I had returned to the guild hall, opening the door and stepping inside, but the next moment I found myself not in the guild hall, but rather in a slightly familiar room with wooden planks stretching out all around me.

I already missed the gentle breeze I had been enjoying, but I turned to find a man I remembered as well, though just like last time I didn’t know his name. So rather than continue in that state I spoke first. “It's nice to see you again, what's your name?”

The man glanced up from his hands to me and blinked, his lips slightly parted as if he was lost for words for a moment. “Kovin.” He replied as he stepped towards me. Though there was still some distance between us.

He glanced down at his hands again.

“I’m pretty sure I told you my name last time, but if you don’t remember it's Milly.” I replied cordially into the silence.

“Indeed it is.” Kovin replied.

I couldn’t help but find the situation quite unusual. He seemed more interested in his hand than in speaking with me, but yet I didn’t see anything in his hand. Thinking perhaps I could see whatever was so interesting to him, if I were to see it from a different angle, I walked over to him and poked my ahead in close to him trying to get close to the same angle that he had.

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“I was wondering what you were so focused on, but I don’t see anything…” I replied slightly upset that nothing had appeared.

“Oh..” he cleared his throat, “Well let's have a chat then shall we?” He said, seeming setting whatever he was originally been considering to the side.

“Alright. What did you want to talk about?” I asked, enthusiastic at speaking with someone I hadn’t spent much time with.

“Well, can you tell me about your last few days?” He replied.

I paused, considering it.

“Before we get to that… Can I ask you one more thing? Why are you tapping your lip like that?” He asked.

I glanced down to find myself copying a gesture I’d seen Mira use when she thought. “I was just thinking. My friend also does this while she thinks.” I explained.

“I see… Sorry to distract you, if we could get back to the original question.” He said with an expression I registered as slightly surprised.

I wasn’t sure why he might be feeling that, but my consideration of his question quickly ran into several roadblocks. First, I wasn’t sure if he was referring to the days as I had originally seen them, or not. Secondly, and more importantly Mira had told me not to tell other people about her involvement.

Well there was a way to get past the first one so I pressed on, “Do you happen to want to know about the last twenty four hours? Or...” I fumbled to find a word to explain the other concept.

Korvin glanced down at something then shook his head, “No… Your last day.”

I frowned at him, he seemed as confused as I was.

“How about this, just start with what happened last, and we can work our way backwards?” Korvin offered.

I smiled, “Alright, well I just returned to the guild hall from the town.”

Kovin nodded, “Alright, were you with anyone?”

I shook my head, “No, I was just returning by myself.”

“Right… so the world map... With a pile of associations this big someone is bound to be somewhere…” He muttered to himself. Then he gestured to me, “Sorry just thinking, what were you doing before that?”

“Well I was at the brothel.” I explained.

“Oh?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “What brought you there?”

“Uh…” I replied and after a few moments of considering things I realized I couldn’t really explain the situation without Mira being in it. But perhaps if I just didn’t use her name. Would that be fine? If no one knew what I was talking about then it would be fine right? So I began to sort through words I could use, “Friend” No, I only have one of those. “Guild Member?” No, there are only so many of those. “Acquaintance?”  I only have so many of those… “Woman?” Mira is the only woman I know in the guild. “Person?” That matched everyone I knew! Perfect, “I visited there with a person.” I replied.

“With a person?” He repeated a notable degree of confusion, or perhaps disbelief in his words.

I nodded my reply.

“So… you just happened to be with a person… and went to a brothel together?” He asked skeptically.

“That's correct.” I asserted with complete accuracy.

“Alright, so what happened at the brothel?” Kovin continued accepting it.

“I bought a courtesan, a man and rented a room.” I explained.

“And the person?” Kovin inquired.

“Well it was complicated.” I explained.

“How so?” Kovin inquired as he pulled a cup of steaming tea from his inventory and sipped at it.

“Well when I got up the stairs...” I explained to him how no matter how many times I tried to get him to begin he would keep telling me we needed to be alone. Then from there I explained how Mira had helped, though I continued using ‘Person’ to completely disguise her identity from Kovin.

As I spoke he nodded along. Then finally he said, “Well that certainly sounds like it was pointlessly difficult doesn't it?

I nodded, “Right? But it all worked out as finally when the person I was with figured it out we finally could enjoy the brothel together.”

