How important are people? : IV

» Sat May 28, 2011 4:35 pm

I am trying to gauge how far I should go in making my Gallery for my town Pell's Gate, come alive.

For reference, Pell's Gate mod is a remake of the vanilla Pell's Gate village. This mod places a brand new Pell's Gate full town right next to the vanilla village without altering the village. The town contains a huge Gallery with Dragon Display, numerous creature displays, Ayleid Display, Egyptian Display, Pottery Display, Hall of Masterpieces, etc....etc...

http://i110.photobucket.com/albums/n99/Shezrie/HallofMasters.jpg

What I need to know is whether it is worth the effort to make there be completely different NPCs visiting the Gallery every day OR whether people just wouldn't care or notice and therefore I should just have the same NPCs in the Gallery everyday and not go the extra mile to make it different......

» Sat May 28, 2011 7:17 pm

can't you just assign all potential visitors a random percentage package to visit the gallery every day?

» Sat May 28, 2011 10:05 pm

Personally I don't care. The game is huge, how often will a player visit the gallery to notice that there are always the same people hanging around? Of course the same NPCs shouldn't always stay in the same room throughout the day. A bit of variety might be a nice detail if it's easy to achieve on your end, but I wouldn't waste a lot of time to do something 99% of players will hardly notice anyway. There are always more or less the same ten people in the IC market district and no one really complains about that either.

» Sat May 28, 2011 6:13 pm

I'd suggest only going as far as putting the unnamed visitors on a leveled list (like bandits or marauders) so that the game selects them at random on a cell reset. I wouldn't bother trying to script anything to make them different more often. That will give you costume and race variety - which is all they really need. If you have any rumors or similar that they may say (e.g. "We don't see stuff like this in Morrrowind"), use race to determine that and you'll have the randomness there too.

But that place definitely needs people in it!

» Sun May 29, 2011 1:55 am

I hate to dodge the question, but I think this is a good case of if it matters to you,do it. If it doesn't, don't.

If it really doesn't bother you then dont spend the time on it. If it really wil bother you then do it. If you're not sure, wait until later.

Vac

» Sat May 28, 2011 9:43 pm

Personally I don't care. The game is huge, how often will a player visit the gallery to notice that there are always the same people hanging around? Of course the same NPCs shouldn't always stay in the same room throughout the day. A bit of variety might be a nice detail if it's easy to achieve on your end, but I wouldn't waste a lot of time to do something 99% of players will hardly notice anyway. There are always more or less the same ten people in the IC market district and no one really complains about that either.

This, really. You should't bother with it unless its something you can do really easy. No one will probably notice, anyway. I mean, unless its a really really really HUGE gallery, I don't think I would come back to it every day of the week.

» Sat May 28, 2011 11:52 pm

I took the title into an entirely different context...

» Sun May 29, 2011 1:36 am

Personally I don't care. The game is huge, how often will a player visit the gallery to notice that there are always the same people hanging around? Of course the same NPCs shouldn't always stay in the same room throughout the day. A bit of variety might be a nice detail if it's easy to achieve on your end, but I wouldn't waste a lot of time to do something 99% of players will hardly notice anyway. There are always more or less the same ten people in the IC market district and no one really complains about that either.

You raise a very good point that I had forgotten. Realistically how often would the player visit the Gallery, surely not daily as I was thinking of having different people for each day of the week with unique dialog. Thanks for the reality check, much appreciated.

I think my time would be better spent making the town react to events that occur in the various quests.

This, really. You should't bother with it unless its something you can do really easy. No one will probably notice, anyway. I mean, unless its a really really really HUGE gallery, I don't think I would come back to it every day of the week.

The Gallery is HUGE and you will spend a lot of time there on three quests there, but yes you are right people won't notice. Much better putting my attention on how your thieving episodes won't be going unnoticed in the town.

I'd suggest only going as far as putting the unnamed visitors on a leveled list (like bandits or marauders) so that the game selects them at random on a cell reset. I wouldn't bother trying to script anything to make them different more often. That will give you costume and race variety - which is all they really need. If you have any rumors or similar that they may say (e.g. "We don't see stuff like this in Morrrowind"), use race to determine that and you'll have the randomness there too.

But that place definitely needs people in it!

That hadn't even occured to me and it is a very good idea! Thanks!