{Alright folks, get ready for a long one. The idea might not be new, so if it isn't, I heartily apologize. I didn't come across it in my searches of the forum.}
I recall seeing a thread about putting NPC-run guilds into the game, and it reminded me of an idea I had not too long ago. In the future, I would like to see the ability for guilds to 'hire' NPCs to do certain functions, although I would imagine these functions would be limited to being inside guildhouses at first. That and, of course, developing the whole thing may take considerable time and effort on part of the dev team, but the payoffs will include a richer guild-management experience, and a more engaging experience for players interacting with the guild and its members. It may also have the effect of getting more volunteers involved in the process of working with NPC AI, and therefore generating improvements and strategies that could be later used to improve the AI of quest-giving NPCs across Yliakum. Not only this, but this would provide a way to allow a greater part of dedicated players (e.g. guild owners that take the game seriously enough to earn serious tria) to make additions to the game story and content on their own, in a way that is hard-coded and enduring, and that goes beyond imaginative roleplay events (although I don't seek to undermine this crucial part of the game at all, of course) and prodding the dev team into madness.
So here's how it could work:
- Once a guild purchases a guildhouse, they would gain the ability to hire (and fire) NPCs from an agency somewhere in Hydlaa.
- The behavior of this NPC would be configurable in multiple ways. Examples include:
(1) What kind of phrases she/he/kra would respond to, and what kind of responses would be given. Greeting players who enter the guildhouse, with different responses for guild members and non-members, is a possibility.
(2) The ability to conduct sales/exchanges with certain guild members or members of the general public, along with limitations on those kind of transactions. E.g. (a) what items can be bought/sold, (b) how many per player over a certain period of time, (c) for how many tria, and (d) whether to refuse transactions when certain stocks or the guild treasury reach a certain dictated limit, etc.
(3) Possibly, the ability to give out guild-made quests as mentioned in the NPC-run-guilds thread.
- The NPC would be customizable by name, gender, race, clothing/equipment, description, etc. Several NPC appearances could be cycled (but using the same NPC) so as to give the illusion of the NPC wearing/holding different things throughout the day. Actual presence/availability could be a modified value too, although I would expect that most guilds would want to keep their NPCs 'turned on' all the time. The NPC's location within the guildhouse (if that's where it will be limited to) could also be a modifiable option.
- Since the NPC is essentially hired labor, the guild would have a certain amount of tria deducted from its treasury on a regular basis in the form of 'wages'. The guild leader (or person assigned to manage the NPC) could adjust the wages, but a concrete minimum would exist, which would be dependent upon the number of skills the NPC was expected to exercise. (So an NPC expected to know 30 bits of important info AND conduct transactions involving 25 items would be paid more than an NPC expected to only know 3 bits of info. Note: I don't think variations on a single question should count towards increasing the wage minimum, as it's an AI issue.)
~ When yet-to-be-implemented skills—such as charisma and thievery—come to fruition, it could be possible for a player to bribe an NPC employee into divulging significant information about the guild employing her/him/kra, such as information about their assets and members. Prices or amounts in sales/transactions could also be "adjusted". Higher-paid employees would be less susceptible to bribery.
Lets have an example of implementation:
As I walk into an open guildhouse, notice a surprisingly clean-cut dwarf in a clerk's uniform standing behind a desk with books piled on top of it. I walk up to him and he greets me with a courteous nod. I ask him what I can do to make some money with that guild, and he tells me that the [guild name] is buying several different ores for reasonable prices. Anxious to make some tria, I rush out to the mines and start digging away. Late at night [IRL, when few members of the aforementioned guild are online] I return to the guildhouse, and find him still standing behind the desk. I go up, sell my ores to him, and walk away with a heavy pocket.
The outcomes? I, the player, am able to do contractual work for a guild and buy/sell my resources or get information at any time of the day, regardless of whether any guild members are actually online. Guild operations and commerce can keep chugging even if no members are online, because general PS members can participate using a 'member' who's online 24/7 and never takes bathroom breaks.
Of course, guilds can get way more creative than I was with this example. Secretaries, faux-butlers, artistic muses, shopkeepers, merchant guild pick-up/drop-off points, trainers/quest-givers, random fake-member NPCs, an NPC hired to play a character in a guild-created role-play event, the options are numerous.
Comments? Suggestions for improvement of the idea?
Obviously, none of us expect this to make it into PS 0.5 (or 0.6 or 0.7, etc.), but lets bounce around the hypothetical idea before shooting it down because of its lack of short-term feasibility, mmmkay?