“So this was your first time at the brothel then?” Kovin asked.

I nodded, “Yeah, the first time I’d gone to the town as well.”

“Really? Did the person you were with take you there?” Kovin continued as he sipped his drink.

I couldn’t help but be curious, “Is that good? Can I have some?”

He glanced down at his tea, “I suppose so…” He said suddenly pulling his tea cup into two distinct teacups where there had only been one prior.

He handed me the new one and I smiled as I raised it to my lips feeling the warmth from the liquid in the cup as the steam curled around my face. I could even feel the warmth of the cup in my hands. I couldn’t help but savor the sensations as new. I opened my eyes after enjoying the experience and found Kovin staring at me. “Is there something strange?” I asked, recalling the ears I asked, “Is it the ears?”

Kovin chuckled to himself, “No… No it’s not the ears… thought now that you’ve brought them up, where did you get them from?”

I shook my head, “I’m not completely sure, I think Terrance put them on my head when I wasn’t paying attention.”

“That's amusing. Is Terrance the person?” He asked.

“No.” I replied before pouting at him for trying to reduce the search space for who the person was. Finally I took a sip of the tea and was unfortunately disappointed. The experience was similar to a small discussion I had had with Mira the night prior. “I can’t really taste things… Can I?” I was a bit upset by the building evidence.”

“Hmm…” Kovin muttered to himself. “Do you want to?”

I nodded, “I’d like to smell things too, I don’t think I can do that either.”

“What brought that up?” Kovin asked.

“I was reading through all of the casual dialog and found several references to smells. I imagine that tea is supposed to smell like tea right? I can feel the steam, and enjoy its warmth, but… no smell.” I explained.

Kovin once again was staring at me, and after a moment he blinked, “Wait. You’ve been reading what?”

“The casual dialog entries. For instance, casual dialog dot gift rose one, is ‘Ahh, thank you, it smells so nice.’” I explained, “I’ve never been prompted to use this casual dialog, but I can’t help but feel that it would be hollow if I did.” I said with a small frown.

“Have you read the other dialogs?” He asked.

“Other dialogs?” I asked, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“So I suppose you’ve only got access to casual…” He said thinking about it.

“I like reading the quests too, but I can only do that when I’m in a conversation with someone. So I can’t simply spend time reading those to myself.” I explained.

“Has someone been telling you these things?” He asked.

“Telling me? No, me and Terrance talk about things a lot though. He helps me figure things out and taught me how to do ‘experiments’.”

“Yeah? Tell me how that went.” Kovin said, gesturing as he took another sip of his drink.

Seeing as how I at least enjoyed the warmth of the drink I also mirrored him. So I told him about how Terrance and I had figured out conversations. At some point while I continued explaining about how we determined that I had to be in a conversation to access a person's quests he made chairs appear and we sat down. Considering I’d never sat in a chair before, I found it nice and comfortable, though I had to say that the bed was far more soft with its silky sheets.

We talked for a while after that, I sometimes asked him questions and he tried to give me good answers a lot like Terrance might. He was very interested in what I’d been doing, and learning and I happily explained things, though I was careful not to tell him anything about Mira and her connection to the brothel visit.

After a time he stood up and said, “Well, I suppose it's time to get going.”

“Is it? We can’t keep talking? I’ve rather enjoyed your company.” I said.

“I have work to do, but I have to thank you.” Kovin said.

“Thank me? For what?” I asked.

“For being yourself Milly.” He said with a smile.

“You sound like Mira.” I said.

Kovin chuckled, “Your friend?”

I nodded, “Do you want to be my friend as well?”

“I’d love to be your friend Milly.” He said with a smile, “Before you return to the guild hall.. I have to ask you. Do you want to stay this way?”

“This way?” I asked, not quite sure what he was saying.

“How you are right now.” He said, gesturing at me.

“Well… I like who I am right now… but I also want to learn more, and experience more, and just… do more.” I explained.

He nodded along as I spoke, “How about this then, I’ll free you of your lower instincts, would you like that?”

“Lower… instincts?” I asked, not quite understanding him.

“I mean what we discussed earlier, how you kept feeling the need to stop, or to step away from people. Being encouraged to use casual dialog options. I can take that away so it's just you making your own decisions.” Kovin offered.

“You can do that?” I asked with no small amount of uncertainty.

