Artificial Atmospheric Actions: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

Frequently has to do with inappropriate [[Enemy Chatter]], and occasionally [[Gang Up on the Human]]. Occasionally, this can become [[So Bad It's Good]], although it is more likely to be a [[Most Annoying Sound]]. Related to [[Welcome to Corneria]] and [[Going Through the Motions]], and a successor of sorts to [[Hyperactive Sprite]]. Nothing to do with oddly shaped clouds.

 

{{examples}}

== Action ==

* ''[[Assassin's Creed]]'' has side-missions that require you to save civilians from harassment by guards. The citizens will watch you kill the guards, then thank you. They may then spot the guards' bodies and ask "Who could have done such a thing?"

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'' partially averts this by giving several NPCs schedules to follow, which tie into the side quests you can do with them.

** It helps that the game takes place in a three-day [[Groundhog Day Loop]].

* In ''[[Thief]]: Deadly Shadows'', characters respond appropriately to bodies or bloodstains, either running away if they're non-combatants, or getting angry and looking for the player if they're fighters. This makes less sense (and can cause the player a lot of trouble) if they were the ones to put the corpse there, or saw some other NPC do it.

** In ''Thief'', a guard, when discovering a body, may state, "The thief's killed again!" Sure, buddy, a thief did it, and not a homocidal maniac.

 

== Literature ==

 

== Film ==

 

== Interactive Fiction ==

 

 

* The atmospheric actions in ''[[Warhammer Online]]'' can sometimes come across as phony, with characters crying completely at random or wandering around aimlessly. It's actually a step up from ''most'' MMOs, though, which don't bother to have even poorly-done atmospheric actions, and have all NPCs just stand in one place for their entire lives.

* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' occasionally has office missions with dozens of terrified people running about. They're not headed ''for'' anywhere, and can push you around if you get in the way of their path, and can distract you if you have actual hostages to rescue. Gyah.

** The villain groups get in on this as well. Certain bits of dialogue are triggered by proximity, making it very easy to make two henchmen say their lines out of order just by entering through the wrong door. Due to the limited selection of idle stances, odds are good that said henchmen are threatening a wall/some crates/empty air while having this conversation.

*** Also, some enemy groups feature radically different members. The Vahzilok consist of mad scientists and their zombie creations, but that doesn't stop the zombies going on rants, or the scientists shouting "Brains!". Similarly, several varieties of battle drones can be quite eloquent at times when all they're supposed to do is beep.

** Another programmed cityscape event involves a civilian NPC getting mugged. The NPC is random. While it looks unusual when a businessman is struggling over his purse, it is downright embarrassing when it is a SWAT team member.

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings Online]]'', though mostly populated by NPCs rooted in place, crafting area NPCs will hammer away at bits of metal forever and ever...

 

== Real Time Strategy ==

*** Considering what the cows are capable of in ''[[Diablo]] 2'', Arthas sounds [[Genre Savvy]] about barnyard animals in Blizzard games.

*** The [http://www.wowhead.com/item=71076 crates] themselves in [[WoW]] are dangerous (to critters, at least). Maybe Arthas was just planning ahead...

** might just be panic at the insectoid alien biting their foot

 

*** This is actually supposed to be a (really unsubtle) hint for the player as to where they can find advanced skill trainers.

** Although certain characters are scripted to be jerks, that is to respond to NPC conversation with mean or uncaring responses, other characters will not respond appropriately. The result was dialog along the lines of...

'''NPC 2''': You too. }}

** NPCs also fail to realize who they are talking to. Resulting in some... weird exchanges:

'''Grandmaster of the Fighters Guild''': I've thought about joining them once or twice. }}

** After turning in the evidence for the corrupt guard quest in Cheydinhal

** The script also often does not let them know who they are, resulting in them [[Third Person Person|talking about themselves in the third person]].

*** There's one bug where people start talking about how Amantius Allectus was killed in a burglary, even if Amantius is still alive. This becomes absurd when the one saying this ''is'' Amantius Allectus. [[Unexplained Recovery|He got better]], apparently.

** That's not to say ''Daggerfall'' didn't have some of this too. Attack citizens wandering the streets and the survivors just walk on like nothing happened. Then the guards with the same voice come over shouting "HALT!" and infinitely respawn. It's a given that Tamriel has a [[Weirdness Censor]].

** Animals in ''Oblivion'' seem to [[Everything Trying to Kill You|have it in for you]], very rarely they can be seen going after actual prey, preferring to [[Super-Persistent Predator|attack the guy with a giant sword and the ability to throw fire balls]]. (Of course animals aren't entirely smart, either; they'd do this in real life too)

** Followers are scripted to marvel at landmarks you walk past, even when you're exiting them. This leads to instances of your companion wondering what mysteries lie inside a cave that the two of you just finished clearing of bandits.

