(09-02-2024, 05:28 AM)Sawrock Wrote: To note before I get into this: all of this is purely going off of my vibes and emotions. Take everything I say here in the worst way possible.


There's far too many NPCs near this tent.



Same for the training grounds- I understand it can be used to build the mood that Geladyne is constantly training new recruits, but I would definitely prefer if it was instead supported by players stocking training dummies and people in Geladyne's ranks naturally congregated due to the utility of said training dummies.



Some of these towers are enterable, some are not. Having these guys here makes me think players are using them, as I've fought players outside some before, but both the NPCs and the towers are icing on a cake and not cake itself.



Right immediately south is two more dudes. A bit crowded.



Two guys outside a hospital, one with a pirate shirt that's also a campfire.



A kajillion guards guarding the southwest sea.



This bridge would be absolutely fantastic to have encounters on with other players, but it's a bit seperated from being in-character due to the guards. What do you do with them? Do you act like they're there? Do you roleplay for them? Do you ignore them?



Add more goats.



Remove this rock. You know why.



If you remove this baby or their friend to the east, I'll never forgive you.



This guys have unique names. I hate them. I hate them so much.



Almost none of the areas in the game have as much guards as the Don's place. It's just highly uncanny, like a Potemkin village; empty of any actual life, a husk.

All in all, I have to give high praises to Duyuei- almost no guards, the almost being that I didn't check the sand wastes border for NPC guards. But every time I've seen them, they've had PC guards for the sand wastes, and a sign at the entrance to the north for how you should expect guards to interact with you, giving you some guidelines to how to handle roleplay going through. And from my experience on Frog Knight, their guards are very responsive to requests for roleplay coming in. It's a very nice experience.

Second place goes to Telegrad, and although they have swarms of militia men near the haunted forest to the south, I can excuse that- I walk south from there, boom. Immediate monsters. Makes sense from a in-character perspective, even if I'd prefer solely player guards.

(09-03-2024, 06:26 PM)Poruku Wrote: To me the most egregious one is the Vale. There's no reason why the vale would have all these NPCs, and we wouldn't have that in other inns around the world. The fact they're all unique adds even more to the confusion!

I think the Geladyne guards are not as much of a problem because they're there for a reason, to represent a force in the area. I don't particularly mind the fact that we can't be bandits in a place with guards. It makes sense even though it's a shame.

To add to this, the reason why the geladyne farm is attacked often is because it's basically the only place in Korvara that has players and isn't inside a city (where guards would instantly arrest us). It's a matter of circumstance that it gets attacked often, but I understand the frustration.

(09-04-2024, 05:04 AM)zericosmic Wrote:

(09-03-2024, 06:26 PM)Poruku Wrote: To me the most egregious one is the Vale.

 My guess as to the reason why that is, is that the Vale is an adventuring hub rather than just an Adventuring guild, likely the biggest adventuring hub on Korvara, the NPCs and why they'd be so wildly different is to represent adventurers coming in from all corners of Korvara to make some dosh, rather than them being vale members.

(09-04-2024, 04:30 PM)Poruku Wrote:

(09-04-2024, 05:04 AM)zericosmic Wrote:

(09-03-2024, 06:26 PM)Poruku Wrote: To me the most egregious one is the Vale.

 My guess as to the reason why that is, is that the Vale is an adventuring hub rather than just an Adventuring guild, likely the biggest adventuring hub on Korvara, the NPCs and why they'd be so wildly different is to represent adventurers coming in from all corners of Korvara to make some dosh, rather than them being vale members.

Right, but that doesn't change the fact that nowhere else has this kind if NPCs in general. I think there's that one other guild in telegrad that has it... Anyway, point is, going by that logic you could have all kinds of places with NPCs in them.

For instance you could have gamblers in the casino, dock workers in the docks, people drinking in the Meiaquar Venue... You could put some members of various tribes around duyuei, farmers in the telegrad fields, etc.

But that's not a good idea even if it makes sense. So even though it makes sense in character for the vale npcs to be varied, that doesn't make it a good thing for the game as a whole.

I do think NPCs make the world feel empty. It detracts from the importance of player characters. Imo it should only be used to denote the presence of a force, to signify that an area is protected.