New feature: worldmap npcs

[darkgod]

Coming to beta14 are npcs on the world map.

They are not your normal npcs though, more liek the current novice mage.

The lands have patrols moving between interresting locations, fighting random hostiles that pop.
The far east has sunwall & orcs patrols fighting it out and so on.

Currently the patrols are mostly good but the random hostile encounters are very bland (like a pack of wolfes, a lone bear and the occasional dragon).
Ideas welcome !
(If you encounter a hostile you do not fight on the worldmap, you get into a special small level as with the old orc encounters)

[edge2054]

How about a dwarven geomancer in the far east who's trying to fend off an orc ambush.

The player can either help him or choose not to get involved. Helping him should unlock Geomancers and if the dwarven idea still gets added to the far east he could also mark that location on your map when those get put in.

[Mithril]

There could be some NPCs regularly moving from Bree westwards in the direction of the hidden city giving the player a hint that something is going on there.

[Susramanian]

Brumli Blacklock! Though a lot of what I wrote there is Tolkien-ish, it could easily be adapted to Maj'Eyal.

[yufra]

Thief encounters, where the goal is not to kill you but steal money/items and leave you near death if the need be. Or have those NPCs steal from you and then run for the exit.

[Leffe]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sewQ2raTJvY

[darkgod]

Moaaarrr

[Mithril]

* Caravans moving between the cities. Have a mobile shop. Attracts monster npcs.
* Escort quest help seekers. Report the location of an escort quest.
* Ships moving on rivers and seas. Just decorative or functions like caravans.

[Mithril]

Escort quests for the World Map
In the cities there is a shop where you can get hired as caravan/merchant guard. Your job then is to protect a caravan/merchant that is trying to travel to another city. This function as as an escort quest in the dungeon. The caravan/merchant travels on at a relatively slow pace while attracting many monster npcs. The slow speed of the caravan/merchant allows you to try to move around and protect it from the mobbing monsters. If the caravan/merchant reaches its goal you get a monetary reward.

This can extend to similar quests but to non-city locations. Like an herbalist hires you to escort her/him to a random location in the wilderness and back to the city.

[Mithril]

Possibly addition to the above. If the merchant/caravan gets killed you get a bad reputation and gets lower money for the next escort or are not allowed to do escorting for some time. Opposite if you are successful, you get somewhat more money the next time, up to some limit.

[Sirrocco]

A necromancer(or necromantic dungeon) that hangs out in some relatively unpleasant place, generating undead, which normally travel overland to attack a friendly city, but will happily divert to attack you if you're on the way. Killing the undead is doable for a character of the level to be anywhere near the city, and will be appreciated by the town (in some fashion - a quest? a turn-in reward for ghoul heads? something.) Stopping the undead requires either killing the necromancer, or convincing him to stop through some means (Perhaps he is seeking something. Give him what he wants?) The only difference with the dungeon is that there's a dungeon to crawl through before you can get to the talking/killing. Killing the Necromancer should require a lot more power than just wiping out the roving skeletal bands. Possible ambush-type quests of moderately difficult undead before you get to the dungeon.

quest tree something like the following:
- You kill a traveling undead, and find an interesting something-or-other. Start quest.
- You talk to the folks in the town under attack. They ask you to kill a lot more of them, and bring back a largish number of the something-or-others.
- You come back, they putter around with the stuff, and they figure out the source, and that he seeks some Nifty Thing. They ask you to make him stop.
- You can go acquire the Nifty Thing, travel to him, give him the Nifty Thing, and convince him to stop. The town rewards you, and the Necromancer becomes more powerful. Further quests ensue later (either working for the necromancer, or having to kill him off once he gains more power)
- Alternately, you can travel to him and kill him, which will let you acquire and keep the Nifty Thing for yourself.

Probably one of those two routes should unlock something - necromancers, say.

If you're going to do this thing, I might suggest having some sort of larger footprint around most cities - an extended city wall or some sort. That would let the cities themselves have obvious city-associated defenders (which could do things like fighting off incoming skeletal hordes), and would help to fix some of the weirdness associated with having a fight between 5 people that covers 9 times the surface area of a city, or firing an arrow most of the way across a continent.

[darkgod]

moarrrr

[darkgod]

bump for moarr

[lukep]

Random enemy champions could add to the current quests. They are generated at birth, each with a set level. The reward you get is based on the difference in levels between you and them. The encounter is an honourable challenge to a duel, with the level and type of the enemy displayed in the dialogue (or by mouseover on the map). You can fight them early for the highest reward, or leave them until later for more confidence. When you choose to fight the duel, you are taken to a level similar to the arena, and fight one-on-one. You would gain a persistent reward based on the champion defeated. If you lose, you are not killed, however, you do not get a second chance at the battle. A good balance would be five different enemies (no duplicates) out of a pool of ten or so possibilities.

Possible champions and their associated rewards, based on difference in level:
Treant, +(0.2*level difference) health regeneration
Elven warrior, -(1*level difference)% run speed
Orc warrior, +(1*level difference)% Physical resist
Snow Giant Thunderer, +(3*level difference)% daze resist
Orc Berserker, +(2*level difference) Physical Power
Elven Tempest, +(2*level difference) Spell Power

The champions should become available to challenge when they are 15 levels higher than the character, and always be visible on the worldmap. You get no reward for challenging champions that are lower leveled than you. You could not level your character past this, because each level you gain reduces the benefit that you can receive. The no-death encourages slightly reckless attempts, even at roguelike difficulty.

[Hedrachi]

A few ideas...

The Huntsman
Prolly will be painfully familiar to lots of us, but basically, he's someone who sits in one place like the hermit alchemist or apprentice mage who says "Go kill x number of y in ambushes" for egoed stuff. Maybe do 5 of these quests, quest remains the same for each character but is random (might be bears one time, dogs next, dragons one after that). After doing the hunt quest 5 times, he'd unlock a dungeon on the worldmap somewhere with a LOT of monsters from the quests you just did, with maybe a boss/unique at the end.

Adventurer Parties
Some adventurers are less than heroes, and these idjits are certainly that. THEY want to be the big hero who saved the day, and shouldn't have to deal with upstarts like you. Maybe have them do chats that hint they're doing the quests you're presently on, maybe let them have a small chance of dropping brotherhood of alchemy quest ingredients.