Merchant inventory

[hydroplatypus]

In addition to giving quests, the merchant in the refugee center is the guy everyone tells you to trade with. Seems like he would be expected to have at least a decent number of things to trade. However it seems like he only has the equipment he is carrying on his person, so some clothing and a single pistol, and a single gun upgrade. For someone who is apparently the trading guy for the centre, it really seems like he should have more stuff.

Or does his inventory expand as I do quests for him or something?

[Unawares]

Also I’ve sometimes been unable to sell to him because he didn’t have enough storage volume on his person. Umm, he’s the main merchant, shouldn’t he have a couple shelves or something in his little room?

[Eastwardrope91]

I think it’s just how the game is with NPCS rather than anything else.

[TheZoneWizard]

Everything pertaining to NPCs is broken, bugged and/or not working. While we could add numerous things to the game. The NPCs seem to be last on anyones agenda. Personally I would like to see one of the games primary quests(shelter quest) get some love.

Would be great to have multiple floors too the survivor center. Would also be great if the NPCs didn’t stand still while mobs eat them alive. Would be great to have that giant item storage are full of items and guarded with 20 guards that kill you on sight if you enter the room. Would also be great if the merchant would allow you down stiars and be apart of the faction or friend of the faction + add all the items in the storage room to the crap you can trade or fill up with item you traded to them.

I have high hopes for the future of the game.

[Erk]

Mlangsdorf is doing a lot with NPC bases, actually, and I’m working hard on the fluff stuff with the goal of giving them personalities by the end of it. They’re not last on everyone’s agenda, it’s just that they’re a huge category of things.

[mlangsdorf]

Feel free to start contributing the JSON only changes that you’d like to see.

[TheZoneWizard]

I know it probably is. But I really don’t see it as sarcasm. I would in a heart beat, if I could learn it. Not just saying either. I tried several languages for several years and I end up understanding the framework of programming. However, the getting crap I want done never ends up the way I want it nor do I know what I screw up to bug check.

I really do have a good outlook for NPC future tense. What I said wasn’t meant as a slant. It would be great for all that crap I mention.

[mlangsdorf]

JSON isn’t programming. It’s a text markup language. NPC dialogue is fairly well documented, mapgen is fairly well documented. People are always willing to help and give advice.

If you can manage the following bit of JSON:

  {
    "id": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_ASK_JOIN",
    "type": "talk_topic",
    "dynamic_line": "Sorry, last thing we need is another mouth to feed.  Most of us lack any real survival skills so keeping our group small enough to survive on the food random scavengers bring to trade with us is important.",
    "responses": [
      { "text": "I'm sure I can do something to change your mind *wink*", "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_HELL_NO" },
      { "text": "I can pull my own weight!", "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_NO" },
      {
        "text": "[INT 11] I'm sure I can organize salvage operations to increase the bounty scavengers bring in!",
        "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_NO",
        "condition": { "and": [ { "not": { "u_has_intelligence" : 16 } }, { "u_has_intelligence": 11 } ] }
      },
      {
        "text": "[INT 16] I'm sure I can optimize your operations to maximize salvage and food production while reducing waste.",
        "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_MAYBE",
        "condition": { "u_has_intelligence": 16 }
      },
      {
        "text": "[STR 11] I punch things in face real good!",
        "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_NO",
        "condition": { "and": [ { "no": { "u_has_intelligence": 7 } }, { "u_has_strength": 11 } ] }
      },
      { "text": "I guess I'll look somewhere else...", "topic": "TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT" }
    ]
  },

you can add a new talk_topic for TALK_EVAC_MERCHANT_MAYBE and a new quest that we’d all like to see.

I’m not being sarcastic. This is something you could do. Failing that, I ask that you not blame contributors for NPCs being last on everyone’s agenda, since they’re not high enough on your agenda to help, too.

[TheZoneWizard]

Talk Maybe:
“Perception 7-8+?” or perhaps make this a percentage or something a little easier?

Player: I took a look around the perimeter. I noticed a few things that this place could use to help improve your chances of survival.

Perception Failure=
Merchant: I’m pretty sure we have things sorted the way we like them. Let’s just remain casual, mmmk?

Perception Success=
Merchant: Oh yeah such as?
(difficulty scales and can yield a better outcome. low difficulty quest can get an amount of trade value with the merchant. Where as a difficult quest can yield a level of skill or both for very difficult?)

Player responses-

Electronics 4+?(I never use these, so whatever skill is best to do so)=
Player: Well I think you could use a few more guards. How about I look for a turret to help shore up a key area?
;Fetch or make a turret to give to the merchant’s.

Speaking 3+=
Player: Perhaps you could use canned items? Ya know, food and water to stock those empty shelves?
;Fetch/make 10 cans of food and 10 bottles of water.

Tailoring 4+=
Player: What if you had better armor to supply your people? Would that be useful to you?
;Fetch/make various parts of armor (IE- Leather armor gauntlets + a chest piece and leggings).