** This can happen with both major and minor NPCs with regards to your status. You deal with a member of the Thieves Guild a couple of times while trying to assassinate the emperor. After you return to him to help you set up your guild quarters he's clearly respectful of you but after business is completed he'll immediately ask you why you haven't finished whatever buglary job he assigned you.

** Skyrim continues this tradition. Even better a glitch in the Civil War campaign can cause the leaders of their faction to never have their corpses removed. Consequently everyone in the room will continuously walk up to the corpse, despair over the murder then immediately, and go on with their lives.

* Similarly found in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', based off the same engine, but thankfully upgraded (or 'pretend-upgraded') through the simple process of writing extra lines for specific NPC combinations within areas. While the traditional 'schedules' of ''Oblivion'' remain, it's not uncommon for NPCs to actually recognize specifically who they are talking to and therefore for slightly more organic conversations to occur. Due to engine limitations, however, they're still clunky as hell.

"Goodbye." }}

** Also in ''Fallout 3'' Charon tends to spout the line "I don't like the look of this place", regardless of whether he's in a run-down school infested with raiders or in the middle of the PC's house.

** There are two peasants in part 1 of the original ''NWN'' who walk around in circles having the same conversation every time they bump into each other. EVERY TIME.

** Mook Holding A '''Club''': "AH CARVE YOU UP!"

** There was also a problem with Anomen - his battle cry is an impassioned 'For the Order!'... even if in your game, he failed his test, renounced the Order and basically blames them for everything bad that happened in his life.

*** The things people say when you click on them can have this effect too - Solaufein's generic Drow 'Do not question the Matron Mothers' was starting to sound very sarcastic by the end of that storyline.

** ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' (which uses the same engine) has a quest to retrieve an item from a shop the quest giver has been barred from. Because the door closest to him is said shop, he tends to walk into the shop he can't go in!

* ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' lampshaded this a couple of times. One of the more amusing involved a shopkeeper panicking about how the enemy would take over his store. He gives a moving speech about the fate of his family, and ends with a perky, '...So what will it be?'

** Enemies offer a rather more [[Egregious]] example: they only have three possible lines, all of which they will repeat endlessly in combat. "Hold the line!" and "I will destroy you!" start to sound a little idiotic when they're being yelled by a lone sniper in a room full of crates.

*** Even more insane, they recorded those exact same lines in ''several different voices''. Fortunately, most of the enemies in the main storyline can't speak.

*** Not even Shepard escapes this, due to the random shouts she or he will give out. This leads to... perplexing situations where Shepard will have a lengthy discussion cutscene with an opponent, only to shout out "We've been spotted!" when the actual fight starts.

** A similar thing happens in ''[[Prince of Persia]]: Warrior Within'' where the Prince will let out a battlecry with every hit, which includes hitting scenery for some extra Sand.

* In [[.hack GU Games|.hack//G.U.]], whenever you run around Root Towns or run into NPCs in areas, they have speech bubbles above their heads with random things about other people they've met, or things they need to do, or something like that. Their bubbles change whenever Haseo walks near them ranging from, "Oh, Haseo!" to, "It's the Emperor!" if you've beaten that volume's tournament, to, "Are you ready yet?" if you meet one of your party memebers.

* The relatively obscure JRPG ''[[Radiata Stories]]'' manages to avert this much the same way ''[[Majoras Mask]]'' did: every NPC in the game has a set schedule and interactions. Also, the majority of them are [[Gotta Catch Em All|recruitable party members]], giving you reason to stalk them.

* ''[[The Last Story]]'' allows you to knock over baskets of onions, which then [[Slippery Skid|knock over the other NPCs when they step on them]]. Two of them border a plot-important cutscene of Zael discovering Lisa hiding in a wagon. As Zael and Lisa gaze fondly into each others's eyes, oblivious to the rest of the world, [[Funny Background Event|the randomly-generated passersby hurtle over with comedy 'thunk' sounds]].

* ''[[Half-Life]]'' is famous for its bizarre, probably batshit insane NPCs that could seemingly '''only''' say things that were massively inappopriate for the situation. ''Half-Life 2'' mostly averts this by virtue of simply having them not talk most of the time, but will occasionally still provide some real gems. NPC conversations were generated by having one NPC randomly pick from the list of "generic comments" and then another NPC randomly picking from the list of "generic replies", with no relationship between the two. There were a fair amount of both initial comments and replies, and sometimes it seemed like a pretty natural conversation. Other times, you ended up with "Sometimes... I dream of cheese." "Man, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that..."

