Forums » General Pantheon Discussion

Idea: Couriers

    • 115 posts
    March 27, 2017 9:48 AM PDT

     

    If any of you have ever played Skyrim (which I am betting the bulk of you have), you have inevitably met couriers. In any medieval setting, whether real or imagined, they are always around.


    This would be a neat feature for Pantheon. In populated Cities or Towns, they could be dispatched by the game at random, to any random player/group. This could add a bit of dynamic questing, and could break up the potential monotony of day to day grinding.

    Players could have the option to accept/deny the couriers request, which could potentially have positive or negative consequences.

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    Some possible ideas for random courier encounters.

    * Someone requires something (Generic): Someone dispatched the courier to find a player/party to bring that them a specific item(s) for a reward. (Example: Zuaran is working on a new potion formula, and requires a unique herb from a nearby swamp)
    * Lost and Found (Honest): Someone dispatched the courier to find a player/party that will retrieve a missing family heirloom. (Reward for bringing it back)
    * Lost and Found (Deception): Someone dispatched the courier to find a player/party that will retrieve a missing family heirloom. (The catch is, the player / group do not know they are going to actually be stealing the item)
    * Find/Rescue a missing family member: Someone dispatched the courier to find a player/party to retrieve a missing family member. (Example: This could be a lost child in a forest, kidnapped by bandits, etc.)
    * Deliver a Parcel (Generic). The player could deliver it for a reward, or alternatively keep the parcel and whatever is inside, and potentially suffer a consequence. (Stealing could result in a bounty on the Player: If caught, they would have to pay a fine. If the fine is not paid in a certain time, they would get negative faction.)
    * Etc.

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    Rewards / Positive consequences could be:
    * Item(s)
    * Money
    * Positive Faction
    * New (subsequent) quest

    Detriments / Negative consequences could be:
    * (Nothing)
    * Negative Faction
    * Missing out on a possible new questline

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    I know that my examples could be simply handled by static NPC's, but having them run up to you at random would make it all the better.

    Encounters with couriers could be made just rare enough to make them unique.

     

    • 1584 posts
    March 27, 2017 10:06 AM PDT
    My biggest thing is why does the negative have nothing but bad things happening, maybe there should be a faction or something that increases and triggers another npc to find you and say that someone is look I ng for them in a dark alley about a job that he thinks might be of interests to you. Could be a faction kinda like Circle of the Hidden Hand or something
    • 1618 posts
    March 27, 2017 10:13 AM PDT

    I would like to see, for a fee, a courier bring items purchased to you a Broker instead of mailed.

    Would be funny if you could kill couriers on their way to someone.

    • 422 posts
    March 27, 2017 10:14 AM PDT

    Isn't this just the perception system in essence? Someone stumble across a courier while on the road and get a quest?

    • 115 posts
    March 27, 2017 10:15 AM PDT

    Riahuf22 said: My biggest thing is why does the negative have nothing but bad things happening, maybe there should be a faction or something that increases and triggers another npc to find you and say that someone is look I ng for them in a dark alley about a job that he thinks might be of interests to you. Could be a faction kinda like Circle of the Hidden Hand or something

    Good idea. 

    • 154 posts
    March 27, 2017 2:44 PM PDT

    An interesting idea. Kinda like it. It deffinately is a change from Question marks hovering over an NPC to indicate a quest. I think much of the reason people hate the question marks is that it takes from the feeling of immersion. Now that I'm thinking about this threads question I wonder....maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea if potential quests offered by an NPC could have a tell of sorts. The tells could be... an NPC acting outwardly agitated in some way, as in rather than just standing around as most NPCs, one could be more animated. This NPC, a Widow perhaps, who is worried about a son who was late comming home from chopping wood in the forest. Could lead to a small quest chain where we find the young man has been captured by bandits. Then not only does he have to be rescued but due to sustained injuries must be escorted home. Thus, no question marks and the feel of immersion is maintained. Maybe even more so if some NPCs act more real. Another example might be an elderly lady who needs help getting her cat out of a tree. This may be a way get people to use a climb skill and just might be funny for onlookers to watch lol. Has possibilities.

    • 86 posts
    March 28, 2017 8:39 AM PDT

    Sending couriers out to do stuff for you? How does this tally with no maps or mounts, have to do things the hard way. Definitely shouldn't have couriers doing anything, we should all be walking around doing everything ourselves, preferably dragging ball and chain around with us just to make it harder.

    How did EQ do it?

     

    :)

    • 257 posts
    March 28, 2017 10:36 AM PDT

    Neverwinter has something like this mostly focused on crafting. It can be in game or on their website (well used to, I don't know what changes were made when they sold it). I like the idea of being involved when you are not in-game; however, that game was free to play and relied on microtransactions. There would have to be major changes for that feature to be applied here (imho). The idea is nice though.