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The RPing in MMORPGs

How important are background story NPCs to you?  

197 members have voted

  1. 1. How important are background story NPCs to you?

    • Not important at all.
      49
    • Somewhat important
      109
    • Very important
      39


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The reason why I didn't do it is because if the NPCs walk, then they might get out of the dialogue range, so you will need to constantly chase them if you want to talk to them, which is annoying. For a single player RPG it's easy, you can just make them stop if someone talks to them, but for a MMO that doesn't work well, since the server can't know when someone is actually talking to them (what would be the acceptable delay since the last talk?).

Well the sensible way to handle that would be to have some feedback from the client. When the dialog window is closed, they are free to continue on their way.

 

Naturally, that wasn't the design so would (also) be a whole bunch more work server-side to implement now.

 

Then there is the issue of people intentionally (or not) blocking an NPC path so he or she can't get to their store and so on.

I guess I was thinking about people in shops just moving around within their shop, and having other "non vital" NPC's wandering in a small area around where they are placed.

 

The idea of them teleporting back to their "place" at a certain time, also is not a bad idea. RP concept - "I've clocked off, I think I'll just teleport to home/tavern instead of walking".

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Well the sensible way to handle that would be to have some feedback from the client. When the dialog window is closed, they are free to continue on their way.

 

And what if it is not closed for a few hours?

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Well the sensible way to handle that would be to have some feedback from the client. When the dialog window is closed, they are free to continue on their way.

 

And what if it is not closed for a few hours?

 

Use a timeout like trade bots do.

 

Dialogue not finished within 5-10 minutes, bad luck, the NPC runs away.

 

Piper

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I voted "somewhat important".

<CLIP>

Does anyone have links to information on the old npc's that were mentioned in this thread and were removed...like the wandering fool?

 

Wanderingfool was a bot, not a NPC. Him and his 'brother' Wanderingidiot would walk around to game to Joker spawns, and when they found him, would PM the location to the player with the highest karma with them (karma came from healing them). Players could also PM both bots asking for Joker's location, and they would reveal it if they knew.

Ah. I about thought as much. I am still waiting for npc's to have more of the abilities of bots, players and creatures. I think that after they have more of the abilities, alot more will be possible like hiring an npc to run a shop, the npc guards, etc. While those would be possible now via bot code, I doubt Entropy wants to mess with bot code.

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

My example is having one neutral mood, one dislike and one friendly.

 

Dwarves are grumpy little misanthropes, they are friendly towards dwarves, neutral to gnomes and disliking the rest.

 

Orchans are warriors and only accept their own kin. Everyone else is disliked.

 

Draegonis are the respectful ones, having a friendly stance with everyone.

 

Elves are neutral with everyone except orchans, which they dislike.

 

Humans dislike elves and orchans, neutral with the rest and friendly with themselves.

 

Gnomes are friendly towards humans, dwarves and elves, while neutral to draegonis and disliking the violent orchans.

 

 

Practically it would make no real difference, you wouldnt be denied to purchase stuff because of your race.. It would just look nice having a little more roleplay from the NPC's.

Edited by HeLLRaiZeR

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

 

That shouldnt be a problem, will just take longer time.

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

 

That shouldnt be a problem, will just take longer time.

You're talking to a couple NPC writers... that would not be enjoyable :confused: The NPC writing team is small and I think the first priority would be putting NPCs everywhere, not making them talk differently to everyone.

 

Thanks for putting all those NPCs into the update Radu, they're beautiful and enjoyable :brooding:

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Thanks for putting all those NPCs into the update Radu, they're beautiful and enjoyable :brooding:

 

only seen a few sofar but i must say i am very impressed :confused:

 

great work and thanks :confused:

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

 

That shouldnt be a problem, will just take longer time.

You're talking to a couple NPC writers... that would not be enjoyable :confused: The NPC writing team is small and I think the first priority would be putting NPCs everywhere, not making them talk differently to everyone.

 

Thanks for putting all those NPCs into the update Radu, they're beautiful and enjoyable :brooding:

 

Never said you had to do it all instantly, but put it out over a longer time and it shouldnt be THAT much of a problem..

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

 

That shouldnt be a problem, will just take longer time.

You're talking to a couple NPC writers... that would not be enjoyable :confused: The NPC writing team is small and I think the first priority would be putting NPCs everywhere, not making them talk differently to everyone.

 

Thanks for putting all those NPCs into the update Radu, they're beautiful and enjoyable :)

 

Never said you had to do it all instantly, but put it out over a longer time and it shouldnt be THAT much of a problem..

 

 

I think the idea is dumb, sorry :brooding: Unless radu really wants to, I don't think we're going to do it.

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Why dont we add several moods to the NPC's based on what race you are?

 

 

I 'm sure the NPC writers can't wait to triple their workload and write 3 scripts for each of the next 150 NPCs instead of one. :confused:

 

 

There are 6 races in Eternal Lands. Reasonable would be changing the NPCs attitude due to sex, too. Which gives 12 scripts per NPC.

 

As long as I don't think it is a dumb idea, on the contrary, it's quite logical one. I've seen something like it in some other MMORPGs, but in my opinion, it would be a complete waste of time and efforts. There are not enough developers in EL to carry such a troublesome and time consuming task. There are some other, more important, things to do, too.

 

<edit>

lots of edits :>

Edited by Natsume

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That idea is not bad, and some games have some different dialogues based at least on gender, but then again, those guys have a lot of money, unlike us.

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I'm still missing the last two, but I must say that those NPCs do add a lot of depth to the game - and having the occasional hint to secrets and such in the dialogues makes them interesting to talk to even for those players that are not inclined to do any role playing.

 

Excellent job, thanks Ent and to all those that worked on them! :medieval:

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lol....have some npc's that if you click the wrong dialog option, they are pissed at you until they forget what you said.

imagine this..."Dude! You pissed off Kelcha! She isn't going to sell you leather for a month!" or "Dude....hitting on Kelcha, her father is going to break all your gear now..." from a friend of yours after you clicked the wrong option and you told them the npc response.

 

Now That would add some flavor to the game. LOL

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