I'm sure someone has thought of this before but I couldn't find anything:

Blacksmith NPC's should regularly craft weapons and their name should appear in the weapons description. The weapons would then be available to purchase from the smith or a merchant NPC. Occasionally, the crafter will produce a 'special' weapon (Enlightenment, Seduction, etc.) To keep the merchants stockpiles down, weapons could occasionally be 'sold' to lootable NPC's (rogues, etc.), these weapons could then be looted by player characters. Once sold to an NPC, the same weapons would then be available to buy from a merchant NPC at an inflated price. This would remove the rp problem of weapons magically appearing on dead NPC's and then disappearing when sold to an NPC.

I'm not too sure if this is the right forum for this question but I'm curious as to the reason why we get stuck in-game and if any work is being done to prevent it from happening. Is it possible (time permitting) to completely fix the problem? Also, would it be possible to implement a /bump command that moves you a tiny bit away from your current position for instances where /unstick puts you back in the same place? It would have to be limited to prevent abuse but it would save a lot of /die-ing.

I propose a new type of quest - the supply contract. Let's say an NPC cook has just created a new recipe and they need a steady supply of Clacker meat. A player could ask 'Do you have a contract?' and (only rarely) the NPC will offer the player a contract which requires them to supply the NPC with 100 Clacker Meats for 100 tria each. This could provide an actual market for some of the more worthless items in the game and provide players with something else to do.

I have a rather unusual idea for how to implement gemstones. I'm not sure how or even if this could work but I would like to see the colour and pattern of gemstones be randomly generated. There should still be the standard gemstones (diamonds, rubies, etc) but a small, randomly generated, code could occasionally be attached to a gemstone that makes it likely to be totally unique. I think this is what they call 'procedural generation'.

I think this would allow a genuine market to form for these types of gemstones, as different characters would value different colours and patterns. Naming schemes would probably arise in-game for the different categories of gems, it would add a unique element to PS that isn't (afaik) available in other RPGs.


Some other random thoughts and questions concerning gems:

- Gems could be set in weapons to increase their value (and make them look better).
- Rare gems could have magical properties (faster regeneration of stamina, etc.)
- Does the 'Gem Cutting' job skill allow players to create rings and pendants and stuff? If not maybe it should be changed to Jeweller.

I would like to propose the use of chatterbots to improve NPC dialog. Chatterbots could completely eliminate NPCs non-recognition of simple phrases. For example, if I approached a random NPC and ask "about quest" they will respond. If I ask an NPC "Do you have a quest?" they will respond, but if I ask an NPC "Do you have any quests?" they will not know what I am talking about. All the NPC really needs to know is that you are asking a question about quests/tasks/jobs, a chatterbot could be easily taught to respond to just about any different way of asking "Do you have a quest?".


Chatterbots can be taught by asking them a question and if you are unhappy with the response then you correct them, the next time they are asked that question they will give the corrected answer. Leaving the bots open to be taught by players would probably lead to pollution of the NPCs dialog so it should be closed to the settings team or players who have been given permission to teach NPCs. Either way, players chat logs should be logged by the server (are they already?) so that the most common questions (and methods of delivery) can be entered into a template bot that could then be used for all NPCs. This method has the added advantage of allowing the settings team to test the dialog as they are programming it.

Another place where I think this could be very beneficial is in a virtual adviser, a very knowledgeable NPC (Jayose perhaps) could act as an adviser on OOC issues. Instead of GMs and advisers having to repeat answers to common questions over and over, such as, "What do glyphs do?", etc. Again, the answers could be based on questions logged questions from players.


I think the best way to go about assessing this idea would be to weigh up the positives and negatives:


Pros
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- Much more realistic interaction with NPCs.
- Innovative; could attract new developers and players.
- Decrease workload on GMs and Advisers.
- It would be a good way to introduce new information about Yliakum or rumours, etc.
- Could make PS a personalised experience via NPCs "getting to know" the player.
- Quite a few actively developed open source chatterbots are already available, see:
   * Program D (Java, J2EE)
   * RebeccaAIML (C++)
   * ChatterBean (Java)
   * Program R (Ruby)
   * Program Q (C++, Qt)
   * AIMLbot (Program #) (.NET/C#)
   * Program W (Java)


Cons
-------
- Difficult/time-consuming to implement. (?)
- If it is open to players to teach NPCs then they might teach them spoilers or OOCness. (Solution: Let only team members teach NPCs.)



Could I please get some opinions on this?