Better NPCs

Introduction

During the Q&A livestream done by Theoryforge with Steven yesterday, it was mentioned that non-combat NPCs cannot be killed by players as that provides "no meaningful gameplay" for Steven. This reminded me of a few things that I have been thinking about in regards to NPCs in Ashes that I would like to lay out here as I would think these ideas could provide interesting gameplay mechanics for players to be aware of and make the game feel more alive from an NPC interaction perspective.

These ideas primarily are aimed at combat NPCs and players influence on them.

Node policies

A mayor will have to decide many different things in regards to a Nodes safety and I think influencing the amount, behavior and equipment of the city guard is an element that would play into that theme very nicely. So a mayor could have a series of policies they can decide to implement which will increase the gear quality of city guards in exchange for higher material upkeep costs; increase the numbers which could unlock a repeatable sidequest to recruit new people as well as the occasional "find a seasoned fighter to train the guards" in addition to increasing the upkeep costs; or will change the behavior of guards.

Example policy: "Throw out the trouble makers"
This policy will cause city guards to engage in combat when people in the node fight in their vicinity. They will not try to kill the brawlers, but they will knock them to 10% of health and then capture them. We have heard that a similar mechanic will be employed for the Goblin Slaver. Once the guards managed to break up a fight they will either put the people into prison for some time; just drag them out the city gates, refusing to let them in for a period of time (e.g. 15 min) or fine them and put them "under observation" which is a 30-60 min debuff during which acts against the node would result in more reputation loss with the node.

Node specific NPCs

It would also be nice to have some Node specific NPCs that can be hired by players for a fee to support them. The fee would also generate income for the Node.

Example:
Divine Node - "Priest assistant"
A cleric type NPC that can be hired as an additional healer for caravan missions or to bless freeholds/apartment under the nodes jurisdiction or to guard the entrance of a POI (providing some healing and short buffs) and who will also ask for help to cleanse a piece of land from corruption.

Economic Node - "trading contract"
A neutral merchant type NPC who will wait in the vicinity of a POI/dungeon and allow anyone to buy some supportive consumables and the one who hired them to store goods with the merchant and offering a small caravan mission to bring those goods back to the node once the time of their stay runs out or once the one who hired the merchant sends them back.

Military Node - "Mounted patrols"
Like the name suggest these are patrols of 2-3 horsemen, patroling the most frequently used routes of the node, assisting in the defense of allied caravans if they run across them and attacking players who are hostile to the Node or one of its patron guilds. These would also make great targets for quests of nodes who are hostile to the patrols' node (which increases the opportunities of PvP for military node citizens)

Quests: Training NPCs

I would love to see story arcs that require us to train NPCs, by

escorting them on missions through POIs or dungeons to unlock new opportunities in those areas or for the node or simply buff stats of guards for higher utility during sieges
help a spy get into and later escape an enemy node who will - if successfully saved - provide information on the Node
help an NPC group of a destroyed costal node to build a ship which will turn them into pirates or fishermen who will share part of the loot/catch with the highest contributor
reorganizing a group of NPCs who have been kicked out of a castle to assist in the next siege (with the chance of them turning on you when the siege succeeded, resulting in a small extra battle after the new guild took over)

I think these might be some nice additions that wouldn't break the core game mechanics and add a bit of depth when it comes to NPCs in general.

Thanks for reading

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Comments

Caww

so non-combat NPCs become training dummies

daveywavey

Kilion wrote: »

Example policy: "Throw out the trouble makers"
This policy will cause city guards to engage in combat when people in the node fight in their vicinity. They will not try to kill the brawlers, but they will knock them to 10% of health and then capture them. We have heard that a similar mechanic will be employed for the Goblin Slaver. Once the guards managed to break up a fight they will either put the people into prison for some time; just drag them out the city gates, refusing to let them in for a period of time (e.g. 15 min) or fine them and put them "under observation" which is a 30-60 min debuff during which acts against the node would result in more reputation loss with the node.

We don't want to discourage Purple vs Purple (PvP hehe) fighting though.

Kilion

daveywavey wrote: »

Kilion wrote: »

Example policy: "Throw out the trouble makers"
This policy will cause city guards to engage in combat when people in the node fight in their vicinity. They will not try to kill the brawlers, but they will knock them to 10% of health and then capture them. We have heard that a similar mechanic will be employed for the Goblin Slaver. Once the guards managed to break up a fight they will either put the people into prison for some time; just drag them out the city gates, refusing to let them in for a period of time (e.g. 15 min) or fine them and put them "under observation" which is a 30-60 min debuff during which acts against the node would result in more reputation loss with the node.

