Eorzea is dead... [Suggestion] Bring Eorzea to life

Hahaha... its not what you think.... its not THAT kind of thread...

What I'm suggesting is make the NPC's move... they all stand still....

Give me...
NPC's that walk around...
Guards that do the rounds outside Ul'dah...
Chocobo carriages that traverse the roads out in the fields....

doesn't even have to be highly interactive or anything... just make them move and do stuff.... talk to each other... make one run out of the Alchemist guild screaming with his hair on fire.... Anything.. everything..

GIVE THE NPC'S SOME LIFE

Yeah, they could always use more I suppose. But I was already a little impressed with some of the npc's actions inside the guilds where they can be seen practicing with weapons etc.

Not to steal somebody's suggestion on Zam, but he mentioned how cool it would be if the merchant NPCs had open and closed times for their shops, and could then be seen walking away from their stands during closing time to some NPC housing area. I thought that would be kind of cool too.

I am in favor of NPCs being out of the way and preferably in one place where I can find them.

I too think they should move!

There should be things in town like gambling houses, PVP arenas/chobocobo racing where people could spectate. There should be cool little shops, and npcs selling interesting/illegal things in the alleyways. The cities need to be cities. Right now, there's just 50 people kneeling down banging on an anvil for hours on end. There's nothing to do in the cities. nowhere to go. That coupled with the fact that the servers are pretty much empty because nobody wants to play this game makes FFXIV a borrring place to be.

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Originally Posted by Rydin

...make one run out of the Alchemist guild screaming with his hair on fire.

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I specifically want this. :)

I agree though that I'd like to see some kind of movement. Maybe some yellowjackets or knights of the barracudas making the rounds in Limsa, or lalafell children running amok in Ul'dah, or maybe some Sylphs/fireflies, or people just walking along the paths of Gridania.

Who knows? There's nothing that says they can't add stuff like that and tie it into quests later.

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Originally Posted by Galamantyl

I am in favor of NPCs being out of the way and preferably in one place where I can find them.

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I'm not. WOW-style quest hubs, with NPCs that may as well not even exist, blow.

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Originally Posted by Wolfie

I'm not. WOW-style quest hubs, with NPCs that may as well not even exist, blow.

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I am in favor of PCs being the significant factor of population within a city.

I am strongly against WoW.

I am strongly against quest bubbles above NPC's heads.

I am strongly against the FPS-style controls.

radiant AI is very cool (play oblivion) npc have scheduals. Sometimes odd things happen. :)

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Originally Posted by Galamantyl

I am in favor of PCs being the significant factor of population within a city.

I am strongly against WoW.

I am strongly against quest bubbles above NPC's heads.

I am strongly against the FPS-style controls.

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You're right though.... I dont think we want to fill the cities up with NPC's.. but having the ones there do more than just stand would be nice.
I think the quest bubble will definitely be reexamined at some point... Many people dont like it... but these are points for another thread

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Originally Posted by Kilta_Firelotus

radiant AI is very cool (play oblivion) npc have scheduals. Sometimes odd things happen. :)

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Yeah, like your games are released buggy as all hell and there's never any patches for mon-DAMNIT BEHTESDA STOP USING GAMEBRYO!

:(

I wish they would just add NPCs doing the things they were doing in the opening cutscene, right before you take control of your character in the Adventurers' Guild.

People going about their business in the center square in Limsa Lominsa, saying their goodbyes in front of the waterfalls in Gridania, trading with one another in Ul'dah... That's all I ask for. :(

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Originally Posted by Chrees

I wish they would just add NPCs doing the things they were doing in the opening cutscene, right before you take control of your character in the Adventurers' Guild.

People going about their business in the center square in Limsa Lominsa, saying their goodbyes in front of the waterfalls in Gridania, trading with one another in Ul'dah... That's all I ask for. :(

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And to go along with that, people riding the Limsa-Ul'dah Ferry.... You always see a ton of people in the Ferry cutscene.... where do they go?

I strongly agree with this, it annoys me they just stand there almost lifeless, I want NPC (even important ones) to walk around, i miss FF12 where npcs walked all over. Even XI had some roaming npcs.

as much as i would like to see this i doubt we will see it to the extent we would like mainly due to programming overhead and bandwidth issues would end up making the game too laggy who knows maybe oneday that won't be an issue

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Originally Posted by heero

as much as i would like to see this i doubt we will see it to the extent we would like mainly do to programming overhead and bandwidth issues would end up making the game too laggy who knows maybe oneday that won't be an issue

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Would a mobile NPC use up way more bandwidth or resources than a player character?
You realize there are already thousands of NPC's running around already? Marmots, Antlings, Goats, etc....
Isn't that all we are asking for.... non-attackable MOB's?

I'd like to see this too. Everything at the moment is just too static. There's noone in the cities moving, everyone is just stood in the spot all day repeating the same thing if they're spoken to.

Have NPCs moving around the city, going about their daily lives.
NPCs travelling between their homes to their shops in order to open and close.
Have different areas be more populated depending on the time of day, eg. NPCs shopping during the day, going to bars at night.
Have some variation in what people say, rather than repeating the same thing all the time.
Merchants travelling to other cities or outposts that could even be used to trigger quests to defend them from attackers.

