Additional POT NPCs (COTO Store)

Simple request really and something I think folks would pay for.
In addition to the standard array of potential POT NPCs,
I'd like to see other NPC types that you can't currently get:

• Tag Match Blacksmith (pays full price for weapon/armor/animal hat)
• Tag Match Alchemist (pays full price for potions/gems/etc)
• Florist (sells flower seeds etc)
• Brewer (sells brewing related seeds)
• Bookseller (sells books, blueprint patterns, etc.)
• Farmer (sells seeds not on the POT merchant, such as cotton/reagents)
• Bounty Hunter Turn-in Guy (encounter quest item recipient)
• Survey Turn-in Guy (encounter quest item recipient)
• Prayer Card Turn-in Guy (encounter quest item recipient)
• Basic Crafting Skill Trainer
• Basic Adventuring Skill Trainer

While I understand there's some merit to having certain things only be in certain towns, none of the above are exclusive and many are found in multiple NPC towns. I don't see a terrible downside to making these "locally available" to POT residents, the only real impact is going to be less messabout/loadscreening into places to talk to a single NPC and leave. The current system isn't really extending anyone's stay or visit time in any of these places, just creating the unnecessary chore/load time.

There are several upsides, namely
a) These could sell for crowns ($$)
b) Having more NPC choices could increase demand for NPC slots which could encourage POT upgrades ($$)
c) Saves an awful lot of frequent runaround for the sole purpose of finding a particular NPC, interacting with it, and moving on (not meaningful interaction, just tedium)
d) Saves fighting with NPC schedule system when simply trying to do your business.

While some of these "conveniences" certainly encourage players to live in NPC towns, the reality is that devotionals/shrines, convenient layouts and cheaper deeds already make POTs a better choice for practical purposes. NPC towns would still retain their unique regional recipes, quest NPCs, etc. Now that we've got a robust teleport network of wagons allowing instant travel from anywhere to anywhere (and scrolls to do so from literally anywhere), it seems a bit silly to still require a bunch of pointless running about for the sake of it. There's the added benefit of this being something I would be more than happy to throw money at.

 

Many have found that the POT limits on NPC characters allowed tends to make adding them difficult.

 

I would put all those versions of NPC's in pretty much instantly

 

Well that's kinda the point though.
If you're running a small POT and only can put a few NPC choices "out" for residents, obviously some are going to be more useful than others.
At some point, you reach one of the following scenarios:

1. You've got all the NPCs out that you need to have out, and there's no reason to upgrade
2. You're not going to upgrade the POT (cost prohibitive, for example). But you've got a handy box of all the NPCs to grab who you need and switch them as necessary. Probably sat next to your box of devotionals. You can't have them all out but you can still with a bit of management have them for personal use.

In EITHER of these scenarios, adding additional NPC choices is an upside.
In Scenario 1 (Big Pot) - people can buy more to completionism it up and provide all amenities. They have secondary/tertiary crafting hubs set up equipped with NPCs, etc.
In Scenario 2 (Tiny Pot) - even if there isn't room to have them all out at once, its still faster to grab one out of a box and do the ol switcheroo.

Currently, access to these NPCs if you live in a POT works like this: Leave town (load screen) walk across Novia and enter another town (load screen) go find the guy you need, oh, wait, its nighttime he's in bed, go afk for 15 minutes or leave (loadscreen), walk somewhere else, OH GOT PULLED INTO AN ENCOUNTER (2 pointless load screens later), enter another town (load screen) find the npc you need, leave (load screen) walk back home and (load screen) back into where you started. This is assuming you don't accidentally click the wrong button on the siege (2 load screens) and that you're able to choose a location that you can complete ALL of your errands at once, which many towns you cannot - some will have a few, or even most, of the above but not all, depending on the nature of your errands, you may have to repeat this entire process and in what some of us lovingly call Shroud of Load Screens. You can shave some but not all of this using teleport scrolls of course, but its still a lot of messing about.

Given the choice between going through that every time I come back to town to sort out my inventory, or paying some cotos to buy a local NPC, I can tell you which I'm going to do. And my POT is literally just like, "Shimizuland" where all the things are mine and for my own convenience. POT owners who are trying to encourage residents and/or build & run communities find that this expense will greatly increase the lucrativity and appeal of living there.


As an aside, if NPC limits is really an objectionable thing, then I'd be more than happy with alternatives such as:

Remote Training Device - placeable, works like remote bank device but opens skill training interface ( replaces 2x training NPCs)

Remote Quest Turn-in Dispatch System - this marvel of kobold engineering lets you place your prayer cards, survey tickets, and bounty slips in a meteoric iron pneumatic tube and whisks it away to the appropriate dispatch office, awarding you the approriate experience. It can even take a % of the cash rewards as postage!

The Tag Match NPCs could be replaced simply by making the standard merchants actually pay the same and eliminate the whole tagmatch nonsense.
Flower, cotton, and reagent seeds could simply be added to the crafting or cooking vendors.
There's really a lot of consolidation possible, but all of that is probably more work.
The original ask - just let us buy the existing NPCs, seems a) simpler and b) has a financial upside for the dev team

 

There’s possibly another option, allow these NPC’s to be placed in dungeons and basements. Players then could design something like a really cool bazaar like dungeon with all these NPC’s.

I know a while back there was some discussion about doing that, but don’t know what, if any, problems could happen with such an option.

 

Greetings all and kaeshiva
Many things have changed over the years for POT Governors. Originally you could not have skill trainers in a POT because they wanted to make sure you visited the NPC towns. Also the number of NPCs you could place in different size POT was insignificant and required upgrades to get enough NPC in to to support the Avatars.

I am with you on this change kaeshiva, we should be able to place enough NPCs to support our towns and what ever ones we choose. Personally I have bought and placed may more bankers around my town that anything else. Trainers would be great also.

 

I dare you to rename your POT that!

 

Like he would even notice it and not his kind of property. (Shimizu Land Trust) Or maybe he would buy it to build another condominium.