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NPCs/Players shouldn't show their name plates to you until you've met them or heard about them
Borus
Member
I saw the nameplate system hasn't been developed yet but plays a major role in your experience of the game.
It would add depth and allow some NPCs to introduce others. It would allow players to hide in plain sight if they mimic the town's folk. Cities would be filled with people you don't know while towns might be more familiar.
If you're simulating reality, I recognize a person in real life based on their looks. I identify police by their clothes and can introduce myself if I so choose. I don't care about their name if I don't know them.
Just an idea I had
It would add depth and allow some NPCs to introduce others. It would allow players to hide in plain sight if they mimic the town's folk. Cities would be filled with people you don't know while towns might be more familiar.
If you're simulating reality, I recognize a person in real life based on their looks. I identify police by their clothes and can introduce myself if I so choose. I don't care about their name if I don't know them.
Just an idea I had
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BUT the name plate does not only contain "the name".
it will be different information the devs think we have to see for the good live on the game.
also the problem of your idea is
technically when does the game consider you "met" this guy or "heard about this girl" ?
Especially when many payers will be wearing full armor, we won't be able to distinguish each other just by looks. Especially not from a distance.
The way the questing system currently is will work fine for what you are wanting I think. You don't see where quests come from and there is often decent dialogue that leads to gaining a quest. This is enough "in the dark" for me to enjoy the exploration of every area.
Where is Lt. Fiona?
Why does it matter if they've played the alpha if they have an idea that they feel is worth sharing?
I am assuming the NPC merchants and what not have their name plates present because the signs are not ready.
And yes, it’s just Alpha.
They are forming their opinions based on the gameplay of some other MMORPGs, rather than on the gameplay of Ashes. Which is significantly different.
I didn't see any reference to any other mmos... Wondering how you got to that assumption? Just kinda seems like an idle thought.
Nameplate on NPC/Mobs, again, the best would be option (allowing each one to chose what he wants) but it is far less mandatory to be able to see them.
For "usefull NPC moving after node progression" i think about 2 solution in general gamedesign more interesting than only relying on nameplate
1) the position change but remains "the same"
One example : the guys who gives citizenship should always be on the first level of the townhall
Another : NPC relatited to artisan in a section to the node that can easily be identify.
2) not having those NPC to commonly dressed, if you dress them in a way they can easily be identify as special NPC it will helps a lot.
The issue is not about the NPCs inside a static building. Which is why I gave Lieutenant Fiona as an example for those people playing the Alpha One.
Ashes is a dynamic game, rather than a static game. We should expect the NPCs to be moving locations rather than always being in the same location.
It's highly unlikely that each individual NPC will be dressed so distinctly that we can easily find pick them out from a crowd just based on what they're wearing. And finding the NPC you're looking for is not supposed to be a challenge.
Then you shouod stay off the forums and go join a fact-ory cuz yer just being a topic bully it seems.
You want to quest to get immersed in a node and help contribute to the area. But you know nothing other than the look of the node/its facilities and maybe out of game conversations. You'd need to talk to a bunch of people right? Let's assume Intrepid does a good job of silhouettes to guide the player in the way you suggest. You'd still need more text for the less experienced/younger gamers. There's a bunch of learned signals you take for granted that don't always work on everyone. This happens in life as well. So you need get even more text.
AoC vows to commit to old school questing. A good thing, but will make finding things harder for the less experienced/younger. Your system would lead to many more frustrating moments of questing and not finding the link that will already be happening at a higher rate than modern.
To mitigate this, you would need extensive quest based npc dialogue in the npc's area to guide the player, for many more npc's The game probably has and needs branching dialogue paths to reveal other quest. Oh and don't forget they already have specific npc text planned depending on certain character traits like race on top of all of that. Its...a bit much from a writing standpoint let alone all the horrendous amounts of flagging....
There are three ways I can see as possible compromise routes to the feeling you want.
1. Make a toggle, most mmos have one. Make this experience optional and not default. (Many people want this for other reasons already)
2. Make the plates turn on after a certain amount of 'hints' have been used. (Acceptable game design, but probably won't solve the increased writing requirement and will therefore be bad for the games questing system in the long run.)
3. Reserve this experience for certain optional org based quests like a confidante for the thieves guild or a black market fence, because there is good reason for the quest to start with getting a vivid description. Not every npc has a name plate so this would make you double take your familiar node as well which is a nice immersion trigger. (Perfectly acceptable since it is smaller scale and has plenty of baked in opportunities to apply this method to.)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yhr9WpjaDzw
Given that a toggle would require an additional system built into the game, I'd have to be more for seeing nameplates by default, rather than having to do extra in order to be able to see them - especially where players are concerned.
Feature-creep is best left to a post-launch era.