NPC - more NPC's for Village Life

[Vroomfondel 1,128]

-1 You want those things done and don't have the time, get more villagers to join.  The game is set up to encourage you to form groups to live.  While you can do it all yourself, you have to accept you have a lot of work to do.

[Purplemonochromicorn 13]

+1

I would love to AT LEAST be able to buy a bartender for like 10s for as long as my deed will remain. Definitely don't go overboard with an update to NPC's. I definitely don't want to see a 'surgeon' or 'gladiator' but it would be nice to see some actual action other than just us players.

 

If this ever did come to be, make it extremely drawn out as well. So we'd pay a big one-time fee or a monthly upkeep fee for each NPC, and make the NPC's worthless compared to real life players. A player can botanize and forage tens of items in minutes. Make the Collector or whatever you call it collect a random number of items between 1-20 and have them deliver them once every other day.

[Purplemonochromicorn 13]

-1 You want those things done and don't have the time, get more villagers to join.  The game is set up to encourage you to form groups to live.  While you can do it all yourself, you have to accept you have a lot of work to do.

Starting a new village and constantly recruiting for new players doesn't always work. It's been two weeks and I haven't come close to a single new villager. I desperately need some form of help around the deed. I would love to add one or two more villagers and make an actual small village but there's just not a playerbase to support new villages.

[Roken 21]

I'm not any close to being a veteran player, I certainly haven't been in every village at every server, so I can't tell that what I'm about to say happens everywhere, but in my humble opinion the game is so empty it feels more like a type of mmo where each player hosts his own instance that other players can visit than open-world mmo. [Keep in mind that I only speak about PvE servers as I'm not PvPing yet].

 

Don't get me wrong - I really like Wurm and I like the way it improves, but I see that there are things that could be better and players WANT it better, but at the same time they are the ones who hold opposition every time someone suggests a way to change it. It's just a plain stagnation and inability (of some players) to change their playstyle, because it's comfortable as it is.

 

Some of you said in this topic that "wurm encourages playing in groups". Hell it doesn't. It barely suggest you may do so. Every time I jump in the saddle and take a ride to random places I se huge constructions, massive deeds, endless farmlands/pastures, taverns, houses, hotels, towns big and small and each have one thing in common - beins SO. DAMN. EMPTY...

, thoug

... and why? Because in wurm - after you spend certain amount of time in the game - you can do everything. You can be jack of all trades - master of all (instead of none, as it should be), that's for one. Most players want people in their villages almost entirely for cosmetic purpose, just so the village would "live", as they can and will do everything they need all by themselves. In the end-game they have everything and they take new building/terraforming projects or help newbies grow out of boredom.

It shouldn't be like that. Game should be challenging enough so people would be clustering in villages/towns for their own good. Now it's too easy to just go wherever you want and make a majestic town all by yourself [reminder: I'm not talking about PvP servers - I suspect it's harder over there].

 

 

Someone in the other thread suggested making a survival server and I think some of the ideas were really nice. I wouldn't focus it entirely on foraging/hunting/camping all the time but I'd like to see a more dangerous, hardcore version of Wurm with its own, harsh rules. It could be a server serving the purpose similar to Challenge - so devs can test new stuff and new approach to wurm. I'd like to see it more or less like this:

 

- Skillcap. You can't master EVERYTHING. I won't calculate the best possibilities here but let's say you have a set amount of "capacity" points for amount of skills you can learn. If you have, say, 250 capacity you could get 2 skills to 100 and one to 50 (the numbers are totally out of the blue - it's just an example).

- The problem with the above would be that people would just fill the gaps with alts. I'd like to see Survival server to be ONE TOON ONLY but I guess it's rather hard thing to do since you can have multiple accounts.

- The rules would be harsh, like:

> Winter would be winter (you'd need warm [wool/fur] clothes, smaller water bodies (and rivers when added) would freeze, there would be NO CROPS or grass so you'd have to make food supply earlier. One upside: Food takes damage REALLY slow.

> More about food: Seasonal crops. Most would only be harvested once per year [plant in the spring, maintain 'till the autumn and then harvest] and some twice a year.

> Regarding food - no more magic wooden box called FSB that magically stops all decay (even in XXI century our fridges don't work THAT efficently). It could slower it a little bit but no complete stop. Use salt to preserve it even better!

