Annoying and Ridiculous

Mail Delivery:
Soltown
So I have to zone into the area only the find the town cryer off duty and not accepting mail? If you MUST put all the npcs on flaky unreliable schedules at least let us wake them up and do business. Small independent business people do business whenever we get the chance. Our real life time is valuable and it is wrong of you to impose useless and pointless time sinks on us in this game. Many of us spend more time playing this game than we should anyway.

 

If he doesn't wake up when you double-click him, and accept the mail, its a bug.

 

Another bug for the mail is this: if they won't accept their mail package, switch to Single Player Online mode, and the NPC will suddenly acknowledge you..

 

I tried him post-patch last night. I had a package for him, but he wouldn't take it. And the mail topic made him just say I already had a package.

 

Had same issue last night, I was in Friends Only mode. I'll try the other modes after work, unless someone finds out how to fix this (granted you had the issue to begin with first though).

 

Same thing with me...

Nice beard Xander

 

There's a mail system?

 

It's a quick way to make cash for the starter people. The mails will be running between Solania, Ardoris, Soltown, and Desolis.. I do hope they expand the destinations more, though. Give us more reasons to travel on the overworld.

 

Yes I agree, NPC's with "schedules" are quite ridiculous. I guess for some its "fun" to try to buy/sell/turn in a quest to a NPC only to be told too bad I am off duty. Then you experience the "fun" of running to another town, just another annoying time sink.

 

Keep the NPC schedules. Fix the bugs where dialog / quests are broken.

And I'd be perfectly fine with an NPC telling me to go away if I wake him up in the middle of the night and/or he locks his door. Or his guard dog attacks me. Or a guard on patrol tells me not to disturb the locals. Or worse, after repeated attempts the NPC gets up and tries to kill me. But sadly, those experiences will never happen because MMO. It's too bad offline mode can't be made unique in this way.

 

Small note here.

Exit and resume seems to be the work around for these types of bugs.

 

Tell me 1 thing the schedules are actually adding to the game experience?
I mean I like the concept, but I hate the implementation.
If an NPC is stood in his shop, he should sell to you. Period.
If the Town Crier is stood in his spot, he should interact as normal. Period.

Want to make them wander off to bed? Be unavailable half the time? Force people to stand around 20 mins so they can sell their loot and get back to what they're doing? What is the benefit? What does it add?
All its added for me is a level of frustration that has sent me sprinting to a town where schedules aren't implemented yet so I can carry on playing without the annoyance.

Its either that or try to time returning to town with "Midday" in the hopes that the shops will be open.

I'm sorry but I just don't see any benefits that balance out the annoyance of the entire system. I don't feel like I'm part of a world, I don't feel immersed, I feel irritated and I'm tabbing out to the forums or playing web games while I wait for the NPCs to be available.

 

Thank the community members who lobbied so hard for NPC schedules to be implemented as soon as possible for the sake of realism. I wouldn't mind so much if my own avatar could sleep somewhere until the break of day, but poor Kara is expected to wander the lands in total darkness all night long. No wonder she looks like death warmed over.

 

LOL realism, its a game! It does seem that the very small vocal minority of backers have these type of annoyances implemented. I'm sorry but after working 8 hours in the real world, I don't find the annoyance of NPC schedules fun whatsoever, thankfully I have better things to do with my time and other games to play.

 

Well as I said, the principle isn't bad. But the practicality is a different story.
Because players don't fall into these sorts of schedules, unless you happen to fill up your inventory and hit town at the right moment, you are basically just hit with a delay.
That's when the schedules are working as intended.
Half the time they aren't, and its the middle of the day and the NPC wont open the shop unless you relog/rezone. Its horrible.

There are plenty of NPCs wandering town who can have schedules. Leave the essential merchants (the ones who pay you a decent price, the ones who sell fuels, regs) alone.
If the bartender goes to bed and I can't buy a mug of ale, I'll live.
If I have an inventory full of loot and can't really do anything until I sell it, I either have to take a 50% loss or stand around waiting.
If I need reagents to actually fight anything, I have to stand around waiting.
If I'm halfway through crafting something and the fuel npc goes to bed, I have to stand around waiting, or spend just as much time wandering to another town without schedules.
Solution seems to be "avoid towns with schedules completely."

I'm just wondering what the positives are to having this system? Realism is not standing outside the blacksmith's house all night while she's asleep and then accosting her in the front yard on her way to work....you'd get arrested for that.

 

Yes I agree, if this is for the Role Playing aspect, cant a Role Player just role play someone is sleeping?

 

Ultima was always aiming to be a world sim. No surprise that Shroud is incorporating NPC 'lives'


Since they added robots already, it could be a way to have 24/7 important vendors etc

 

I like the schedules. At first I thought it was just a novelty, but after having to go hunt down quest NPC's because of it, it adds a whole new dynamic. Sure it makes questing less trivial, but that is a good thing. It also adds a new type of realism.

This morning, RL, I went to a coworker's office to discuss business and he was not there. So I want to the break room to see if he was there, but he was not. So I went back to my office to do something else for a while before trying again. This is just another day in the office. When the NPC's do it, I kinda feel more at home and relaxed because I know not to rush through everything and just enjoy the ride.

 

Definitely need to hire second shift workers for shops!

 

I agree that the game is less fun now with NPC schedules. What I really hate is when I double click a vender and I don't get the vendor window. I'll even say "wares" or "store" and still nothing. Very frustrating.