COMMUNITY - FORUMS - GENERAL DISCUSSION
Should NPC's be in store?

During the last KSV we saw items that could only be used by bloodline and above, therefor this post.

should NPC's be a thing in the promo store? it has been said that NPC's bought in the EP store will assume the form of the tribe of wich the population is most abundant in your domain, so basically the same with some mounts that will have their own biome specific form.

why should NPC's be in the promo store or why shouldnt there be NPC's in the promo store?

(to make this post easier please like if you think that NPC's should be in the promo store or dislike if you think NPC's have no place in the promo store.


10/17/2019 6:07:07 PM #1

I'm not even sure where to start with this.

I disagree with having npcs in the store prior to exposition. Not just the EP store being open, but full on exposition.

There are too many things we don't know. How much players will regret their overpopulated settlements, what exact npcs towns already have, whether we actually care about certain crafts at this stage or if we just like the idea of them and the reality will be much different than expected.

There are about 0 merits to offering npcs for purchase this early in development and more reasons to Not do it than I can think of here on the spot.

(side note, the like/dislike way of voting is difficult because some people will upvote this post just because they like the discussion and not necessarily because they care one way or the other)

Edit: Just to clarify my personal stance. I'm not against the purchase of NPCs during Exposition I just don't think they should make an appearance prior to that in development.


10/17/2019 6:17:53 PM #2

Posted By Labbe at 8:07 PM - Thu Oct 17 2019

I'm not even sure where to start with this.

I disagree with having npcs in the store prior to exposition. Not just the EP store being open, but full on exposition.

There are too many things we don't know. How much players will regret their overpopulated settlements, what exact npcs towns already have, whether we actually care about certain crafts at this stage or if we just like the idea of them and the reality will be much different than expected.

There are about 0 merits to offering npcs for purchase this early in development and more reasons to Not do it than I can think of here on the spot.

(side note, the like/dislike way of voting is difficult because some people will upvote this post just because they like the discussion and not necessarily because they care one way or the other)

the 'There are too many things we don't know.' part is not really a valid argument in my opinion, since this could be applied to almost all promo items previously sold in the store, how do i know if i will be able to feed my war trison, how do i know my domain isnt in a microbiome rendering all my seed stacks useless. etc etc


10/17/2019 6:32:26 PM #3

I fully support NPCs being available. If we truly want to customize our settlements and nudge them in the direction we desire, NPCs will be crucial.

For example if we want to create a fort, we can put up walls and towers, but these would be useless without soldiers to mann them. Similarly if we wanted to setup a smithy in our town, we would need a blacksmith NPC to start with unless you are lucky enough to have hired a PC to do the job.

The overpopulation issue is just something the settlement owner will need to take into account and arrange the appropriate amount of food production and accommodations for the extra NPCs. The population numbers and sustainability values already present on the map should be a good indicator.

I am actually more concerned regarding the useful life of an NPC. If the normal lifespan of mann-kind is 120 Elyrian years, that means we'll get roughly 6 months of a productive NPC (before they go into old age). Will NPCs procreate in their spare time and train their children to be soldiers, smiths and scribes to replace them?

EDIT: just realized your question was regarding the promo store. I don't mind either way but I would definitely want them for the EP store


Greybattle County

10/17/2019 7:52:22 PM #4

I rather their be a recruiter profession in game than outright being npcs. I always will prefer gameplay over buying anything. Your town should come with the notable npcs but outside of that I would prefer that you recruit and not just be able to buy your perfect town. I don't want the game to remove the social aspect of the game and people barely communicate with the rest of the world.

10/17/2019 9:26:54 PM #5

My thinking is that we are not buying the perfect settlements. As the designers have stated, exposition will be a 'buy-to-build' phase of the game. They want a world that already has everything in place, rather than empty towns with a lack of professionals. If that were the case, half the settlements on the map would continue to suffer sustainability issues until we can recruit the relevant NPCs or PCs (farmers and construction workers for example).

I don't think buying NPCs for exposition will limit the role of PC players (since they will be the only ones capable of reaching legendary skill by living multiple lifetimes. People will still prefer and try to recruit PC characters if they can.


Greybattle County

10/17/2019 9:40:59 PM #6

I think it just depends. I don't think SBS should add NPCs to the promo store IF they're convinced it will create more problems (for them and for us). We've already increased the NPC population substantially from what the world generator created, so it's enough that we'll be able to buy them in the EP store at Expo to fine tune things. And at that point, we'll have gone through all the test phases of the game so we can actually make very informed decisions.


