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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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Somewhat important.

 

I absolutely agree to have (even moving) town folk, like the farmer at daytime at the field, at night at home or tavern, telling you more or less important stuff, is a very good addition to the game.

 

Like radu said, sometimes when you find a NPC on a map, you feel less lonely :icon13:

 

At least, it increases the atmosphere of the game, if a town is not totally deserted or only populated by noobz shouting "free stoof plx". ;)

 

Let there be the major, the beggar, the announcer, the bard, the drunkard, the grandpa, the kid, the guard, the traveller, the soldier, the merchant, the miner, the baker, the old hag, the farmer, the witch and and and.

 

They all could tell a small story or at least say hello and walk around in a given area.

 

And, of course, be used in quests.

 

About blocking walking NPC's:

 

Who cares, let them walk around a given area and at night/daytime teleport to a non walkable spot (which cant be blocked by players) to move around that area.

 

Example: The mining dwarf in votd gold mine walks through the gold mine at day time. At night, he teleports to a stool in Moonshadow's tavern (which is a non walkable spot). At dawn, he teleports back into the gold mine to another non walkable spot and starts walking around in the gold mine.

 

About NPC's running away while talking to them:

When a player starts to talk to a NPC, just let it stop walking for, lets say, 5 minutes. IMO the important thing about moving NPC's is not that you can compete in a race with them, but that they are not always located at the same spot.

 

Well, i like talking (and moving) NPC'S B)

 

Piper

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Talking and moving npcs would be awesome..

I also like the idea of during quest some npcs only talk to you when you have a certain level.

 

Just me, but i enjoy reading from some npcs about the background of maps and the races that live there..

 

Good idea to have them moving as well ;)

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I used to play Planeshift before I moved to Eternal-Lands. Quests and role playing are the things I miss from Planeshift. Gaining knowledge to make or manufacture some items, or gain access to certain areas and maps by doing a quest or series of interconnected quests was nice and helped set the role playing scene nicely. Of course Eternal-Lands surpasses Planeshift in most ways, but it is good to see here and in the blog that Radu has some very interesting ideas he is working on for the quests. Unlike Planeshift we have a decent bug free game with a very nice tech tree, and we don't suffer from asshat developers and mods. More role playing and quests would really be the icing on the cake, for me. I'm already enjoying the new quests and look forward to what is to come. ;)

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I voted very important....its the geek/nerd in me. There are so many half finished stories in EL. Makes me crazy. What are those pirates doing??? What is it with the satellite??? What happened in Tirnym? (Why is everyone who does the past quest seem to be an engineer from a space ship???)etc etc. While I know the official writers of EL have written background stories, it would be nice if they were implemented in the game. As far as having the npcs move, I love the idea. I'd even enjoy it if they randomly said things...ie if you're passing past an npc that sells books or items they can hawk their wares, some could be very pleasant while others could be mildly insulting. EL can only benefit from having a richer "history". More quests would be great too, they give people a reason to go to maps they would not normally choose to go to.

Edited by dawench

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Ok, I am glad to see that more than 75% of the players consider the NPCs at least somewhat important. Next update, coming in a few days, will bring a fuckton of new NPCs, and all but one has no use (yet) except for talking bullshit. There will be little else in this update, and probably in the next few updates as well.

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I voted very important....its the geek/nerd in me. There are so many half finished stories in EL. Makes me crazy. What are those pirates doing??? What is it with the satellite??? What happened in Tirnym? (Why is everyone who does the past quest seem to be an engineer from a space ship???)etc etc. While I know the official writers of EL have written background stories, it would be nice if they were implemented in the game. As far as having the npcs move, I love the idea. I'd even enjoy it if they randomly said things...ie if you're passing past an npc that sells books or items they can hawk their wares, some could be very pleasant while others could be mildly insulting. EL can only benefit from having a richer "history". More quests would be great too, they give people a reason to go to maps they would not normally choose to go to.

