Ok, we all take the guard job, but after we're done killing rats, pickpockets and goblins, unless we're actually in town when an enemy faction member shows up, chances are we arnt doing much guarding.
Well, is it possible to write in a script that will automaticly "teleport" you into a permantently assigned area of the city if an enemy is detected? You ARE a guard, after all. Say after you get your master level, you choose an area of the city that you're "binded" to for guard duty. Then, if you're anywhere in the server (dont see how it could work thru all 4 servers, if it can, all the better) and somebody mean shows up, BANG! You're automaticly teleported to your post until the threat passes / is neutralized.
Or if it cant be scripted, maybe the "God" of the server/faction could "Call" you to defend your city? Same premise, except its a direct dm action. To be fair, i dont see a lvl 30 fighter being called in to put down a lvl 8 rogue who managed to sneak by the front gate, im sure the dm's will make the fight challenging for both sides. They can call in the amount of firepower they think is neccessary to have a moderate (e.g. equal chance to win or lose) battle.
And to make it even more interesting, it can be volentary. Those who volenteer to have the chance of their adventure's interupted might be rewarded in some way if they perform well and win "X" amount of battles in the city.
Suggestion for city defense
No, the player wouldnt have any choice in the matter, save selecting which city section they wanted to be permantently "posted" to as a guard. So they could be several maps away from NS, and get a message from their god saying "you are needed, intruder in merchant section" and suddenly find themselves standing next to alvin.
Hmm. Sounds interesting.
I've seen several PnP campaigns use that to good affect. The only difference was player characters helped defend a town if they were nearby, less than a day's travel. With the servers and scripting, it would be easier to set it it up.
And as long as it isn't Alvin and the Chipmunks... I'll probably volunteer.
I've seen several PnP campaigns use that to good affect. The only difference was player characters helped defend a town if they were nearby, less than a day's travel. With the servers and scripting, it would be easier to set it it up.
And as long as it isn't Alvin and the Chipmunks... I'll probably volunteer.
Searching for eternity, dreaming, for the key to open twilight.
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Jollyblue/Bongoblue blog NS3 and NS4 site updated November 24, 2004
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Jollyblue/Bongoblue blog NS3 and NS4 site updated November 24, 2004
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garrykasparov
- Pk Bait
- Posts: 59
- Joined: Sat May 17, 2003 6:02 am
- Location: Ys
I think that at the very least, the message idea would be interesting and useful. When there are no lowbies around the city, no one is around to shout "So and so is attacking." The only problem I can see is regulating the messages to avoid pure spammage. The teleport thing is a nice idea, but I see (as you mentioned earlier) a group of lvl 20s getting frustrated when they're suddenly pulled back to the city to defend it against one lvl 10 schmoe.
Welllll, thats kina the price you pay for volenteering as teleport-able town defense. As mentioned, those who volenteer and do a good job of it could be rewarded in some way (leet' item..a lvl up..a house, ect) Possibilities are really endless. Or If the devs/dms REALLY wanted to get fancy, they could create an area in the city that has perm. statues of its best defenders. (with a lil plaque at the bottom saying "Here stands So n' So, epic champion of Neversummer and the Last alliance")
Why Neversummer and LA and not garagoth and MA eh? 
Idea is good but u need to script it so that it would :
1)call a number of ppl equivalent to the "difficulty" of the invaders
2)Stop ppl from putting "like" on entering a server and once reaching a town attacking.For example drow scouts are what they are named...scouts,so ppl could be informed about invaders even before they reached town and not once an invader has killed 2-3 guards
3)Allow binded defenders to gain XP by defending their town,the bigger their support was,the more xp
these are just ideas about that but whole idea is nice
Idea is good but u need to script it so that it would :
1)call a number of ppl equivalent to the "difficulty" of the invaders
2)Stop ppl from putting "like" on entering a server and once reaching a town attacking.For example drow scouts are what they are named...scouts,so ppl could be informed about invaders even before they reached town and not once an invader has killed 2-3 guards
3)Allow binded defenders to gain XP by defending their town,the bigger their support was,the more xp
these are just ideas about that but whole idea is nice
Nightfall...quetly it crept in and changed us all...
