Wacky NPCs Mod

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

Capture 2020-02-29 15_46_06.png
 
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.
 
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 ?
 
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
 
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?

sprite1.png


A lighter background can help make things more visible in certain situations.
 
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
 
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.
 
@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
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 ?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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...
 
@HellsBells
I'm glad you like the mod!

I also think the black-hair variant face monster barkeep looks the best out of the 3 lol XD

As for placeable food, Chad'sfurni offer such since long, and now generally all food items can be placed on plates (that thing you can craft from clay), so I don't know if there is need to add such. I did thought about things like bowls with fruits and stuff (as you can see a bowl like that on the general's desk) but I had trouble getting 1 x 2 furnitures (like that small teapot) being placeable on tables, so I postponed that idea until someone helps me to code those to work.

as for pets, when I said that, it was about the pets that follow the player. but indeed, adding more town pets would be absolutely awesome too! I don't know how to code such, but that's something we likely can figure out mostly only after Tmodloader caught up to 1.4.
when it is possible to code such, I wonder what sorts of town pets would be good to add?


As for "prioritised areas", I do love that idea. Although I think that would also require "friendly NPCs don't die" mods - to begin with, I think having such mod enabled can be great so you don't end up with your town frequently massacred by pirates, goblins and the like - ah, and if we're at it, disabling goblin peons from spawning, via cheat sheets of something! those [insert swear words to your like] things would ruin your housings all the time, if the doors were left closed, because they dismantle all closed doors in their path, and then the NPC flag will be randomly moved elsewhere and you have to place them back, once the invasion is over.

but once such things are no concern, yes, it would be fun to have such a thing. I have no idea how to code such though. And it also brings up questions how NPCs move between these 2 areas, since their AI is rather dumb...

With the current settings though, you can have NPCs do something like, stay for the night in one room, and in some others for the day, usually, if you have the bedroom under, and a row of platform functioning as the floor between the two rooms (not the whole room, just enough platforms so NPCs can walk up.) and stairs made in a way that NPCs don't jump off them, and then they will go upstairs and don't go downstairs until 7:30. However this is still rather limiting for builds, if you want to have them show this behavior, because bedrooms only can be under the living room/shop/workshop.


Also, yeah, deco NPCs eating or drinking would be fun too, but wonder how to make them 1 blocks wide like a chair... technically speaking they would be definitelly 2 or 3 blocks wide, making them consist part of the table too (or could just have the whole as a very long furniture with 2 people eating/drinking, and a table between them)
But thinking more, there are actually placeable stuff in the vanilla game, that are 1 x 1, strange plants and the like. so, I wonder if it would be possible to code restaurant guests/bar patrons/whatever, that take up 1 x 2 space (same as a normal chair) but look bigger.

on a side note, I also thought about things like alt. versions of anvills for example, with 1 or 2 dwarves with those large hammers hitting something on it. like if they're making a sword or something. this is also something that should be animated though.


As for vanity shoes, I tried it, but I'm having trouble figuring out how to get them to work the best. I simply took the hermes boots from a character, but those are 2 x 1, and I thought 1 x 1 would be more preferable. but there are other shoes too, that might be smaller, so I guess as long as there are several in different sizes, they can be lined up nicely. this just brought up the previous problem with the likewise 2 x 1 teapot can't be placed on tables, so I would like to get help with that first, so the shoes can be placed on tables too. (not that you normally place a pair of shoes on your desk XD but in case we're talking about the cobbler's workshop...)
I dunno about them being sold by traveling merchant though, I think they might could be crafted.
either
- from their respective "real" variant, like deco potions in chad'sfurni (I'm not sure about this approach regarding shoes)
- from something like leather (it makes some sense) and possibly other materials too, and maybe at a special crafting station for them, like "cobbler's workbench" - which also could be added to the cobbler's workshop sorta builds.
(leather is normally a material a bit difficult to get, because the only source of it on vanilla are rotten chuncks from corruption monsters, but with Corru around, aquiring plenty of rotten chuncks is no real issue. it's also odd that leather only crafts the archeologist set, when you would assume it has a lot more uses too.)

Indeed they could look nice in the party girl or the stylist's home too XD not just at the cobbler's workshop.
 
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