Town Cryer

[Arka]

OK. This is kind of a new idea and an old one rolled into one:

1. An NPC that responds to simple requests like \'Where do I find rats?\' With simple answers like, \'Have you tried the sewers? There are lots down there, I\'m told.\'

For more complex questions he/she would answer \"Have you tried the Help channel? There are lots of people more qualified than I that can help you.\"

This would save us from newbies wandering around asking \"What do I do here?\" \"How do I make money?\" \"Where did you get your sword from?\" and more annoyingly, \"Can I have yours?\"

2. Occasionally the NPC can make random announcements using the shout channel. This can also be used when devs are about to close the server to make more fiitting announcements than the current \"The  Server is about to shut down\" type. How about, \"Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A great misfortune is about to descend on our land. This will cause darkeness and confusion to all who do not log off now. Come back in 10 minutes!\" People could occasionally petition GMs to allow guild announcements to be made or announce forthcoming festivals at regular intervals. I realise this could get annoying but you could experiment with the number of such announcements so gamers only heard three or four per log in.

3. (And here\'s the old idea) The Town Cryer can also be asked to store messages for individual players. You could say, \"Take a message for xxxx\". The NPC checks that xxxx is a) a real player and b) offline, giving suitable error messages like \"Never heard of xxxx - are you sure that\'s the real name? or \"Tell xxxx yourself!\". Then when xxxx logs on the Town Cryer /tells xxxx the message or alternatively stores the message untill xxxx approaches him/her and asks \"Any messages?\" (Whichever is easiest to implement - but my preference is the former)

Messages can auto delete after a certain number of days - The Town Cryer does forget things like the rest of us.

This would help those of us who desperately need to get a message to someone but don\'t have any other way of contacting them. It could be used to arrange rendez-vous times and places. And it would be in keeping with the gameplay.

What d\'ye all think?

[Karyuu]

You\'re mixing a lot of OOC items in with what is supposed to be completely IC, namely NPCs. The idea has potential, if refined a good amount.

*edit* I need to elucidate, I think.

\"Have you tried the Help channel? There are lots of people more qualified than I that can help you.\"

An NPC knows nothing about any Help channel. They are people living in Yliakum and Yliakum only, so anything outside of it is beyond their knowledge and understanding. I suppose NPCs could drop OOC hints, but these should be very clearly marked as such, to avoid any confusion. The last thing we would want would be NPCs encouraging OOC conversations.

\"Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A great misfortune is about to descend on our land. This will cause darkeness and confusion to all who do not log off now. Come back in 10 minutes!\"

Precisely the same issue. You\'re trying to mix something that would work quite well, without that \"log off now\" piece. And then again, how would NPCs, when completely IC, know anything about any great misfortune? What contacts would they have? They can\'t all be seers and prophets.

People could occasionally petition GMs to allow guild announcements to be made or announce forthcoming festivals at regular intervals. I relaise this could get annoying but you could experiment with the number of such announcements so gamers only heard three or four per log in.

I am very much against using the /shout channel for anything besides... well, shouting to reach someone farther away than a normal tone of voice would reach. Having a single Town Crier NPC, perhaps somewhere in Hydlaa\'s plaza, may not be such a bad idea, but players petitioning GMs about announcements... I think it opens up doors to a lot of spam. May be worth a try regardless, who knows.

Then when xxxx logs on the Town Cryer /tells xxxx the message or alternatively stores the message untill xxxx approaches him/her and asks \"Any messages?\" (Whichever is easiest to implement - but my preference is the former)

My very strong preference is for the latter. Again, NPCs should be completely IC, and /tells are completely OOC. Also, NPCs should never be with completely flawless memories. After all, they are supposed to be normal mortal beings, with just as many faults as the average person. Some messages could be, and should be, forgotten.

[Zan]

I like the idea.

As for an NPC pointing people into the direction of the Help channel, not optimal I agree. The last thing I personally want is new players coming to ask us so we have to do it in the middle of an RP session, not an NPC doing it for those who ask.

In general I don\'t think one NPC doing ooc things is quite as bad when it serves to help the new players and takes that load off us older players partially at least. However it would be best if most is kept IC, perhaps the NPC could even work with brackets as well. It would mention something completely IC with a short OOC explanation between brackets for clarity purposes.

[Arka]

Thanks for the comments:

It may take a bit more thought to deal with the OOC stuff, I agree - but the messenger NPC role could work completely in character, and I agree also that some messages could be \'forgotten\'. Again, there could also be a time out - the older the message the more likely it is to be forgotten.

Arka