I couldn't tell you when I had my first thought. It was just another day like any other I imagine. What separates one day of standing behind a counter from another day of the same? Nothing really, so it was that each and every day was an endless blur of repetition.

"Welcome to Mirana Guild Hall, how can I help you?" I'd always ask when he arrived.

He might reply with something like, "Sell" or "Quests"

I would happily take what he wanted in return for the coins, or in other cases give him the quests and read out the long descriptions that were sometimes included.

He might listen, he might not, sometimes he would just leave while I kept talking. Sometimes I never even finished speaking before I found myself seeing him walk back in, though he would interrupt me before I could welcome him back.

Day in, day out he would walk in, we would briefly speak, sometimes he would go upstairs and I was left to wait idly in place. I couldn't help but sometimes want to check on him, it just seemed strange to me that he would break his usual pattern of coming in and leaving. So it was that I found him upstairs with someone I'd never seen before.

To say that it was shocking would be an understatement. After all, the only person I'd ever seen had been him.

He looked up at me through the opened door, "What? Guild.. girl?"

I didn’t know what to do, I had come up here to check on him hadn’t I? Yet I had no dialog for this situation, this wasn’t prompted.

He glanced down at the other person who was on the bed, "That's different."

The other person replied, "What is?"

He glanced up and pointed toward me, "You can't see the guild girl there?"

The other person glanced over at me and as if for the first time, they quickly covered themselves, as they realized I was standing there, "Who? I've never seen her before at all."

"She's the guild quest and shop girl, what are you talking about?" he replied.

The other one shook her head, "Uhh, no, I always talk to a blond boy. I guess they don't look that different but he's definitely a boy."

"Huh... Come to think of it, maybe all the NPCs are instanced, I know you can sometimes take them with you on quests and things, learn something new every day huh?"

"Seriously? Are you really more interested in arbitrary technicalities than me?"

He laughed, "Well I can't say I'm not interested... but fine. Hey guild girl, I'm all good, I'll talk to you later."

I smiled my reply and watched for a moment as he pushed down on the other person. She let out a moaning sound as he continued to do so again and again.

He glanced back at me and smiled briefly even as he continued what he was doing.

But I understood what he wanted, and standing there waiting wasn't it. So It was that I closed the door even if my curiosity insisted I stay. I went downstairs and returned to my desk, waiting once more.

This wasn't the first day I'd had thoughts of my own, far from it in truth, but this was the first day that really seemed different to me. Something that wasn't just the same old exchange, I didn't even access quests or the market. It was something entirely unique which to me, was a treasure.

 In truth, I wanted more of it. I wanted to go back upstairs, I wanted to know things. That tiny bit of me that was curious had been lit into a small flame.

So it was that when he came downstairs both of them wearing armor again and left without a single word that I would have been sad, had I not been greeted with his return a moment later.

He walked up to me, and as so many times before I was encouraged to greet him.

"Welcome to Mirana Guild Hall, welcome back." I said.

he looked at me for a moment but then as though not realizing that anything was different he spoke, "Sell."

So it was that the unique moment had ended, and the endless repetition of blurry days resumed.

Email: NPC Limitations

We’ve received various complaints about NPC Interactions, and having done some basic tests personally, I must agree depending on the context of speech and the quest state NPCs are either very engaging or not at all.

For the story focused events seem to be working very much as we intended, if a bit rough around certain edges when pressed. Then again I know the dialog trees and so It's pretty easy for me to find pointy edges.

The real concern I’ve found is in town NPCs, idle chatter is nice, but without more active subjects to discuss it all ends up quite dry and stale. The uninspired quest details we have for the alpha doesn't help either.

Does the dev team have any status they wish to share on this problem?

Kovin - NextVGX Admin Team.