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New NPC

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 1:40 pm
by Papagelos2
People of TOME, Rejoice, for In the town of Last Hope, a new NPC has arrived.

"My name is John Smith, the man said.
He smiled a crooked smile while extending his hand.
How may I help you?

It was not his real name, that much was apparant, but you couldn't care less.
All you were interested in was his services, and they were indeed unique... And expensive.
His speciality was to track down artifacts and steal them for his clients.
"I need help finding an artifact", I said.
"I figured that much", he replied and thrust his hand inside his vest. From one of the pockets
there he produced a small notebook, clad in dark leather and trimmed with gold. He hands
you the book, and his smile broadens. As you open it, you see page after page brimming
with names and statistics of every artifact ever to have seen the face of Maj'Eyal.

"All you need to do is choose the artifact you wish me to aquire, and I will hunt it down for you.
Oh, and the payment of course. 8000 gold, up front."
"Up front? And what if you fail to retrieve the artifact?"
John Smith's smile remained unaffected as he answered.
"That, has never happened and never will. I have a no refund policy, simply because i never fail.
You choose the artifact, and I'll take care of the rest"

For some reason you believe this man. You browse the book, content that the artifact will soon be yours:


**here a big nice list of all yellow artifacts in the game pops up, alphabetically sorted. The player can choose one**


"You hand him the 8000 gold.
"Come back to my shop in one months' time, and I will have the artifact waiting for you", John Smith said confidently,
and you step out of his store with a smile on your face, already making plans for the new future the artifact will give
you powers enough to shape for yourself."

*Then, we will finally use the LUCK stat a bit more. When you go to his store after one month
one of the following can happen depending on your Luck roll *

Made Roll:
Ah, *character name string*, welcome again to my humble store. As agreed - Your artifact.
He opens a drawer lined with purple silk and inside you can see it - Its the *artifact name string*.
Your spirits rise and your heart sings with joy as you thank him and leave his store.

Failed Roll:
Ah, *character name string*, welcome again to my humble store. I am afraid I have some bad news.
There have been... complications. The artifact you wish to aquire has fallen into the hands of very
powerful forces, and no matter how great my skills are I am afraid one man is not enough to retreive it.
I shall have to hire some of the very best help Maj'Eyal has to offer, and unfortunately I have to request
1500 additional gold from you to be able to do so.

*pay up the additional Gold (1500)* - gold will be substracted
*Refuse to pay* - "Then I am afraid I cannot help you any further. And as I explained in our first meeting, there is a No Refund Policy active. (back to menu, refuse choise is not active anymore, only pay or come back later)
*I am short on funds. I will have to come back later, when I have raised the gold*

When the artifact is handed to you, it would be fun if the game had the ability to actually tell you exactly where John Smith found it.
I.e

"John smith hands you the artifact.
"I found it *in a chest in Dreadfell level 9*
or
"I found it in the Vor Armory, in the hands of a Greater Multihued Wyrm"
or
"I tracked it down to an ice and in Old Forest level 2"

I hope you like my NPC idea, We need both a goldsink and some more use for the LUCK stat.

Re: New NPC

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 6:32 pm
by Ragnarok
Needs to be a bit more interesting since I can just go to the merchant and craft some items for half the cost with 100% chance I will receive it.

Re: New NPC

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:17 pm
by Papagelos2
Ragnarok wrote:Needs to be a bit more interesting since I can just go to the merchant and craft some items for half the cost with 100% chance I will receive it.
I did not know this option already existed.
So I can, for example, get the mindstar "GREAT CALLER" which is super for summoners...
I can get that one crafted at some merchant?

Coz the aim of this NPC is to get a complete set of items (i.e the 2 rogue daggers), to
be able to customize exactly the character as you want it, by money instead of only
pure luck in drops before you head out for the final fight - while at the same time acting as a gold sink.

Ok, I will have to think up another profession for John Smith.
A man has to pay his bills somehow, and rent in Last Hope is expensive, I hear.

Re: New NPC

Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 8:25 pm
by bricks
The merchant generates very nice randarts, not fixed (predefined) artifacts. I'm not sure that guaranteeing specific artifacts is in the ToME's paradigm; that seems a little more along the lines of a traditional RPG or an MMO. Utilizing Luck (or any stat) to determine the outcome is unusual, too.

Re: New NPC

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 1:38 am
by HousePet
I've had a similar idea for the Lost Merchant's shop if you side with the assassin lord.
The shop gets opened as a blackmarket/fence, and when you get back from the far east you could pay 4000 gold to commission an artifact theft. I was thinking having it mechanically identical to the normal merchant's ability, but allowing you to aquire a named artifact could be interesting...

Re: New NPC

Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2013 2:53 am
by Papagelos2
HousePet wrote:I've had a similar idea for the Lost Merchant's shop if you side with the assassin lord.
The shop gets opened as a blackmarket/fence, and when you get back from the far east you could pay 4000 gold to commission an artifact theft. I was thinking having it mechanically identical to the normal merchant's ability, but allowing you to aquire a named artifact could be interesting...
I do, of course, agree with you there.
Many are the games where I was hoping to get a class specific artifact but died before finding it.
So it would be a nice option to buy one artifact per character to finally get that piece of eq that never seems to drop.
Similar in philosophy to blizzard and their valor points, to counteract bad luck with drops.

Re: New NPC

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 2:31 pm
by supermini
Papagelos2 wrote: I do, of course, agree with you there.
Many are the games where I was hoping to get a class specific artifact but died before finding it.
So it would be a nice option to buy one artifact per character to finally get that piece of eq that never seems to drop.
Similar in philosophy to blizzard and their valor points, to counteract bad luck with drops.
You work with what drops, that's the way it is in roguelikes.

Alternatively, there's the item vault now for donators.