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NPCs


Shynras

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I can't find much about NPCs, will they be implemented?

 

Personally i think it's a bad choice, since they'll require more unnecessar work on 3dmodels and animations, and still they'll probably feel clunky. So i would prefer a specific block for any purpose. i.e. you can access the auction house by clicking on the auction house block, instead of an NPC. 

Neither i would like NPC that can farm you stuff, or build/destroy/defend your base. I'd rather build mechanical creations to do this stuff by scripts.

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The plan is that all of those 'NPC' type jobs are going to be done by the player base. Going to a shop to purchase some parts? Hopefully, that shop is a player made business and that lady at the counter is a player just like you. NPcs as animals and monsters makes perfect sense, however.

:)

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The plan is that all of those 'NPC' type jobs are going to be done by the player base. Going to a shop to purchase some parts? Hopefully, that shop is a player made business and that lady at the counter is a player just like you. NPcs as animals and monsters makes perfect sense, however.

 

:)

 

I doubt that a player will spend his time on a "shop" selling stuff all day, it doesn't make sense. There will probably be a specific block that you place and put stuff to sell, with the price you want. NPC animals would make sense, but personally, since there's a ton of work to be made on this game, this is not a feature that I consider a priority, since it requires quite some work to be implemented properly

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I doubt that a player will spend his time on a "shop" selling stuff all day, it doesn't make sense. There will probably be a specific block that you place and put stuff to sell, with the price you want. NPC animals would make sense, but personally, since there's a ton of work to be made on this game, this is not a feature that I consider a priority, since it requires quite some work to be implemented properly

more than likely the markets will be play run kiosks but the player may not actually be at the kiosk. though i have played games before the invention of a central trade house or auction house where players had to physically advertise there wears over chat and get people to buy from them or to sell something to them

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I assume it will be a Global Amazon. It would put use to their drones to ship from planet to planet. A small delay while your package is being delivered.

lol as long as they dont break stuff as often as amazon ill be happy with this. but i agree.

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I want to be the kind of player that can repair anything. That would mean stacks upon stacks of spacedollars as people come in for repairs and possibly refuel. You hear that? CHA-CHING indeed.

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I believe NPCs can generally add to the world and be helpful. What roles they could fill and how "active" they appear compared to players is another topic, but I'd seriously consider humanoid NPCs in some form, if you have the time. Might feel a lot emptier otherwise (I don't know how the "one big shard" thing will work yet).

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Maybe NPCs as decoration? Can't fight, die by one shot, can only seat and go into different directions, you cannot interact with them. Player cities of small guilds with only 30 players, which are not even at the same time online - might be a bit boring, especially for RP. A few people more will not disturb and make the towns more lifely.

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im going to look to another game that is similar in size but that's it, and that's NMS. at first hello games wasn't going to have npc's but as they got closer and closer to the release they decided that they wanted npc's. so they might not want npc's now but probably after the alpha they will be in a better spot to decide if NPC"s are needed in the game

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I doubt that a player will spend his time on a "shop" selling stuff all day, it doesn't make sense. There will probably be a specific block that you place and put stuff to sell, with the price you want. NPC animals would make sense, but personally, since there's a ton of work to be made on this game, this is not a feature that I consider a priority, since it requires quite some work to be implemented properly

 

Might I introduce you to Everquest Project 1999? 

 

Back in the day, we didn't have Auction houses or even an Auction channel in chat. We just had to travel the world trying to find people to trade with us.

 

Eventually people got tired of doing that, and started to organize days where they would show up and sell all of their wares at a given location. More people caught on to this and all converged on one location in the game that became famous for being the player auction house area. The East Commonland Tunnels. If you wanted to buy something back in the old EQ days, you had to travel across the world to the EC Tunnels. 

 

People would sit around for hours doing nothing but trading in chat, just waiting for their next customer to come along.

 

And we loved every minute of it. 

 

 

 

Now that will never happen in DU (I can dream), however on the other hand being able to build "market" units is going to make the world feel much smaller. It will be harder to build giant trade hub space stations that lots of people are going to want to use, if everyone can just build their own local markets and never have to actually see someone in person to trade. 

