Shattered Kingdoms

Since I didn't want to stray Peso's thread:

I don't see why there isn't an NPC version of Peso in the game that does what he's doing. especailly for the lower levels.

Take Nerina for example.

Sukra should tell you to check out the fighting schools in town after you become a Novice. "They'll have knowledge of where you can progress and training from here."

Example: xxx says to the dwarven trainer 'What area should I go to, to practice my fighting skills?'

The dwarven trainer surveys you from head to toe.

The trainer says 'You look like you'd benefit most from the Tunnel of Aku'un here in Zhenshi, or the Ayamaoan Outpost in the Ayamaoan Alliance.

basically the same as using the areas command.

But then,

xxx asks the trainer 'Where might I find this Tunnel of Aku'un?

The Dwarven Trainer says to you 'The Tunnel of Aku'un? That is only a few leagues southeast of this city, but make sure you don't stray into the Bakemono Caves for you will surely DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH there. (something obvious to make sure they goto the right cave)

or

xxx asks the trainer 'Where is this Ayamaoan Outpost?

The Dwarven Trainer says to you 'The Ayamaoan Outpost? That is a far journey west of here. You find it north of the City of Sith'a'nel the main city of the kingdom of Ayamao. And yet south of the city of Exile, the main city of the kingdom of Taslamar.

The Dwarven Trainer says to you 'But perhaps there is a faster way for you to get there. Have you knowlegde of the Portal Stones?

The Dwarven Trainer says to you 'Each portal is a dfferent color depending on what city it comes from (blah blah blah) seek out x color portal for the kingdom of Ayamao, and y color portal for the kingdom of Taslamar.



Something along those lines. Not being a coder myself I havn't the slightest idea how hard of a job it would be to put that in.

And I know it cuts down on RP with other players... but at the moment there are 4 of us online, 1 newbie, and I havn't seen anyone in the last 45 minutes I've been playing.


What are your opinions?

Pretty neat idea actually. I like it. While I don't think it should last you past...journeyman, then you'd have to figure out on your own/from other pc's.

yeah i think it's best for the players before journeyman too, there should def. be a point where the NPC would tell you to seek out help from other players.

This is actually a very good idea.

I like the idea myself.

This reminds me of a similar idea that I had that NPCs you went to for assistance,you enter a command, and they tell you about an area. They'd give you coordinates and perhaps some hint on a quest appropriate for your character. I even thought about writing a book for each area that you could purchase or quest for instead of just asking a NPC. While I like the idea, I don't think its really going to come across as well unless its a coded addition. The amount of scripting and information that would have to be stored wouldn't really be conducive to add onto one NPC. That kind of work should really be an entire new command. It could work off of the quest and familiarity systems to help you get to those places your character would find suitable for leveling or questing.

That's kind of a pity in my opinion. I imagine a coded command as such might suggest areas from a set of parameters.. The level of the NPCs their, vs your level vs your familiarity with said area and any quests that might be to find there...

However in chosing a good area to level in, these factors are only a small part of it... In my experience (and I admit it might be flawed) the things that really matter are classes of the NPCs you're fighting, any quirks they might have (Blinded caster NPCs for the win for instance) and besides that, it seems some NPCs just bleed exp while some NPCs, of seemingly same level, don't...

This idea not so much based on leveling, but just helping people to get that discovery experience for finding every area. This would be an in game source for information that hopefully could be added to, an perhaps even be an addition to the lore skill. I would actually love to have a few characters organize something gathering information in a standard format. I could imagine a few different applications for such info. I think it would be a while before any such system could be implemented, so I guess assembling the information would be the best way to start. I'm willing to start a library if there's any authors who like writing this kind of stuff with IC flavor.

Algorab already has this in Exile, if you ask the right NPCs.

That is actually a great example of what I would hope for. I'd just like it to be more comprehensive. We have a quest command, shouldn't there be a way to discover quests in the game? It would be nice if at the beginning of every status you had some new set of options it would give you. If you could get the discovery bonus for each area it named, and also lead you to a quest in each area, giving you the opportunity to perhaps get one level in five through exploration and quests. There'd be no requirement to follow the suggestions and you could still find your way around and to the quests without this assistance at all. Basically this just gives in-game clues to things that people have found increasingly through out of character means. While I hate the way in which some of the most eloquent of quests in the game have been splayed forth, I must admit that making the information available is something I'd actually like to find a way of doing, just in the game.