Things to Do that Aren't RP

[Kinaed]

Someone raised on another thread that there isn't much to do on TI when not in RP. Particularly, things that keep people online and engaged long enough to get involved in RP.

What kind of things could we add to the game or change about it to give people stuff to do?

Criteria:
- Must have a genuine, tangible benefit to the character
- Must significantly increase the chances of RP
- Must be themely
- Available outside of guilds
- Must be entertaining

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

[Puciek]

I would add one rule to the list: must not be a suitable alternative to RP, as any type of single player activity is likely to draw people away from it, and they may select doing it instead of roleplay, even when RP is available.

[Rabek]

I'd say we have the opposite problem. Too much to do that's better done alone that there's more incentive to do things alone than with others.

Crafting and combat grinding are key examples; they're spammy and have no benefit to working in groups, so they're better done alone so you don't annoy your RP partners.

Making these solo activities benefit from (but not require) including others would solve the problem better, I think, than providing more solo activities would.

Suggestions:
1. Remove the teach skill so that learning from a teacher has a strong enough benefit (learning faster and for free) compared to spending money to grind out recipes and combat trainers solo.
2. Have sparring against another player learn faster than NPCs. Significantly faster, ideally, or the trouble of finding a sparring partner will still outweigh the benefit of an NPC trainer.

[Starstarfish]

1. Remove the teach skill so that learning from a teacher has a strong enough benefit (learning faster and for free) compared to spending money to grind out recipes and combat trainers solo.

I'll add some further comments to this thread as I was one of the people with this suggestion, but I'd like to counter this suggestion. I'd like to instead propose that the Teach skill be something that can invested in by people via chargen. I'd propose that people being able to actively choose developing the teach skill would more actively support roles of people wanting to be teachers. Let it be something to be invested in rather than something that anyone can randomly do well. So that roles that are meant to be teachers - Priests for example have an actual advantage to be sought for RP versus randoms.

I'd go further:

1 - Give a bonus to teaching based on the number of people in the room, thus encouraging group scenes. Whether that's an RPXP bonus or a boost to pooling.

2 - Give a bonus to teaching in thematically appropriate rooms - the Cathedral or University rooms, an operating theatre in the Madison.

That said, I think we have to consider if we make teaching "faster" that will cause a different problem - too many people having too many skills to be self-sufficient and not require others. And thus again starting the cycle of less RP and then economic collapse.

[Famine]

I guess this might be partly my doing here. I really think systems that encourage RP that is not directly tied to RP where I can do it solo and not in a guild sounds awesome. Not so much to being an alternative to RP, but to ignite it.

Trade Routes

Automating trade routes through NPC caravans may be a good one for both the good guys and the bad guys like myself. We live in what I assume is a pretty thriving city. This means goods are coming and going from somewhere on carriage or by boat. Scripting out a trade route that has delivery between locations will set the scenes for both escorting (the good guys) and robbing (the bad guys).

Code wise, this means a pulse event that happens X times throughout the day. NPC's are spawned and set in motion to walk from point A to point B. A command can be created to act as a indication of escorting the party if executed in the same room. That way the good guys can be flagged as escorts to walk (RP) with the caravan. Once it reaches its destination, the system despawns and randomly awards those with the flag with silver or items.

The bad guys just need to disrupt the caravan via combat and or a command developed to "hold" the caravan in place. If successful in making the NPC's flee (minus the wagon) and or a command can hold for long enough to make those NPC's give up, then a chest can be spawned on the ground that has random loot or just silver in the container. If players are escorting the caravan, they are obviously able to disrupt the "hold" and RP out the scene.

For further coolness, adding other systems to hint on special trade route locations through hints on the MUD or maybe through plots could be awesome too. Maybe even rare noble ones or even rare criminal ones. Lots of different ways to make this both common and easter eggy.

Camps

Similar to trade routes, but not as code intensive, would be random camps of both good and bad guys. A camp could be something as simple as 2 - 4 NPC's around a campfire with a chest. The good guys can again execute a command to join the camp if the camp is made up of non-bandit/pirate type NPC's. This simulates a friendly walking up to the camp and joining it for a discussion or whatever they want to RP it to be.