I totally agree with Dawench, I voted very important as well.

Edited by Ghostsong

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Yes imo the roleplaying side of mmorpgs is somewhat important (the npc side.. not walking around pretending you're a dwarf) not only for the back story they provide but also to move the story on, it sets another goal other than just watching your xp tick (normally done in other mmo's by having a req lvl needed for quests npc's to talk to you).

 

To me the roleplaying side needs the illusion of interaction , where players feel they are changing the World etc,even if the game World doesnt actually change, ofc there are ways to make that illusion reality but not the place to mention them (offtopic).

 

So yeah any new npc's that add to that illusion or set the players new goals can only be good for the game

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Next update, coming in a few days, will bring a fuckton of new NPCs, and all but one has no use (yet) except for talking bullshit.

Wouldn't it be more player friendly to add them when the do have a use? That way when a new NPC shows up you know it's worth talking to them to find out what they know.

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Next update, coming in a few days, will bring a fuckton of new NPCs, and all but one has no use (yet) except for talking bullshit.

Wouldn't it be more player friendly to add them when the do have a use? That way when a new NPC shows up you know it's worth talking to them to find out what they know.

 

Did I just waste my time typing all my posts in this thread?

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Next update, coming in a few days, will bring a fuckton of new NPCs, and all but one has no use (yet) except for talking bullshit.

Wouldn't it be more player friendly to add them when the do have a use? That way when a new NPC shows up you know it's worth talking to them to find out what they know.

 

 

That's what I hate having, especially when new quests are added. You can basically figure out the quest by finding the new NPCs, and not necessarily knowing about them. The way radu is planning on doing it is ideal in my mind.

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voted very important cuz i think it makes the game much more alive

 

would be nice having city guards npcs and some others wandering around when u click em they only display 1 dialog box (so no issue with em stopping to talk) like for example> guard walking around Lakeside Village wearing some armor and sword so u click him he says something like "im watching for gargs that wander around here at night bla bla"...(just short dialogs) i think this tips would also help the newbs

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I voted somewhat important, but with more quests and more history they will quickly become very important.

 

I agree with Acelon that it is OK the new ones don’t all have a “purpose” when they come online. I also like Riviere idea of some NPCs talking to you once you’ve reached a certain level. The NPC should tell you when they will talk to you (e.g. I have a story to tell, but not until you can you are level X in crating). Frankly, I pretty much agree with all the positive/constructive comments posted here.

 

Is there, or will there be, a list of the NPCs on a map so one could be sure they have flound/talked to all of them?

 

Thank you, Entropy and everyone else who helped put the latest quests together. And to those who helped me work my way through them.

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I voted somewhat important, but with more quests and more history they will quickly become very important.

 

I agree with Acelon that it is OK the new ones don’t all have a “purpose” when they come online. I also like Riviere idea of some NPCs talking to you once you’ve reached a certain level. The NPC should tell you when they will talk to you (e.g. I have a story to tell, but not until you can you are level X in crating). Frankly, I pretty much agree with all the positive/constructive comments posted here.

 

Is there, or will there be, a list of the NPCs on a map so one could be sure they have flound/talked to all of them?

 

Thank you, Entropy and everyone else who helped put the latest quests together. And to those who helped me work my way through them.

 

 

If not a list on the official website, the CEL site will most likely have it.

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Is there, or will there be, a list of the NPCs on a map so one could be sure they have flound/talked to all of them?

 

If someone wants to compile such a list and put it on their site, that's fine, but we won't make an official list.

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I voted "somewhat important"

 

I am no longer researching for background storry of my character /quests. The Role Playing part happens between our characters.

For this it would really help if we could express gestures. Example to wave, to bow, handshake etc.

 

Talking about a stories. Who knows the Dos-Game Albion (bluebyte) ? Some will say this was one of the best games because it has such an awsome story. It was not 100%linear if i remember correctly. Ok game elements and graphics count too in mmorpg. But they are more difficult to make up or devellop.

