The Spotter

If anyone has played Mega Man Legends (or MML2) they will know exactly what I am talking about. The concept is that while digging or exploring ruins, an NPC may be assigned to watch scanners that focus on your location, allowing them to give you extra information about your surroundings. They can warn you about enemy mobs that are spawning around you, traps that are about to be activated, or if there are valuable minerals located nearby. If you were above ground, they'd basically be your eye-in-the-sky, watching over you and giving you tactical info. In some ways they would be like a non-annoying version of Navi, from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Key points are that they give you more info, but should not be annoying. Navi was frustrating because she made lots of noise, and required pressing a button to activate, which also took you out of the action. In Mega Man Legends, Roll was a bit annoying sometimes because almost every time she talks to you, it stops you from moving until she finishes speaking. To fix these issues, it could just be a text message shown with the NPC's portrait indicating the important info, while allowing you to easily ignore it and continue the action of whatever you are already doing.

These are some examples of things the Spotter might say to you while exploring:

"Hey [your name], I'm reading a lot of moisture. It seems there is water located above you, so be careful."
"I'm reading some electromagnetic fluctuations here. There might be some [rare mineral] deposits close by."
"Watch out! I'm seeing a lot of movement down there, they could be hostiles."
"I'm preparing some [food item] right now. Do you want me to save you any, [your name]?"
"Hold up. It looks like there might be some kind of sensors in that area. Be careful, they could be traps."
"Uh oh, I see a large blip on the radar. It looks like something BIG is heading your way."
"This info looks like it could be the result of unnatural structures. Maybe there are some ruins down there."
"It's almost [dawn/dusk], in case you were thinking of heading back sometime soon."
"Wow, it is so [windy/rainy] right now. I'm glad I'm inside."
"I'm picking up some seismic disturbances. Be wary of earthquakes, we don't want you getting stuck."
"Do you ever get bored when you're down there? At least I can play games while I'm spotting."
"Hello? ...come in... [your name]... can you... breaking up... can't... connection... too much..."
"These ruins are supposedly left by the [race]. Legend has it that [various lore]. Isn't that interesting?"

Preferably, the Spotter is actually generated with randomized appearance and personality to some degree, and it could actually be mildly entertaining to read whatever pointless things they have to say when there isn't anything interesting happening nearby. Since some of the things the Spotter says can be quite helpful, you should have to rescue one first, or perhaps you could be able to hire them when you are about halfway through the game.

There could also be a side quest where, after having the same Spotter for a long time and getting used to them, space pirate penguins infiltrate your base and kidnap him/her. Then you have to find and defeat the pirates to rescue your spotter. The best part is the feeling of indignation when you find out that your friend has been taken prisoner while you were away. You weren't there to protect him/her, leading to internal conflict. Plus there could be loot, and you get your Spotter back.

Here's a rather bad mock-up image:

Please up-vote the Spotter Here. A simple idea with simple merit, so why not?

 

An NPC that acts like an optional navi would be nice, especially if you can upgrade it's communication devices to locate interesting things during exploration.

 

Dear Lord! Races really need to have their own sub-forum... I mean, yeah, my idea isn't quite as exciting as a whole new race, but it seems like people aren't even noticing it because all the popular races keep pushing other ideas back to second or third page. There are also way more Race suggestions than Mobs or NPCs...

 

If I'm reading you right, a Spotter would relay relevant and important information to you quickly and efficiently. You don't want them to say too much, or else they'll clog up the screen or log or whatever, and if they're inefficient you'll be wasting time trying to decipher what they said and losing valuable time you might need to deal with the situation.
For instance:
"I'm detecting valuable ores in the area."
"Traps nearby. Tread lightly."
"Multiple readings ahead. They appear to be harmless..."
"Massive reading headed your way. Exercise caution."

Along with some less serious lines:
"Your cat is meowing at me. What does he want?"
"That secret treasure you're holding would be worth a fortune back home."
"Might want to consider freeing up some space in your pack."

That said, increasing the personality of your Spotter would require an exponential increase in unique lines, otherwise they start feeling hokey. Most navigator-type NPCs don't have a standout personality and are usually somewhat reserved emotionally. Or robots.

I really do like the idea, just trying to improve on it.

 

Oh yeah, totally agree. You'd need to have enough variety that the Spotter doesn't repeat enough for you to notice. On top of that, if the Spotters actually differ from one to the next, you'd need even more variety in the messages to communicate those changes in personality. Of course, these messages would be very short compared to lore entries or dialogue for quests, so I don't think they'd take comparatively long for the writers.

