Should the time of day affect the amount of VNPCs

[John]

I've actually been toying with this idea for a bit now, and jhunter rose it in this thread.

Should the amount of VNPCs reflect the time of day and therefore increase/decrease the chance of getting caught when committing a crime. I see quite a few rooms that don't change their desc when night comes along, but I reckon it should be much more then just that. I think it should be dependant on the hour. The formatting submission guidelines for rooms limits itself to night and day descs. I reckon this should be changed to a different desc for each hour of the day. Now sure this is more work (I doubt it is code-wise, but I mean when writing up rooms) but the Imms wouldn't have to do it, players could do it themselves.

An example would be Caravan Road. That would most likely be much more busy during Dawn, High Sun and Dusk. So therefore commiting a crime during these times should be harder. However commiting crimes during Morning and Afternoon would be easier with it being A LOT easier during night (which I know the code already takes into consideration).

So yeah. Just wondering if anyone disagrees.

[crymerci]

Just to add something, I think it should depend on the room/road. For example, Templars Way and Caravan Road in Nak would be pretty busy regardless. The smaller roads through the commoners quarter etc. would not.

Also, some rooms seem to be coded with some sort of torchlight at night. Perhaps that could be the defining factor. People would be more likely to frequent well-lit roads at night.

Of course, (just to play devil's advocate) we may be imposing prejudices from our world. Perhaps people prefer to do things at night in Zalanthas, since it's cooler. Maybe people sleep in the heat of afternoon instead.

[creeper386]

I see things being WAY busy in the morning, and around dusk, but not noon times really or when it's really dark. Most desert places go from being really warm to near freezing so it's doubtful night night times would be booming in the streets.

I agree with this idea, and been toying with posting it sometime, but never got around to it, but everyone I talked with about it felt that it'd probably be too much work to do change everything over... Acctually I think John said so himself... You bastard.

Creeper

[Angela Christine]

Of course, (just to play devil's advocate) we may be imposing prejudices from our world. Perhaps people prefer to do things at night in Zalanthas, since it's cooler. Maybe people sleep in the heat of afternoon instead.

I think there is an excellent chance that some workers would work at night.  It would be possible for shops and merchants to shut down for the night, but they stay open all hours, which I assume means that there are still some customers at Late at Night and Before Dawn.  

This would depend on the weather as much as the hour.  Durring a bad sandstorm most people would only go out if they had to, and would do all their buisness durring the day because even with a lantern you can't see well at all in a storm at night.  But when the weather is hot and clear doing your buisiness in the evening would be more sensible and most roads would be populated all night, with only those poor souls who had no other choice being awake and out during the afternoon.

AC

The Zalanthan day and sleeping patterns create an up all night society. While the normal hustle and bustle might be less on the streets due to the darkness,  and fear of thieves, etc. there are probbably still people hurrying along to the Bazaar, or to work, or whatever.

Bars should be more packed in the evenings virtually, because most works let off at dusk, and then the working class heads to the bar. not all of them, but most are on this normal earth pattern.

It would really have to be done on a case by case basis, therefore likely taking a long long time. Though it'd be nice, and I voted yes (Day vs. Night) I imagine it'll be low on IMM priority list, and low on my things I'd really like to see imped list.

[creeper386]

If this ever came to be coded... What I'd also like is a command to be able to see if there are vNPCs in the area and how many. Don't know what you could call it, but lets say got an addition to assess to assess rooms.

assess -v room

Your currently in a loud, filty tavern, the smell of cooked meat and alchohol is prevelant.
The place is packed with people.

Basically just have a short description of the place, how many people are there and such. It'd have to probably be coded per hour, maybe with some random element as well. Could probably include more information as well, but probably wouldn't be worth anything unless it was just a part of a bigger project. Like a project to further code vNPCs.

Hmm. Would be useful... Assess in an alley way says something like a few possible passerbyers or something. I think it'd benefit, at least to the point that it changes peoples misconceptions of how many people are about. Maybe alot less chance of people complaining about shouting or fighting in the Gaj.

Creeper

Creeper, what you said about assess -v room, I like it. It'd sorta be like sniff room (From a coding perspective at least) It would help a lot too, since sometimes it really is hard to tell how many vNPCs are there unless you have time to read the whole room description, or the description isn't very clear.

[creeper386]

All I have to say is... Thank you Man!(Speaking of Tony)


Creeper who is still in favor of John's idea.

[jhunter]

I agree with Creeper's idea about the assess-v room thing I think its a great idea. :idea:  And I really hope somethin' more does get implemented on the vnpc numbers being dependant on time and location, even though would probably be low on the priority list. :wink:  

Now that Creeper has mentioned it, I think that vnpc assessment  would be a really nice thing to add along with it.
-jhunter