Well thats why im thinking a direct dm action would be best, at least at first. DM's could have a list of who is binded to guard what area, and match them up with the invaders, level wise.
To write a script to do it automaticly would be more complex, now that i think about it. It would have to use the list, do the level matching, and do the teleporting
To write a script to do it automaticly would be more complex, now that i think about it. It would have to use the list, do the level matching, and do the teleporting
ugh.. no teleporting!
Erm.. I am liking the higher level of detail and realism in NS4, teleporting has no place in NWN! (Can you say d-i-a-b-l-o? Town Portal WOOT WOOT!)
NS4 is such a crazy amalgamation - you have Roleplaying, PowerGaming, Pkilling and Adventuring... why not just make it 'REAL' and have people take up 'Guard Duty' ie: they have to stay within city limits for 1 NWN day cycle - if they have a 'clean shift' they get a minimum XP/gold bonus, if they kill attackers, they get bonus XP and gold for each..
Also - why not make anyone under level 5 no-pvp? they can't attack or be attacked by other players (or PM-Hand touched) this way new people joining for the first time won't have a bad experience their first time trying it out...? ---OR--- to make it 'REAL' why not have city clerics/healers that run around and resurect fallen PCs and NPCs? That would make attacking cities MUCH more difficult.
And another thing on the same topic - why not give some kind of bonus to a faction member when they are within their hometown city limits? and/or (additional?) bonuses for official 'guards' when they are in their city.
Just some ideas I've thought of as I play...
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Celorn/Jain
NS4 is such a crazy amalgamation - you have Roleplaying, PowerGaming, Pkilling and Adventuring... why not just make it 'REAL' and have people take up 'Guard Duty' ie: they have to stay within city limits for 1 NWN day cycle - if they have a 'clean shift' they get a minimum XP/gold bonus, if they kill attackers, they get bonus XP and gold for each..
Also - why not make anyone under level 5 no-pvp? they can't attack or be attacked by other players (or PM-Hand touched) this way new people joining for the first time won't have a bad experience their first time trying it out...? ---OR--- to make it 'REAL' why not have city clerics/healers that run around and resurect fallen PCs and NPCs? That would make attacking cities MUCH more difficult.
And another thing on the same topic - why not give some kind of bonus to a faction member when they are within their hometown city limits? and/or (additional?) bonuses for official 'guards' when they are in their city.
Just some ideas I've thought of as I play...
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Celorn/Jain
LOL ok look.. im NOT talking about giving the players the ability to teleport back to their faction city whenever they feel like it. They will have NO such ability themselves. What im suggesting is that any player who wants to can "sign up / volenteer" to be at THEIR GOD'S (aka dm) call incase the city comes under attack. The dm would then check the level of the attacker(s) and teleport in the defenses as needed for a fair, fun fight.
If you, as a signed up city defender, do well enough (e.g. defeat the invaders) over and over again, the DM can reward you (as posted, lots of ideas for rewards) You could be in the middle of a good fight / item quest, get the call to come to your city's aid, and find yourself suddenly standing in it and facing the invaders. Got it?
If you, as a signed up city defender, do well enough (e.g. defeat the invaders) over and over again, the DM can reward you (as posted, lots of ideas for rewards) You could be in the middle of a good fight / item quest, get the call to come to your city's aid, and find yourself suddenly standing in it and facing the invaders. Got it?
stuff..
First, beefing the guards up a BIT would be good, but not too high, cuz then towns will be under siege by lvl 36+ people just trying to LVL =]
Yes, I understand your idea, but even random, undirected teleporting is no good for the realism thing, and if a DM has to try and figure out who of the online people to t/p home, then port them etc.. that's a pain, and what if the person was about to log off? or if they were in the middle of a fight and have 5 hps left? or a caster who just cast their last spell and needs to rest? etc... so you see, even if the teleporting thing is fine and dandy (explained by magic binding or whatever) then you're left with tons of other problems.
Now, if they did implement a T/P object (Paradise token anyone?) that you get when you take the defender job, people could MIS-use it by: 1.porting home with a TON of loot that would have taken them hours to walk back to sell it 2.escaping a fight (pvp?) by portaling, or whatever... just too many bad things could happen with town-t/ping...