10/17/2019 9:50:27 PM #7

Posted By Raiborn at 5:26 PM - Thu Oct 17 2019

My thinking is that we are not buying the perfect settlements. As the designers have stated, exposition will be a 'buy-to-build' phase of the game. They want a world that already has everything in place, rather than empty towns with a lack of professionals. If that were the case, half the settlements on the map would continue to suffer sustainability issues until we can recruit the relevant NPCs or PCs (farmers and construction workers for example).

I don't think buying NPCs for exposition will limit the role of PC players (since they will be the only ones capable of reaching legendary skill by living multiple lifetimes. People will still prefer and try to recruit PC characters if they can.

One thing I learned from DSS is that people are greedy, people buying 3+ counties to make sure they can control exactly what they want to do and not worrying about what others want. If the server limit is 100k PCs and NPCs we have to raise the limit of the server, the npcs are being moved from some where else, or we are transforming npcs to a profession to meet buying needs. If we don't raise the limit of the server this is just going to be whales buying up everything while smaller towns suffer. Players won't stop at relevant. They'll get everything they can take. SBS, will need to put a strict limit on npcs when they do sell them.

10/17/2019 9:55:39 PM #8

As part of the world building I think its a good idea to sell them, But buying soldiers could be abused

Then again even if you buy miners, they dont come with loyalty so they could just wander to a different place to mine or work

it is pay to build the world after all, not pay to build your start up


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10/17/2019 10:07:18 PM #9

@Deftly fair point. We don't know how they will handle NPC limits and if they will move around NPCs from elsewhere or simply increase the number. However, a limit on the number of NPCs that can be purchased per settlement sounds like a good idea. The limits should vary by profession (for example 50 guards and 1 smith max per settlement).


Greybattle County

10/17/2019 10:23:20 PM #10

Posted By Deftly at 11:50 PM - Thu Oct 17 2019

Posted By Raiborn at 5:26 PM - Thu Oct 17 2019

My thinking is that we are not buying the perfect settlements. As the designers have stated, exposition will be a 'buy-to-build' phase of the game. They want a world that already has everything in place, rather than empty towns with a lack of professionals. If that were the case, half the settlements on the map would continue to suffer sustainability issues until we can recruit the relevant NPCs or PCs (farmers and construction workers for example).

I don't think buying NPCs for exposition will limit the role of PC players (since they will be the only ones capable of reaching legendary skill by living multiple lifetimes. People will still prefer and try to recruit PC characters if they can.

One thing I learned from DSS is that people are greedy, people buying 3+ counties to make sure they can control exactly what they want to do and not worrying about what others want. If the server limit is 100k PCs and NPCs we have to raise the limit of the server, the npcs are being moved from some where else, or we are transforming npcs to a profession to meet buying needs. If we don't raise the limit of the server this is just going to be whales buying up everything while smaller towns suffer. Players won't stop at relevant. They'll get everything they can take. SBS, will need to put a strict limit on npcs when they do sell them.

welcome to world, people are bad and use his power over you
and npc can be agood idea, but BUT should have limitations by software , rules and inspectors but this is really expensive


10/17/2019 10:35:10 PM #11

100% should NOT ever be allowed to buy NPCs, the limit of 3 villager tokens that you could give to your mayor is enough, by all means have methods to attract and recruit but not cash shop.


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10/17/2019 11:27:57 PM #12

hmm personally i dont think buying actual NPC's should be a thing i do however think there should be some sort of profession or skill NPC conversion item you can buy. maybe make it a sort a spell or something. basicly something you can put in your inventory and then once we get ingame the player can walk around and meet the npc's and figure out their crafts and stuff. if the player feels like a certain craft is uneeded i think they should be able to use the item or spell on the npc to change them into the desired crafter/skilled npc. so dont actually buy npc's just a way to convert existing npc's into a desired craft to help mold the village into our image. this way nothing will really change population and village sustainability wise. If however there is some sort of buy an actual NPC on the market i would highly advise a limited amount of like 5 npc's to buy.

P.S: Also i keep mentioning this but we keep getting items that support us the player in the market. i would really love some items tht enhance or improve NPC's some kind of way either through skill or perhaps better tools for them to use etc. i think they would be important since i think the game is going to be really NPC dependant.


10/18/2019 12:27:56 AM #13

Do we really want a PVP guild to be able to buy 1000 soldiers?

10/18/2019 12:50:08 AM #14

set limits to the buying of fighting soldiers/commisioned officers. like they did for the tokens. i dont think that would be too hard to do per account. id limit accounts to one officer and perhaps 5 soldiers per account.


10/18/2019 9:08:01 AM #15

Posted By SilkyBazaar at 12:35 AM - Fri Oct 18 2019

100% should NOT ever be allowed to buy NPCs, the limit of 3 villager tokens that you could give to your mayor is enough, by all means have methods to attract and recruit but not cash shop.

Npc's have been confirmed for the EP store tho...