Things every NPC should answer...but don't (add your own!)

[LigH]

And that's the point Taniquetil enjoyed to misunderstand: We talked about responses to "usual question" in NPC chats, like "(tell me) about Malco", "where is Malco?" or similar. Just the name alone is no question, no sentence, no construct an NPC "should" understand: Simply throwing the name at it may well result in a reply "I don't understand, say it differently", that even makes sense.

[Garile]

hmmm questions about quests would indeed be something I would like to see. Like for example the Emporium Raid quest you get nearly no hints were to start looking and that is quite frustrating specially remembering the "subtle" hint that it would be better if we only had one quest at a time.

There are several NPCs you could ask about the quest and if they would atleast respond like "I don't know anything about it but I'll let you know if I do" then atleast you know it isn't becuase you asked it the wrong way.

Would reduce the wordguessing game a little atleast.

[Lanarel]

Just as all NPCs know about other races, they should know about the common animals and lesser races. I get no reply on
about:
rats
pterosaurs
derghirs
gobbles
kikiri

Tried singular and plural. Asked all to allelia, some to jefecra. Maybe some very common plants should be known too.

[Xillix Queen of Fools]

Good suggestions thus far, we really do need more of these and from a more varied pool.

[Mlato]

I think asking NPCs about their ancestors and people of their family should get an answer other than "i don't understand."

  An example for this: I was in Jayose looking at books at random, when I opened the one about gugrontid. I looked at the author, and then went to an NPC with the same lastname as the author's. I asked that npc about the book's author, and he answered "I don't understand."

I think he should answer to a question like that. to me it would seems logical.

[Camazotz]

I asked an npc how they were, and they didn't understand (bit weird). The npc was somewhere in gugrontid... Might have been the vigesimi.

[Jeraphon]

I asked an npc how they were, and they didn't understand (bit weird). The npc was somewhere in gugrontid... Might have been the vigesimi.

Gugrontid NPCs need lots of help. We know.

[Cearn Bladeworthy]

10: Their trade ("who are you" seems to answer this, "tell me about work" returns a common line, "do you have a job" does the same as "give me a quest", but there's nothing to ask about the NPC's trade specifically)
11:  Rumors about NPC trainers, for example "I hear Percival Hawthorne is quite handy with a blade, and may be willing to teach you a thing or two!"

Kind of reminds me of oblivion, lots of the NPCs in that game tell you about the shops, rumors, the people, and quests around..

[Minks]

Hi folks,

I just finished chatting with Archilaya Gurplepferd. She told me that I make less sense than her brother
at noon, but she answers not to questions about her family or her brother.
Neither seems she to know the name Orchibaly Gurpleferd...

[Lachesis]

"Who is ..." and "Where is ..." for places and people they claim to know in quests they participate in.

If you are recruiting for this task (whole thread), I'll apply.

[LigH]

Technical question: Does the database support generic Q/A entries (not bound to one NPC, but available for groups of NPCs)? If not ... O(n²). Don't do that manually.

[Caarrie]

Technical question: Does the database support generic Q/A entries (not bound to one NPC, but available for groups of NPCs)? If not ... O(n²). Don't do that manually.

I belive this is how a lot of questions are done, go ask several npcs in hydlaa "about plaza" and you will see they have the same answers.

[Jeraphon]

Without getting into too much detail, yes. Some KAs are tailored to the individual, some are tailored to groups (such as cities, or some people know more about magic than others,) and some are tailored to everyone. Right now I'm looking for KAs that are tailored to everyone.

[Lachesis]

After reading the beasts post ... many NPC mention megaras for stylistic purposes, but noone seems to know what a megara is

Also, some politeness phrases would be nice. Most NPC now react on "thank you" (and similar), but I'm surprised they don't react on "you are welcome" (and similar). Many NPC like to say religious phrases instead of a simple "bye", it would be nice if they also understand them. Some examples:

May the Gods protect you on your path.
May your path be lit.
May Laanx frighten the shadows from your path.
May Talad's light shine on you.
May Xiosia lead you.

[Bubba]

I think every NPC should know at least the same kind of background information as each player creates with his or her character, e.g. who their parents are, where/when they were born, how old they are, if they are married, which god they follow, etc. (For example, I was very surprised to discover how few NPCs could answer the prompt "Tell me about Talad".) Also, every NPC should give coherent responses to questions like "Where are we?" or "Where am I?" which can be followed up with "Tell me about this place."

EDIT: After spending quite a long time scouring Hyldaa for a particular NPC, running from one NPC to the next asking them to tell me about her, it became clear to me that some kind of network needs to exist between NPCs regarding other NPCs. I know that some of them are well networked, but others are not. In this case, none of the guards knew anything about a NPC they would theoretically have to deal with on a fairly regular basis, namely, Finara Plund.

Could there be some kind of '3 degrees of separation' for NPCs? Every NPC who is in the general area of other NPCs should know those NPCs or at least give some kind of hint regarding their possible whereabouts. For an NPC in East Hydlaa, they might not know all the NPCs in Central Hydlaa, but they should know whether or not they know a particular NPC. It would be very helpful to get a response like: "I'm sorry. I think I've heard that name a few times, but not in this neighbourhood/district. Try looking in X."