General Request for main cities

[Ath192]

Hey SE, when you get the chance could you think of some ways to make the main cities a bit more lively via NPC/dynamic elements.

I.E. it would be awesome seeing ships in Limsa Lominsa coming and going with NPCs loading them and what not, and overall adding some more NPC interactions such as people bringing Fish to the markets or Miners hauling ores to the miners guild in Uldah. I feel like they should be just a bit more bustling for being the main cities in the game.

I know some of this is in place, but perhaps with the discontinuation of the PS3 and advances in general PCs we could do a bit more?

I think the additional dynamism and decoration to the cities would be a great asset because sometimes I go to them and they can feel lonely with the exception of some small areas with a ton of AFK players.

Surely if the Aetheryte Plaza in Limsa can have that many AFK players other places in the city can have more npcs interacting xD

[ItMe]

Such a thing would do SO much for the world.
Any of this they could add anywhere in game would be super sick.

[Edax]

I personally wish they could open up places like Kugane Castle as a place of leisure for Kugane city. It's such a pretty place but it's hard to tour it at your own pace as part of a combat instance.

[Jojoya]

It would be nice but it would also divert developer time from creating the things needed for new content. Players who are looking for more things to do may not appreciate time spent adding flavor elements to old locations.

[VenKitsune]

I personally wish they could open up places like Kugane Castle as a place of leisure for Kugane city. It's such a pretty place but it's hard to tour it at your own pace as part of a combat instance.

Wont the exploration feature being added in 5.4 fix this? We know they're only doing the 5.x dungeons for it at lauch, but they said they'd go back and add it as a feature to other dungeons. Then again, it took them the better part of a year to add elevation to even the most basic of quests so...guess i'll see you in screenshotty, mount enabled kugane castle in 2025?

It would be nice but it would also divert developer time from creating the things needed for new content. Players who are looking for more things to do may not appreciate time spent adding flavor elements to old locations.

Yea...Development time. Yup. So....Hows that new umbrella? Some NPCs were never born so you can hold that, you monster! /s

[JohnSpawnVFX]

Yea...Development time. Yup. So....Hows that new umbrella? Some NPCs were never born so you can hold that, you monster! /s

Ah yes, because making a new umbrella totally takes the same time as making several new NPCs and dynamic elements. /s

[Semirhage]

I dunno, I'd be just devastated if precious development time were taken away from Boring Korean Grinder MMO Redux: Diadem 5.0 in exchange for...literally anything else.

[Iscah]

Yea...Development time. Yup. So....Hows that new umbrella? Some NPCs were never born so you can hold that, you monster! /s

Seriously though, the system seems to have been built for NPCs first and then adapted for players later. You can see someone walking with a parasol in Kugane so the programming has been there since at least 4.0.

[kaynide]

This is a big thing in Guildwars 2. A lot of NPCs just...npcing around. And quite a lot of them have voiced dialog bits too.

Was always a lot of atmosphere in that game.

[Iscah]

I really dislike NPCs with voiced dialogue that goes off as you approach them. It just gets repetitive quickly and it's awful.

(Sudden flashbacks of Ni No Kuni and how every single time you went into a town, you'd get the same pattern of NPCs firing off their voice clips as you walk past.)

I also cannot stand the "crowd noise" NPCs in this game that are set as ambient noise rather than voices so you can't mute just them.