Cities, what differentiates them?

You are absolutely right, it's more then just a quick once over the NPC. I did that quick off my head and probably should have put a bit more into it.

You did an excellent job of laying out issues with the NPC's as they are...they don't exist in this world as part of this world(no homes etc) they exist as a means to give the players some service. That is a major difference of what we are talking about. I want the cities to have a distinctness about them that says "hey this is andoris!"

Player housing is a major issue in this sort of layout. Another issue is, I'm not sure that many even care that these cities don't have that feel(if you do then this isn't directed at you)

You are right it did have that, but did you need to use it? I am sure I said that more lore on the outside isn't a bad thing, but show not tell. Those are classic words I learned in creative writing class.

 

I think you'll like Etceter.

 

i really hope this is exactly what happens. i want to have ZERO spoilers if at all possible, with the lore and storyline.. one reason i've personally decided to never do any quests except the hat quests and that once killing a bunny with a grenade.

to be more clear on this: i was a lore nut with the elder scrolls series, then eso came out and i was a very early qa tester and did a LOT of quests, and storyline playtesting, etc... it killed my overall experience once the game went live in its final and polished form. i just couldn't enjoy it that much, nor for that long. - i still go back to skyrim and oblivion, and morrowind from time to time because those stories never get old to me. i really want to experience the storyline and lore with a polished product here, it is what i've found i love best about long-lived game series, and i do not want to destroy my personal experience again, like i did with the elder scrolls series.

 

The issues you guys have brought up regarding NPCs is all very valid, and fixing these issues will go a long ways towards cementing these cities in the world.

But that's not all it needs.

I think there are two major hurdles to this besides npcs at the moment: City/Town design, and Atmosphere.

By design, I'm talking about layout, as opposed to actual graphics. One of the main issues with the towns feeling the same is that when u enter a town, very often the first thing you see is player owned houses. Unhelpful! When you enter a town, the first things you see should be identifiable areas or landmarks that make the town what it is. For a mining town like port graff, have the first thing u see when entering the town is a large town square with mine tracks running through it, the scaffolding around the mines themselves should be prominent in the main part of town, perhaps a couple of mine carts, horses, etc. Player housing should be beyond the themed city centre.

And atmosphere is a combination of two things... sound and physical details. Sound would be distinct ambient noise (based off of the town's purpose) and music for each town.

Physical details: For a town that is intended to be a hub of seafaring, something like a large galleon in the middle of town, half-built, with a couple worker NPCs around it.

 

I think this is going to be especially muddied when this goes live with player housing, and you get adobe houses in Owl's Head, anything not made of rough stone and wood in Braemar, and so on.

 

I'd really like towns to have town councils that set guidelines on how land in their city can be used (protecting the look of the city). For example on the outskirts of owls head they might only allow farm homes. you could go a step further and say instead of gold tax such homes have a produce tax to support the town economy they must produce. Farm shacks for veggies, windmills are taxed for grain/flour, production homes for ores or finished goods. So in addition to lot sizes you have lot types and their associated habitation requirements.

Would make the world and house shopping a lot more interesting. Now of course large homes would only be allowed in the city center and would be taxed for gold since presumably they are being used as guild chapter house and are charging guild fees or some other justification. You could go further with this... I know at one point one of the solutions they were suggesting to the housing rush is not all lots in a town would be immediately available and they would be released periodically.

You could dynamically have those lot types set based on the economy of the town at those intervals. So if the town is producing an over-abundance of food but no furniture they would offer lots for sawmill type homes or carpenters in general, so it's not even a matter of just being the first person to find that lot has become available, you need the right skills to meets it's production taxes.

 

All of these (many many) ideas are good, and would improve the game IMO. The problem is that the ship has already sailed. They have already sold houses to people for (many many) real dollars. Can't go back now and say oh, by the way, you can't place your house here anymore.

They could go back and change the layout of the towns (see my earlier post) but jeez, how much development time would THAT cost?

 

Those are all "tax" free anyway. But they account for less then half the planned housing space. So the reasoning still applies to a large extent.

And if they keep working on the dynamic town layout system they've worked on for pots and add a way to covert the new layouts to static after the design is complete... They could quickly re purpose towns layouts.

 

The only issue with this is you will bring in heard of people stating that it is artistic freedom to do whatever you want. These people think the lore should be created by the players for the players. Kind of a competing agenda.

 

So go live in one of the POTs that offers and fosters freedom of artistic expression and favours fan fiction over professional lore.*shrug*

 

I'm on your side with this...I think you read what I wrote wrong.

 

I don't mean you specifically. When I say "so go live" I'm referring to alleged people who just want to do what ever they want, aesthetics and practicality be damned.

Edit: And they can do whatever they want inside there houses. I mean honestly they already have the rule that row lots can't be empty and I haven't seen much complaining because that's just sensible. It's not a huge leap from there to say you can sandwich a windmill between 4 obsidian towers or have 5 lighthouses right next to each other.