> Mobs would be stronger both in combat and their numbers and some of them would actually seek to destroy humans (troll/goblin raids).

> Possibly more.

 

- GM's would have to keep their eyes on that and most likely hold main deeds themselves. I mean: Starting deed under GMs control and you'd need much more than 1 player to create new deed. Also it would be wise to make said deed as close to main town as possible (sieges and overall danger).

 

And then people would slowly advance, make outposts that would ACTUALLY NEED PEOPLE to maintain. But it's only a dream I suppose Thanks for hearing (well, reading) me out

[Garit 366]

I think this is a very good idea....

I myself would not use it but i think it would add new life to towns / city deeds.....the amount of times i have walked through a very big deed and said "This deed looks Awesome...." and then 1 min later said "But the place looks like a ghost town".

 

I also think it would NOT change the game at all......players play Wurm the way they like.....so if you say "I would never use this" like me, then thats ok but there no point in giving a -1 to an idea just cause you yourself would not use it.....if it's good for other players why not ?

 

This ...as it is would have no impact on the game and would not effect other players.....it would not change the way the game is or how the game works so yes.....i like this idea +1 from me.

And if the NPC's worked like Merchants...selling food and healing it would add some more money to Rolf's game and a little to the deed owner...all good things the way i see it.

 

P.s If you like the idea remember to Like the OP at the top of the first page.....it helps the Dev's to find the good idea's quickly.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Garit

[griper 535]

Even villages consisting of players still looks like ghost towns. Because everyone isnt online at the same time anyway.

I would pay silver to get some NPCs walking around (or even remaining stationary).

[marinethreeoseven 34]

i wouldnt mind if the npcs just walked around and spoke that u could hear would make the village seem busyer

 

peace marine

[Brocules 89]

Thanks for all your ideas and support to this idea.

For now i have assigned some village-roles to merchants.....

So one of them has been promoted to Castellan, and guards more or less the prison-cells in his castle. His prisoners are other merchants ofcoz....

Yea, waste of merchants, but the doors are open anyway (since they dont walk), so trade is still possible.

[Wurmhole 3,650]

What if....

 

We could take an actual live character and assign it tasks?

- For an alt we want to become a Guard, you select waypoints for it's walking path, but can only be on deed.

- For the Blacksmith's Apprentice, you choose the forges and wood source and it becomes their job to keep those forges burning hot.

- Kitchen helper (same as above)

- Librarian (really, just like the guard, but set waypoints around your library and dress in cloth).

- Farmer could farm, but not harvest or plant

- Stable Boy/Girl can groom

 

BUT, none of these actions produce any skill, or generate materials, because you have to choose "NPC Mode" at client launch.  Your alts would also be 100% non agro in NPC mode.  They would not starve or go thirsty.

 

Mode not available in PvP me thinks.

[Brocules 89]

A bit late, but since the discussion on global chat: Bump.

[polarbear 283]

+1

 

More NPC's, the better. It would brighten up the game a little. Also I might add, it will keep new players from quitting faster, for example, when I first started on Indy there was not so much to do or interact with, and I know I'm not alone. If each server at starter towns or something had different NPC's to interact with like a farmer that sold low ql farmed items and so on. For me, It could be a simple change as having a revamp of the different merchant "look" and have random animations of doing a certain task that a normal player would do (simplifying the programming since the animations already exist). One NPC the op mentioned was the Barber/barver, it could be a Merchant/Trader that looks like a normal player that sells those one use hand mirrors. This is just my two cents.

[Alke 4]

+1 as long there's no chance for abuse.. i don't see any harm of having NPC to tend your animals for example while you are on short brake from a game, so paying them would be renting them for limited time.

 

I would also like to see NPC in starter towns that will replace recruitment board, or have both NPC and board. Something like herald, not sure if that's right name, you know - person that was responsible to spread news in medieval, with drum or trumpet. And please make recruitment board little bigger.

[DannyUK 212]

I know this is an old thread but I was actually searching to find out what the NPC was in Wurm Unlimited I used to play. A couple of people had like a trader NPC and it would chat in local to your responses, giving out funny chat replies. Does anyone know what this was? Maybe it was a mod for Unlimited version, wasn't sure.

