stealing from people or trying to replace artists.
 
NCR Ranger

NCR Ranger

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Oct 25, 2017
5,846
Jintor said:
my gut feeling is it would only work in areas where you don't actually want to handcraft things, i.e. places where you don't actually have anything of worth to say and just need vibes. But perhaps thats just my increasing ludditism coming to fore lol
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Pretty much, but that is also the entirety of games like Mount and Blade or say Kenshi, for example. AI would be perfect for open world sandbox RPGs like those two. Or something like even Dwarf Fortress. Dynamic conversations that change on the fly based on the state of the game would be perfect for a game like Mount and Blade.

It will be a long time before something like The Last of Us gets written entirely by AI, if ever.
 
Bengraven

Bengraven

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Oct 26, 2017
26,754
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Vincent Grayson said:
The whole thing about AI/algorithmic generation and ethics aside, this particular thing is something I've wanted to see happen in games for so long that I'm eager to see how it develops. As a long-time D&D player and DM, the prospect of video games perhaps approaching some capacity for the dynamic changes allowed when using a real human to run your game is pretty exciting.
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I've been thinking about this since first becoming aware of games like Dwarf Fortress: I think we should allow for more humorous uses at first until the tech gets better. Like random expletives or bizarre requests. Humor would be a way of getting past the awkwardness or uncanny valley moments. Like "oh you're looking for Bellan the Travelor? Buggednutdog! Well sure, but we're having an issue with toilet orcs in this town…"

I feel like this is the next step up from Radiant AI we were waiting on to help people used to p&p games get immersed.
 
Jintor

Jintor

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Oct 25, 2017
32,404
NCR Ranger said:
Or something like even Dwarf Fortress. Dynamic conversations that change on the fly based on the state of the game would be perfect for a game like Mount and Blade.
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Urgh, fuck, you're so right. I would probably drop half my objections if a certain amount of reacting to world events could be baked in. Damnit, i'm a fraud
 
Vincent Grayson

Vincent Grayson

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Oct 27, 2017
5,852
Mount Airy, MD
Bengraven said:
I've been thinking about this since first becoming aware of games like Dwarf Fortress: I think we should allow for more humorous uses at first until the tech gets better. Like random expletives or bizarre requests. Humor would be a way of getting past the awkwardness or uncanny valley moments. Like "oh you're looking for Bellan the Travelor? Buggednutdog! Well sure, but we're having an issue with toilet orcs in this town…"

I feel like this is the next step up from Radiant AI we were waiting on to help people used to p&p games get immersed.
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Pretty much. Could build something like the goofiness of the _______ of Loathing games to test it.
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,605
If all of the details are generated on the fly, is there any data persistence? Will the npc recall the random shit they made up and small details or will they just continually make shit up each time you come across them?
 
Internet Nomad

Internet Nomad

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Oct 29, 2017
138
The time it took for the blacksmith to respond to if he could forge a sword was hilarious. Impressive stuff though
 
Cameron122

Cameron122

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Oct 27, 2017
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Bloc is an incredible modder. He even made a Bannerlord prototype with space battles.
I think this tech will be great in diplomacy systems in strategy games one day.

Internet Nomad said:
The time it took for the blacksmith to respond to if he could forge a sword was hilarious. Impressive stuff though
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I think its bc its loading the actual GPT website bc this version of it doesn't have an open API but don't take my word as gospel.
 
Villein

Villein

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
1,982
could be interesting for generating background npc dialogue or side stuff, to fill out the world and make it more random/believable and reduce the work load on devs so they can focus on the more hand crafted main story
 
redbomb6

redbomb6

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Sep 22, 2021
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I feel like the most interesting use case of one of these would be in VR. If you combine it with those metahumans or whatever they're called and have AI generated synching of their mouths to the text, then you have basically created a world where legitimately have conversations with AI.

I imagine this sort of stuff would be great for people who no longer socialize especially for the elderly who might live in retirement homes. It's a bit sad, but it's a definite use case.
 
