Wacky NPCs Mod

[DaPineapple]

annoying NPC?
likes everyone
everyone dislikes them
sells prank items
sells best weapons, but bad, such as Last Prison (cardboard last prism-does nothing)
can be killed by player. if killed, summons a clown based boss (juggles and throws juggling balls and batons?)

 

[DaPineapple]

these ideas are just ideas. they can be changed, accepted, or ignored

 

[Sora_92]

@Quba
The problem with orders is, that the waiter would sell the food, so aquiring it is not a problem. if you would need to deliver it, it still wouldn't be much of a problem either, because the NPC might be close by or you can get there fast via the pylon system.
and having them not available in the shop would defeat the purpose of the core idea to help aquiring all sorts of food - which can be a pain to get in journey mode for research - and likewise a pain to get in other modes too, you just can't research them either.


@DaPineapple
Please don't double post, but use edit button, okay?
As for the idea, I don't like that.
The guide's son doesn't makes sense in many ways.
Bound NPCs spawns in the same manner monsters do, they don't have a fixed place, they spawn the time when you wander around the area where you found them. so I don't think there's any way to tell that, and most of them can be found rather easily, and generally pre-hardmode where you wouldn't likely pay that much for something so trivial. that's beyond the tricks of the Scam Artist even, really XD

Also, no NPCs visibly age or anything, and it doesn't sounds like it would serve much purpose anyway. plus, how would he sell anything, once he turned into a new guide...?

I also don't see the point of that weapon, combining mage and melee weapons to create a... now, is that melee? or mage? since you said to cost mana, I guess a mage weapon, that makes pretty much zero sense to use things in it like the Zenit, or to use things that are the components of the Zenith, to begin with, and generally sounds ridicolously expensive. it would be probably way too OP anyway, and to be honest, I dislike those weapons. Rematching Moon Lord is one thing, but they're generally too OP against anything else, making them pretty boring on the long run... (that might be just my opinion though)

As for the "annoying NPC" we already have the angler... jokes aside, the angler is actually quite nice too, lately. plus funny.
There would be also no sense to have an NPC like that what you say. selling useless garbage is against my opinion on NPCs and their usefullness, you also would have no reason to have him in town where everyone hates him, you would most likely just exile him to a spiky gibbet in hell or whatever.

I'm also highly against the idea of murdering your own townspeople. even if the vanilla game has that too.
That's why none of these NPCs drops anything upon death, so there's nothing to encourage players killing them.

So, in short, I don't like those NPC ideas. However if you have ideas, do feel free to share them, there might be some, that I actually like.

 

[Quba]

@Quba
The problem with orders is, that the waiter would sell the food, so aquiring it is not a problem. if you would need to deliver it, it still wouldn't be much of a problem either, because the NPC might be close by or you can get there fast via the pylon system.
and having them not available in the shop would defeat the purpose of the core idea to help aquiring all sorts of food - which can be a pain to get in journey mode for research - and likewise a pain to get in other modes too, you just can't research them either.

I feel like the system could work if the vouchers were rare enough. If they were common it wouldn't make sense to add orders but if they were rare enough they could offer you a choise. Do you spend your vouchers on yourself or do you spend them for the unknown reward the order would give you ? It would probably be really hard to balance the system in a way that this could work while not making the vouchers so rare that they are useless but I think that it's possible. Also by saying that it would unlock some food I ment that if you for example delivered an order for a hamburger you would unlock fries in the shop, not a hamburger, as you said that would go against what the waiter is suposed to do.

 

[Sora_92]

I feel like the system could work if the vouchers were rare enough. If they were common it wouldn't make sense to add orders but if they were rare enough they could offer you a choise. Do you spend your vouchers on yourself or do you spend them for the unknown reward the order would give you ? It would probably be really hard to balance the system in a way that this could work while not making the vouchers so rare that they are useless but I think that it's possible. Also by saying that it would unlock some food I ment that if you for example delivered an order for a hamburger you would unlock fries in the shop, not a hamburger, as you said that would go against what the waiter is suposed to do.

