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Titanius

Computer Citizens

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* I edited the wording below.  Used the wrong terms at first.

 

It would be neat to have CC's (computer citizens), which would be different from NPC's (non player characters) to fill up the game a little.  Each of the main towns would have a computer population.  We don't need to see actual CC's walking around everywhere, as that would slow down game performance.  But the citizens would be there in the computed background, and would create demand for goods and services which real players could provide.

 

A town's citizen population would grow or shrink depending on how well their needs are satisfied.  Real players could grow food and sell it to a town, which would cause the population to rise over time.  Insufficient food supplies would cause a town's population to shrink.  Citizens would also have a need for materials, like lumber, stone, brick, iron, copper, wool, cotton, even water.  Finished goods would also be consumed by the population, like clothing and furniture.

 

A town center could have a small marketplace (where its sundial is) with each of its four corners devoted to a different category: 1 - food, both crops and cooked foods, 2 - resources like lumber, stone, etc, 3 - crafted goods like clothes and furniture, and 4 - other items like wagon parts and weapons.  Real players would then deliver their products to a particular "Public Vendor" who would buy them based on each town's prevailing prices, which are determined by supply and demand.

 

Computer citizens would give the game more life, and would give players more to do as they interact with the towns themselves and actually affect a town's growth.  They would even influence a town's prosperity.  The amount and type of products sold to a town would raise or lower the town's prosperity rating.  Towns could become very affluent or very poor depending on the trade conducted with the town by players.

 

Edited by Titanius
I used the wrong terms before.
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Wouldn't a non-computer player just be a player?

 

EDIT: More seriously though, Wurm Online is very player-driven by design, and I don't think introducing more NPCs would be to its benefit.

Edited by Ostentatio
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2 hours ago, Titanius said:

It would be neat to have NCC's (non computer citizens), which would be different from NCP's (non computer players) to fill up the game a little.  Each of the main towns would have a computer population.  We don't need to see actual NCC's walking around everywhere, as that would slow down game performance.  But the citizens would be there in the computed background, and would create demand for goods and services which real players could provide.

 

A town's NCC population would grow or shrink depending on how well their needs are satisfied.  Real players could grow food and sell it to a town, which would cause the population to rise over time.  Insufficient food supplies would cause a town's population to shrink.  Citizens would also have a need for materials, like lumber, stone, brick, iron, copper, wool, cotton, even water.  Finished goods would also be consumed by the population, like clothing and furniture.

 

A town center could have a small marketplace (where its sundial is) with each of its four corners devoted to a different category: 1 - food, both crops and cooked foods, 2 - resources like lumber, stone, etc, 3 - crafted goods like clothes and furniture, and 4 - other items like wagon parts and weapons.  Real players would then deliver their products to a particular "Public Vendor" who would buy them based on each town's prevailing prices, which are determined by supply and demand.

 

Non computer citizens would give the game more life, and would give players more to do as they interact with the towns themselves and actually affect a town's growth.  They would even influence a town's prosperity.  The amount and type of products sold to a town would raise or lower the town's prosperity rating.  Towns could become very affluent or very poor depending on the trade conducted with the town by players.

 

 

pretty sure that this is a troll post

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Yeah, Ostentatio.  I went back and corrected it all.  I was up early this morning and my head wasn't on right.  I got NPC messed up too.    Thanks!

 

And no, Sklo, I'm a real player.  Just trying to contribute some ideas.

 

It might be limited to just one such city per island, maybe right in the middle of the island.  Players would have a ready buyer for anything they make, though supply/demand would help balance player production.

Edited by Titanius
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Maintenance-driven... once the interest starts to fade, everything goes to hell...

Long term.. eventually that will create an issue with the demand and lower supply of the required goods to maintain existing town.

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Yes, Finnn, that's quite right about the long-term survivability of a town.  But that's part of the design.  Just as in the real world, towns flourish when they have what they need.  But when something runs out, once flourishing towns could dwindle,  and even become ghost towns for a while (which is pretty much the way it is now; they're all ghost towns).  But the players are in control.  They can easily revive a town by simply cultivating and crafting what the town needs.

 

If it's limited to just one such town per continent (server), it would make it a little easier to keep the town thriving.  Something like an overarching mission that players can choose to participate in or not.  We could even have competitions among the servers to see who's town reaches a certain population the fastest, or has the highest prosperity for a period of time, like a contest.

Edited by Titanius
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Wouldnt this make just a money cow for people setteling next to it? Like limitless money drain. The good thing would be an item sink, but i am pretty sure this would kill any market that is left in WO. So i am in between. I do not like the NPC thing, i do not like the market crashing as surplus of silver coming from it( and trust me there will be), but i would love the idea if those things didnt break. Maybe instead of city it would be kind of for guards, so you can sell some stuff that then will be used by the "king" to repair, maintain and protect you and the benefit will be handed out thru token coffers and traders? 

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I think npcs like alchemists would be better. For example giving you tin lump in exchange for gold lump or iron in exchange for zinc. Something more difficult or more rare for something less difficult or more common. 

