Definition of what you call, a NPC.

Do to a rash of recent problems with NPCs… I felt compelled to post this. (That, and some newbs were pissing me off about it earlier.)

I need to define that which you call: NPCs, drones, fake people, admin controlled, players, etc.

NPC is short for Non-Playable-Character... i'ts an OOC term. Icly, these PEOPLE are just that, people. They are just as real as your character and the characters you interact with.

When you xhelp asking for people to puppet someone, that usually gets on some admin nerves. Whether or not they show it is dependant on how they are feeling that day. You should not be asking us to puppet so that you can talk to someone... you should be DIRECTLY TALKING TO THE PERSON. To see if they even want to talk to you. If they ignore you, or tell you to go away....

THEY MEAN IT!

If Bruce tells you to go away and you sit there and ask him five times for a job... A) Its hellishly un-IC. B) Bruce will be pissed. C) You are going to have to deal with such action's consquences ICly. (Possibly OOCly as well.)

This game is built around RP and ICness... NPCs are a key factor in this and most people seem to overlook the fact that they are ICly, people just like you and your character.

That is all...

A-fucking-men Heeru. I COMPLETELY agree. And if the code wasn't so complex and easily tricked, I would do just that.

Alas…

-Kevlar

Thats the whole fucking point Xeethot… HE IS NOT A BOT, DRONE, NPC, or UNINTELLIGENT MO-FO!!!!

He is a person, and if you annoy him, he'll damn well do something about it.

You didn't just rephrase your command, you asked him the same thing in a different way 3 times each at least 3 times within a span of 45 seconds... 9 messages asking the same thing? Hellishly annoying.

Go walk into a mall sometime... walk into a clothing store, go up to the cashier, and say: I want to buy grapes, 10 times in a row.

Take a look at the reaction...

THATS what Bruce thinks.

see, i hadn't figured out till recently that some NPCs have certain words they reacted to… and i'm STILL not sure how that works, (yes i'm slow. yes you can shun me etc etc now onwards with the post)

i've tended to treat NPC's as complet strangers who by default ignore scum and other randome strangers. i don't expect them to say a smiling hello to my char, (well, unless they do).
you know, that whole everyone's a stranger in a strange city thing.

and yeah, i've messed up a few times, asking once for an admin to puppet someone then apologised profusily when it was explained to me just how annoying that was.

i guess one has to be a bit more patient when it comes to interecting with NPCs, give more time for a response etc, and when they don't respond, well, damnit, they are too busy to notice me or are rude bitches .

i kinda picture in my head something like a secretary too frazzeled to notice some scruffy looking person hanging around the work area pestering her, or a ganger who's too god like to even notice the other vermin on the street... so i just RP it as them being rude or busy, depending on the situation and whatnot.

but since there can be a specific word or series of words some of them react to... i guess it's a catch 22. because you COULD say only one phrase, it doesn't work you come back tomorow and say another phrase... but face it. it's a game, most people aren't that patient, i don't think i would be, you have to ve able to try a couple of phrases... BUT you have to make it flow within the conversation! kind of like this maybe?

wonderfulcharacter: hello there sir. you got any purple goat ninjas that i could purchase?
bobtheNPC:*silence*
WC:cause, you know... word on the street is you are selling purple goat ninjas... comeon man. be straight with me!
bobtheNPC:*silence*
WC:well i guess i'll tell my buddies you don't have any purple goat ninjas for sale.
in my example bobtheNPC seems to have recourse to a few reactions here...
1) admin notices your pathetic attempts and puppets the guy and life can go in many wonderfull directions from there on in.
2) bobtheNPC reacts to the phrase 'purple goat ninjas for sale' and goes "yeah, gots a dozen purple goat ninjas for 20k. you interested?"
3) more silence so you decide that bob is a rude whore who is offended at your mere presence so you skulk off and try again another day.

ok.. so that was probably the stupidest example that i could have used but it's about as far removed from any NPC that i could get... and plus. it has a goat referance.

*cough* in SHORT... would that be acceptable RP with an NPC or not? it's a bit spammy, and in real life you wouldn't keep repeating purple goat ninjas, but here you need the subject, because the script reacts to a specific word string right?

god i need sleep, sleep and red bull! though, i'm thinking those don't go togehter well.

IT GIVES YOU WINGS!

You have to give some kind of leeway to new players. Lets be realistic about this there are dozens, no really more like hundred of moos/muds out there which have NPCs that you can do that to and do do that to and until you read something in the rules or maybe help newbie on it you'll just continue doing what you did on your old moo/mud. Ranting about it just makes people angry or makes them feel stupid and no one likes feeling stupid.

And I know that I am guilty of asking through xhelp if people can puppet, but I don't do it to be rude. In fact just the opposite. I do it to be polite. To find out if the GMs have the time to do it, because I tend to see the interaction between my character and her NPC employer as fairly unimportant and would be willing to wait and do it when its more convenient to the puppet masters.

As a player, I have seen people bugging Bruce and I have reacted ICly to it.

We all were new players once and we all have annoyed people. The best way to combat that is to take a new player and guide them. Help them out. Offer polite suggestions like, "Hey, you know its a bit silly spamming Bruce like that. Just go away for a while and come back and try again. At least that way you won't piss him off," or even, "I wouldn't try hiting Frankie with your purple ninja goat hide even though you think it makes you invisible, because he's mean and he'll ban you from Carnal." Do it ICly. Do it OOCly if you have to. Help others find the halfway point on the learning curve.

I completely agree. And Chaim and Asong have been killed so much recently… what if someone actually tried to get them again when they came out of the vats? Would it work?  I'm getting the feeling they won't die BECAUSE they're NPC's.  Then again, has anyone TRIED to perm them?

Maybe we should start thinkin IC... hmmmm.

That stuff with chaim and asong has been adressed, and there is a plan to impliment a system where gangers are brought about from a list of names, so if you kill chaim, he'd not come back, a differant nammed ganger would.

Coders just haven't had time because there are more important systems to work on.

And NPC's rock, I am a God, and yes.