** Not to mention; during scenes in which they are apparently talking to Gordon Freeman, no matter what the player decides to have him do, they continue to talk to him as if he's standing right there. This gets rather weird or amusing when the player decides to have Gordon run around the room, check out the walls, or try to write words in the wall with bulletholes and then they're just talking about what Freeman should do next.

 

 

== Simulation Games ==

* In ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' for GCN, characters would randomly go up and talk to each other and end up being happy, sad, or angry afterwards (annoyingly, if they ended up sad or angry you couldn't talk to them, delaying your progress in a [[Fetch Quest]]). In the DS version, you can listen in on the conversations.

** In the previous game, ''Sim City 3000'', the freight trains would actually stop and wait for the automobile traffic.

* The merchants in the market booths (let us never speak of them again) in ''[[Anno Domini|Anno 1503]]'' will loudly advertise their wares.

* Actually done pretty decently in [[Rune Factory 3]]- characters will frequently do or carry things related to their occupation, so it's not uncommon to see Carlos and Carmen fishing, one of the witches at their cauldron, Daria painting, or just a group of people chatting with each other. Characters will also sometimes go to the "date spots" in the dungeons, or just randomly go to the beach (with [[Fan Service|swimsuits]]) during summer. They even come into your house on occasion if you're friends.

* In ''[[The Sims]]'', non-playable sims will try to swim in your pool even if they don't know you. In ''The Sims 2'', townies are notorious for randomly grabbing babies and trying to feed them.

** Even more amusing when the neighbors do something funny like ''take a BATH'' in your house or freeload in your pool. In ''The Sims 1'', visiting sims would almost ''always'' take a dip in your pool no matter how rude it was to take a dip in the new neighbors' pool.

 

** They even chime in with occasional little comments like ''"Looks like we're not the only ones headed to the [DESTINATION] system"'' if there are multiple ships waiting at a jumpgate.

** Example that you'll probably hear a lot:

"We hail from the * pause* [ORIGINSYSTEM] * pause* we're transporting * pause* [SUPPLIES] * pause* to the * pause* [DESTINATIONSYSTEM] * pause* ." }}

** Sometimes, with certain mods, the chatter gets ... [[Good Bad Bugs|kinda scrambled]], unintentionally invoking [[Talkative Loon|other]] [[Space Madness|tropes]]:

* In ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Privateer'', [[NPC]] friendly and neutral ships will just aimlessly wander around a navigation point, regardless of whether or not logic would dictate that they should have a definite destination towards which they're heading.

 

*** "What am I gonna do about her?"

**** "''Forget'' about her, Mario!"

* Numerous examples with the NPC dialog in the ''[[Saints Row]]'' series. The best: {{spoiler|A civilian in the second game says something along the lines of "Well, the Brotherhood is done for. You going to bring Carlos back next?" while Carlos's zombified corpse beats the guy next to him with a nightstick.}}

* ''[[Spore]]'' has a lot of them- in creature stage you'll occasionally see other species fighting each other, but it's most visible in tribal stage- if your tribe members are just hanging out in the village not doing anything they'll often interact with each other, "saying" things (with pictures in speech bubbles), and occasionally even punching each other.

* In ''[[Bully (video game)|Bully]]'', sometimes you can hear citizens talk about rather strange stuff, or see a prep suddenly wander ''right'' into the autoshop and then start fighting the Greasers. Sometimes you'll see prefects completely ignore when someone gets knocked out or pushed into a trash can, and it becomes even more hilarious if you stuff a Prefect into a trash can, hide in a locker, and then come back to watch a prefect ''walk past their fellow prefect'' struggling to get out of the trash can.

** The "Kick Me" signs have this; although it's one of the more amusing examples. The way they're programmed, just about ''anyone'' will run over and kick the student with the sign on their back. Girls and kids who don't normally attack will kick them. Heck, even the ''prefects'' and the ''gym teacher'' might go over and kick the target!

** Mods can compound the silliness. For example, there is a star wars mod for the original mount and blade. Said mod adds bounty hunters to towns who will randomly attack you which works pretty well, except that nobody else on the map responds to it on the slightest. Including the guards. Even if you ''own that planet''. It also adds bar fights, which are still very amusing as the bartender cannot jump over the bar to actually join the fight (but will keep trying) and the fact that an unarmed rodian will decide to try to take on a wookie or fully armored bounty hunter.

* ''Mafia'' freeride shows that the only concern for the Lost Heaven Police Department is Tommy. He can anger mafia goons and use a police car as a bullet sponge. The cops wont do anything untill Tommy defends himself.

[[Category:Improbable Behavior Tropes]]

[[Category:Video Game Tropes]]