Development Update #13: NPC Overhaul, Personalities & Emotions, and Mall Evacuations
Hi everyone!
This update is focused on a massive overhaul to customer and employee NPCs, making the mall feel much more alive while also allowing for greater NPC density.
Customers now have much more varied behaviours, personalities, interactions, and movement around the mall. They can shop together, have conversations, sit down, eat and drink, carry items, use kiosks, join checkout queues, and much more.
NPCs have also received a new set of facial emotions, allowing them to react with expressions such as crying, laughing, and being shocked.
The fire alarm system has also been significantly improved. Pulling the alarm will now cause NPCs to actually evacuate the mall and wait outside while guards and employees determine whether it is safe to return. All though the fire alarm is still only available in full version of the game.
Update Highlights
👥 NPC Overhaul
Customer NPCs have received a huge overhaul with a much wider variety of behaviours and interactions.
Customers now have different personalities, movement patterns, idles, and shopping behaviours. They can form groups, have conversations, dynamically find seating, interact with kiosks, make purchases, join checkout queues, and interact with the food court.
Kids have also been added, allowing them to wander around the mall by themselves or with a parent.
NPCs can now carry things like shopping bags, baskets, food, and drinks, with improved held-item positioning and new jiggle physics to make carried items feel more natural.
Overall, this should make the mall feel significantly more populated and alive.
😄 Character Emotions
Players, bots, and NPCs can now show a much wider range of facial emotions and reactions.
Characters can now smile, laugh, cry, look angry, appear shocked, and more, giving everyone in the mall more personality and making reactions feel much more noticeable.
These expressions can appear while characters are going about their normal activities, helping the mall feel more alive and making interactions between players, bots, and NPCs feel more dynamic.
🚨 Fire Alarms & Evacuations
The fire alarm system has been completely reworked.
When the fire alarm is pulled, NPCs will now actually leave the mall and evacuate outside.
Once outside, they will wait until guards and employees determine that the mall is safe before returning.
This also means fire alarms now create a much more noticeable reaction throughout the mall, with customers actually clearing out of the building instead of continuing their normal routines.
Full Changelog
Added
Added kid NPCs that will wander around by themselves or with a parent/friend.
Added customer NPC personalities with varied movement, idles, and behaviours.
Added facial emotes such as crying, laughing, shocked, and more for kids and adult npcs
Added dynamic seating for customers across the mall.
Added customer NPC groups with pairs and groups of three.
Added group conversations between 2–5 customer NPCs.
Added kiosk interactions and purchases for customer NPCs.
Added checkout queues, purchases, and item handoffs.
Added food-court interactions including eating and drinking at tables.
Added customer NPC item carrying such as bags, baskets, and food.
Added jiggle physics to held items so they can bob and shake a bit.
Updated
Updated various UI elements such as picking up items and using objects.
Updated the fire alarm so NPCs will now evacuate the mall when it is pulled.
Updated evacuated NPCs so they wait until guards and employees deem the mall safe.
Updated customer seating to avoid occupied seats, employees, and guards.
Updated NPC knockdown recovery and dazed behaviour.
Updated customer conversations, idles, and shopping behaviour.
Updated mall stores and layout slightly.
Updated the "You've been caught and are being detained" message to be randomly selected from a variety of funny messages.
Updated player and bot characters with facial changes such as crying, laughing, and being shocked.
Updated all held item placements and rotations.
Updated the "Did you know?" facts as some were outdated.
Updated the loading screen UI.
Fixed
Fixed idle and walking animations playing at the same time.
Fixed NPC drinks not being held correctly.
Fixed held items having incorrect positions or rotations, causing them to clip or face the wrong way.
Fixed props on windows not falling if the window was smashed.
Fixed detection zones on upper levels being able to affect lower levels.
Fixed employees on lower and upper levels being able to report you when they shouldn't be able to.
Fixed the price UI not being visible when trying to check the price of large haul items.
Fixed camera bobbing when stopping.
Fixed eating animation not having any object in hands.
Removed
Removed NPCs despawning when exiting the mall.
Removed permanent stationary sitting NPCs.
Thanks for following development!