 

I suggest that Market units be somewhat difficult to create, require a certain skill level to create, require many resources, and also require some type of "city token" or other territorial token in order to be activated. That way players actually have to come together to have markets, as it will reduce the ability for the lone player to run off and build everything they need on their own. 

 

Even if the cities are never populated, at least markets will feel like they have more depth to them.

 

I have the same sentiments towards player run shops. I think they should be fairly difficult to create, although not nearly as difficult as a market terminal (and obviously very limited in its capabilities). 

 

 

I probably went a bit too far off topic here...

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Might I introduce you to Everquest Project 1999? 

 

Back in the day, we didn't have Auction houses or even an Auction channel in chat. We just had to travel the world trying to find people to trade with us.

 

Eventually people got tired of doing that, and started to organize days where they would show up and sell all of their wares at a given location. More people caught on to this and all converged on one location in the game that became famous for being the player auction house area. The East Commonland Tunnels. If you wanted to buy something back in the old EQ days, you had to travel across the world to the EC Tunnels. 

 

People would sit around for hours doing nothing but trading in chat, just waiting for their next customer to come along.

 

And we loved every minute of it. 

 

 

 

Now that will never happen in DU (I can dream), however on the other hand being able to build "market" units is going to make the world feel much smaller. It will be harder to build giant trade hub space stations that lots of people are going to want to use, if everyone can just build their own local markets and never have to actually see someone in person to trade. 

 

I suggest that Market units be somewhat difficult to create, require a certain skill level to create, require many resources, and also require some type of "city token" or other territorial token in order to be activated. That way players actually have to come together to have markets, as it will reduce the ability for the lone player to run off and build everything they need on their own. 

 

Even if the cities are never populated, at least markets will feel like they have more depth to them.

 

I have the same sentiments towards player run shops. I think they should be fairly difficult to create, although not nearly as difficult as a market terminal (and obviously very limited in its capabilities). 

 

 

I probably went a bit too far off topic here...

 

Actually, that sounds quite awesome in its own way. Then again I'm more used to how games were "back in the days" compared to today. For example in RPGs you often had to walk anywhere or at least go to some sort of travel point (think of Morrowind and Striders / the Mage's Guild Teleporters ... or scrolls). In addition, quests you got from NPCs or by other measures (written letters etc) often did not just give you a magic map marker but contained the location or things you do within the text itself. So you had to look around or think. I didn't play EQ btw, my earliest MMO(RPG) was Star Wars Galaxies. But I heard many things about it.

 

Of course nowadays I'm more inclined to use "modern features" such as map markers or fast travel to location points (like in Fallout) and while I can see some benefit for NPCs to some extend, I think the idea to have players come together at local (if the universe is too big, there'd be more than one or few hubs) trade hubs at specific times for a specific length sounds kinda cool.

 

Some players may call that "outdated" or whatever but these mechanics (or rather lack of mechanics, thus forcing players to do this instead) encourage social interaction and possibly a somewhat more immersive experience as you have to actively barter with living thinking people - you can't code that any better into some cheap trade interface or NPC.

 

Then again at the same time that means you're more dependent on other players. But hey, if you play online you have to expect some kind of interaction anyway. Buuuut we probably won't see this kind of stuff you named out of necessity as some mechanics and features may cover trading.

 

Then again ... even if, you could still do that stuff if you wanted. Just open local trade hubs that are kind of like "neutral grounds" or open and public and invite all the people operating / living in the area to come and trade at specific days or times. Profit...and fun.

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Might I introduce you to Everquest Project 1999? 

 

Back in the day, we didn't have Auction houses or even an Auction channel in chat. We just had to travel the world trying to find people to trade with us.

 

Eventually people got tired of doing that, and started to organize days where they would show up and sell all of their wares at a given location. More people caught on to this and all converged on one location in the game that became famous for being the player auction house area. The East Commonland Tunnels. If you wanted to buy something back in the old EQ days, you had to travel across the world to the EC Tunnels. 

