NPC spamming text in a main area

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Tomato
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NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Tomato » Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:58 am

I sat in the Hub, and read a player's book, it's early GMT so no one comes by. When I closed the book description, this was there:
Image
This goblin has literally no use. Could the npc voice spam be removed, or maybe just not appear as text? the Hub is a place where a lot of people gather, and there's a lot of text to see sometimes, so having this interruption is weird and unneeded.
Thank you.

Ecthelion
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Ecthelion » Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:16 am

Same for the Arsonist in Guld's prison or a lot of NPCs.

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Irongron
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Irongron » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:45 pm

This happens when an NPC has only a single line of dialog, with no script attached.

We can track them down and silence them - so thanks for the report!

Archnon
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Archnon » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:49 pm

Irongron wrote:
Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:45 pm
We can track them down and silence them
I always knew irongron had a future in organized crime :lol:

Subutai
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Subutai » Thu Jun 06, 2019 3:42 pm

How about the woman in Mayfield's, while we're at it? I can't remember her name. She complains about how having her own dressing room constantly and makes RPing in Mayfield's kind of irritating.

Might-N-Magic
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Might-N-Magic » Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:12 am

I've never really understood why any builder would make an NPC repeatedly echo anything unless it was quite literally a street hawker. Nor have I understood the need to build them so their conversations with PCs were public either. Shopkeepers are supposed to be discreet when dealing with customers!

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Skibbles
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Skibbles » Fri Jun 07, 2019 4:36 am

The Rrrrruuuuumph! From all the rothe at the outpost drives me totally bonkers. I made a post about it when Andunor first went live.

Save me pls.
Irongron wrote: [...] the super-secret Arelith development roadmap is a post apocalyptic wasteland populated with competing tribes of hand-bombard wielding techno-giants, and strewn with the bones of long dead elves.

So we're very much on track.

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Mr_Rieper
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Mr_Rieper » Mon Jun 10, 2019 4:20 am

It's a bit of a coincidence that many of the areas that are "filled" with NPCs also seem to be quite uncomfortable to RP in.

It seems like a good idea on paper. Have NPCs in a room to make it feel more alive and fill the empty room with presences. Have quirky NPCs that fire off a witty or personable one-liner every now and then. Have NPCs that wander around the room randomly and represent the unseen NPC populace of a town, going about their business.

Unfortunately the reality is quite different. If a room is busy or used for an event, those NPCs are taking up valuable space. Or they gather dust as they are always seen in the same same location, every day, for a literal century. They are warm bodies to fill a space, but if the space is frequently used or already full, it just doesn't have that effect.

Those NPCs that fire off lines of dialogue will grow very tiresome on the 10 000th time you've seen it, no matter how witty or charming it originally was. They are just stagnant ornaments, reminding people that things have not changed (in this particular area). And they are less well received if they are filling the logs of the players with junk text, or giving their dull interjections to conversations happening nearby.

The roaming NPCs are the worst offenders, by far. They get in your character's face and try to open him. They try to open chairs. They open message boards and crates they have no business opening. They block paths occasionally. Don't know how a guard works? Open it! Open the sky, open your dreams and open your limits. Their robotically curious nature is ironically more personable and charming than the witty dialogue, as it has probably opened my heart. However they are awkward. The only exceptions to this are the roamers that wander from indoors to outdoors, like Helia in Cordor's city hall. But even then, if it was a place where more people tried to RP, it would probably get annoying.

Unfortunately all the "white noise" that comes with NPCs does not appear to help with player perception that an area is less empty than it actually is. For that to happen, they would need to be changed randomly and frequently - and that is effort.
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Reallylongunneededplayername
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Reallylongunneededplayername » Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:58 pm

Mr_Rieper wrote:
Mon Jun 10, 2019 4:20 am

The roaming NPCs are the worst offenders, by far. They get in your character's face and try to open him. They try to open chairs. They open message boards and crates they have no business opening. They block paths occasionally. Don't know how a guard works? Open it! Open the sky, open your dreams and open your limits. Their robotically curious nature is ironically more personable and charming than the witty dialogue, as it has probably opened my heart. However they are awkward. The only exceptions to this are the roamers that wander from indoors to outdoors, like Helia in Cordor's city hall. But even then, if it was a place where more people tried to RP, it would probably get annoying.

Unfortunately all the "white noise" that comes with NPCs does not appear to help with player perception that an area is less empty than it actually is. For that to happen, they would need to be changed randomly and frequently - and that is effort.
Those roaming NPC's.. Getting in your way, With lag, randomly teleporting in your face.. I sometimes just want to put my Axe to their face.

Specially the on in the AT, " Hey miss b, How are you" *Armor bumbs into you and akwardly stands next to you*
(>^.^)>) * * * *<(^.^<) <-Magic missles and shield spell.

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MissEvelyn
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by MissEvelyn » Tue Jun 11, 2019 5:16 am

Mayfield's is definitely one of the worst places. All those 'actors' on the stage are complaining about something and it's constantly going on. If they were to be silenced and only talk when interacted with, that would be good =)


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MalKalz
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by MalKalz » Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:54 pm

I’ll be addressing these over the weekend.

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Durvayas
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Re: NPC spamming text in a main area

Post by Durvayas » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:53 pm

Spyre wrote:
Tue Jun 11, 2019 3:54 pm
I’ll be addressing these over the weekend.
Please, please remove or make static(maybe have him sit near the water?) the half orc (Yurg Brannik) in the spider's web bathhouse. Free the bathers from having him walking up to them and standing with his crotch at face level every time anyone wants to use the room for a conversation.
I've been killing him over, and over, and over, and over, for years, since the pit town era even. And I'm not the only one that does it.

Deliver us from his perversion, I beg you!
Plays: Durvayas(deleted), Marco(deleted), Hounynrae(NPC), Sinithra Auvry'ndal(rolled), Rauvlin Barrith(Active), Madeline Clavelle(Shelved)

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