Or maybe the messages could be procedurally generated?
Like: "[intro] [useful info] [outro]"

[Intro] would be like:
"Come in [your name]--"
"I'm picking something up... Look's like--"
"Fascinating... It appears as though--"
"The scanner's acting up... Maybe--"

[Useful Info] is simple:
"--there are [minerals] [above/beneath/east/west] of your location."
"--you should watch out for water above you."
"--there are some traps nearby."
"--lots of hostiles could be nearby."

[Outro] finishes it off with some flavor. Not sure exactly what it might be, but I imagine it being linked more strongly to the Spotter's personality type. It could anything from "Be careful" to "Hurry up, I'm getting bored."

As for how personality works, the Spotter could be Inquisitive, mainly asking pointless questions. They might be Demanding instead, telling you what to do like they think they're in charge. If the spotter is Egotistical, they might just talk about themselves most of the time. Another personality type that might be less annoying would just be Quiet. Each personality could include messages from other personalities, not often but just enough to add variety. Each spotter could also have race-specific quotes, so that you have 4+ personalities * 6+ races = more than 24 combinations. The personality could be expressed through the Outro of useful messages, or in the useless messages which would be more rare.

There are several ways to prevent them from being annoying. You could turn the feature on/off (You wouldn't need it for areas you already explored). Also, if they have helpful info (unlike Navi, who just repeats what you would already know if you paid attention) then it is less likely to bother you. It might be annoying if they made irritating ringing noises or required you to activate it, so I figured an unobtrusive text message at the very bottom corner might be fine. You could just ignore them very easily. Also, I imagine they would only give you info from time to time, not every time something happens. I.E. They don't tell you every time ore is nearby, but every 5-10 minutes they chime in with some random useful info about your surroundings, chosen at random.

Each spotter could use a different color of text to make them more unique, in addition to their portrait. Also, none of this would be difficult to code and doesn't require new art, which is a big reason why I'm suggesting it.

 

Haha, I love this idea. While a Navi-esque character could take a flying leap, someone with Midna's personality or (dare I even hope?) the passive-aggressive quips of a GLaDOS-like AI would be delightful.

 

Oh C'mon, "Uh oh, I see a large blip on the radar. It looks like something BIG is heading your way." was ripped straight from Legends, and might I say, I read ALL of those lines in Roll's voice. I love Legends and I can't believe that someone else would even mention it years after it's popularity died.
Onto to topic though; I love the idea, but I can see this getting frustrating once the quotes get reused too much. Kind of similar to Peppy saying "DO A BARREL ROLL!" or Slippy going "OH NO!" whenever he's been beaten for the umpteenth time.

 

I find this idea interesting, and it could be tied in with the Player Ship customization, by having the player find/craft/buy upgrades to the ship's sensors unlocking what informations the NPC can provide.
A few ways to have this NPC not be annoying could be by dividing what he can tell you in different categories: as an example, we could have "Essential" info (like group of powerful enemies/a boss incoming) that the NPC will provide the player without any prompt, and "Less-than-essential" info (like mineral deposits, or time of the day) that the NPC will tell either if the player contacts him directly or if no other info had been provided in a while.
Others could be by having the NPC have different possible personalities and comment frequency that the player can choose, so that the potential annoyance factor is under the player's control.

 

Y U No make MML3 Capcom?! At least they have Tron Bonne in UMVC3... but... RIP Legends.
Actually, I was thinking of adding "do a barrel roll!" to the list for kicks. But yeah, the quotes should be procedurally generated to reduce repetition, and after thinking about how much time you take while mining in Terraria I decided that once every 20-30 mins is probably frequent enough. And obviously they should not have audio. I honestly think the only reason the Starfox team was annoying was because they actually had voices. The intention was that without being able to hear it, having to read it would distract from the action on-screen. But of course, hearing them was just irritating. If it is just text, you can simply not read it in the first place.
Another good one: "You must construct additional Pylons."

I think all of these are good ideas, except for maybe choosing the Spotter's personality. There should be some difficulty involved in getting the exact personality you want, so that you have a more personal connection with your Spotter. It shouldn't be too difficult because it risks becoming a sort of grind, but enough that players will be willing to settle for something that isn't perfect. Just like weapons-- You shouldn't be able to custom the exact weapon you want because it defeats the purpose of having so much variety and randomness.

Of course, having control over just how annoying the Spotter actually is could be very important, and being able to upgrade the ship's sensors is a terrific idea, too. Thanks for the good feedback! I'll update the OP in a few days, to give some additional time for more feedback.

 

I think there should be some focus on the gear, rather than just the NPC you assign to control the sensors, maybe you could even assign two NPCs and they wouldn't miss as many things as one guy would. I think that the gear should be balanced someway too, especially if it'll make mining a cakewalk even if the NPC missed a few things.

 

So maybe you have to equip the sensors? But then why don't the sensors just give you info directly instead of sending it to the ship?
I'm not really sure how you could tie it to your gear in a way that makes much sense.

