Suggestion: Morin Khur NPC City Guides

[Landogar]

Problem

• Morin Khur is a big city, adventurers can easily get lost
• Walking distance in the city and to the graveyard is long, demotivating to new adventurers
• As there is no NPC activity in the city beside some guards (I love the running patrolling guard), the city feels quite lifeless and empty
  • (though this improved a lot with the additional decoration and buildings, I previously visited the city shortly after launch)

Solution
As a major city, Morin Khur attracts people from the countryside who seek better living conditions. Which they often don't find, behind all the glamour Morin Khur definitely has problems. In search for shelter and work, some go into the sewers - others try to keep their integrity and attempt to live from begging and working as City Guides for the numerous adventurers visiting the great city.

• at various places in Morin Khur, NPC City Guides are available for adventurers (players) to talk to
  • they might also patrol and stop when an adventurer comes near them or interacts with them (if feasible implementation-wise)
  • they might talk in local chat (similar to bandits detecting an adventurer) to offer their services
    • "I'll show you all the important historical places!"
    • "Don't be lost, talk to me!"
    • "I show you around for a small price"
• a player can interact with them, and select a target location
  • the famous Morin Khur bridge
    • (sorry, I don't know the lore name right now)
    • the west side of the bridge
  • the lower market place
    • the place before the lower bank area
  • the place of haven
    • (sorry, I don't know the lore name right now)
    • the upper-city place with bank
  • the graveyard
    • "my sister is selling flowers"
  • the sewers entry
    • the eastern entry to the sewers up in the city
    • "why would anyone want to visit that? But well, a coin is a coin"
• a reasonable low price (e.g. 1 Silver) is to be payed
• the NPC City Guide is walking to the target location, with the player trailing behind it auto-folllowing like a pet/horse
• the speed is higher than normal walking speed (!), but lower than riding speed
• any movement or action by the player stops the trailing of the city guide
  • the city guide continues to walk away and vanishes
  • or the city guide stops, giving the player opportunity to re-attach (but pay again), before losing interest and walking away
• when reaching the target location:
  • the city guide makes a remark in local chat "here we are"
  • the trailing stops, the player comes to halt
  • the city guide walks away and vanishes (or sticks around to find a new customer)
• city guides never fight
  • when attacked or pushed, the attacker/pusher gets flagged as criminal and attacked by city guards
  • if they were on a tour with a trailing player, the trailing immediately stops
  • they run away (like a bandit on low health) and despawn

• this mechanic allows new players to find there way around more easily
• it speeds up travel within the city especially for new players without horses
• it enhances immersion (versus players looking up help outside of the game)
• it makes the city more active and lively
• the same mechanic can be easily applied to other major cities

Implementation
I imagine the implementation not being so much effort, as most pieces can be taken from other existing implementations.
Models could be taken from vendors or scoundrels. The trailing programming can hopefully be taken from pet implementation. Some custom behavioral programming is required, as is the definition of source/target locations. Bonus points if the spawning/despawning of the NPC city guides can be done within houses, to/from they walk from the public places.


Please vote on the idea and give your (constructive) comments why this is a good or bad idea, or what other aspects need to be taken into consideration.

 

[CherryKush]

• the city feels quite lifeless and empty

The majority of the game is lifeless and empty as well, they seem to like it big and empty for some reason. We've been telling them for almost 2 years now to add random rare gathering nodes, pathing mobs, named mobs, ect... Anything to liven things up but it never happens. Welcome to Mortal.