Regarding Moving NPCs or "Harnquist is Missing!"

[The Shadow Nose]

I know other people have talked about the Harnquists occasional disruptive absences and the problems they cause so here are a few possible ways to help:

1. Try testing out the movement system on an unimportant NPC until the system works properly. Let Harnquist stay where he is, the moving NPC to can have something good like a quest or skill but keep our important friend easily accesible.

2. Have Harnquist leave a note of some kind such as "Out to lunch: Should be back in a few hours. If you need me I'll be at the tavern" perhaps use the suggested signpost system based off the pets if that will ever be implemented.

3. Have a way to bring him back or keep him from leaving. Perhaps right before he wants to leave, have him say somethin like "I'm feeling hungry for <some bread, a fish, an apple>, I think I'll head to the tavern in a bit." make it a general quest and the first person to give him him the required food gets XP and he doesn't have to leave his post.

3. Allow players to train skills, I know this has been suggested before in many forum posts and I have read several of them. If NPC trainers are going to move around then it will be much more difficult for players to train skills.

[Mirashi]

On number 1, you repeated exactly what I said.

[The Shadow Nose]

Yes Mirachi, I saw your post in General Discussion and that did motivate me to create this post in the Wish List. I did add a few other suggestions though they are also derived from other posts. I just thought having a list in here would help.

So well, yeah. Number one is definatly yours.

[Gondric]

Also they shouldnt travel too far. like harny should only maybe travel somehwere u can still see him.

[Vengeance]

1. Agreed.
2. Not going to happen.  Perhaps other npcs around him should know he goes to sleep or something if you ask where is Harnquist though.
3. Some things like this are contemplated but we are still barely trying to get movement working right. :-)  Sophisticated prioritization is a ways off.
4. We want it to be hard to train skills.  I am glad you are observing this to be the case.

Also, having him move a short distance is not going to happen.  He is going home to sleep at night and most of the other npcs will also do that at some point.

- Vengeance

[zog]

maybe Harnie needs an assistant? ...like a "night shift" at the smithy

[Capprion]

why would you want to make it any more difficult to train skills then it alread yis. you need 400pp to even get a skill up 2 or 3 points at times.   and the trainers are all over the world. its going to be almost impossible to play if it gets much harder to train ur skills up. but then everyone says this game is for the RP not the getting stronger. then why not just get off your chair, walk thru the middle of the nearest city and talk to some people?  a game is pointless if the only thing you can do is make up stories.  i hope thats not what PS turns in to

[Under the moon]

Also, having him move a short distance is not going to happen.  He is going home to sleep at night and most of the other npcs will also do that at some point.

- Vengeance

Oh? And perhaps that is when the evil trainers come out to play in the shadows. *grins* It seems odd to me that 'good' and 'evil' characters train side by side. In time, it would be fun to see two completely different 'paths' for the two sides to take in training. Of course, that would not work, as any player can train at any NPC, and they would. Scrap that.

@ Capprion: Hmmm. Many people are saying the same thing about just being able to level up skills. 'Pointless' is a matter of opinion. I hope there is room for both sides.

[neko kyouran]

Spinning a great tale of your character, telling stories in the tavern, gives the same sense of accomplishment to those who prefer to go out to the vast wilderness, slay foul beasties, gather the loot and train and grow strong.

In the grans scheme of things, they are both equally pointless and equally self full filling.  One is neither more right nor more wrong than the other. 

/end philosophy

[Capprion]

i agree, i hope it dont turn into just another diablo2 ...but then again it wouldnt be any fun if your couldnt progress.  nothing should ever go to one extreme end or the other, games like that last normaly for a short period of time being very popular. then just plumit. 2 or 3 years later numbers grow again then drop back down to a handfull then die for the most part......
i didnt say i wanted to just lvl nonstop. but spending 3 weeks to get 10 lvls in just 1 skill when there are eventually gona be a massive number in comparison to other games skill number wise just seems a bit crazy. at that rate it might take 5 years to max 1 character.  half of players want to get strong, half just want to talk and somewhere they meet in the middle.

[Under the moon]

I can tell you from personal experience that the game will never become an RP extreme. There are two sides to this game. One rewards you with friends and richness (not to be confused with riches), the other with stats and riches (not to be confused with richness). "Making up stories" is just as hard and time consuming as leveling for stats. It is just that the rewards are not as visible.

The NPCs moving provides richness, while decreasing the ease of riches a bit. There has to be compromise on both sides. there has to be balance.

[The Shadow Nose]

Okay, I can sort of understand this... if it has a time thing like with Harvest Moon or other games. So eventually we will have a way to learn Harns schedule and then learn to buy and sell from him during the times that his shop is 'open'.

Its a shame that this land inside a stalagtite doesn't have a sun or any celestial bodies to really watch... would make the day/night cycles a littel more RP friendly.

[Baldur]

I don't understand why weaker day/night cycle should be harmful for RP. The inuits live with midnight-sun and winternight all year but they don't have any problems adapting, even in extreme climates. It is about molding your roleplay to fit the environment.

The shadows will be so deep that it will almost seem like night when venturing or, by choice, sneaking through a town. And there is fog.

[eldoth_terevan]

How about the ability for Player Characters to become trainers after reaching a certain level of Mastery in their chosen skill, allowing them to train other Player Characters? Venge probably does not like this idea ... but you could make the level at which one could do this like 30 or something.

[Croza Grimwell]

I think edoth_terevans idea is good but how will you know which players train what skill and if you do know the players are probably going to charge you more than an NPC so it is sort of a bit pointless