 

When i began playing i was wondering if there was a greater plan that i can follow. But after a while this became no longer important.

Quest-NPCs that give experience or bonus for some skills would be nice. And then of course they need a story :)

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Did I just waste my time typing all my posts in this thread?

No, I just didn't realize that your phrase:

 

...talking bullshit

was the equivalent of (from the base note):

 

I am talking about having lots and lots of NPCs that are in there to give you background information about places, tell their stories and stuff like that, but do not necesarly contribute to the mechanics of the game in any other way.

I generally don't interpret "bullshit" as a good thing so I didn't realize what you intended.

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I voted "somewhat important".

I will be glad to see the new npc's when they come in the game.

The idea of npc's talking bullshit in the game and adding character to it (literally and figuratively) sounds like a good idea.

Maybe you can even have it so they can be killed in invasions and/or healed according to how you do it. That would be interesting. "Save the villagers! The invasion is coming!" lol

 

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

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I voted "somewhat important".

I will be glad to see the new npc's when they come in the game.

The idea of npc's talking bullshit in the game and adding character to it (literally and figuratively) sounds like a good idea.

Maybe you can even have it so they can be killed in invasions and/or healed according to how you do it. That would be interesting. "Save the villagers! The invasion is coming!" lol

 

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.

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But wasn't Wandering Fool also Pk'able at times ?

 

To be able to PK some City Guard NCPs would be cool, perhaps if you kill too many City Guard NCPs then all the other City Guard NCPs attack you on sight. They wouldnt drop anything tho, just doin thier job lol

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But wasn't Wandering Fool also Pk'able at times ?

He always was. Wasn't good for your karma :icon13:

 

*remembers a certain someone who always PKed Fool - and then asked me, with positive karma, to help him find Joker*

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But wasn't Wandering Fool also Pk'able at times ?

He always was. Wasn't good for your karma :icon13:

 

*remembers a certain someone who always PKed Fool - and then asked me, with positive karma, to help him find Joker*

 

Lies. I never PKed any bot!

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You know what could really add to the game lore ? Make walking npc chars, who attend to their daily life. Like, there should be dwarf npcs walking around in votd, whom you could talk with (they not necessarily give a quest, just tell about how nice this place is, or they have just divorced from their wife, and occassionally drop a hint about the game work) [...]

 

I've been thinking for a long time about having walking NPCs with a schedule, like Ultima 7 or Fallout 3. But yes, it's this kind of NPCs I am talking about, that just tell you daily life things, not how to save the world stuff.

 

I don't have the programming skills, but I've been thinking of trying my hand at making a bot adapted to the EL universe from the Eliza psychotherapist bot. I'd done some groundwork on that a long time ago, but that was in BASIC.

 

Something like that, where you could actually talk with a character, would add a lot to EL.

 

Drawbacks?

1) They'd be in English only (at least at first, provided someone volunteers to do some translating).

2) People would actually have to use proper typing and spelling to get the most out of them (not a problem for most of the people I see posting in the forums; but some players...).

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I voted "not important at all"

 

I voted this cause i don't actually always read what the npc got to say, i do know that when i first entered the game that i liked to read the story of the woman at ip tavern, cause it was written good and i was still learning the game and it's story. But after that it started to get something less important.

 

Now i just get irritated by the stories of the npc's especially the ones from which u can buy something, once u click the wrong question u will have to click through some stories before u have the option to buy something again.

 

I don't think the walking npc would really add something up to the game.

But then again, if it's installed properly and will not harm any other part of the game it could be an option.

 

I rather have EL work on the looks of EL tho, it still looks childish at times (like the fighting), but since im not a computer expert i dont know if making the fighting look more lifely would use to big of graphic/memory.

 

Will shut up now again, was just my 2cents :icon13:

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