Joe Blow NPC #3149 From Unending Supply of NPCs at NPC-warehouse

OrcLuck

I hate that NPCs are something that seem to regenerate in 5min. I know that killing them and them being important quest givers is also unsatisfactory, but I recommend an alternative.

Have an NPC count for the town. Important quest NPCs have trusted compatriots that will honor the bargains they've made with the quest takers.

There is an endable supply of would be hammy downy quest givers however and its your job to protect them before the supply ends.

Then you need to protect caravans of new settlers and when they arrive they eventually restock the quest, given that the quest is a problem that the general populous of the town/city would have in common.

That way if you like a certain NPC you're going to protect them because they're playing hard mode.

If a quest giver is story significant or in some way irreplaceable for a quest, they become injured, visibly from having been downed, and after a similar amount of drownings they become bed ridden.

Nothing in this world is as annoying as having godlike NPCs that never die or that don't reflect the actions the players have on them.

Man it just makes me want to punch one of the untouchable children in skyrim all over. YOUR WHOLE CHICKEN PROTECTING VILLAGE IS DEAD, DIE DAMNED YOU! (even if its only from starvation)

Damokles

Well, i think that NPCs will have some kind of importance. If a Node is fully destroyed that NPC will despawn forever after all.

unknownsystemerror

They may appear in other places that fit the conditions. There is sure to be a database of particular npcs that fit a particular node stage that appear and disappear. So while you may kill Bob at lvl 4 node that loses, he may appear at another node that reaches level 4 doing the same job. Going to be some screaming if the perk we got from higher level KS packages of "Name an npc" is a single death and done sort of thing.

Iconic npcs might be able to come back from the dead doing similar jobs in other locations. You get killed repeatedly and come back, why not them?

Azathoth

I don't want to have to protect a specific NPC because I am doing a quest, or series of quests, for them. I rather not babysit because some players want to kill quest givers.

I do like the suggestion that caravans bring in new citizens. Like if the node goes up a level several caravans (over time) bring in new citizens and the opening of new shops or new quests can be delayed if we don't protect the incoming caravans. If this were implemented I think there should also be "outgoing" caravans full of citizens when nodes de-level for any reason. Then we could slaughter all the traitors (unless they were going to another node that leveled and were being protected).

unknownsystemerror

azathoth wrote: »

I don't want to have to protect a specific NPC because I am doing a quest, or series of quests, for them. I rather not babysit because some players want to kill quest givers.

I thought the mechanic was that quest givers and such would be invulnerable except in the case of sieges and a the would not return mechanic linked to a siege loss and delevel. Since there are no factions and so far we haven't heard of corruption gain from killing npcs (in the wilderness) I can see the shits and giggles crowd killing off bank npcs and the like for the lolz regardless of guard npcs killing them. (though the confirmed exp loss from pve deaths may be a deterrent)

Karthos

Isn't this the premise for that Ryan Reynolds movie currently in production?

ryuuji

Maybe give npc some traits, that they provide for node so citizens want defend them

Damokles

ryuuji wrote: »

Maybe give npc some traits, that they provide for node so citizens want defend them

They already do.
You will have to recruit or save the npcs in the early exploration phase of the node establishment. If you dont, they wont be in your node later. You can find and recruit special NPCs that will open up special shops in your node.

ryuuji

damokles wrote: »

ryuuji wrote: »

Maybe give npc some traits, that they provide for node so citizens want defend them

They already do.
You will have to recruit or save the npcs in the early exploration phase of the node establishment. If you dont, they wont be in your node later. You can find and recruit special NPCs that will open up special shops in your node.

Don't know that, very good featurefor rpg game

unknownsystemerror

damokles wrote: »

ryuuji wrote: »

Maybe give npc some traits, that they provide for node so citizens want defend them

They already do.
You will have to recruit or save the npcs in the early exploration phase of the node establishment. If you dont, they wont be in your node later. You can find and recruit special NPCs that will open up special shops in your node.

Totally missed that. Do you have a citation? Not saying you are wrong, but it is a new mechanic I have never heard of. It used to be all we had were livestreams, interviews, and Discord quotes for official information, now Steven drops random information in places like podcasts. Maybe I didn't read one of the new developer diaries close enough.

Damokles

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

damokles wrote: »

ryuuji wrote: »

Maybe give npc some traits, that they provide for node so citizens want defend them

They already do.
You will have to recruit or save the npcs in the early exploration phase of the node establishment. If you dont, they wont be in your node later. You can find and recruit special NPCs that will open up special shops in your node.

Totally missed that. Do you have a citation? Not saying you are wrong, but it is a new mechanic I have never heard of. It used to be all we had were livestreams, interviews, and Discord quotes for official information, now Steven drops random information in places like podcasts. Maybe I didn't read one of the new developer diaries close enough.

https://ashesofcreation.wiki/Expedition
https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-03-26-know-your-nodes-advance-and-destroy
https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-04-10-know-your-nodes-scientific-node-type
https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-05-32-know-your-nodes-economic-node-type

"During the Expedition stage of this Node, players will encounter merchants looking for the help of brave adventurers and curious artisans. If you choose to aid them, the once-small Expedition could grow into a sprawling Metropolis with rare items from lands afar!"
This is a quote from the Economics Node article. I just hope that this will be the case for every node. That is mainly because the name for that stage alone gives of this specific feeling: Expedition. It seems like we will have to prospect around the small camp and find resources etc to make an encampment.

unknownsystemerror

Hmmm, I thought that basically was explaining how you tell which kind of node it is. If you see soldiers-military, merchants-economic, scholars-scientific, priests-religious. "looking for help" meaning quest givers. But who knows? We will see later.

Jahlon

A lot of "facts" are getting thrown around here.

A lot of assumptions masquerading as facts are also happening here.

OrcLuck

I'm sorry if I'm assuming things, its just that the information is disseminated piece meal on a platform that is hard to sieve through.

Damokles

jahlon wrote: »

A lot of "facts" are getting thrown around here.

A lot of assumptions masquerading as facts are also happening here.

Well... Until we get gameplay confirmation, everything that we talk about here can only be assumptions and hear-say

I for one read a piece of information that sounds so good, tgat i really hope that they are goinb to implement that for all nodes.

(It would be cool to have general npcs that spawn for every starting node: general store merchants, guard captains etc, and then special npcs that you have to find or save in the exploratory phase of the node, making that node special for its, for example, alchemy shop)

grisu

I mean we respawn, so why wouldn't the same people that go through the gate respawn? Most mmos have a more or less lore reason for it and with how ashes is set up it makes sense that we aren't so different to npcs in a death cycle sense.
I don't have an issue with it in the first place so w/e really.

OrcLuck

I guess its fair if you think of it like that. I just feel like the problems NPCs have always relate to the fact that they are not capable of respawning.

Mankirks wife didn't just respawn for instance.