PLUSl I think the developers want things to be simple & scripted and as hands-off/automated as possible, to free DMs up for other work, DMs are too busy with a million other things than having to dish out XP and rewards for defending every city.
=-=SO what to do instead?=-=
I think if you've signed up to defend the city, then you should stick around town as much as possible to do just that (It's your bloody job isn't it?)! The only problem now is, you can't get any (or much?) XP or gold for doing it, so why not script something?:
I think scripting should be fairly simple but CAREFULLY done so you can't exploit it - If a PC is in their own town, and they kill a PC of a hostile faction (or factionless?) then 2 things have to happen to avoid exploits:
1. the defender PC gets a token object* of some kind for the kill - left behind once the enemy respawns or logs off-can that be done? (they really need to have a 'head' drop when a PC dies (?and respawns?))
2. the defender PC can then scoop up the head and take it to the appropriate NPC (there could be a bounty-hunter agency that can pay better gold/xp for killing someone on 'the list')
*you could still exploit this if the rival PC binds to a nearby rift shard, the defender PC could kill him, he respawns, take the head, and repeat a hundred times, then cash-in the heads for a TON of XP & gold - the way to stop this from happening, is to either make a NPC head-dispencer so after you respawn, you must return to your home town to get your head back? OR you could put a once-per-day head drop limit?
BTW: I can forsee the future -- when there are level 40'ers online, they can and will be able to 'town-portal' when they have to get back in a hurry - all they have to do is DIE and respawn, once you've been lvl 40 for a while you've probably banked a bunch of XP. The only problem would be finding a way to get yourself killed quickly ;-]
=NR=Jain & Celorn=NR=
Yes, I understand your idea, but even random, undirected teleporting is no good for the realism thing, and if a DM has to try and figure out who of the online people to t/p home, then port them etc.. that's a pain, and what if the person was about to log off? or if they were in the middle of a fight and have 5 hps left? or a caster who just cast their last spell and needs to rest? etc... so you see, even if the teleporting thing is fine and dandy (explained by magic binding or whatever) then you're left with tons of other problems.
Now, if they did implement a T/P object (Paradise token anyone?) that you get when you take the defender job, people could MIS-use it by: 1.porting home with a TON of loot that would have taken them hours to walk back to sell it 2.escaping a fight (pvp?) by portaling, or whatever... just too many bad things could happen with town-t/ping...
PLUSl I think the developers want things to be simple & scripted and as hands-off/automated as possible, to free DMs up for other work, DMs are too busy with a million other things than having to dish out XP and rewards for defending every city.
=-=SO what to do instead?=-=
I think if you've signed up to defend the city, then you should stick around town as much as possible to do just that (It's your bloody job isn't it?)! The only problem now is, you can't get any (or much?) XP or gold for doing it, so why not script something?:
I think scripting should be fairly simple but CAREFULLY done so you can't exploit it - If a PC is in their own town, and they kill a PC of a hostile faction (or factionless?) then 2 things have to happen to avoid exploits:
1. the defender PC gets a token object* of some kind for the kill - left behind once the enemy respawns or logs off-can that be done? (they really need to have a 'head' drop when a PC dies (?and respawns?))
2. the defender PC can then scoop up the head and take it to the appropriate NPC (there could be a bounty-hunter agency that can pay better gold/xp for killing someone on 'the list')
*you could still exploit this if the rival PC binds to a nearby rift shard, the defender PC could kill him, he respawns, take the head, and repeat a hundred times, then cash-in the heads for a TON of XP & gold - the way to stop this from happening, is to either make a NPC head-dispencer so after you respawn, you must return to your home town to get your head back? OR you could put a once-per-day head drop limit?
