Around the campfire

[JuneyGnomey]

It's a valid point, I suppose, but I'm erring on the side of "gameplay > realism". My character is all about the chatter, and, as a new player, I found that the miner's camp area tends to be where people congregate, so, as a social animal with her own agenda, that's where she spends her time. I could spend my time watching her sit in a tavern that's empty 90% of the time, but that's not particularly fun for her, and certainly not for me, as somebody with a limited amount of playtime. So I head to the most populated areas when I log on, which tend to be the camp and the crossroads.
On a side note, Juney has experienced little trouble at the miner's camp, whereas the second time she visited the crossroads, it was besieged by hoards of undead, and she simply hid, quaking, under a cart while all hell, quite literally, broke loose.
Of course, if all changes, and people congregate in another area, Juney will follow. It makes little difference to me, but as I say, as a new player, it just seemed to make sense to gravitate to areas that seemed to be meeting points.

[Ash]

Solutions for sitting are all very kludgey at the moment. If/when Obsidian decide to fix animations and the like and support a clean solution for it, then the ability to sit in inns and taverns will make those locations more attractive.

Games, quest providers and lore givers would make them more interesting also. And finally having dungeons/hostile areas nearby - this does make a big difference.

Also, as characters form their own network of friends and associates, perhaps they should work together to promote the use of inns and taverns. As has already been pointed out, players are going where the rp is. That's not unreasonable is it?

[Machiavelli]

[quote=Ash;29003]Also, as characters form their own network of friends and associates, perhaps they should work together to promote the use of inns and taverns.[quote]

Good point *writes down of his to do list*. This actually happened a while back.

One other thing is that the camp is easily accesible from the world map, whereas the taverns (other than the four lanterns which is barkeeperless) tend to be a bit of a walk away, and people may not neccesarily know where they are.

[sparkeh]

One other thing is that the camp is easily accessible from the world map, whereas the taverns (other than the four lanterns which is barkeeperless) tend to be a bit of a walk away, and people may not necessarily know where they are.

Good point, perhaps if there was a tavern accessible straight from the world map?

Actually I'm not too fussed that people meet up at the camp. It actually makes more sense for some chars (druids, rangers..) to sit round a camp fire anyway. Perhaps some chars don't want to go into a tavern?

If people are bothered why don't they say "Hey why are we all sitting round here in the rain? Let's go find us a tavern!"

[The Fantasian]

The good thing about the hills campsite is that you will get a multitude of level variations there for a while. Whether it is someone just starting who need help with questions or so forth right up through some of the mid range and higher characters who "pop in" once in a while.

I know that if you are hoping to head to perhaps the necropolis you have to find someone before hand and not wander blindly in. You chances of having Tamara or Sarien (sp?) or others in that vein stop in or meeting them at the crossroads is usually pretty good.

[ThePaganKing]

I agree that sitting around the camp fire at Shaharan hills may not be the smartest thing; however, the other places don't seem that bad or dangerous. Also, as people mentioned, you are more likely to meet people there than in Inns. Everytime I have gone into an Inn, there was nobody there, so, I moved on to find people to RP with.

I guess I could have RPed with myself, but that would have become very boring. Now, if you were to make an Inn or two that had entertainment such as cool songs being played (we had an Inn like that on an NWN1 server, you could actually click on the singer and ask for a number of songs to listen to), and maybe had an all purpose store or merchant that would buy a lot of the stuff you have to run around to sell, then I think you would get a bunch of people hanging out there and RPing and hooking up for adventures. Maybe you could make it a central location and a location you could automatically warp to.

Just a suggestion.

[Gothic Rose]

If you don't want to have people sit around the campfire, stop complaining about it in the forums and just go hang out elsewhere IG. If you get enough people at a place, then others will come. That's why Sharahan/Other Places are popular - because there are people there.

[Kaybrie]

If you don't want to have people sit around the campfire, stop complaining about it in the forums and just go hang out elsewhere IG. If you get enough people at a place, then others will come. That's why Sharahan/Other Places are popular - because there are people there.

Heh, exactly, anybody who's been here long enough to remember the introduction of the necropolis would know this to be the truth as well... That was the weirdest hangout ever. xD

[Aeolus]

Anywhere I go is the same, because no one wants to party with me..

[Machiavelli]

Heh, exactly, anybody who's been here long enough to remember the introduction of the necropolis would know this to be the truth as well... That was the weirdest hangout ever. xD

Hey, let's go hang out next to the stinky bog infested with Zombies... and wait for Echelon to spawn about 400 of them to start shambling through the gate! The DMs should be thanking us for hanging out at Sharahan Hills by comparison .

[Fajitaduke]

Good point, perhaps if there was a tavern accessible straight from the world map?

Actually I'm not too fussed that people meet up at the camp. It actually makes more sense for some chars (druids, rangers..) to sit round a camp fire anyway. Perhaps some chars don't want to go into a tavern?

If people are bothered why don't they say "Hey why are we all sitting round here in the rain? Let's go find us a tavern!"

Not having direct access to the world map is one of the big strikes against the taverns and is exactly what I had in mind earlier.

I believe there is a direct correlation between how quickly players can move from a socializing area to an area stocked with acticities and the traffic the socializing area receives. It is the second most important factor.

The most important factor being that people know where the socializing area is, which is usually set off by a visual cue like the campfire (and hence why that is where people gather, rather than next to the lake on the small pond on the other side of the map where people exit the caves).

From an RP persepctive regarding those who wouldn't go entering the city all the time, I'd think that expanding the crossroads area to make it a little more interesting and adding a inn/pub there (for which the interior also has direct access to and from the world map) could be a potential way to address this 'problem', if indeed it really is a problem.

[Scourn]

Not a problem how I see it. Its people being to ldamn azy. Heavens forbit you have to walk ONE zone to get into a tavern. You can port to any section from Sundren city from anywhere. Walk one zone and poof in a tavern. If anyones complaining that walking one zone is to far, well I dontthink I need to say more

[Fajitaduke]

Nobody is complaining about that, because a more convenient place already exists and so players gather there, instead. The complaining is coming from people who don't like that the alternative exists and is more popular than the taverns.

All I'm saying is that if for some reason the designers want players to gather elsewhere, they would do well to consider the factors that make a place attractive for gathering.

[ThePaganKing]

When NWN2 is more stable and you don't have to worry about getting booted everytime you transition, then maybe people will explore more and go to the many taverns around. It usually depends on the time of day and the number of players and maybe my not so high anymore system, but it seems when I hit areas that are cities and especially the druid and ranger camps, wow, the lag is super and I get booted between transitions more than making them. Therefore, I usually avoid those areas unless I really need something.

[moondiggidy]

I would imagine that when the quest system is up and running it will draw a good amount of Sundren's players to the city, because there will be more to do.