Questing: Wandering NPC

[Sunuke]

I think it would be nice to have some wandering NPC's which give quests.

The type of quests would be debatable.

The reason behind this?

We'd be scouting the whole of Istaria to find these NPC.

These quests could be set in difficulty, item type, etc

[StalePopcorn]

I asked about walking NPCs, such as Steward Pratt McGrubben in New Trismus when he wanders over for a casual conversation.

The VI reply went something like:

"This was incredibly hard to do, and required some major changes for just one NPC"

so I don't think this one would be possible. Never hurts to ask though

[velveeta]

i think this is a great idea, if it can be done!

[AmonGwareth]

Unfortunately it isn't feasible. The Steward was part of an experiment in 2006 to try and get moving NPCs in place. It has some downsides, such as not stopping when you talk to him and even continuing his regular non-quest dialog.

In addition, there can't be any randomness with the NPC such as where he shows up because they are static and can't be spawned like a monster can.

[Sunuke]

Instead of letting them walk could it be possible to make an NPC spawn at random spots? or even at a specific pattern.

Keep the NPC in the area for like 30 min and let it recal to a new area.

If you then would be unlucky to get to the NPC in time and are talking he/she would recall in the middle of it.

[Guaran]

Interesting suggestion. Kinda reminds me of the vielo, which the dev's would place at random locations.

The upside is this could give players something to go exploring for. The downside is it may not be possible to make it random, and if the devs went to the work of putting in various spawn points, eventually they would all become known, and the exploring part is exhausted.

Perhaps instead, they could do them like they did the vielo. It could be a small camp that's placed pretty much anywhere in istaria. Dev's could do it on the fly a few times a week (after its been found at least once maybe), or perhaps each maintenance (easier for dev's). The group could be "Traveling Bards" who are down on their luck, stranded in the middle of nowhere with a "hurt leg, and a deer bit me in the neck" or something

And the quest could give out fluff type items for a quest reward, with multiple choices for rewards. Each quest completion could be done only once per maint, with a "Bard's Token" as the reward, which could then be spent at one of the npc's in the camp for new interesing fluff like underwear, pets, banner and mural patterns, etc. Some items could be more expensive, and therefore would require multiple completions to obtain.

So it would be random places like the vielo, but not limited in items like they were (that was a bad idea, only 4 items per type per respawn).

Dev's? Feasible? Players? Fun?

[AmonGwareth]

Not feasible. The Vielo appeared in different locations because we logged into each live shard and moved the NPCs to the other locations.

NPCs can't be setup with spawn regions.

[Guaran]

Aww shucks. The idea had potential.

[Sunuke]

Not feasible. The Vielo appeared in different locations because we logged into each live shard and moved the NPCs to the other locations.

NPCs can't be setup with spawn regions.

Wouldn't it be possible to write a script which does these actions required to do?

So if that script would have about 50 locations and 50 blanks (which would mean there would be no spawn) and then connect the roll functionality.

Depending on the number rolled a sub part of the script would run and place the NPC's or just remove them.

If such script would have a 24 hour timer and ofcourse if this would even be possible then I think we would have something really cool

[AmonGwareth]

Wouldn't it be possible to write a script which does these actions required to do?

So if that script would have about 50 locations and 50 blanks (which would mean there would be no spawn) and then connect the roll functionality.

Depending on the number rolled a sub part of the script would run and place the NPC's or just remove them.

If such script would have a 24 hour timer and ofcourse if this would even be possible then I think we would have something really cool

A script? No, that sort of technology doesn't exist in this game.

[Sunuke]

A script? No, that sort of technology doesn't exist in this game.

I was just thinking from system admin view. If something needed to be done at a specific time and needed an active login we could use a telnet session to login and let a specific txt based script do the rest.

Too bad this isn't possible in the game.

[velveeta]

yeah, it is too bad - a wandering quest npc would be fun!