Merchant and Shop Hours

[JoeFaust]

I would like to ask the NS4 Developers to reconsider the shop-hours "feature" of NS4. I understand the intent to add realism to the game, but this is an unnecessary limitation. I don't know about everyone else, but I do most of my shopping at the following times:

1) After Death. Die, respawn in town, shop. It can be a real pain if I have to wait around for 15-20 minutes for the shop to open. That's time I could be making up the XP/Gold I lost for dying!

2) At login/logout. This morning before work I logged in real quick to do some shopping. However, the shop was of course closed. This meant I couldn't get anything done, and will have to wait until tonight.

I've talked to a few people in game about the store hours issue, and everyone seems to agree that it's quite annoying.

If you have a second, please hop over to the Polls forum and vote:

http://www.nsrealm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?p=4012#4012

--JoeFaust

[sep caldessian]

i like the shop hours.

but it also brings up the questions:

when does realism become tedium?

and

should realism be implemented across the board?

sure its realistic to have shop hours, but extremely un-realistic that you can rest anywhere and have the benefit of a full nights sleep. especially in hostile territory, or on city streets. do you know anyone that can go to a bustling city and take a nap in the middle of the market square?

its not realistic to be able to run across countryside in full armor and not become fatigued, but i am strongly against walking everywhere.

there is a line between realism and tedium, and the devs/dms/admins have the final say in where the line is drawn. there are a few things i would like to see changed, but if not, thats fine too...house rules and all.

and im having a load of fun on ns4.

[Joran]

This was debated back in closed beta. Our solution was "let's see how it goes in open beta and we'll re-evaluate it then." So, keep the feedback coming :)

[ATI]

I think it is cool for The Circle. There is teh smithy which is almost always open (so far haven't seen any time with him closed) and som vendors and so forth that close every once and a while. Its a mild inconvenience, but it builds my anticipation. Its really fun

[TastyTreat]

I find it to be a minor inconvenience. Maybe as a compromise adjust the hours so the stores are open for a bit longer?

[Paddy]

I don't like the fact i spent 35 mins lugging my very valuabel loot across the realm at a heavily encumbered pace only to find the shop shut and i must wait another 15 mins for it to open.

And i also dislike the fact that when i do get in and start Iding suff and selling it (one item at a time thankfully cos i'm that catious) the sever crashes and i lose a 10k item (i have heard people lose alot more). Is there no way to run the script so until you confirm it does not leave your invetory so it is not lost in the event of a crash. Takes me much longer to ID stuff than in normal way cos i only put one item in the box at a time and i still lose sutff.

Like the variable price of ID tho, makes sense....

[garrykasparov]

Maybe you could set up some shop keepers who do business at night (including id/sell)? I can see that some shady black market type stores would fence loot and the like during night hours.

[ATI]

perhaps at a higher price for identification? maybe an additional .05 percent increase in ID prices for those open at night?

[DrakhanValane]

Yo devs... You've used the excuse of "this is a PW Action" as justification for not slowing down play in regards to a fugue plane and other things... yet now you want to slow down play with store hours? hmm... I'm for removing store hours altogether as unnecessary slowdown.

[sep caldessian]

Yo devs... You've used the excuse of "this is a PW Action" as justification for not slowing down play in regards to a fugue plane and other things... yet now you want to slow down play with store hours? hmm... I'm for removing store hours altogether as unnecessary slowdown.

apples and oranges.

fugue plane = you have the ability to do nothing but wait.

store hours = you have the ability to do ANYTHING else in the module EXCEPT purchase from a store vendor.

[DrakhanValane]

Tell that to the guy bogged down with equipment to sell.

[JoeFaust]

Seems to me that the problem isn't so much needing to BUY stuff from the merchant, it's needing to SELL and IDENTIFY stuff. Perhaps if you made special 24-hour merchants that you could SELL and IDENTIFY at, that would be enough.

--JoeFaust

[sep caldessian]

well, i dont have any problems with the way it is now. i do like the idea of a shady dealer running an all-hours hock shop where you can buy/sell stolen goods and what not. maybe have the door scripted to pop up a conversation where you have to pass an INT or WIS or CHA check and be of a certain alignment or have a password or something. of course these shops wouldnt be available everywhere, the namby-pamby pallies and such wouldnt allow that kind of operation. just my two coppers.

[DrakhanValane]

It could be "the night guy" that only works the graveyard shift because he really needs the money for his mother's meds. He isn't trusted to sell stuff to the customers, but his cheatsheet works just fine for Identification and buying stuff from the victims... er, adventurers! You could call him "Night Guy Johnny" or "Part-Time Pete" if you really want. hehe

[Glimmer]

When implementing a feature such as this you have to ask yourself, what is the benefit and how does it change the game?

In this case gameplay is not changed at all since you still get to do everything exactly the same way but 15-20 minutes later.
This is very inconvinient and frustrating especially if you get to the shop when it is closed 5 times in a row.

If you would like to make it a feature, close the doors at night and allow night entry only after completing a quest.