Cleaning Up Hommlet

Starting in Nulb is a radical idea, but it seems to me that it is a forgotten place and only a few, in-the-know, would be aware of it. Perhaps an early tie-in would be for Zert or the traders to reveal its location. Maybe that would also be easier than modifying the evil vignettes.

It also occurred to me that Ronald might have an alternative placing, such as outside the church during the day. Maybe he even mentions about the collection of scrolls upstairs, upstairs only being accessible once Calmert is paid off. Btw, what is the deal with that trap by the stairs up? It doesn't do anything (to me), but perhaps Calmert could interrupt any non-stealth toward the stairs by warning the party to heed his words or suffer the DIRE consequences.

 

I'm surprised this hasn't been changed yet, but perhaps it isn't as easy as I imagine. Can the Hemlock in Jay's field not say "Hemlock" until identified?

I suppose there is a lot of work still going on in cleaning up Hommlet. I was wondering if there is any interest for dialog changes, particularly but not exclusively, for LG/LN/Cuthbertians? I was thinking I could handle this Mod-lite, calling it "Witch Hunt"; perhaps someone could even add the intro of the Rush tune of the same name.

I would like to tag this onto changes that are already in development, such as Arioch's. Anyone else currently messing around with Hommlet stuff?

I would also like to mention my concern on behalf of those who use the point-buy system that having dialog conditions requiring an 18 stat (at very low character levels) will likely "penalize" us. I would like to recommend a reduction of those requirements by 2 points.

 

Does this appeal to any of you modders? Whenever the party enters an inn, they are immediately confronted by the dialog for buying food & drink.

 

Dialogue would be annoying, maybe something like float comments (similar to Tolub's taunts). After all, nobody really buys food and beer in ToEE, it's absolutely pointless (unless you're one of those people who play pretend with everything in the game).

 

but they might, especially if there are floating comments like "X is such a cheap bastard" or in Nulb, "Well, get the hell out of here." Anyway, just silly stuff.

 

What do you think of Sitra's idea for floating texts for the taverns a la Tolub? - insults included! Pestering can be ignored or it can be roleplayed.

Actually, that reminds me of Calmert who is supposed to stop pesetering you if you give a 100gp donation. How quickly he forgot!

 

After you donate, check the new conversational option at the bottom of the list: "Calmert, must you always...". It's probably there now.

 

Re: Let's Talk About Hickory Branch

In that case; wouldn't it be advisable to give the characters something to do? After All, you've managed to get Furnok (and excuse my spelling if I off on the names a bit) to quit cheating; but are there any card games going on?

Wouldn't sitting in (and I realize sitting doesn't actuall take place) on a card game lead to conversation that wouldn't otherwise take place?

Ditto on the drinking!? Buying a beer or two for an NPC should lead to better information gathering; should it not?

Roaming the the fringes of the town and catching would-be Orc raiders and such is another option; because you've obviously already rested or you wouldn't be concerned about killing time.

I'm not saying it'll be easy, but given a little thought (and you're fleshing the characters out any way, right?) there should be plenty to pass the time until morning; even if it's just a minor quest to patrol the highway for the night.

Adds to the realism and the characters' reps.

Stohrm

PS. I'm willing to help in any way possible; at the moment I'm still getting up to speed on how the dlg files work; but was the concept is firm in my mind I should be able to help y'all work wonders.

 

Once again, let's think about real life. The first thing one does when they go into a bar is to look for a seat, and then a server aproaches the table and asks what you'd like to drink.

In some cases, when the bar is busy you have to wait for a seat. Now (as I mentioned in a previous post) there isn't any actual sitting, but there are tables. So, find a table, gather around it and expect to buy a beer now and again! Because if you just stand around--> you're going to draw (potentially unwanted) attention to yourself.

In addition, have you been here before? Are you a regular? Are you a big spender? Do you buy rounds for the house?

Did you choose a table near enough to over hear the conversation(s) that's taking place; as that's the one thing that only stops when strangers walk in.

Okay so there's going to be a lot of "meaningless dribble" and "small talk" going on. The thing to watch for will be the conversations that let things slip and/or provide an "in" for the PC's to interupt and "gather (more) information"...

Again it won't be an easy task to accomplish, but think of the possibilities!

Stohrm

 

It's only pointless because the time wasn't taken to make it otherwise! So, why are they playing pretend? It's because there should be a point ot it and it's not there, so the real role players are attempting to rectify that if only in their own minds.

To me, that'd be all the more reason to make a point of it.

If I'm at a bar and you're talking to me with a beer in your hand then odds are I'm going to be more comfortable conversing with you, than if you walked in and just started asking me a bunch of questions.

So, make beer as important in the game as it is in real life. Add offering a beer to an NPC part of the conversation (I know that's doable), and watch what happens after he/she has had two or three. For one thing, the stats required to bluff, gather information, etc. etc. should go down and "even a cave man can do it" when it comes to getting the low down you weren't able to get otherwise.

Heck, it might even be the cave man (or character that looks like a caveman) that has to offer the beer to begin with.

The possibilites here are endless and I feel sorry for anyone that says that anything is pointless. That's the other beauty of some of it; it could look pointless until it's not!

Stohrm

PS, I hope my comments are helping to spark your imaginations. As I said elsewhere; "good idea men are hard to find" but they are the ones that'll help you turn useless into wonderous...

 

One of the reasons I've rarely even attempted playing an evil game is due to the Hommlet quests. I know that ToEE isn't like NWN2 and doing things contrary to one's alignment is rarely detrimental; but I am role playing here...

So, (since my knowledge of these things isn't fully up to speed yet), wouldn't evil character's want to botch things? In other words, if your evil and have received a quest from a good NPC, you're probably going to want to make things worse rather than better.

For instance, it's my understanding that there are three quests that can be completed such that they end up ruining the lives on the primary NPC's involved. Good PC's should be penailized for said actions, whereas evil ones should be rewarded (so to speak).

An evil character might wish to prevent the miller from ever donating flour/grain to the church. An evil character finds Terjon's lost artifiact and keeps it after flaunting it first.

A lot of these are already there, but I'm not sure what effect botching them has for evil characters.

In any case, you asked and those are my thoughts. I may not be able to write the exact dialogue and such (yet) for them; but I'm more than willing to help work up the logic and/or logistics involved...

Stohrm