BTW: I can forsee the future -- when there are level 40'ers online, they can and will be able to 'town-portal' when they have to get back in a hurry - all they have to do is DIE and respawn, once you've been lvl 40 for a while you've probably banked a bunch of XP. The only problem would be finding a way to get yourself killed quickly ;-]
=NR=Jain & Celorn=NR=
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kgrazmotte
- Noob
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri May 14, 2004 8:04 am
I think, an automaticly teleport script isn't a good things for all it said on top...
but why you can't use rift for teleportation ???
because when you place your hand in a rift, and if you died and you see, this room is full of big monster !!! you run... (if you can !!!) or you died and died again and again... as a player help you !!!
and when the town is very far ... and a player lvl2 said "intruders!!!" and your lvl40 can't fight because the time you go back, the fight finished !!! you are very frustred !!!
so...
sorry for my english... (french player
)
RazMotte
but why you can't use rift for teleportation ???
because when you place your hand in a rift, and if you died and you see, this room is full of big monster !!! you run... (if you can !!!) or you died and died again and again... as a player help you !!!
and when the town is very far ... and a player lvl2 said "intruders!!!" and your lvl40 can't fight because the time you go back, the fight finished !!! you are very frustred !!!
so...
sorry for my english... (french player
)
RazMotte
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DrakhanValane
- Arrogant Snob
- Posts: 1064
- Joined: Thu Jan 02, 2003 7:25 pm
- Location: Five Minutes Before the End of Eternity (or Maryland, take your pick)
- Contact:
To all those who say "not realistic" -- I laugh. Don't we have magic in the game? Sounds more like "I am a town raider and you will spoil my fun".
A balanced script should be fairly easy.
Trigger primed when a player with an opposing faction enters the city or its immediate outskirt areas. But to be fair an NPC must actually see them and survive a few seconds before the alert is triggered. Theoretically each NPC carrries an alert stone. Maybe players have one and maybe not. It would give NOOBs a reason for their being targets. The lack of trigger priming would prevent "calling wolf" -- or the alert stone might check who the player has perceived in the last minute.
Once the alert is triggered it ripples area to area causing extra temporary NPC guard spawns until it reaches the temple. A low priority event will mean there will be delay. There NPC clerics or mages send out a message to all player guards then begin actual Word of Recall spells or special portal operations to call back individual guards. The recalled player guard would receive a dialogue box similar to the party invite to accept recall or not. At no point are players in charge of recall. Though if a Recall (to preset bind point) occupied a 5-7th level spell slot...that would work as a player spell supplement in the game as a whole too I think.
I think that for fairness the script should cheat a bit and use the player guard and intruder lists to call back matching level guards first. Then maybe lower levels in descending order and then the higher levels in ascending order (meaning the invaders WILL eventually get flushed from the city).
There probably needs to be a delay between player guards recalled (?30-60? seconds) and a batch limit (4-5 player guards) followed by a resting period (8 minutes?) for temple clerics and city mages. Maybe the guard list should be revistied (circular list after pass #1) until all players accept return or maybe not.
A balanced script should be fairly easy.
Trigger primed when a player with an opposing faction enters the city or its immediate outskirt areas. But to be fair an NPC must actually see them and survive a few seconds before the alert is triggered. Theoretically each NPC carrries an alert stone. Maybe players have one and maybe not. It would give NOOBs a reason for their being targets. The lack of trigger priming would prevent "calling wolf" -- or the alert stone might check who the player has perceived in the last minute.
Once the alert is triggered it ripples area to area causing extra temporary NPC guard spawns until it reaches the temple. A low priority event will mean there will be delay. There NPC clerics or mages send out a message to all player guards then begin actual Word of Recall spells or special portal operations to call back individual guards. The recalled player guard would receive a dialogue box similar to the party invite to accept recall or not. At no point are players in charge of recall. Though if a Recall (to preset bind point) occupied a 5-7th level spell slot...that would work as a player spell supplement in the game as a whole too I think.
I think that for fairness the script should cheat a bit and use the player guard and intruder lists to call back matching level guards first. Then maybe lower levels in descending order and then the higher levels in ascending order (meaning the invaders WILL eventually get flushed from the city).
There probably needs to be a delay between player guards recalled (?30-60? seconds) and a batch limit (4-5 player guards) followed by a resting period (8 minutes?) for temple clerics and city mages. Maybe the guard list should be revistied (circular list after pass #1) until all players accept return or maybe not.