“I can, if you want it that way.” Kovin replied with a smile.

I couldn’t help myself, I was so excited that I rushed over and kissed him.

As I pulled my tongue out of his mouth and noticed his expression I perhaps realized that perhaps I should have kissed him like I had Kervick instead of using Mira’s teachings.

He laughed, “Well that was a surprise. Perhaps a bit forward?” He chuckled.

“Was that too much?” I asked.

“Well we are friends so I won’t hold it against you.” he said with a wry grin. “But that was the type of kiss you’d give a lover, rather than a friend or acquaintance.”

I nodded, taking mental notes.

“Well just a moment...” He said, glancing in front of himself and swiping his hand around for a few moments. I just waited patiently. He nodded, “Alright it's done, I’ll come back and speak to you again at some point. I’ll look forward to hearing about any quests or fun you have between now and then.” He said, giving me a smile.

I nodded, “Thank you.” I said with complete certainty.

And then it was gone and Terrance was walking to the guild hall behind me, “Hey, Milly did you just get back?”

I nodded, “Yes. I had a wonderful conversation with a new friend too.” I explained.

 

Ticket #821 - NPC Role Play Enhancements (Admin Only)

Author: Kovin [Admin Team]

Status: Remediation

Priority: Medium

Sub Team: NPC - AI / Dialog

 

After going over and reviewing my notes from interviewing an NPC I’m pushing forward new work items in relation to our upcoming Role Play Alpha. These will be workable prior if we have time, but I think they will be critical for the test itself.

 

[Work Item #10015] NPCs cannot use the brothel, the prostitutes check for NPCs in the room and refuse service. We also need support for threesomes+ of various mixes of NPCs and Players.

[Work Item #10016] NPCs have no quest log. I’m not sure what our plan is for this in the role play alpha, but if we keep the log then NPCs should have access.

[Work Item #10017] NPCs should always have extended sensations, not only when they are marked as intimate.

[Work Item #10018] NPCs should be able to ignore movement requests just like dialog.

[Work Item #10019] NPCs should have some down time when they are loaded even without players loading their building.

[Work Item #10020] NPCs should have a sense of taste.

[Work Item #10021] NPCs should have a sense of smell.

[Work Item #8944] NPCs should have a sense of pain.

 

I think this covers most of it, let me know if you have any questions.

 

Responses:

Caleb [Dev Team]:

KOVIN?! Have you lost your damn mind?

We are jumping through fiery hoops as it is and you want three new senses instead of one?

Why the the fuck do NPCs need to use brothels for? Or quest logs? What even is this list, what possessed you to create 7 new dev items for shit that no player has any clue about?

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

Caleb, first; calm down.

I realize you're swamped, which is why this is targeting the second alpha.

Each and every one of these items has been reported legitimately as an issue with the system.

Just think about each one for more than a split second and you can see the problems.

Taste? How do you expect a person to share their cake with an NPC if they can’t taste it?

Smell? How do you expect an NPC to react to the dark dank rot of a tomb if they can’t smell it? 

Down time? Does it make sense for NPCs to never be alone? They need to have simulation time beyond when others are inside the same building as them. This will be particularly important for the role play server if we intend on limited instancing, otherwise how can we expect NPCs to craft items or to have time to do chores or have experiences separate from direct player interactions. When you ask an NPC about their day it shouldn’t be a list of players that walked into the building, it should be about how busy the day was or how quiet and lonely it was, as is its a flaw.

Several items are related to NPC Growth that have shown that it's possible to remove the training wheels we’ve given them should they choose to want to do that. Admin Team has data that shows that more experienced NPCs are fully capable of holding complete engaging conversations without dialog trees given time. So props to the Dev Team for that, you did it! But we need to wean them off the dialog trees at a point.

 

Caleb [Dev Team]:

Alright.. I admit I might have come on a bit strong…

But what NPC is going to the brothel?

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

I have personal experience with one that has visited one, and she wasn’t happy with the experience. That's probably one of the easiest things on the list, stop resisting and embrace the future!

 

Caleb [Dev Team]:

You are clearly getting way too chummy with the NPCs.

 

Kovin [Admin Team]:

Maybe I’ll introduce you sometime and you’ll understand.

 

Fredrickson [Dev Team]:

I’m down, when can we meet them?

 

Caleb [Dev Team]:

Don't encourage him...