But what sorts of rewards those quests would give then? What would actually fit thematically, and would be useful, and also balanced?
And, hamburger and fries go tematically well together, but there are all sorts of food that doesn't necessarily have any counterparts like that...

to begin with, deciding on the structure of the shop to make it balanced would require some complex chart too...
because there are all sorts of food, that vary in effect strenght, lenght, as well as price, and when can you get them in the game.

so, since most food should be available in the shop simply by game progression, anything (out of them) requiring to be unlocked would be bad, I think. and not everyone likes quests, so it could end up being a pain if you're forced to do some quests just because the food you want is locked behind that. that's no good.
That's why I think, they mostly should give vouchers, and provide other useful stuff - like slice of cake being available to buy - and... what else...?

 

[Quba]

But what sorts of rewards those quests would give then? What would actually fit thematically, and would be useful, and also balanced?
And, hamburger and fries go tematically well together, but there are all sorts of food that doesn't necessarily have any counterparts like that...

to begin with, deciding on the structure of the shop to make it balanced would require some complex chart too...
because there are all sorts of food, that vary in effect strenght, lenght, as well as price, and when can you get them in the game.

so, since most food should be available in the shop simply by game progression, anything (out of them) requiring to be unlocked would be bad, I think. and not everyone likes quests, so it could end up being a pain if you're forced to do some quests just because the food you want is locked behind that. that's no good.
That's why I think, they mostly should give vouchers, and provide other useful stuff - like slice of cake being available to buy - and... what else...?

I think that they could give some unique cosmetic items based on the person that ordered the food, for example in case of the order I used in my first reply about this system, you could get a wig that looked like Phoenix's hair. If order rewards were limited to cosmetic stuff like furniture and vanity items there would be nothing to balance becouse they wouldn't have any purpouse outside of looking good.

 

[Sora_92]

I think that they could give some unique cosmetic items based on the person that ordered the food, for example in case of the order I used in my first reply about this system, you could get a wig that looked like Phoenix's hair. If order rewards were limited to cosmetic stuff like furniture and vanity items there would be nothing to balance becouse they wouldn't have any purpouse outside of looking good.

The problem with that is, that you wouldn't have much reason (besides completionism) to complete quests like that, if you don't want that wig.

So, while it's not really unbalanced, it also doesn't really sounds perticularly great either, I think. if the mod would offer some vanity - which it really should, actually, like vanity versions of various stuff worn by some of these NPCs. like the professor's expedition jungle helmet. I also kinda would like something like that Alice hair-ribbon I made for that Hideri sprite.

However if such would be in the mod, it all should be craftable, or otherwise being able to aquired easily.
NPCs could sell their own vanity sets too, but that brings up problems with shop sizes...

 

[oko]

Love the mod!!!
I filled my city with the npc's!!

 

[CrazyDarkSurvivedYou]

cool

 

[Sora_92]

Upgraded the starting post with most of the ideas we discussed lately, as "plans". check it out~!
Of course, they are not in the mod yet. It's still just brainstorming, and I need help with coding some of the more complex stuff. As well as we're still waiting for T-modloader to catch up to 1.4.

 

[Quba]

Upgraded the starting post with most of the ideas we discussed lately, as "plans". check it out~!
Of course, they are not in the mod yet. It's still just brainstorming, and I need help with coding some of the more complex stuff. As well as we're still waiting for T-modloader to catch up to 1.4.

What about the mannequins with faces and mimic NPC ? Did you forget to add them or did you decide to not put them in ?

 

[Sora_92]

What about the mannequins with faces and mimic NPC ? Did you forget to add them or did you decide to not put them in ?

oh, yeah... I forgot those XD lol.
I will add those too.
I still wonder how to code all these though... why isn't there some coders joining to help out...? aww... XD

 

[The True Destroyer]

Ok! So I've been spriting, and with the help of the mod creator, I've managed to conjure up three little sci-fi themed sprites (they are for guard furnitures.) What do any of you think?

A lighter background can help make things more visible in certain situations.

 

[Quba]

Looking at the new plans section I thought of a small idea which if I understand everything correctly should be possible. What if the guard captain desk and the Sculptor were treated like the sleepy guard ? From what I understand the sleepy guard is a stationary ''NPC'' that's spawned by furniture, so if the furniture was also a crafting station you could give the guard captian and sculptor some dialouge without making them normal NPC's

 

[Sora_92]

Looking at the new plans section I thought of a small idea which if I understand everything correctly should be possible. What if the guard captain desk and the Sculptor were treated like the sleepy guard ? From what I understand the sleepy guard is a stationary ''NPC'' that's spawned by furniture, so if the furniture was also a crafting station you could give the guard captian and sculptor some dialouge without making them normal NPC's

That's an interesting idea. Well, that is still something that "if that can be coded" but, if that would work, then, yes, it could be tried with other things too.

