Annoying and Ridiculous

Maybe get more automatons for the late shift?

(Very off topic here, but...)

Automaton: "Hello, I am Crafting Trainer b5000, how can I be of service?"

Me: "Uh, hi, yeah... I actually need the blacksmith so I can get some fuels for crafting. The place looks deserted. So, uh, where is the blacksmith?"

Automaton: "There are times when that might be necessary."

Me: "What? No, I just need to know where to find the blacksmith. Where do they work?"

Automaton: "I'm sorry. I don't know what 'what' is."

Me: *sigh* "Oh, boy..."

Automaton: "Yes! I have seen the boy who stole the dagger from Selene. He hides out in a cave on the far side of town!"

Me: 0_O

 

There are borked NPCs around. Typically talking to them in SPM works. If not, submit a bug report

 

Personally I like the NPC schedules. It reminds me of MUDs that had scripted NPCs. There was one town (Midgaard) where the mayor would go around to the gates at night and lock them up.

This effectively stopped players from entering or leaving the town until he woke back up and opened them in the morning.

However, you could kill the mayor and get a copy of the key. If you were a Rogue, you could steal the key from him while he slept. (Then again, if you were a Rogue you could also just pick the gate locks) If you were a Mage you could teleport to an NPC or Player outside of town. If you were a Cleric you could "word of recall" back into town from the outside.

Basically it could be a real inconvenience, but it was really damned cool, and there were ways around it most of the time. (You could ask a friend in town to use their key and unlock/open the gate for you if you were stuck outside, or there were secret ways to get in or out of the city as well that few players knew about or shared)

However, I think most major shops usually stayed open round-the-clock.

What's great about the npc schedules is not the "reality", it's the *immersion*. We should have MORE npc scheduling, not less.