[Sawrock]

There's a significant amount of uninteractable NPCs around the map, everywhere. Despite having seen them many times before, I still get hopeful that it's a fellow player I can interact with, but then I quickly realize that nope, it's just the same decorative NPC as before. Could a lot of these be removed? They ironically make the world feel more dead.

[WaifuApple]

They're EM placeables, usually requested by the nation they're in. If you want to aim for a precedent being set where that's not allowed, that's fine, but they're not really implemented NPCs at all.

[Snake]

You should probably give us a few images of where these are located so we can get on to removing them. Sometimes the gang forgets to do that, and it's an accident rather than intentional.

[Sawrock]

Thank you for the information, WaifuApple, and thank you for the request for the images Kunai- I'll make sure to post back when I have some time to hop on and wander the lands a bit to find the most egregious examples!

[Sawrock]

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.

[Caboozles]

While I'm not sure about the bridges (and I think those could be toned down), a lot of the other placed guards are in response to events where people trashed the place or did things like fight in what is theoretically a heavily fortified area because "nobody was around".

I think Geladyne is a little too locked down, but the presence of those guards was not done without reason, it's just difficult to necessarily explain that without plastering signs everywhere.

[Rendar]

While I'm not sure about the bridges (and I think those could be toned down), a lot of the other placed guards are in response to events where people trashed the place or did things like fight in what is theoretically a heavily fortified area because "nobody was around".

I think Geladyne is a little too locked down, but the presence of those guards was not done without reason, it's just difficult to necessarily explain that without plastering signs everywhere.

The ones at the bridge (and farm area therein) were in direct response to bandit activity. Multiple times. over.. about a week or two IRL.

The farm was attacked about 3-4 times, alongside other passerbys in the area. So. They cracked down and had 'more patrols' out that way.

[Sawrock]

I can see why those were added, although I will comment that I still dislike them- it's basically "keep off the grass" signs for conflict roleplay. With NPC guards instead of player guards, it's just another place where that roleplay is not allowed.

[Rendar]

This was an arguement that you made whenever Duyuei was having people walk in and performing literal terrorist activities inside of the city limits. People RPing planting bombs and then going 'lol no player was around 2 stop me'

Activities such as antagonism can certainly be done within these areas (such as near the farm), but it's less a 'spur of the moment gank on someone who doesn't really want to rp that' and 'looc hey you chill to be jumped for bandit activity. I won't be forcing injuries etc, as I'll likely get run off by guards'.

You and your RP partner are both within your rights to decide just How Much these individual NPCs do, or stop, or what not. It's just so that there is a 'presence' on the overworld, to help remind people that certain areas are under scrutiny and a higher level of 'alertness'.

[Sawrock]

This was an arguement that you made whenever Duyuei was having people walk in and performing literal terrorist activities inside of the city limits. People RPing planting bombs and then going 'lol no player was around 2 stop me'

Activities such as antagonism can certainly be done within these areas (such as near the farm), but it's less a 'spur of the moment gank on someone who doesn't really want to rp that' and 'looc hey you chill to be jumped for bandit activity. I won't be forcing injuries etc, as I'll likely get run off by guards'.

You and your RP partner are both within your rights to decide just How Much these individual NPCs do, or stop, or what not. It's just so that there is a 'presence' on the overworld, to help remind people that certain areas are under scrutiny and a higher level of 'alertness'.

That's a good way of looking at it, thank you.

EDIT: It stills bums me out that this only applies from a one-sided fashion; I remember when Felhart was first caught I was just trying to use the asagorian bank services but someone saw me in-character (my fault for not wearing a disguise, really). I still appreciate the thought none-the-less, as I'm sure most people will handle it nicely, although it's still ripe for misuse.

Just as I was only trying to argue for getting past the Duyuei gates to take frogs from the crypt (as my character was sensitive about his face), there are bad actors in that regard (like people putting bombs with no one around, which I've experienced as well with Bloeden's graveyard).

Nonetheless, it still bums me out and ruins (at least my) overall roleplaying experience to have husks of people just splat around.