NPC's and Weather

Should NPC and Player Vendors (all NPC's really) just stay out in the middle of a thunderstorm?

I'm thinking not. But it would impact commerce in areas where there is a lot of rain.


Thoughts?

 

Great idea!!! But I prefer this for another episode.

 

umbrellas.

 

Awnings

 

Anyway as for the OP, I'm a big fan of tying vendors to a schedule just like every other NPC. The basic part of the schedule would be going between their bed and a sales counter. A sales counter could in theory be an indoor shop counter or a cart outside.

As more of the AI is fleshed out, you could have it so that both vendors and NPC merchants won't go to outside counters when there's a heavy storm.

Though, right now, the outdoor NPC merchants do have awnings, so its not that bad. Most vendors don't, of course. If the NPC merchants don't sell outside during rain, you'd also expect their carts to be shuttered. You'd also expect their carts to be shuttered at night, when they're in bed. Not basically have them completely open, where you can steal all their goods.

 

I seriously love the idea and especially how @redfish put it. But I think we, the players, should take priority over the NPC's. Anything not essential to game play should be put off to future episodes.

Maybe we should have an "Ideas for Future Episodes" forum and put this and many of the other threads there.

 

Cool thought. I agree. So long as it doesn't cause the storms to be dialed back.

Taking that another step, if the team could program NPCs to run indoors in a storm, could they program NPCs to do something when the moon is in a certain phase or all of the planets align?

 

Like having clandestine meetings?

Actually, a really cool part of Ultima V was the Resistance meeting which only happened at night. Its something that happened every night in the game, but you only found out about it from an NPC, and then, even if if you came across it by accident, you'd need to find out the password for them to trust you. The reason this was so cool is that it made it feel like the world was running by itself and the NPCs all had their own lives and own motives, and there were mysteries in the world waiting to be discovered, by you, the player. Another thing like this in Ultima V was the wizard's council, which is something you knew existed, but couldn't find out more about until you got some wizards to trust you. Even though there were some things like this in later Ultima games, too, the story elements also started feeling more linear, so you were led from plot point to plot point almost by the nose. Whereas, in Ultima V, you were just dropped in the game and had to figure out this all by yourself.

At any rate, it would be really cool, in the same vein, to see story elements only appearing at things like astronomical events.

Different topic, I guess

 

I love this post. I wish it were so in game!