I’ve been working on a sci-fi colony sim where NPCs manage resources and react to player decisions. The problem I keep hitting is that their behaviors become too predictable after a few playthroughs. I tried tweaking decision trees and adding more randomization, but it either feels chaotic or doesn’t scale well. I’ve heard some developers here mention using community feedback loops on polden.gg to gather player interaction data and refine AI routines. Has anyone integrated that kind of analysis into a Godot project? Specifically, how do you structure your AI systems to adapt based on aggregated gameplay data without tanking performance?
I ran into something similar with my farming sim! I set up a basic survey system in-game asking players to rate NPC reactions, then used that data to tweak thresholds for certain behaviors. It’s manual, but I found Godot’s JSON tools made parsing responses manageable. Maybe that could be a starting point?
Welcome to the community! If you haven’t checked already, there’s a thread in the technical forums where someone shared a Godot plugin for anonymizing player data. It might help with collecting feedback ethically while you prototype!
Godot 4’s new scene threading might help. Separate your analytics processing from the main game loop. Use batch updates during autosave intervals to apply behavior adjustments without frame drops.
Hard agree on predictability killing immersion. Maybe steal a page from rimworld’s ‘trait conflict’ system? Let players’ meta-strats collide with the NPCs’ goals. If your analytics show everyone hoards X resource, make the AI start sabotaging X stockpiles. Chaos with purpose, ya know?
Don’t overcomplicate it early on. Start with a simple feedback hook—track how often players reload saves after NPC decisions. If certain outcomes consistently break suspension of disbelief, focus your AI tweaks there. Iterate once you have baseline metrics.