 

Anyway I wanted to comment on NPC in general also, I like the idea of having an NPC on deed. I mean I wouldn't want them to do all the work or anything or make your armor etc but maybe light duties here and there tend the crops maybe and you could pay them for each time they do this. What about travelling salesman also? Maybe on a wagon that travels the map along the roads, be quite nice to see them going along highways. You could maybe say a command in local as it passes to stop or come to your deed to see what they have for sale.

[christopher 207]

id like a repair guy who wanders around ,

[DaletheGood 1,073]

Personally I wouldn't mind more options for NPC characters. They don't even have to have a function other than to be there. Yeah I could use merchants to populate a village, but there's only like what 2-3 options for those? And seems like the only other option to have an illusion of life in a village is to use statues and those are limited to nymph, the 2 kids, and a maybe a couple of arch statues. There's the guards from towers as well. Either give us some more statues or give us some more NPC characters, or preferably both.

[DannyUK 212]

2 hours ago, DaletheGood said:

Personally I wouldn't mind more options for NPC characters. They don't even have to have a function other than to be there. Yeah I could use merchants to populate a village, but there's only like what 2-3 options for those? And seems like the only other option to have an illusion of life in a village is to use statues and those are limited to nymph, the 2 kids, and a maybe a couple of arch statues. There's the guards from towers as well. Either give us some more statues or give us some more NPC characters, or preferably both.

I agree, I don't know why many people are against them, it's not as if we want them to do all the work or anything. More activity around the deed would be more immersive, I'm also in favour of more statues also though.

 

Some say get real people in your village, well it is not that easy when alot of players have left already and not many people are looking to join a deed. I get not all people will agree with having more NPC's though but that is what these suggestion are for.

[Madnath 3,113]

4 hours ago, christopher said:

id like a repair guy who wanders around ,

 

Hello it's me I'm the repair guy

Wait, I'm not an NPC

[christopher 207]

On 6/14/2022 at 4:17 AM, Madnath said:

 

Hello it's me I'm the repair guy

Wait, I'm not an NPC

well the fridge is broke and you havent turned up to fix it yet

[Katrat 2,296]

+1 Lets face it wurm is too quiet. Other deeds almost always seem empty since very few players are on the same time schedules and new players that actually stick around are rare. That's why I haven't disabled the wagoner's chat. It reminds me that there is still activity in wurm. People need interactions even it's just an NPC babbling away as it passes by. I personally would love a bard NPC to bring a bit more life to my deed. One that would play music and recite tall tales of some kind. Give it a variety of options to keep it from being over repetitive though. And give an option to toggle them on and off like the wagoners.

Edited June 15, 2022 by Katrat

[TheTrickster 2,279]

Yes, when Wurm was all bustle (was it?) it would make sense to rely on players, but with the number of servers and population spread out across them and real-world time-zones, deeds need a bit of livening up.

 

What about an innkeeper, who can be set to take applications to join a village, and can give some information about the village (e.g. a couple of pages/windows of description and <gasp> a little map of the deed).

 

The thing is, the cost of keeping a deed is called "upkeep".  The obvious question is "who is performing all this upkeep".  Village employees, lighting and snuffing lamps,  keeping lawn trimmed, "fixing" potholes and the wear-and-tear that paid upkeep prevents.

 

EDIT:  For clarity, these deed employees are not doing anything that isn't already happening invisibly.  They simply act it out where you can see it.  Interacting with them would be a bit like interacting with guards etc.  Maybe if you have sprit houses on deed, they could fetch or send your mail for you, but not much else.

Edited June 16, 2022 by TheTrickster

[DannyUK 212]

12 hours ago, Katrat said:

+1 Lets face it wurm is too quiet. Other deeds almost always seem empty since very few players are on the same time schedules and new players that actually stick around are rare. That's why I haven't disabled the wagoner's chat. It reminds me that there is still activity in wurm. People need interactions even it's just an NPC babbling away as it passes by. I personally would love a bard NPC to bring a bit more life to my deed. One that would play music and recite tall tales of some kind. Give it a variety of options to keep it from being over repetitive though. And give an option to toggle them on and off like the wagoners.

I've done exactly the same with my wagoneer, turned it on chatty. I like the music idea, maybe something like an NPC playing the lute or flute like it is in Elderscrolls Online. I like the quiet life usually but yes some kind of activity on deed would be great.