Production

NPCs & monsters pipeline

How monsters (20 + elites + 2 bosses) and the 24 NPCs are produced end to end — design data, turnaround, mesh, family rigs, ability + reaction animation sets, AI behaviour trees, telegraphs, tests.

Dewhorn HareL1 · small

Reed FoxL3 · small

Orchard BoarL5 · medium

Duneplate BeetleL7 · medium

Reedscale LizardL9 · small

Hover a portrait for its card; the bestiary page has abilities and drops.

◆Monsters

Inputs: bestiary.json (level, nature, aggro/leash, HP/XP, basic + 2 abilities with telegraph timings, weight class, reaction set, hit material, drops), portrait art (/art/bestiary/*), and combat-states.json.

#	Stage	Agent work	Test
1	Turnaround	`ART-MON-053` sheet from the accepted portrait	owner check vs portrait
2	Mesh	image→3D (if approved) or Blender blockout + sculpt, retopo to budget (small 4k / medium 8k / large 14k / boss 40k)	budget + non-manifold check
3	Family rig	one rig per body family: quadruped (small/medium), insectoid (6 legs + tail/pincers), reptile (+ tail chain), serpent (spline), bird (wings), shelled (tortoise), plus the boss rigs	20-pose deformation test
4	Animation set	idle ×2, walk, run, turn, basic attack, 2 abilities (telegraph pose held for `telegraphS`), spawn, the reaction set clips, deaths	clip timings = ability contract ±1 frame
5	Telegraph binding	decal shape + fill-up time from the ability (`shape`, `telegraphS`); aim lock rule	telegraph visible on Low; shape matches server
6	AI behaviour	small behaviour tree from data: idle/wander → (hostile) aggro in radius → chase → attack/abilities by cooldown → leash → reset. Neutral monsters skip aggro until damaged	deterministic sim tests: leash, reset, ability cooldown, no stuck states
7	Hit feedback	material impacts, reaction set mapping, death styles	reaction-matrix test on this monster
8	Elite variant	+1 weight class, size aura, ★ nameplate, 3× HP	elite spawn rules (one per area, 25 m from roads)
9	Evidence	10 s clip: idle → aggro → ability telegraph → player hits (light/heavy/launch) → death	owner review for bosses

Monster AI is server-side (Rust), awake only within 60 m of players. Behaviour trees are data (JSON) with nodes Idle, Wander(r), Aggro(r), Chase, UseAbility(id), BasicAttack, Leash(r), Flee(hp%).

◆Bosses

The Bellbound Regent (tortoise, 45k HP, Royal Winter circles, Broken Bell ring, phase at 50%) and Kharuun (camel-beast, 70k HP, every 4 h). They get break-pressure animations, phase transitions, an arena layout test, telegraph-only readability tests on Low with 40 players, and fairness tests at 200 ms RTT.

◆NPCs (24)

Stage	Agent work	Test
Body	reuse the player pipeline (same skeleton). Outfit variants from the kit (town attire, trainer outfits by pole, travel gear)	budget, no clipping
Portrait	`ART-NPC-*` requests (bust portraits) for dialogue windows	style match
Behaviour	schedule-lite: idle spots + small walk loops; talk/gesture clips; face the player on interact	interact radius 3 m; no blocking doorways (path test)
Dialogue	quest text from `quests.json`, voice-free in the MVP; typewriter text with skip	every quest step reachable via dialogue
Markers	gold ! / ? above head, jade for side content; minimap pins	marker states match quest state

Crowd NPCs (townsfolk, caravans) are instanced VAT crowds with no AI (spline paths), and are cheap enough for busy towns.

Source: zoen/docs/production/NPCS_MONSTERS.md · 580 words · edit the Markdown, not this page.