NPC Towns, what makes them special?

I for one will be avoiding POTs (vis my deeds). The last thing I want is to be based in a town that is subject to the whims of a player. People's capacity for trollish behaviour never ceases to amaze me. Not to say that the game will or will not allow for bad player behavior vis POT ownership. Just saying that I will avoid POTs. So NPC towns are, at the least, distinct from POTs in that respect for me.

 

Yep, POTs are out for me.

 

I'm trying to find it now....want to check it out.

 

Ok found it....

My thoughts...

The entrance looks good as well as the docks, didn't like how it felt when you got over to the player housing(could be because not much was there)

Castle looked neat, obviously not done yet.

I kept getting this feeling walking around, this feels like a museum. I felt like I was walking around an exhibit. I tried to think about that as I did. I came to the conclusion there just isn't enough NPC's. there needs to be at least 10 times the number there for a city this size. Even if they are just filler it would make it feel alive. At the moment it feels lifeless...the same problem the other cities have.

This one definitely is designed better so kudos for that.

 

I kind of feel that way too about Ardoris... if they'd just replace 90% of the Watchers with actual NPC's it might feel more alive... instead of infested.

 

Funny I thought the same thing....but then I would run into a small group of NPC's....these are supposed to be cities...right now they feel like the equivalent of modern day Pompeii.

 

Ok, bare with me guys...

I'm sitting on a crate in Aerie. There is one guard and one adventurer trainer(interesting name) with me....is the guard there to guard this poor man? I huge square and we are alone. Oh wait, a few merchants showed up....there needs to be people shopping(not players).

The guard NEVER stops walking...doesn't sit...nothing.

This is what I mean, immersion...does this make more sense?

 

You have a lot of great ideas and expectations. Even if we can meet half of them, it would be better than any other game! Keep the ideas flowing!

 

Have you climbed the ramparts yet, or gone around to the arch in the sea? The best thing about Aerie is that it has a lot of nice separate spaces.

But yes, when I last visited -- which was QA -- a lot of it felt a bit empty, too, just because there weren't houses in. It also has a different feel than something like Owl's Head because its more "open."

 

YES, of course it makes sense. That's good feedback!

What doesn't make sense is IF you think the devs can just magic that up into a better scene. They need time, lots of time and lots of feedback cause they're doing A LOT. Rune, the devs will probably be the first to agree with you and say it's not finished. If you look at the PRE and POST wipe schedule you'll probably see something about NPC polish in towns somewhere.

So yeah, keep trying to give feedback, I'm sure it's appreciated. But don't forget that the devs can't do it all at once and there are competing interests. While they're making NPC's walk in a more immerssive way, my POT might not be getting it's NPC's fixed. My guards don't do ANYTHING!

Do you see what I'm saying here?

 

Yeah I like the layout....needs stuff though, clutter....needs the @majoria70 decorating system put in place.

 

.... Just saw the following in the 370 patch notes:

• Removed half the Oracle crawlers and fliers from Ardoris for performance

That's a good start...

 

I like Resolute but Aerie not so much.

 

Careful, what they said was remove....not replace.

 

This seems like the most legit way, I can see what amazing things we do with the bear tavern from the stuff we craft/buy, imagine the limitless potential if you had full control and unlimited items.

 

Well guys, we need to push this.

@RichardGarriott what do you think of this idea of getting a decorating crew together?

 

NPC towns don't use the player house system for decorations; they need to be decorated (the technical term is actually "propped out" -- aka props for a play) in the Unity editor. So unfortunately a "decorating crew" aka Hometown wouldn't work for NPC towns.

Unlike many games we are a very small team who all wear many hats. For most towns you have two or at the most three people working on them - the original world builder, then if it's an NPC town I'll go through and do a pass on NPC placement and pathing (though I don't write all the NPC scripts I generally do most of the actual placement for NPC towns - other designers do adventure scenes) and then another world builder such as @Sannio will go through and populate with more ambient life such as critters and if appropriate resources, discovery points, etc.

We are actively trying to improve our process so that we can deliver better experiences, however this will be probably precisely the answer you *don't* want - in the near term it will mean less unique NPCs and locations, not more. We want to ensure first that the actual storyline path of the game is polished, complete and fun, and then loop around and populate the rest of the scene with points of interest. Up until recently we've tried to do both simultaneously and suffered at doing both, so we're going to concentrate our efforts better.

 

yup... that's why I said it was a good START... now if only they'd put a few NPC's in that wonder around the towns and not just stand in one spot 27/7.

 

As can be seen in Aerie we're trying to get away from totally static NPCs, but we also do not have "idle behaviors" for NPCs yet.

 

Thanks for the explanation, but yeah, that's really unfortunate. Why couldn't a Hometown-like town be converted and used as an NPC town? You guys do all the major, more complex stuff mentioned above, while leaving the capability in place for players to help decorate buildings and properties.

While giving the more advanced editing capability to players, especially for modders, would be great, I think the scope here was limited to decorating buildings / properties, like Hometown, and that would also mean NPC buildings/properties. I mean, wouldn't that also assist with perhaps a more flexible PRT in the future?

I do hope then that you don't rush it it out the door unpolished and give enough time in the post-wipe schedule for all of this.