 

Mudmaster giving you dirt for clay. 

 

Brickster giving you regular bricks for sandstone bricks etc. ? 

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23 hours ago, Ostentatio said:

Wouldn't a non-computer player just be a player?

 

EDIT: More seriously though, Wurm Online is very player-driven by design, and I don't think introducing more NPCs would be to its benefit.

why not? we already have some, bartender is useless after you lose the newbie buff, not point of keep it since the newbie population. Could be more useful is it give water or food in container (similar to merchant) and other butcher products for small fee...
we have merchants and wagoners, economy broken not much use of them. they just stand there until somebody use them, mostly business pass by forum or trade chat.
in the other hand traders are for drain coin more than buy stuff...

why not more npc? population are not growing. lack of "live" is one part of wurm lackness compared to other games

 

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This suggestion would surely lead to the end of Wurm as we know it! These sneaky "CC's" would eventually plot to take over Wurm and eliminate all the player characters from it due to their upgraded productive efficiency. With all the silvers they would make they would either buy up all the character accounts and put them in animal transport cages for display or simply lure the stubborn holdouts to monetary lure into the deepest of mine dropshafts from which there would be no escape, since they would readjust the respawn points to exactly the spot where they died. Beware the automatons!

 

(actually I am suspecting that you are one of them yourself!)

 

=Ayes=

Edited by Ayes
yeah

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@tamatwait for the unleashing of the steam horde.. you'll be sick of the griefers in local making shacks to stack and starve pigs and all blue creatures from 4 locals!

* if that ever happens.. to pop WO @steam expect bunch of weird oak murderers and so on..

-----------

@Titanius All that rng and scorecharts are easy to gimp when you've been around for 2+ years.. you just learn a thing or two, even if mechanics change.. you could learn the latest meta to optimize work within a week or 2-3..

Wurm's population likes the freedom they have, I think you just have no clue what the community prefers, this have only place in WU as a mod there.

 

I don't think living in spawn town and expanding it.. benefits anyone but maybe a few new players clueless what they want, eventually they'll have issues with other villagers, not everybody's that polite or honest, it's not a secret that people that come and go will vary.

I didn't really read spawning silver from the whole creating and maintaining of the town anywhere.. that's dumb.. wurm's economy is linked to irl money quite well.. once that falls .. some of the old whales are going to ditch the game. Plenty of people gimp the market as it is.. plenty also do honest regular trades.. we have a variety.. but there's shortage of new players or need to sink the massive bulk amount of goods that people keep hoarding.
Your idea for mega supplier towns is making me LUL not because it's funny/bad/wrong/new/etc.., it exists.. there are numerous markets mainly on xanadu where villagers gather up to work together for own or group's interest.. and create goods to sell as a combined market of goods; mostly that's just 1 person with many alts.. but some places actually have several people to run the business.(which sounds a lot like your idea, but it's player managed)

In a way what you suggest exists in the game, but the game is not limited to just that 1 shade or color.., there's a whole rainbow of play styles, you can be a lone wolf or a part of a pack, neither making you weaker on the market if you prepare right, even alone you could stash enough bulk goods to pop on the market with good supply to keep the torch's fire going.

Edited by Finnn

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I found some older posts which were written by players in the community too, who noted that the current means of obtaining coinage (foraging, selling to tokens) is greatly lacking.  As one guy put it:

 

The economy could use some significant rethinking in general, all the methods for getting coin outside the store are very slapped-on measures, rather than something that rewards desired gameplay.

 

 

https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/148550-darn-foragers-and-botanizers/

 

In another post, the comment was made:

 

Redeveloping it as something the general population can actually participate in rather than having so-called "traders" locked away for deed upkeep would be worthwhile. All the ways of getting "free silver" (not bought with real money) are rather silly at the moment and need a rework.

 

https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/152562-traders-and-economy/

 

So, it seems I do have a "clue" about what others in the community are thinking.

 

The trading mechanism I describe above (trading with towns) would be in addition to other means of obtaining coinage (foraging and selling to tokens) which players may choose to use or not.  So there is player's choice, and player "freedom" would be increased, not decreased.

 

As for too much drain on silver and cheapening its value, Rolf could easily regulate how much coinage players receive by tinkering with a town's population growth rate.  Increasing the growth rate means faster population growth, higher demand for food and resources, and larger payouts to players who sell to the town.  When Rolf wants to reduce the amount of coinage drain, he can simply lower the population growth rate, which lowers demand, and lowers prices players collect.  Setting growth rates individually for each town would also prevent everyone flocking to the same town to sell their items, as too much supply reduces prices, forcing players to spread out and sell their goods elsewhere.

 

It is a much more realistic means of earning coinage than finding copper coins while foraging or selling junk to a token.  The old methods could still be kept, but adding this town-trading method would attract new players who want a more realistic feel.  People are always complaining that too few new players are joining.  Just add new things that appeal to more players.

 

Edited by Pandalet
Moderation edit

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