When the Burning Crusade first came out, veterans noticed a few things back on Azeroth: Some of our favorite NPCs had disappeared! The wandering Rexxar was replaced by a fellow name Rokaro, and Hemet Nesingwary left Stranglethorn, leaving his son, Hemet Nesingwary Jr., to take over the hunt. More recently, Lady Liadrin has come to Shattrath City, leaving behind Lord Solanar Bloodwrath to guide up and coming Blood Knights in her place. In order to move along a few story lines, Blizzard decided that it was worth moving NPCs to move along the story, and left other NPCs in place with minor alterations so that other people could still experience their old quests.
This, however, isn't the only way Blizzard has dealt with progressing story lines.
In another case, in order to depict Thrall visiting his ancestral home in Nagrand, he appears when triggered by quest turn-in while his Ogrimmar version never despawns, thus allowing all the newbies running Ragefire Chasm or the occasional person after Rend's head for old time's sake to continue their work -- and making sure that it's clear that Ogrimmar still has a Warchief. Then there's good old Griftah, who changed places 3 or 4 times over the course of BC. Finally, most people who played Alliance to level 60 before Burning Crusade came out know that Onyxia is technically in a couple places at once as well. In this case, Blizzard was willing to move NPCs around without "replacement" or make them appear in multiple places at once to give the feeling of a progressive storyline. It's simply understood that, lore and story wise, the NPC in question is only in one place, the place they officially are being dependent on where you are in a given storyline.
In the meantime, you may recall that Alex recently told us the story of Brann Bronzebeard, a Dwarven explorer who's been to every corner of Azeroth imaginable, and few unimaginable. Apparently, he's heading to Northrend next, and there's a good chance he'll finally appear as an NPC for the first time in Thor Modan. This has some people -- notably many of the commentors on Alex's article -- concerned that he'll be too static. A hearty explorer like Brann, stuck at the entrance to Thor Modan, permanently exploring one place? Seems a bit sad, some say. Of course, there's multiple ways Blizzard could deal with this. Certainly, he could go off exploring again at any given time and leave behind an assistant who will give out his quests like Rokaro, or he could simply appear in various corners of Northrend during any given patch like Griftah. Still, we've never seen Brann in game so far either, so maybe he's really decided to "settle down" at Thor Modan -- or his big brother Magni ordered him to stay there until he had answers about Dwarven ancestry, either way.
For me, I'm more of a fan of the multiple places ideal, where you accept that an NPC can appear in multiple areas at once, with the player accepting they they've "moved" for the sake of the storyline, but I think there's a place for the other methods as well. It's certainly understandable that Rexxar would move to his ancestral homeland, and Thrall could have another operative who could take over his missions, or that Hemet Nesingwary might have multiple hunting camps set up all over, traveling to and from them as the mood struck him.
When it comes time to move along the story, how do you prefer the NPCs be treated? Should they be replaced like Rexxar, or should they be "cloned" like Onyxia or Thrall?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-01-2008 @ 8:13AM
Elmo said...
its quite nice but the Liadrin event in Shattrath get's quite annoying.
every 15 minutes A'dal and Liadrin have to meet each other because they apparently both suffer short term memory loss and make me wish I did aswell.
but this is a bit off topic.
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6-01-2008 @ 2:30PM
qoa said...
How about the waffle iron guy near the Shattered Sun npc who gives you the goggle quest? They loop the conversation end on end somethimes. It's more annoying than anything imo.
6-01-2008 @ 9:51AM
SpaceDog said...
Has Thrall moved for good, lore-wise? Or was it supposed to be a flying visit.
I don't mind certain characters being in more than one place when required. It can work either way really.
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6-01-2008 @ 10:15AM
Syrsa said...
Since I started MMOs I always wished NPCs would despawn for you if they're not supposed to be there anymore (like Onyxia in SW). They would still be there for everyone who isn't that far in the story line. Of course this leads to some easy to foresee problems, but I think they can be cleverly overcome. And it would feel much cooler if the world would change more as you progressed.
2 players seeing 2 different things in the game happens on a much smaller level right now, but it does happen.
Kind of like how an NPC turns to you when you talk to it, but you don't see it turn when it talks to someone else.
Our dances are not synced between computers either. My undead may be headbanging on my screen but jumping on yours.
If you're in a group with someone who hasn't done the questline, then you should be able to see and interact with the NPC again, in order to help your friend on his quest.
You can even expand this into new NPCs coming on to the scene after you've done an event. Exalted with the New Faction? Let me introduce you to my new friend who can give you special stuff or more quests. There was an Ogre in Ogrila that sorta did this.
I liked the sunwell opening. I would like to see more interaction with the world itself. I always thought the cauldron quests in the plaguelands should've made the air clearer, or dirtier if the quests weren't being done. Small details in changing the world like that can make the immersion into the story so much better.
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6-01-2008 @ 10:26AM
Chrissie said...
Ooh, you posted this comment while I was typing mine but put it a lot better- I agree 100%, if it was possible to implement, then having the game world change for each character as they progress would be perfect, especially in the Onyxia case.
It wouldn't cover all the scenarios though- like what about Kael? Should only people who've killed him in TK get to see him in MgT (which kinda defeats the whole point of that instance, which is to make the fight available to casual players- a subtle pat on their own back by Blizzard, but I digress).
6-01-2008 @ 10:21AM
Chrissie said...
Kael is another prominent example of this phenomenon.
I'm torn on this one- with more recent events like Kael, I'm all for the multiple places thing, so people can still experience the content and just take the NPC as being wherever they are in the storyline. With older stuff like Onyxia, I'd favor if there was some sort of official "Ok, she's been found out one million times now, time to have her not hanging around Stormwind Keep anymore" move. I guess it'd deprive people who do still want to do the old quests, and it doesn't really hurt anyone to have her stick around, but it just seems soo odd to have her standing around there when everyone and their dog knows who it is.
With Liadrin, even though it's also a recent event, I'm glad they moved her simply because of how easy it is to be in Silvermoon then hearth to Shattrath and have to see her in two places at the same time- something that's a lot more likely to happen than people moving from Tempest Keep directly to Magister's Terrace.
I dunno, like I said, I'm torn- I realize you can't change content as soon as one guild downs it, or even as soon as another patch or expansion comes out, but at the same time I've always been somewhat bothered by the static storylines (like the fact all the old world blood elves babble on about joining Illidan in Outlands and how Kael is da bomb, when you'd think someone would've clued them in by now- the latter may be partially fixed with the Sunwell patch, but the general point stands).
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6-01-2008 @ 12:45PM
Grithok said...
The way I see the Kael situation is that he is a continuation of a story. As far as storyline goes, it is a different time. I have a smaller guild, so we do not do 25 man stuff. So, for lores sake, while some larger guild was taking down Kael in TK, we were working with the Shattered Sun offensive to help retake the island. Then, when we found Kael inside of Magister's Terrace, he was already weakened by those other guys that took down his spaceship, and we did our part to when we found him there.
We are not arrogant enough to think that we are the only heroes in Azeroth, and thus we do not feel we have to be part of every encounter to justify it happening in our progression / lore.
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6-01-2008 @ 4:11PM
Ametrine said...
Took the words right out of my mouth.
7-21-2008 @ 2:02AM
Gideon Wells said...
While the idea of making NPC selectively visible feels off to me, I could get used to almost anything as long as it is consistent.
The current style of replacing NPCs unless they are either in an instance or in the world seems to work. Brann could always leave his assistant behind.
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