Development of The Witcher 3 faced an unusual problem when simulating NPC routines
One of the most praised features of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the feeling of a living universe, where villagers follow routines, workers move the port and children move around freely. However, achieving this realism in the game was not a simple task for the developers.
In an interview for the most recent issue of Edge Magazine, Philipp Weber, the mission designer at CD Projekt Red, brought up one of the unexpected challenges during the creation of the RPG: for a period, panicked mothers abandoned their babies on the floor at the slightest sign of danger.
The origin of this setback was the prioritization of development. Initially, the team devoted more attention to simulating convincing day and night cycles for NPCs, leaving behind how they should react to the presence and actions of the player character.
Weber explained that with the focus on open environments, “it was easier for players to be curious.” He added: “If a village only has eight houses, people will want to see if the villagers really exist in that world or if it’s all a hoax. A lot of people these days are interested in that kind of detail, and it intrigued us.”
The problem became more evident when the studio implemented NPC fear reactions. While most open-world games have civilians flee in case of confusion, The Witcher 3 applied this logic without exception. The system did not differentiate what each NPC was carrying or doing at the time of the panic, creating a bizarre situation that persisted for several weeks.
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“For a few weeks, women just abandoned their babies, over and over,” Weber revealed, describing the unusual scene.
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The panic system activated the escape animation in a generic way, without considering that the NPC in question could be with a child. This resulted in newborns being left on the ground in villages while their mothers ran around. Despite being technically correct within the programming, the result was absurd in terms of verisimilitude.
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To create dynamic villages, without tying NPCs to pre-defined paths, CD Projekt Red implemented a system based on points of interest. Thus, each NPC could choose their next destination according to their routine and the available locations in the environment.
“For most NPCs in villages, we don’t define specific paths,” Weber detailed. “We indicate available points of interest and they find the way themselves: ‘As soon as I finish chopping wood, I’ll choose another spot and maybe do carpentry in front of my house’.”
One of the clearest examples of this methodology can be seen in the port of Novigrad. To make the area feel busy without being repetitive, the team developed 200 possible points of interest for a group of just 50 sailors. This way, even with all 50 active simultaneously, each one had enough options not to duplicate the action of another.
This design approach is currently ingrained in the studio’s philosophy. Weber highlighted how much accumulated knowledge has progressed since the game’s initial stages of production: “Today, if someone said ‘give me a Witcher 3 village with eight houses’, I could do it in two hours”, he concluded.
