NPCs - a new lease of life

[Kada-El]

I don\'t know if this could work, or even if it would be worth doing, but it might have some nice uses:

To perhaps have NPCs fully controllable by game moderators and developers i.e. they could choose to inhabit the body of a NPC and role play as this character - this may be useful for special events, it also may help in moderating the game - the perfect place to observe from. This would also create an element of unpredictability to the game and allow the staff to have some fun at players expense as well

I suppose the controllable NPCs would have to hold no vital information or be part of a quest i.e. you wouldn\'t want this feature to get in the way of a player trying to complete a task or quest.

I started thinking about this after reading the topic about having a tavern for the demo. Hopefully many people would go here to meet and chat etc, especially at the beginning. You could make the host/hostess of the tavern a real person - and when that person is not there the NPC would resume it\'s normal behavior. I would love the chance to spend time welcoming people to the tavern and playing hostess

[Thekkur]

in some earlier topics you might also find my simiiar ideas. I was thinking of hero\'s that commited great deeds long ago (of which stories are told in tales to be found in the library) that are controlled by GM\'s. This way they could both add to the role-playing experience and watch the game.

Imagine an old man who\'s wandering around the city of Iliakum as a tramp. The GM role plays the character like an actor, playing that he Yisith, a legendary warrior that slayed a fearsome dragon that threatened a city long ago. In the Ilyakum library you could actually find stories of Yisith, and the myth of the dragon.

Thekkur

[Kada-El]

I think your hero idea is great. Would the hero only be online when the GM chooses to play as the hero, or would the hero revert to a traditional NPC state?

I still think the feature could have it\'s uses in less important characters. If your idea for tavern chatboxes goes ahead then the Landlord/lady would make a great chat moderator with the power to kick people off the chat (i.e. breaking up potential arguments or bar brawls, by throwing people out )

[antonio842]

if a moderator was, lets say a, town guard, would he be able to attack people playing the game

[Bill]

Technically yes but they probably won\'t be inside town guards.

Remember they will not make it so they can switch in and out of every NPC, just a few.

[antonio842]

so they can get killed if they are an npc ?(

if they are killed would they respawn where the npc would?

[David_HD]

I think moderators should be able to inhabit any NPC. They\'d be encouraged to avoid those that are integral to quests, and/or be given the information that the NPC has regarding the quest and the ability to issue quest-control commands... (I have no idea how to flesh this out, at the moment, but... )

That way GMs could (fairly) easily grab the nearest NPC to deal with a given problem...

[Darkmoon]

We have also discussed inhabiting an NPC and giving impromtu quests, like \"be the first to get me a specific (or combination of) item(s)\" or riddle-solving, with a reward offered (rare item, money, whatever).  No final decision on this yet, however.

[David_HD]

Oh, I like that idea

[Killz4Thrillz]

Why not just make a real Good AI?

Like for smiths, they can have set times of day they work than after that the AI Acts on itself, they can goto pubs have a drink play game and act like anyone else would.

What would also be nice if other players can take the NPC\'s Job like if one wants to smith he can talk to one of the NPC smiths and ask to do his job for a certain amount of time. In return you get 20% of the places income as payment for doing the job. I Would avoid makeing the player get paid a 1 time flat rate as he will not do his job as he would if he was getting paid for items he smiths.

[David_HD]

Well, the two are by no means mutually exclusive. A good AI should be done in any case, because we don\'t want moderators to have to inhabit everyone to make them seem realistic. This is just to round out the character a little or to deal with problems that inevitably arise in game rather than out.