NPC guards

[Llama]

Ok this is one of my not-so-stupid-i-hope proposals.

This idea will put NPC guards outside of the town walls (real ones, not drunk ones). These guards will check anyone who enters and prevent the entry of wanted criminals and enemy NPCs. (So no more luring any golems into town and PKing a ton and a half of new players ).

Banning People

The person who is the captain of the guard, or any guards he 'trusts' gets access to the 'banning area', which will be accessed through the website. Over there, the person writes down the character number of the person to be banned, and the time for the ban. The person making this should also determine (as hit roleplay discretion) how 'perfect' the description is.

For example: A person who grabbed some coins and ran away wouldn't have a very good description, so there isn't much chance of catching him or her.

A person who's been wanted for months would have a 100% chance of being caught, as most guards would recognise him.

Checking for Banned People

As soon as the character tries to pass the gate, the guard checks whether the person is allowed entry or not. If the description is not 100% perfect, there is a chance of the guard letting the person in by accident, especially if its nighttime. If the person is wanted, the guards do not let him in, and he can't walk into town. For 30 minutes (real time), all guards will be on high alert against him, and so he has no chance of entering the town even by any other gate.

Remember that guards are only human

The guards are only at the gate. That means that alternate ways of entry such as teleportation, secret passages or the like aren't defended, so they might be a nice way in.

Also guards might accept a small 'donation' in order to allow the person in, although this shouldn't be allowed very often.
-

Reasons why?

I find it stupid that a wanted person just comes into town because the guards happen to be players with a social life.
I also do not like the horrible method of luring creatures into towns...
---

Erm, discuss?

[Shingo]

I really like it, but how hard would it be to implement?

[pharse]

especially the ban/unban process would be complex or awkward, I guess.

[Llama]

I really like it, but how hard would it be to implement?

How I'm seeing it is a teleportation tile outside of the gate, which teleports to inside of the gate.

IF character is NOT [one of the banned characters], he's allowed a teleport in. Otherwise he can't use the teleportation tile and just stands outside.

[Juliana D'cheyne]

Being one of those that mentioned " I think shady chars add spice to the game " I wouldn't like this idea at all. I also think there is a great possibility for abuse which would also increase flame wars.

[abcfantasy]

True but, 'shady' chars didn't prove to be responsible enough at times, that is why technical measures may be needed. Honestly, banning has become utterly useless, at least in 99.9% times. I might have a slightttttttt vagueeee idea on how to make this 'technical banning' but I still have to see if it's even possible and stuff (when I'm on my PC).

[Korm Kormsen]

i wanted something very similar for nordmark.
i allready started writing guards.
but in contacts with nitram the result was, that it will be impossible (within reasonable measures), to make NPCs intelligent enough for that.

an example:
the illarion NPCs react to spoken words.
so if a char says: "let me in." the guard could react to that char.
but if another char just passes by, without saying anything, the guard will ignore him.
solution: obligate the char, to talk to the guard.
how? the only reason would be, that the char can not enter.
but.... NPC can not open or close doors.

the part to recognize persons for special treatment would be possible. and i think, special treatment could even include attack.

so the good idea is in vane, because those guards could not close or open the gates.

edit:
neither can NPC teleport chars.
we talked about that too.

[Vern Kron]

Hmm...could have the npc BE a door then, yes? Guards on oneside waiting to hear that some one needs to be let in, and the doors are actually npcs as well that open when the guards say "You may enter" or something. Just a thought.

[pharse]

Nitram is right, but Adrian's idea of a teleport field is also possible, though quite weird. And there is a lot of room for mages abusing the teleport spell.

[Llama]

Being one of those that mentioned " I think shady chars add spice to the game".

You can be as shady as you like, just don't get caught. If you run around with a cloak and do stuff in secret, you shouldn't get banned. This is mostly for the "I got banned, let me go and PK half the town".

[Korm Kormsen]

pharse,

a teleport field is also possible

the requirements would be:
1)char stands on teleport field.
2)char talks to NPC
3)NPC activates teleport field (or not, depending on identification), teleporting the char.

are you sure, that step three is possible? - if yes, please tell me the secret.

korm
.

[maryday]

Being one of those that mentioned " I think shady chars add spice to the game".

As i mentioned a day ago, or so.."The wheel succeeeds the bullock."


@pharse; a teleport spell is meant to be abused;
There is no way to make use of it, without abuse, in a world, where the majority is not able to do it.



The teleportation thing might work for a small IGcommunity, where there are no gates, which are made for oncoming and leaving people at the same time.

It is too much effort, looks silly, and the only place for such a device might be a gnomish town. (Of which we have none to my knowledge)

Maybe the building of Vanima has enough consciousness to prevent fiends from entering...




Tres simple:

At each side of a gate stands a guard, so each (of the two tiles) is in attack range.
Additionally (if 3D-combat implemented) there may be two to four archers (for the real badasses) on top of the gatehouse...

(These guards might also be maxed out, a little bit transformed enemyNPCs)

Well, have some reasons.

The fugitives would have to be seperated to different levels of danger for society, by the concerned gouvernment, or a COUNCIL OF GMs.
Say three levels.

1-Disturber;

2-Havoc Propagator;

3-Enemy of Living Things;

If a 1 PASSES the gate, the shout may be heard: "That fool is in town again, get the cabbage ready!";

If a 2 enters a space of 3tiles INFRONT of the gate the shout may be heard: "We know of your habits, stay away!"
(The two Gatekeepers switch to aggressive against concerned person, but stay in place);

If a 3 enters a space of 6tiles INFRONT of the gates the shout: "Ambush! Ambush! (name of the gate)";
The gate closes instantly, and all guards switch to aggressive (yet will stay in place)


For playerquests like sieges, the guards might have to be lowered to defeatable levels, with (by creation) alternate prepared scripts.

