Sticky Glue Type Thing + Gold Sink?

[Ferrut]

Ok. An idea I've been pondering for a little while now...

I was thinking about how it would be pretty tricky to do any kind of player event that involves finding items/runes/books etc. anywhere in the world (excluding houses). Too high a chance of someone removing the items. (One other possibility I suppose is using stealthers dropping them, but that has it's limitations.)


What if, there were some kind of 'glue' that you could buy from tinkers or alchemist's (or maybe a quest?) for a large(ish) sum of money, perhaps 500k or so.

This glue would enable you to lock an item down anywhere!

It would decay at server down, and if the object was a blocking object, it would no longer block movement to prevent blocking abuse.

Probably not an original idea, but what d'ya think?!

 

[Masuri]

I'll tell you exactly what it reminds me of: Star Wars Galaxies. Not even a year ago, SWG put in a Storyteller system, which allows players to erect items, decorations, structures, special effects, and NPCs (from an enormous list of stuff) in the gameworld, for a day, to use in creating quests and stories for other players. People do amazing things with it. It's honestly one of those "they did what? wow!" systems that gets basically zero press outside of SWG itself, it's the best-kept secret of MMOs and RPers everywhere. It would be perfect in a game like UO, since there are already so many talented story tellers here, just waiting for a system of props, effects, and NPCs to make it happen.

As an aside, SWG's plan - like yours with the glue - was also to use it as a gold sink. Instead, the fees were so high - and the die-hard RPers tend not to be the richest folks in the world - that the system wasn't used much or to any great depth. So, in the end, the fees came down, to get more people using it. I know we need gold sinks, but they need to be aimed at the people making money.

 

[Tina Small]

I know we need gold sinks, but they need to be aimed at the people making money.

Agreed 100%. I've wondered why we don't have more gold sinks that allow you to purchase dyes or services that do nothing more than superficially change appearances of characters, pets, clothing, and other items and possibly wears off over time.

Or perhaps create NPCs that you can have in your house that have a daily cost and say or do more interesting things than the heralds and barkeepers. They wouldn't do anything that would give someone a real advantage over someone else, but would be looked at as status symbols employed by the rich. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking of kind of silly things like a gardener NPC that doesn't tend the plants for you but nags the heck out of you if you're not getting it done and will take the dead or decorative plants and tell you that he will turn it into compost for you. (Maybe you could get the compost back from him later and applying it to a plant would shave off one day of growing time or something.) Or an NPC that nags you about feeding your fish and cleaning the aquarium. A maid who inspects your clothing and reminds you to get things repaired. Silly stuff that really doesn't do a lot but perhaps appeals to some and more importantly constantly drains some gold out of your bank account.

 

[Ferrut]

Oh wow, I did not realise they had such a thing in SWG, but that's sounds more or less exactly the kind of thing I meant!
'twould be excellent I think...

*hopes devs agree*

hehe!

As for the gold sink part of it/the potentially high costs, I think I agree with you there. I was just looking at it as a possible bonus, or maybe a means to prevent too much stuff being locked down everywhere!! (Can you imagine all the vendor runes everywhere if it was too cheap....)

I reckon it would be a bit of a balancing act in that respect....

And Tina - those NPC's would get my vote! Better than my mobile phone going off every day annoying me until I water them, haha!