 

[Sora_92]

@Quba
As for the previous idea regarding making guard captain, sculptor, etc. work like that, I think there's like 2 possible approach for that.
one is, if you can interact with the furniture itself.
other is, if the furniture spawns an entity you can interact with.

there are certainly interactable furnitures, but those just give buffs or such, right? e.g. sharpening station.
if these could be interactable more, like, you could talk, or even buy stuff, this could be a fun thing too. as furnitures, they might can still function as crafting station too (for intence, crystal ball is both interactable, and a crafting station)

if using the other approach, to have a furniture spawn an entity, like those in Chad'sfurni, those would have an AI, and with an AI like town NPCs, they probably would work like NPCs. however the NPC itself wouldn't work as crafting station, that's for the furniture. though if these are stationary, then they stay at the same place. but so, such NPCs should be stationary, immune to knockback, and can't be killed, otherwise they would cause problems, like if knocked back, they would get farther from their post, and if they have a stationary AI, they wouldn't walk back there...

Some could be non-stationary, like the face monster barkeep. to begin with, guards' & civilians non-stationary versions would be what the original idea was about deco NPCs - and they wouldn't take up housing slots either! - but that's a crazy amount of work to sprite walking animation for all of these. it's something I wouldn't go for, if I'm doing the sprites mostly alone. if there would be a team though, it could be another cool thing to expand on in the mod.

 

[Quba]

@Quba
if using the other approach, to have a furniture spawn an entity, like those in Chad'sfurni, those would have an AI, and with an AI like town NPCs, they probably would work like NPCs. however the NPC itself wouldn't work as crafting station, that's for the furniture. though if these are stationary, then they stay at the same place. but so, such NPCs should be stationary, immune to knockback, and can't be killed, otherwise they would cause problems, like if knocked back, they would get farther from their post, and if they have a stationary AI, they wouldn't walk back there...

I didn't think of the problems with that, damage can probably be disabled since the Old Man is immune to most forms of damage but I don't know if it's possible to disable knockback. I don't know if it's possible but maybe they could have an AI that doesn't allow them to go a certian distance from the crafting station and if they are pushed out of it they would try to get back into that area ?

 

[Sora_92]

I didn't think of the problems with that, damage can probably be disabled since the Old Man is immune to most forms of damage but I don't know if it's possible to disable knockback. I don't know if it's possible but maybe they could have an AI that doesn't allow them to go a certian distance from the crafting station and if they are pushed out of it they would try to get back into that area ?

There definitely are entities that are immune to knockback. Most bosses are, and I think there are monsters too, that take no knockback. Player also can be by equipping a cobalt shield or such. So, I think that by itself can be coded. (I dunno how though)

And, if they receive no knockback, they can't get farther from their initial point (I think), like, if they are furniture spawned, if you destroy the blocks the furniture is on (if they are furnitures like that) they will despawn when their furniture drops as an item.
(though that could be a problem in case if there would be such, which are spawned by for example wall-mounted furnitures)

One of my main concern there with them should be stationary is, so there's no need to make full spritesheets for them. I love spriting town NPCs as far as design concerned, but getting them to be able to walk is kind of a pain to sprite XD lol. I will do with some new NPCs, I did it with those actual NPCs too who are in the mod, but I don't want to do that with hundreds of guards and civilians... XD

It would be fun if you could talk with them though. But I have no idea how to get that to work.
Although, I think you rarely interact with NPCs if you have no business with them. it's like petting town pets. you rarely do that, I think, because they don't really do anything regarding the game.
- However if you play in a rather relaxed pace, you might do that, just for fun.
But still, you rarely chit-chat with NPCs who sell nothing useful for you, because they're for another class or something. e.g. arms dealer if you're not a ranger.

 

[HellsBells]

I like the black hair the best- it’s the easiest to tell it’s a mustache (very cute idea!)

I like the sprite for the restaurant voucher. Could there be food items that have placeable versions too? Maybe those could be in the mystery grab bags?

I saw in an earlier post you’re thinking about adding pets- I love that idea!! Even tho mods aren’t available for 1.4, I think you should be able to have more than 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 bunny. But yes, definitely pets.