It would be good to see some activity from NPC's.
A schedule where some merchants are open while others are not.
Or even times of day where there's a group of Npc's meeting on a street corner chatting.

Seeing a patrol of guards doing the rounds outside Ul'Dah, and encountering a Marmot, giving you the chance to stand back and watch a fight.
(Toughest marmot that ever existed. Teeth like daggers, claws that could rip a man in two. Took 3 city guards to bing it down it did)

But it's true, apart from the player activity, there is a lack of life in any of the cities.
Even at the camps the Battlewarden magically appears.
It would greatly improve immersion if the BW emerged from one of the tents and walked over to their corner before calling for volunteers.

It would help if they had something interesting to say too.
Also give them all real names!
It's hard to get attached to the "Guy standing near pier" type of characters. Many XI NPCs had a story to tell and that's the reason to me that they felt more alive.

Well they move in the guilds :p

Well, my main city is Limsa Lominsa, which has a pirate theme. It would be awesome to see it transformed into more of Pirates of the Caribbean theme. Complete with wenches and drunk pirates. Actually, no. It sounds like a nightmare. Don't do it. However, the port should give the illusion that it's busy at least...

i'm pretty sure they're going to make them a little more lively. the jump feature is supposed to do something for NPCs

The boats in LL never ever move not even an inch. It's really boring.

I remember how fun it was to spot a leaving airship in Windy or on fields. Oh yeah but those were actually interactive elements and here we're hoping that un-interactive elements would be more interesting...sigh.

..make mission protect chocobo sent supply 'A' to camp if succuss got sp scroll 'A' or get point to exchange rare ex item like guard armor...btw if fail that camp can't use support syn lol or anima for teleport++

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Originally Posted by Phrozen

i'm pretty sure they're going to make them a little more lively. the jump feature is supposed to do something for NPCs

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this is the 1st im hearing of this were did you read this at?

and im for npc moving well some of them dont over do it

The only ship I really see moving is the ferry from Limsa Lominsa to Thanalan; it actually looks pretty cool as it moves out of the port. They should do that at regular intervals for the other ships...so much more exciting. Or have pirates come try and ransack LL.

Beyond the liveliness aspect, I've always wondered why the cities in FFXIV (and other games as well) generally don't feel as if anyone lives there. In addition to more liveliness from the NPCs, it'd also be nice to revamp the towns so that you see more housing and living areas.

Dragon age 2 fills their cities nicely. you cant talk to most of them which is fine with me. It just gives the feeling af a real city.

Yea bringing Eorzea to life in this manner is one of the better ideas i have read so far on these forums. /clap

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Originally Posted by Rydin

You're right though.... I dont think we want to fill the cities up with NPC's.. but having the ones there do more than just stand would be nice.
I think the quest bubble will definitely be reexamined at some point... Many people dont like it... but these are points for another thread

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Go play Lineage II now and see why a low NPC population really sucks. The towns in that game were designed to hold a lot of players. But since there aren't a lot of players anymore, they are literal ghost towns with an NPC or two standing around. It sucks.

as far as i know, there is only 1 MMO on the market with a "true" living world, and thats champions online, every non quest npc has a habit of wandering around the entire world. youll see people literaly walking/driving the entire city and so on and so forth.

most mmos have a small little pattern an npc may walk in, but nothing nearly "living worldish" about them

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Originally Posted by TheVedis

as far as i know, there is only 1 MMO on the market with a "true" living world, and thats champions online, every non quest npc has a habit of wandering around the entire world. youll see people literaly walking/driving the entire city and so on and so forth.

most mmos have a small little pattern an npc may walk in, but nothing nearly "living worldish" about them

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It wasn't an MMO but Oblivious had NPCs that would travel between cities. It would be nice to see people wonder around outside. Random NPCs standing on the docks, with some backstory on why they are heading to/from Limsa.

We know you have it in you guys too, remember FF12? All the towns there were very populated and NPC's were going all about stores had customers, people were walking around doing things. That game was alive.

Love this idea, it's often something I've thought about and would add a nice touch to make the world alive!

Yah when you start a character in uldah the first cutscene you see is of tons of npcs everywhere, looking around at a shop or walking by. Then it ends and theyre all standing there, even the players are just standing there... cus theres nothing to do! Theres that floating chocobo carriage outside Gridania, would be cool to see those traveling along the paths outside going from city to city, or outposts.

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Originally Posted by Sputnik

Theres that floating chocobo carriage outside Gridania, would be cool to see those traveling along the paths outside going from city to city, or outposts.

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I agree with you on the chocobo carriages. I just did the rank20 pug quest in Uldah, and when my character entered in a cutscene with one of the quest NPCs, behind me were dozens of people and chocobo carriages roaming about. It seemed so alive! When I was done with the cutscene, I was thrust back into the empty streets of the city, and I was like, "Where did everybody go??" lol...

I don't think it takes too much to add a roaming chocobo carriage in the streets or add a few NPCs walking around the shop stalls in the cities. Something as simple as that would make all the difference.

I like everyone's suggestions and I agree with OP. Cities, no. HYDAELYN needs the breath of life. I imagine her, the 14th as a sleeping beauty who's not even a glimpse of it's Radiant Light has been seen. Let us free her from the chain! Let her walk free! The land's alive! so believe. Rrhrm!... This is getting dramatic lol. /thumbsup for this and any similar threads!