No NPCs

[tygerwilde]

I actually want to see more NPCs, I mean, I hate to run around in a town and see nobody, it all seems lifeless to me. and yeah, I can see something like GTA working pretty well, with the npc\'s being viable targets for the theiving skills... what good is pickpocket if you have no one to use it on.

[Xanaroth]

Several point\"s:
1. If there are no npc\'s, starting n00bs with useless items wont be able to sell these to get some money for their first ourfit
2. Players will decide the price, making all items extremely expensive or extremely cheap.
3. You have to get some luck if you need a specific item for lets say a potion, while when there are npc\'s you wont be needing to look around for 5 hours.
4. If you have a lot of items, and you want to sell them fast, you can\'t because you will still have to wait for buyers.
5. The servers will be extremely laggy, even more then they are now, because no1 will ever shut down their pc\'s. This because when they are arround they will play, and when the go to sleep or so, they will stay online with their chars in selling mode, cause there is no other way to get rid off all those unused and useless items.
6. A world without NPC\'s means a world without quests, and a world without quests is NOT a real rpg. Or do you think some1 is willing to make a character, be online 24/7 doing the same phrases over and over again.

[cryofame]

The idea of having an NPC\'s stock run out is an interesting one. The problems that I could see with that are that it would require a lot of information to be stored on the server even to the point that each merchant would have to have it\'s own database of items, prices, quantities, qualities, and maybe other factors such as asking price or factor based on current economy of the area. This much information for each and every NPC merchant seems like it would be a problem becuase of the possible amount of space it may take up on the server -and- the time it would take to sort through it.

The idea of an Automated selling mode is also an interesting one: I think it would require that each item in a characters posession would need to be individually valued; or even have multiple values such as \"starting price\", \"lowest price\", and maybe a bidding factor ( such as how much to respond with if the value they are offerring changes ).

just thinking...

[Icefalcon]

Originally posted by cryofame
The idea of an Automated selling mode is also an interesting one: I think it would require that each item in a characters posession would need to be individually valued; or even have multiple values such as \"starting price\", \"lowest price\", and maybe a bidding factor ( such as how much to respond with if the value they are offerring changes ).

Yeah there was a thread about that a while back...good idea if you ask me...

[Xanaroth]

Originally posted by cryofame
The idea of having an NPC\'s stock run out is an interesting one. The problems that I could see with that are that it would require a lot of information to be stored on the server even to the point that each merchant would have to have it\'s own database of items, prices, quantities, qualities, and maybe other factors such as asking price or factor based on current economy of the area. This much information for each and every NPC merchant seems like it would be a problem becuase of the possible amount of space it may take up on the server -and- the time it would take to sort through it.

The idea of an Automated selling mode is also an interesting one: I think it would require that each item in a characters posession would need to be individually valued; or even have multiple values such as \"starting price\", \"lowest price\", and maybe a bidding factor ( such as how much to respond with if the value they are offerring changes ).

just thinking...

Both systems have already been implemented into games. The stock run is out is used in rune*cough*scape, where every 3 or 4 hours the shops inventory is being reset to normal values (so all that has been sold by players wont be for sale anymore, but is destroyed) and the basic items a shop sells is set back to starting values.
The automated selling mode is already in another game (forgot the title) where you press /sell, and then a window opens. There you can set all the items you wish to sell in a seperate window, and give each of the items the price you wish for them.

[Levski]

You know, when you think about it, even NPC\'s shouldn\'t be allowed to sell 24/7....

Think realisticly, there are no merchants with an unlimited amount of items.  Even a player merchant would have to go and get new items periodically.  But I do like the idea of having NPC\'s staff shops and so forth...

About the quests, sure there should be SOME newb orientation quests....  But besides that... the players will automatically make quests themselves without realizing it!  Think about it, especially in a guild where you will have to get items for fellow guildmembers, perform special missions to get promoted, go training with your fellow members, and even going on war related campaigns against other guilds.   Now I admit, this will be harder for the freelancers, but it would still work.  And it would be TONS better than having thousands of people doing the same quest, over and over and over again.  I mean here is a hypothetical scenario...  The Blitzers guild has found a new crystal mine, but it is very hard to access because there is a BIG river seperating it from the Blitzers Guild House.  So we hire bridge builders from Bloodclaw to make a bridge there... and voila!  Quest made for the Bloodclaw members!  They have to gather supplies, find the best spot to make the bridge, make designs for the bridge, build the bridge, and build it again if it collapses!

I think the whole idea of this being a Roleplaying game is that the quests will make themselves after a while... especially after all the functions in the game are put in.

Ah, and here is something I posted a couple of months ago about how a quest could be triggered if a spell went bad...

For example:

If you are a necromancer/shaman/spirit-talker (whatever), and you are summoning the spirit of a long dead persona. Now this persona was extremely powerful in his lifetime, so summoning his soul is going to take quite a bit of determination and skill. BUT, all of a sudden, something\'s gone bad! For some reason, you can\'t control the spell, and instead of summoning the soul of the already dead person, you partition your soul into two parts. Now there are two of you! An NPC (which would have to move and fight and the like), and you. And you have to figure out how to make your soul one now.

This is an interesting idea, because this could trigger a quest also. It\'s also interesting because of the NPC concept. This NPC could be online only when you are online.. because it is your second half. And you would have to perform a certain spell/eat a certain herb/whatever to get your soul in one piece again.

As you see...  I don\'t think that we will need (waaaaay into the future when all the functions are put in) NPC triggered quests at all!  I for one would like the world to evolve and have different quests all the time.

[Cobrec]

My opininion on NPCs is that I don\'t mind if they stay as long as the Devs do some work on their interface.  Every time I try to talk to them they act retarded and tell me they don\'t understand simple english...

Stupid NPCs

[Socrates Demise]

I like the blacksmith idea

I think the NPC merchants and the pc merchants need to get there supply from the same place... (i.e. swords from an NPC or pc blacksmith or from adventurers selling stuff)

But the blacksmiths need to get coal and iron to work with.
They could get these from NPC miners or PCs who go dig it from the ground to gain strength...

Make a true economy out of it...

To make a sandwich you need bread to make bread you need eggs to get eggs you need a chicken to keep a chicken you need grain etc.

and in every one of these levels you could have happy coexisting PCs and NPCs the NPCs are there to make sure there is never a famine if all the PCs decide they don\'t want to run a 20th level farmer...   I guess what I\'m saying is limit the resources to both the MPC and the pc and the laws of supply and demand will fall into place.

On the other end make food spoil if it hasn?t been used after a certain number of days and make swords that break.  

Just some ideas on the subject.


Edit: Spelling