At night, the gates would be automatically closed and only opened (on word, and/ or donation) if the char is on the list of "Most honourable friend of town, or diplomatic lesser problem."



As enemyNPCs would be used, they might even develop personal skills..or receive special sets of inventory, from the gouvernators.


At least the dwarves of Silverbrand might be most interested in this Topic.






It may be a lot off effort, but the use for future development upon a (even cut-down, and less intricate as i propose) gatekeeper-system,
could be of unmeasurable worth for the IGatmosphere.


The ones who would flame against/ because of such a extensive improvement,
and eventually engraving results, might probably be the same who flame against each and any bagatelle.


If no one of these Ideas works out, simply add a "Here is my coppercoin." to the NPC script.

That`s it.

Gates can react. ->A ring for protection against evil spirits!?

[pharse]

Korm,

it would actually only work like a teleport field.

* unpassable tile / closed door blocks the entrance to the town.

* outside there is a NPC. Chars have to talk to him and ask for admission.

* If admission is granted, the warp process is invoked in the NPC script.


But as I said, quite weird solution. Maryday is right, would fit for a mage or gnome town.

[Estralis Seborian]

I have started to script some stuff that might be related to this. In case you're interested, give me a hint. Not that the stuff I script is usually useful...

[Korm Kormsen]

* If admission is granted, the warp process is invoked in the NPC script.

how?

[pharse]

Code: Select all

function receiveText(texttype, message, originator)
  [etc]
  [condition: originator said right thing] then
    thisNPC:talk(CCharacter.say, "I wish you a fine stay in Troll's Bane.");
    originator:warp(position([coordinates of the other side of the door]));
  end
  [etc]
end

done.

[maryday]

Please do it without a swirly.

[Nitram]

Something like that is not possible with the simple NPC Language. But it is possible with real Lua

[Korm Kormsen]

AAAAAHHHH!!!11111!!!!!

so i will write my guard, leave a space for the teleportation, give it to you, and you put in the teleportationpart.

or i write it in simple, submit it to "script", and insert the above part then.
(and you fix the mistakes)

so after fixing the innkeeper and writing the farmteacher i still have something to write.

[Azuros]

This idea reminds me a bit of the spirit trees we had in Trollsbane once, maybe we could take guidance from that.

[Mr. Cromwell]

I would like to have one or two uber-npc-guards with Ed, so he could opress the peasants a little better..

[Korm Kormsen]

azuros,

could you describe them trees for a newby?


Mr. Cromwell,

let me write them for you. i'll include a nice little extra. called magnicide.
one of the two i will name brutus, the other robin.

[Azuros]

I'm not quite sure how they worked, but if I remember correctly, they were made (in my head I see it this way) so that they worked similar to the cross, it wouldn't allow certain things in. I don't quite remember any longer, but I think it was used during the temple "quest" waaay back when Nalzaxx was around.

[Korm Kormsen]

do you mean the oaks with the light beams all around?

if yes, i believe to remember, that they only "repelled" NPCs.

[Nitram]

The "trees" were a few scripts containing 2 parts.

A script that was called every few seconds ( 5 or something ) and made the light beams around the trees.

And a second script that were on a few trigger fields that kicked away certin characters in case they steped on.

The main problem is always, how to tell the script what characters have to been kicked out. If the character list stays always the same, its no problem. But if it changes and has to be changed by players, then its getting more difficult.

Nitram

[Enwell van Illdoran]

How about scripting a triggerfield inside the gatehouses, which reacts on the id's of banned characters with a bigger spawn of human warriors, if he walks in too far...

A spawn big enough that you can only enter the town if you have a group of at least 3 skilled fighters to get through. Maybe aided by a shoutout in the town area that trolls bane is under attack, as soon as the first guard gets killed.

if they leave the area, the npc's get nuked.

let me know how far that would be possible.

[Estralis Seborian]

*enters gate house*
*leaves quickly*
*returns to gather loot from nuked monsters*
*spawns some more*

I think you get the idea Also, monsters will attack anyone, not only certain characters. But alot can be done, Nitram using the word "difficult" implies that it is alot of work, but feasable to do something sophisticated. But I fear the effort would be as big as scripting the basics of priest magic .

[Enwell van Illdoran]

creating new monsters without any loot-issue resolved.

anyway, its just an idea

[Korm Kormsen]

*returns to gather loot from nuked monsters*.

not, if guards would have no loot.

The main problem is always, how to tell the script what characters have to been kicked out. If the character list stays always the same, its no problem. But if it changes and has to be changed by players, then its getting more difficult.

could it be possible, to use a "!"-command?

with "!bag xxx" a player can insert plain text to a place, where the program can read it.

make something like "!chase elderberry, fisher" to give the script a list of names, on which to react.
(or, if it has to be short, as the bag-names make me think, something like "!add xxx" and "!remove yyy")

remains the question, who may "order" the guards.
that could be made either by the identification-system i try to introduce in nordmark, but that would be unsafe over time.
or a scripter could change the name of the recognized char/townleader when needed. (in trollsbane about once every two weeks...)

would that be impossible, or only "difficult"?

[AlexRose]

Can you even nuke a certain amount of monsters? I guess if not people would be like.

"k, we're at the dragon, enter town plz"

*Run for monster's loot*

Plus, what if you got pked by a guard, went to the cross then couldn't get back out due to guards?