We don't want to discourage Purple vs Purple (PvP hehe) fighting though.

I wouldn't want to see this particular policy as part of what the mayor of a military node could choose and picking this policy should be entirely optional so that people closely consider whether they even want to spend the extra resources on implementing that.

So yes, in my opinion this should by no means result in no PvP. And it shouldn't disallow formal duels either. And keep in mind that the limitation would be that a guard would actually have to pass by the brawl to begin with. If you happen to take your fight to the back alleys you will be fine. And it adds an element of terrain awareness in the Node to PvP.

But yeah, purely optional feature.

Ludullu

I'm all for better gameplay interactions with npcs.

superhero6785

I think you're just describing...quests? When Steven referred to non combat NPCs not providing meaningful gameplay during a siege, I think he just meant like, slaughtering random villagers "just because" isn't meaningful. So you won't find random NPCs hanging around shops, or reading in the library, waiting to be killed. They will despawn during the siege.

Demostrathe

superhero6785 wrote: »

I think you're just describing...quests? When Steven referred to non combat NPCs not providing meaningful gameplay during a siege, I think he just meant like, slaughtering random villagers "just because" isn't meaningful. So you won't find random NPCs hanging around shops, or reading in the library, waiting to be killed. They will despawn during the siege.

i mean it would be pretty fun to murder random civilians hell maybe even has a mechanic where you lose rep points the more innocents you kill as a sort of deterrent

Kilion

superhero6785 wrote: »

I think you're just describing...quests? When Steven referred to non combat NPCs not providing meaningful gameplay during a siege, I think he just meant like, slaughtering random villagers "just because" isn't meaningful. So you won't find random NPCs hanging around shops, or reading in the library, waiting to be killed. They will despawn during the siege.

My point was that there should be NPCs that are killable who offer services and quests and that was my way of proposing some ways on how that could be done with a frame that is more than just "Okay we ticked the box."

Chicago

i just hope they implement voices for NPCs

daveywavey

Kilion wrote: »

My point was that there should be NPCs that are killable who offer services and quests and that was my way of proposing some ways on how that could be done with a frame that is more than just "Okay we ticked the box."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFKS_c82-h8

Kilion

@daveywavey I love these guys XD

And yes, to a degreethat could happen, but if they are combat NPCs I'd say attacking them should cost reputation with the faction they associate with and also flag the attacking player for PvP. Also NPCs wouldn't respawn at the places where they are likely to be killed (in the Node) and since it is PvX, i think it is fine to have some smaller quest givers be targets like that.

Ayeveegaming1

I can see it both ways. Ultimately they will be invulnerable because it has been proven it leads to people complaining about greifing. Someone just repeatedly killing it while people are needing to talk to him.

Phlight

Kilion wrote: »

Node policies

A mayor will have to decide many different things in regards to a Nodes safety and I think influencing the amount, behavior and equipment of the city guard is an element that would play into that theme very nicely. So a mayor could have a series of policies they can decide to implement which will increase the gear quality of city guards in exchange for higher material upkeep costs

This seem like a good idea. Turning a City Guard from a push over to an Elite. There could be different gear levels/sets/classes for each guard. The idea of it costing more to upgrade and maintain should balance it out.

daveywavey

What were node guards like in Alpha-1? Were they killable, or were they unkillable immortals like they did in ESO

Veeshan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSacavkPfB4&t=6s
Chat GPT bots the new realistic NPC's they already invaded runescape and alot of people dont even know there bots from players lol
I link this as a joke but i feel in a few years it wont be a joke and will be how somedevs run NPC's tp make the world feel more alive at times :P

Kilion

Veeshan wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSacavkPfB4&t=6s
Chat GPT bots the new realistic NPC's they already invaded runescape and alot of people dont even know there bots from players lol
I link this as a joke but i feel in a few years it wont be a joke and will be how somedevs run NPC's tp make the world feel more alive at times :P

The thing is: If we ever reach that point it might be the case that bots will just play amongst themselves while the actual players go down in numbers to the point where it is no longer economically feasible to run those bots. Which makes the subscription model actually part of the anti-bot strategy. I heard that dating apps like tinder at some point noticed that cat-fishing chat bots had started to catfish each other due to the lack of actual people on the app in certain areas XD

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