 

People would sit around for hours doing nothing but trading in chat, just waiting for their next customer to come along.

 

And we loved every minute of it. 

 

 

 

Now that will never happen in DU (I can dream), however on the other hand being able to build "market" units is going to make the world feel much smaller. It will be harder to build giant trade hub space stations that lots of people are going to want to use, if everyone can just build their own local markets and never have to actually see someone in person to trade. 

 

I suggest that Market units be somewhat difficult to create, require a certain skill level to create, require many resources, and also require some type of "city token" or other territorial token in order to be activated. That way players actually have to come together to have markets, as it will reduce the ability for the lone player to run off and build everything they need on their own. 

 

Even if the cities are never populated, at least markets will feel like they have more depth to them.

 

I have the same sentiments towards player run shops. I think they should be fairly difficult to create, although not nearly as difficult as a market terminal (and obviously very limited in its capabilities). 

 

 

I probably went a bit too far off topic here...

lol i remember using fan made forums and specific servers for Runescape back in the day for trading

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NPCs will no doubt be useful in a single-shard universe. I'm just saying I'd rather see a player selling me different items over an NPC.

Just like others here i think, NQ will make special blocks (computers, trading terminals,...) where you can buy things. That's also more likely in a sci-fi universe: Do we go to the counter if we want to buy something or do we order it via internet (DU-amazon like)? Even now there are almost only self-service shops around, the only human is at the cash desk. When you have technologies which can replace them (and they exist even now), you will do that, so why should there be npcs in shops in the future?

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Just like others here i think, NQ will make special blocks (computers, trading terminals,...) where you can buy things. That's also more likely in a sci-fi universe: Do we go to the counter if we want to buy something or do we order it via internet (DU-amazon like)? Even now there are almost only self-service shops around, the only human is at the cash desk. When you have technologies which can replace them (and they exist even now), you will do that, so why should there be npcs in shops in the future?

I suppose so. 

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Just like others here i think, NQ will make special blocks (computers, trading terminals,...) where you can buy things. That's also more likely in a sci-fi universe: Do we go to the counter if we want to buy something or do we order it via internet (DU-amazon like)? Even now there are almost only self-service shops around, the only human is at the cash desk. When you have technologies which can replace them (and they exist even now), you will do that, so why should there be npcs in shops in the future?

 

Because having NPC's and players run stores brings more life into the game rather than everyone just staring at computer terminals the whole time. 

 

There certainly aren't that many sci-fi movies where stores are fully automated with a computer terminal out front, because the interaction between characters and storekeepers is more entertaining to watch. In fact the only movie that I can think of where that happens is THX-1138, and that most certainly is not the type of game people want to play.

 

It would be more entertaining to walk into a shop ingame, and overhear an NPC trying to sell me something or telling me about some great deal the store has going on, than it would be for me to just browse through a computer terminal trying to figure out what makes one store unique from another.

 

With computer terminals taking the place of NPC's, there's no real motivation to build out stores and decorate them to make them appealing to people travelling by either. 

 

 

 

Ever seen Tatooine from Star Wars? How exciting would it have been if instead of shop owners and androids running all the stores, if there were just rows of computer terminals everywhere? How cool would Blade Runner have been if there weren't any shops on the streets? Should we also give up the desire for bartenders because a computer terminal can do the job too?

 

As an MMO, DU should try to keep a focus on social interaction. I certainly don't want to pay a subscription every month to play a game by myself without ever needing to talk to another player. 

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Actually, NPCs are basically the same as a player. The only difference is that it's not controlled by a player, it's controlled by a computer. Which means it'll follow the same rules as the player's character. Meaning it follows along with the devs algorithm to prevent lag caused by an overabundance of players.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/1414/feature/10930/How-the-Games-Single-Shard-Server-Works.html

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Yes, I know of that, but you got to remember that a place can be over-crowded by players, can you imagine having NPCs taking player's spots in a battle and possibly creatng a heck of a battle? I personally am against this notion. I reckon we will have to see if NPCs could bee deployed as merchants for our goods on a marketplace, or can be actually part of a ship's crew.

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