So I've started to notice that besides like, 5-6 PCs, the ship is usually bloody empty; and then I had a brainstorm for a slew of NPCs! They could help DMs populate the ship and act as either flavor additions or NPCs to get our IC need for goodies done. :D
1) "Vendors": We could put up Kazuko and some other NPCs in front of the armoury to sell out different material weapons and gear; enchanters/alchemists at the lab to sell potions, enchanting materials and magical stuff like that; food/drink vendor in the mess hall; nurse in the sickbay to sell medkits; etc.
2) Patrolling security teams and alike;
3) Civlians and off-duty NPCs to populate the massively empty messhall and corridors;
It'd also be nice if we could add some appearance changers somewhere on Deck 3. What sayeth you, builders?
Funny you mention the appearance changers; I was actually going to suggest that each roo in the living quarters get one. Makes more sense than running to the town.
I am for merchants too, but I would personnaly rather see us hire them IC/ have a reason for them to be on the ship instead of randomly getting a bunch of wierdos.
As for the ships general emptiness; it'll be fixed soon. I was just waiting for the updated clothing stuff to come in before I finished off npc's. They will be inbound for the next major update (presumably).
I guess Taurus already said this, but yes, the ship shall get life soon. We just didn't have the NPCs for it before. I'll also put in merchants where it makes sense for us to have supplies stored.
Well if you want the ship to become alive, its up to the players to do something :p and I'm against too much NPCs, the ship is already lagy enought adding NPCs will only cause more harm and its not like they're very usefull. I'm also against having important NPCs stay at once precise place all the time, they're people and they have lives too.
-- Edited by Hydra on Friday 8th of March 2013 03:16:00 PM
A) The lag has to do with the environment, which for the hundred billionth time is being looked into. NPC's won't make it better or worse.
B) If we have NPC's onboard, its obviously not people who have a comfortable home elsewhere.. it would be people we recruited or who joined us for whatever reason. Like I said; we should play it out IC before throwing too many in (yes I have some ideas too btw).
C) Yes, its up to the players, but at the same time, a couple of none-PC faces wont exactly detract from what the players do. It can add to it just as much, and the ships certainly big enough to accommodate both. I believe we already hired nPC's before our campaigns started too.
I when I say its up to the players, I meant that you cannot rely on NPCs to bring life and action to the ship unless a DM is present, otherwise they're just standing chickens, so having them all around is like having placeable with a chat-box, since we can't script them to react in a dynamic way. Otherwise Taurus point B) goes with what I think, we're not in Sigil where any player can write he has a ship, its own army on the forum and it becomes true, we have enought DMs or people willing to do it to allow people create things IC, if you want more people on the ship : do something to recruit them.
I understand the idea of convenience of having merchants from a gameplay standpoint, but from a RP perspective its just strange. I don't think there is any logic, that we have other members of the ship selling stuff to others especially if they can ask for the same thing basicly for free. I find it quite absurd a crew members may have enough money to buy all your crapload or will desire to do so. If you want to trade its better to do it outside of the ship, because it also gives a motivation to find people to trade with and can create event possibilities which can go further than just trade.
When I say "I'm against too much NPC", please notice the too much, 5 NPCs is of course all right.
-- Edited by Hydra on Monday 11th of March 2013 04:59:41 PM
Oh I certainly don't think we should have NPC's who can grant all food supplies and what not, but it is practical to have NPC's that can sell expendables such as potions and the like, since we rarely have much of a chance between sessions to do that (because we are not always going to be docked somewhere), and it lets people prep before session. People would not get 100% free access to stuff (unless its during a session and the DM in question is feeling generous that day) for various possible reasons. Maybe the merchant isn't explicitly a part of the crew and is instead a traveling merchant along for the ride (like the dwarven dudes in Dragon Age origin). Maybe he/ she needs the money to craft/ buy his own supplies when he's back at port, and so has to charge something.
We needn't worry about the conveniance part too much. Nothing is stopping a DM from making the NPC state that he needs to restock during a session. However, the mechanical function of an accessable shop cannot be denied, so I'd strongly recommend it. Besides... it gives the DM's some NPC's to use on the ship too, which is useful.
Regarding gold supply; it is far, far, far too late in any character's life time to fret over this, since most of the PC's on board are level 30's who have been raiding the likes of Hell and other planes for quite some time, let alone their other mercenary work. Especially in regards to expendable supplies, this shouldn't become a factor.
From the IC perspective, don't think about merchants as merchants. Think of them as a way to incrementally pay for all the supplies which Sasha made sure the ship was stocked with. We should have access to healing supplies in the ship, because enough would be stocked for the whole crew. We should have access to food and drink in the ship, because that too we are stocked with. We have access to certain weapons in the ship, because we bought them, or picked them up. But giving all of those things for free would be unfair (especially since we paid for some of these things with "rp" money), hence the use of "stores" to give us access to them.
When it comes to NPCs buying things from PCs, this is, to a very limited degree, like contributing to the ship's armory. Naturally, there should be a limit on this for sanity.
Finally, NPCs might be placeables with animations, but 1) we know they exist on the ship, because quite a few have been defined as existing, and 2) they do make things more alive just by standing there. They also serve to remind us that certain parts of the ship are public (i.e. mess hall). The ship was never meant to be an empty shell, and technically, the cheese on the bar is also a waste of polygons; but it makes the place look lived in, and thus a better environment for roleplaying.
Note: populating the ship is more than 5 NPCs, but they don't have to all be "out" at once.
