Illarion.org

a trading dialog or a trading window would be great.

the "lazy" NPCs are just a question of time and spirits.
to repair existing NPCs and to write a lot of possible dialogs costs time and effort. (even with the "simple" script)
and i fully understand Cassandra, when he states, that constant nagging does not further efforts for the game.
or constant proposals... we got players, who post "proposals" - or better said, egoistic ideas almost dayly.
and expect the devs to comply instantly.

Dien wrote:The manual, frankly, is almost useless in my opinion. I've read it three times and I still didn't figure out basic functions until I started hitting wiki and the boards. Wiki is incomplete at best, and the boards are constantly a variation on the theme of "find it out in game."

It would be very interessting why the manual is useless! The basic control options are there. What is missing there is how crafting is actually working nowadays (the manual is quite old), but that can be found in the Illapedia, e.g. the Newbie/Beginner's guide (you are right that the wiki is not complete, but covers almost all basic stuff).

Korm Kormsen wrote:a trading dialog or a trading window would be great.

I guess and hope this will come someday.

You're right, a lot has to be done but that needs time and motivation.
Time is a worthwhile and seldom thing but the work will go on - step by step.