If the camp is attacked in meaning, any of the NPC's take damage, and the chest remains closed for X amount of time, then the good guys flagged are rewarded silver and or items. If the NPC's all die and or flee and the chest is opened, then the flag is removed from the good guys and they receive nothing.

For the bad guy camps, no one can join them, not even the bad guys because bad guys don't share. Both good and bad can attack these camps and only get rewarded for what's in the chest.

Final Thoughts

In both of these ideas, they feed off a system to spawn something. They also feed off needing NPC's, which from what I can tell, is not the theme of the game here. I'm not trying to suggest we turn this into Diablo, but I do think using NPC's to create opportunities for RP encounters is something this game lacks. Trade routes that simulate moving goods to and from a location encourage conflict as well encourage role-play. While these may can be done solo, especially escorting, it does act like a lightning rod for other players to at least check it out and see if anything interesting is happening too.

[Puciek]

Sparring already is better than trainers - with only "downside" to it is that you require a partner. It's free and you gain more pools per round, and if you use help effort well you can get a lot of training done without resting (multiple maxed pools). And then, as you rest, you can use teaching to talk about what you did while your HP regenerates.

Teaching is already a supercharged skill. On my reasonable int/wis character, when taught by someone with teaching at 36, my pool was maxed in 2-3 emotes. it also give the teacher pools to the skill being taught, this I think depends on the number of students. I don't think we should make it any faster, but maybe increase the bonus when done with bigger groups, so when you teach multiple players you will pool as quickly as being taught.

I am not fussed by the notion that people will learn a lot of skills quickly, there still is the matter of XP to process them and learn slots that ultimately limit your character abilities.

[Kinaed]

Crafting and combat grinding are key examples; they're spammy and have no benefit to working in groups, so they're better done alone so you don't annoy your RP partners.

Making these solo activities benefit from (but not require) including others would solve the problem better, I think, than providing more solo activities would.

Suggestions:
1. Remove the teach skill so that learning from a teacher has a strong enough benefit (learning faster and for free) compared to spending money to grind out recipes and combat trainers solo.
2. Have sparring against another player learn faster than NPCs. Significantly faster, ideally, or the trouble of finding a sparring partner will still outweigh the benefit of an NPC trainer.

It's already coded that sparring against another player gets a bonus in pool:

Skill : sword

Type : Guild Skill (15)
Category: Combat (1)
Header : melee (11)
Title : default is 'champion of skillname'
Champion: <censored>
Top Rank: 75 ranks
PGSN : 13
Pooled : 3
Bonus : 8
Flags : Is_lowest Visible agenerf
Req 1 : Stat strength 55
Guild : Order

See that bonus? That's the bonus you get for using it in RP. More than double the bang for your buck as opposed to using a trainer, which costs silver and doesn't give RPxp.
I believe most crafts also have an RP bonus.

[Starstarfish]

If crafting provides an RP bonus, what's the possibility it could be set up like sparring wherein if you are with others you can/should submit echoes?

I think I'd be more inclined to go to public places and do crafts as a way to RP if there was a way to RP through the stages and emote, or hide the echoes for other than the room so the crafter can RP without also spamming people.

[Rothgar]

Right off the bat, I'll be frank - It's early in the morning, I don't have any ideas, and I'm just popping in to offer a warning :

With every idea that you guys come up with, safely assume that it will be taken to it's logical extremes, every time. Safely assume that there will be more than one player - in fact, there will be many players - who will do all that they possibly can in order to abuse or break the concept that you've come up with. There is a reason that TI doesn't have a 'sell' command for NPC's, and there's a reason that many features we've come up with over the last few years have died. I'm not attempting to wave off anyone's suggestions, but do just be careful about offering a 'singleplayer' aspect, as it will eventually come back to bite us if not managed properly.

[Rabek]

I believe most crafts also have an RP bonus.

It also spams your RP partner and is remarkably annoying, which I stated originally, which is the bigger problem than some RPXP bonus.