Vendors at night and in the dark

Vendors like the blacksmith in Ardoris don't have a single light source in their shop. They stand there in the dark. I recently entered that shop at night with my light spell on, and the guy grabbed me with tears in his eyes and gave me a hug.

Vendors are starting to keep regular shop hours. In one of the new towns in Drachvald a shopkeeper told me to come back when he was open. It was nighttime, so I figured I had to wait until daytime. But the other merchants were all still standing at their sales stands outside in the dark. It would make sense for all merchants to have the same daily rhythm and for them to leave their stands at night. I assume this is in the planning.

Having said that, is there something I can do to while away the time until the shops open again? There is no way to speed up the night by sleeping, so the only option I have found is to take a break and read the forum. Unfortunately, if I get engrossed, I may return to the game to find that it is past noon already. It would be nice to have some town noises that ring in the new day - cocks crowing, bells ringing and such.

 

+1

 

Kara, I agree with this 100%! I tend to have a Netflix movie or something on while I play so I can while away the night time hours in Novia. I can't count the times I've gotten engrossed in the show and by the time I think of it, it's afternoon and only a few minutes of daylight left. It would be great to have a cock-a-doodle-doo to clue me that the sun is rising.

Cheers,
Cornfellow

 

Embrace the shadows!

Ironically, the shops should really be closed at night... lol

 

So shops closed at night makes logical sense, but what to do .. can't hunt forested areas too dark, so as others say they do non game things waiting for day ... this to me seems to counter intuitive to a game you want folks to play. They have to wait to have a favorable time of day in game which means they get busy doing something else and new players my lose interest in the game. Now if there were scenes only accessible at night .......that would be something to do while waiting on the shopkeepers who are too cheap to hire additional workers for the night shift.

I know the original OP wasn't complaining about shops closed at night, but the lack of light source in some scenes, and the fact that the waiting is the hardest part, but I really dislike having to wait on shopkeepers .. they need to hire a 2nd and 3rd shift.

 

+1

 

You can still hunt at night. It's just a little scarier. I do wish there were different mobs at night in some scenes. I remember EverQuest had really dark nights too and some zones spawned undead at night only.

 

Ardoris is missing life...the feeling to enter a living hub is missing. So...light or no light...shopkeepers starring at walls is bad in itself. At least like its now you notice it only 50% of the time during day.


I was standing in Ardoris playing music yeserday evening prime time (european time) and I swear...not a SINGLE player came by. And when you take the time to just stand around for maybe 30 minutes...you notice how "loveless" the NPCs wander around the market place.

 

There should be valuable plants that flower at night, then wither and die at daybreak.

 

That could work yet some other kind of activities might be available at night. "valuable plants that flower at night", as @Womby suggest; or stealth business of the thievery kind... maybe some skills should be learn at night; possibilities are endless and limited only by the Dev time to implement them.

 

Most of these are AI issues that are due to them not being really integrated yet.

That's due in part because its a system tech that Port has to create themselves.
Can really just buy a good custom AI, gotta create it from the ground up to meet the needs of the game.
Which takes time to hash it all out and get optimized enough to give every npc ATON of more server/client side data to track.

So its not just flipping the switch to turn on pathfinding. Not to mention a dev has to go though every single npc and create a custom set of "walking points"
that they can travel on to go where they need to go. (aka from their shop to their home and back, and myb over to the light to turn it on and ext..) Its done with a few guards, but they are slightly different being in constant motion.

 

Aye, but making a lil' cock-a-doodle-do sound as the sun rises, like the original post recommends, wouldn't be all that difficult, would it?

'Do not go gentle into that good night,
Kara Brae should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.' -Dylan Thomas

 

Nah it wouldn't. I can mention it to the sound dev and see what he thinks.

Would be nice to get someone to create a good crafting widget for sota though.
Astro tracking
day/night cycle/time
season
ferry schedules (future)

stuff like that, most old mmos had that kinda thing.
I had even considered asking for a minecraft like sun/moon dail that u can tell when its day/night for when im mining for hours and I like to leave to go sell some stuff. But that would be total fluff.

 

I've heard this before, and not regarding shop vendors either.
It's a reoccurring theme that does not bode well with many.

 

To me this is the best use of music in addition to common sounds we attribute in real life. Music should be used to herald in changes in weather, combat, and partitions of the day. Why it plays all the time is beyond me and thanks to that I miss out on many songs as I just mute it.