Also, I don’t know if this is even possible, but could there be coding to set “areas” that would prioritize the movement of specific NPC’s within a set area. So, similar to having a designated primary room, but would have secondary areas. For example, if I build bedrooms for each NPC and then each also has a shop/workshop and, in addition, there’s a common area such as a dining room, it would be cool to be able to mark each NPC with specific areas to spend more time in, such as their shop/workshop, dining room, etc instead of hanging out in another NPC’s bedroom. It would make for more lively bars haha. On that note- great idea to have an npc drinking beer

I was tinkering more with spriting and brainstorming, and, here are a few things

I do like the ridicolous looks of that face monster barkeep with a funny moustache, but I wonder about if the standard brown-ish hair color not blends too much in with the skin of the face monster?
So, I made some hair-recolored versions
View attachment 283132 View attachment 283133 View attachment 283134
(the earlier brown, and a blonde and a black-hair variant. the black hair might looks better, but dunno... or is the brown better?)


Then, thinking more about the waiter (not to be confused with this face monster barkeep, but the NPC idea to sell food like normally.
This was the previous idea sprite
View attachment 283135 She looks kind of cute, but I just feel she's a bit plain... of course, with a funny personality added, she could be quite funny too.
But I just thought, maybe instead of this one, maybe a trap waiter would be funnier. (of course, even if she won't be an actual town NPC, I will likely add her as a stationary civilian, because she could fit some builds anyway)

and then I was tinkering with spriting...
(Side note, I didn't watched Blend S yet, so I don't know the actual character, I just went ahead fooling around with spriting. I should watch that anime too, it's probably fun. But, so, I heard there is a trap waiter in it, and tried to sprite something along the line of that character's looks. but then I feel it might be too similar...? that might be bad. or would that be actually good? or maybe a recolor could make it better?
Anyway... so...

View attachment 283136 (Again, I didn't seen the anime yet, so I have no idea about Hideri's personality or anything, I just seen pics and thought he looks really cute. XD I definitelly will watch that before deciding in anything referencing something. there are characters too who might be very different from what you would assume based on their looks first... for instence, Chinatsu from YuruYuri...
But if I made this sprite, might as well put it here now, to hear others' opinion on it XD


Then, I tried to tinker with the restaurant voucher idea

View attachment 283137

Not sure about this either, but how this looks like?
So, the idea is, the waiter would have a shop that uses special currency, restaurant vouchers.
Some monsters might would have a small chance to drop these. (they stack.) some food like fruits would cost 1 voucher. and also, - if he sells foodstuff that in normally rather easy to aquire, like cooked fish.
fancier dishes would cost more.
also, things appear in his shop with more bosses down, pre-EoC, he likely only would sell very basic things, but later more stuff becomes available. so, things like golden delight would appear in the shop much later, and would be expensive too, like 10 vouchers or something.
the shop also should maybe rotate based on moon phases, so all foodstuff can fit in, and the menu always looks a bit different.

The Crimson Kitchen's barkeep (if we can get that to work) would sell his wares similarly for these vouchers.
(just carry them around in your piggy bank, and it won't be much of a problem, I think)


I'm also wondering about some special things in the waiter's shop or something, like "the chef's suggestion" or "mysterious bento box" or something, that is a grab-bag, and basically the restaurant equivalent of gambling. it might would cost like 5 vouchers - so, like, being a middle-ground between cheap and expensive dishes, it contains one random food, in the wide range between the rather lame cooked fish, and the splendid golden delight.
I think that could be a funny thing to gamble with.

 

[HellsBells]

120% for more vanity items, especially shoes. I like the random appearance of vanity items in the traveling merchant’s shop. It’s like a surprise when it’s available, not boring to kill a bunch of things to get a drop, and not so easy that you can just buy it whenever. Maybe a setup like that could work. But I’d like to have placeable shoes too for my party girl and stylist’s shoe closet lol. yes, I like shoes.

The problem with that is, that you wouldn't have much reason (besides completionism) to complete quests like that, if you don't want that wig.

So, while it's not really unbalanced, it also doesn't really sounds perticularly great either, I think. if the mod would offer some vanity - which it really should, actually, like vanity versions of various stuff worn by some of these NPCs. like the professor's expedition jungle helmet. I also kinda would like something like that Alice hair-ribbon I made for that Hideri sprite.

However if such would be in the mod, it all should be craftable, or otherwise being able to aquired easily.
NPCs could sell their own vanity sets too, but that brings up problems with shop sizes...