I don't think the Spotter would make mining easier (it isn't hard to begin with), it just might break up the tedium a bit. Plus it can reveal things that you would never have found otherwise, like how in Terraria there might be a vein of gold ore just beyond your vision, but you never find it because you just didn't dig in that direction. With the Spotter, there's a tiny chance that after walking through that portion of your mine for the thousandth time, you might find out.

I do think of this as being more of a novelty, and perhaps a way to give new players a little more sense of direction while they explore. It might make the single player experience seem less lonely, too. It should be infrequent enough that it doesn't actually have that much impact on the gameplay, though. After all, the focus of the game is mainly exploration, so the player needs freedom to explore on their own, too.

Maybe you could choose between different types of sensors for your Spotter, and you would have to fly your ship back to the space station to change them. One could be designed for detecting mineral deposits and liquid reservoirs underground, one could be for various weather effects above ground, another could be primarily for detecting enemy movement, and yet another would be for finding items of interest (like hazards, loot, locked doors, etc...) that you could find in dungeons. Each type would only be useful for certain situations, and you wouldn't be able to swap them on the fly.

It gives you yet another reason to diversify in multiplayer co-op. One player can use each type of scanner, and then it gives them additional info that they can relay to their team mates. That way they communicate more and creates another layer of interdependence.

For the scanner that detects enemy movement, I think it'd be more useful for tactical PvP games like CTF. In PvE, mobs will probably spawn just off screen, so you'll probably know they are there right away. If the devs end up implementing rare or powerful mobs then it might be a little more useful. Also, it could have a small chance of delaying the mob spawn for a few seconds so that you have time to read the message and prepare or run away.

 

This sounds like a pretty BA idea! It would be very helpful to have one of these NPCs if they where implemented

 

Well, if it was going to be tied into the player's gear, the possibly some kind of receiver or earpiece, but I was thinking the sensor itself was a machine/item you placed and you could assign an NPC to it so that whenever you would mine below that area and a certain radius the NPC could send you the little messages. As long as it wasn't too OP I'd probably enjoy it, I just don't want every ore vein pointed out so all I turn into is a mindless digging machine walking from place to place rather than exploring.

 

really really cool idea.., and that sniper rifle is nice!

 

I wouldn't want to limit the effect to only one vertical area, but it could become less effective as you go deeper into a planet, or if you were inside a dungeon. I'm not opposed to requiring an Earpiece, but that means you'd need 1 tech item, 1 placed object, and 1 NPC, all of which are required just to get some minor info.

I think of the Spotter as being there to help you find a few of the ores and caves that you miss, not to tell you where to find everything. You mine on your own, but every once in a rare while it tells you where some goodies are. Obviously not anything too useful, just helpful enough to not be considered useless.

 

I'm totally getting a Megaman Legends vibe off this. I recall going through one ruin when Roll just starts talking about pie.

 

I can see this guy/girl/creature being infuriatingly hilarious. I'm already envisioning the times where you're fighting for your life against a big boss and the spotter excitedly tells you about nearby ore. Or tells you that his sensors indicate a chest nearby, and if you search carefully, you might find it, while you're opening the wardrobe inside your base. Or saying something like "sensors indicate this creature might have poison. Be careful." As your health slowly ticks away from said poison that you were injected with sometime during the last five minutes you've been fighting them. Since I love oblivious companions with ill-timed advise, I would love a Spotter.

 

This is by far one of the better ideas I've seen on this forum. You could even just have them scanning not necessarily near where you are, but the planet itself or a nearby planet and let you know sometjing interesting. Such as, "there seems to be a dungeon of some sort 30 clicks east of your current location" or "I'm getting some strong readings indicating something on a planet at [coordinates], I estimate we would use amount of fuel to check this thing out."

Or possibly even come guns ablazin if you're in too deep sh**

 

Wow, I honestly never thought of any of those things.

For the sake of people's sanity, maybe the spotter prioritizes certain info based on your condition. If there is a boss spawned, the spotter can't contact you (perfect time for random static and interference with the signal). Also, it might not try to alert you about chests that you've placed, or that you've already searched. Since Tiy and Omni have mentioned that the game saves only the changes to the worlds you visit, it might be very easy to keep track of those sorts of things. I was also thinking that any info about mobs would be given to you shortly before the mob spawns, giving to ample time to react. Of course, after killing the same mob 100 times, it might be kinda lame if the Spotter told you that it was poisonous. Maybe the Spotter only gives you info about mobs if you haven't killed more than a certain number of them.

If you are a sniper, the Spotter could let you know where enemies are before they are on screen, sorta like how snipers IRL have spotters. That way you would have more time to take aim. Perhaps it could be useful in PvP?