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AImalexia

AImalexia

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Cameron122

Cameron122

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Just for fun here is Bloc's (the creator of this mod) prototype for space dogfighting in Mount and Blade Bannerlord. My dream game is Crusader Kings + Mount and Blade in space in the sci fi setting im making so this was really cool to see. Might be in the Star Wars Clone Wars mod coming out. Now that Bannerlord is a little more stable I think it and Crusader Kings have the best modern modding communities out right now.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxasmTQU28c&t=173s&ab_channel=Bloc

AImalexia said:
wow this one even interacts with the game mechanics, like the character's standing, that's what I thought would be more troublesome to achieve, but if a modder is doing it already...
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This guy managed to get Bannerlord battles to work with the Crusader Kings map system, he's great too. What I think Chatbot NPCs will have to do in the future, is make utility AI based on traits so characters uhh "stay in character" like "Blacksmith" "arrogant" "coward" etc. I think the most optimal future for this technology is some kind of blended system where the sandbox elements are handled by roleplaying chatbots but more curated things like major quests are written by human beings.
 
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TheBrightestSun

TheBrightestSun

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Jul 22, 2022
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I can see that happening for a lot of games. NPCs most of the time do not require that many deep dialogues anyway, so the natural ability to react to some world changes could be scripted with algorithms like this. Then we will have some programmed dialogues for main story lines and a lot of smaller quests and other dialogues being made using machine learning. More content, less time.
 
EccoCid

EccoCid

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Mar 7, 2018
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Tagyhag said:
Yeah stuff like that is exciting in very specific cases.

Super open ended or small indie games could make great use out of AI text and voice chat.

But I don't want to see that stuff in AAA games for the most part.
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Why not AAA games? Most of them has been written like direct to video movies anyway. Especially Npcs and side stuff is not beyond indie games. Most indie games have better script because they have less to write and more focused on narrative.
 
StereoVSN

StereoVSN

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Nov 1, 2017
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This would be great to populate large open world RPGs like Cyberpunk, upcoming Starfield, etc…. Properly done would also let world interactions happen with merchants and so on. Get ready for 500 hours if optional content! 😉
 
Truly Gargantuan

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Ken Levine was too early with his narrative Legos concept. With this type of technology, along with some world proc-gen tech (like in Dwarf Fortress) could create some dream games.
 
NCR Ranger

NCR Ranger

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Oct 25, 2017
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Cameron122 said:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHgPJ4XVyZg&ab_channel=CrusaderBlade

Here is a similar mod for CK3 but he is running into trouble with the AI not wanting to do violent stuff and breaking character now.
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I never know how much I wanted something like this in a game like CK3 or hell a good chunk of Paradox's games and other strategy titles. As this matures it might give opportunities to actually create some interesting diplomatic exchanges or at the very least give some flavour to what is otherwise usually dull diplo systems.
 
Atolm

Atolm

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Oct 25, 2017
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The old Wizardry games had a keyword system to ask questions to npc. This is the next step, there's so much potential
 
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

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Oct 31, 2017
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nsilvias said:
generic procedurally generated quests but now made by AI!
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Procedurally generated content isn't a good replacement for handcrafted one in some contexts, but there are entire genres that are basically built around it. 4x games, city builders, management games, grand strategy.

Battle Brothers or Dwarf Fortress come to mind as notable examples of games relying heavily on it.
XCOM maps are another example.
Hell, No Man's Sky is basically already 90% procedural and it could only benefit from a better illusion of variety.
 
Ferrio

Ferrio

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Oct 25, 2017
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Dice said:
Honestly why I don't want this. :S
Games ought trim bloat, I'm kinda confused by this.
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Don't have to use it to bloat (though that will happen). But everyone's game having completely unique content is pretty great idea. Doing DnD type adventures in AI systems is always fun, too bad ChatGPT has a stick up it's ass right now. Kept chastising me for decisions and violence when I tried last.
 
Cameron122

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Ferrio said:
Don't have to use it to bloat (though that will happen). But everyone's game having completely unique content is pretty great idea.
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For example quests in Bannerlord are based on the world state like which faction is at war with which (a dynamic war), it would be good for that sort of thing, or in CK3's example, having the ai's dialogue be based on assigned traits so they react to diplomacy in different ways.
 
Cantaim

Cantaim

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Oct 25, 2017
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The Stussining
It's interesting stuff but is ultimately flavor text I wouldn't care that much about once I learnt it was AI generated text reacting to internal flags/prompts. Might be interesting in games like bannerlord as the video shows to give some context to the world state. But speaking for me I'd stop caring after the first hour or so. That's just on the concept of the AI generation in game. For my opinions on the kidder this is has been an absolutely wild project to see and I am beyond impressed with their ideas and implementation.
 
PachaelD

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There was a thread about enemies fighting each other and how that could have been an indication of a well designed game. Soon AI will do the same to NPCs and you'd see someone arguing with each other randomly and this changes depending on time and/or where you're in the story
 
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