First-Aid 1+=
Player: I know a little about medicine. Could you use a few med kits?
;Fetch 5 First-Aid Kits

---

Not sure how far to go in order to get the merchants to open up the lower levels. But I would assume it would make more sense if I wait for the lower levels to exist than to write for something that won’t be able to be used until then.
…-…-…-…

Another quest could be from one of the guards standing around. While talking to them. The player could offer to help find some really basic items for purpose of gaining a small amount of prestige/good standing with the faction to gain entry to lower levels. Fetch packs of cigarettes or something else out of a list of possible small items they may way.

I imagine lower levels would look a little more guarded. Heavy weapons. Maybe a gun storage/munitions dump. Kitchen and pantry etc. More ways to trade and to also contribute for the sake of building up the base.

[Azure_Soul_Azur]

Electronics 4+?(I never use these, so whatever skill is best to do so)=
Player: Well I think you could use a few more guards. How about I look for a turret to help shore up a key area?
;Fetch or make a turret to give to the merchant’s.

Sounds good… but there could always be a plot twist and this becoming bad for the player…
Or very good for the player with rigged turrets. >:3
I like it.

Speaking 3+=
Player: Perhaps you could use canned items? Ya know, food and water to stock those empty shelves?
;Fetch/make 10 cans of food and 10 bottles of water.

Pretty sure they use canned already… If not, that soooo needs changed to them doing so.

Tailoring 4+=
Player: What if you had better armor to supply your people? Would that be useful to you?
;Fetch/make various parts of armor (IE- Leather armor gauntlets + a chest piece and leggings).

Liking this one. Would give me a use for all the leather i got.

First-Aid 1+=
Player: I know a little about medicine. Could you use a few med kits?
;Fetch 5 First-Aid Kits

… That can work, but… I don’t know it just feels a little too easy…
Or maybe i am just lucky with first-aid kits.

[TheZoneWizard]

The turrets were often something for my game play style to avoid. I never use the robot mod. But reading all the folks that do. I thought it would be cool to have a chance at finding an unstationed turret ready to deploy off the back of a military truck at a blockade or something along those lines. The chance at one at any rate. I tend to find a tank or chicken walker protecting such blockades and vehicles. So I was like…maybe the skill is low instead of high in order to initiate the quest and the reward should match the difficulty of dealing with those robots? Any help for this would be great since I don’t use robots. I think we have deploy able turrets though that can be found in core game right?

---

Canned food can be found or made. But this would be more for filling up their stock upstairs. If you go into a reffy center and look around. You will find an area bereft of pretty much anything. Yet a guard chills in the shelving empty room for…? I figured it would be a way to evoke a quest to make it sound like that area needs supplies.

---

Leather is cool. Whether you are a survivalist out doors or chillin at the mall ripping up pre-fabricated garments. I like tailoring. A LOT! xD

---

I wanted this one(FA) to be easy. The reward would be small. I am not at all sure how well scaling can work and I tried to think of ways that could give something over a flat “go away” to the player.

[hydroplatypus]

I never use the robot mod

You don’t need the robot mod for turrets. You can get an inactive one by destroying one with an EMP grenade. inactive turret is - sometimes - a drop from that. You can then set those up as friendly turrets - or at least the description says that you can. I’ve never bothered.

[TheZoneWizard]

Cool. Thanks for the info =)

I think this could be a medium-hard difficulty, depending on the method available to the player, fetching a turret.

[Azure_Soul_Azur]

tank or chicken walker protecting such blockades and vehicles

Never met a chicken walker. But have been killed by a tank once, never saw it.
Am i lucky or unlucky?

I figured it would be a way to evoke a quest to make it sound like that area needs supplies.

Okay if that’s the case then i think that is a great idea for it.

I wanted this one(FA) to be easy. The reward would be small. I am not at all sure how well scaling can work and I tried to think of ways that could give something over a flat “go away” to the player.

… Might be a good number for that… my new playthrough atm… 2 F.A.Ks so far…
Might have just been lucky.

[mlangsdorf]

I am willing to help you out with writing the JSON and submitting it, but I’m not going to take your ideas and implement them. I have plenty of my own ideas that I’m busy implementing.

If you want the lower levels of the evac center to exist, I suggest reading doc/MAPGEN.md and then writing up some JSON for the lower levels. Then you can add a quest or dialogue to open up those lower levels.

[Erk]

These are all fine ideas. Take a look at

CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/3765602255a903c7668f404c86280ec4608d2e6d/data/json/npcs/TALK_REFUGE_RANCH.json

for a document explaining the basics, and

CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/blob/master/data/json/npcs/TALK_REFUGE_RANCH.json

for a dialogue file that does most of the things you’re talking about. It’s fairly straightforward to implement this stuff… I found the hardest part wasn’t learning JSON, which is super easy markup language stuff, but navigating git (the tool used for merging your creations into the base game) that made it hard. If you want to do the jSON legwork, I’d be happy helping you get it on git.

[TheZoneWizard]

While I am grateful for the suggestions and help. I really wanted to build ideas and not get too in depth with the programming elements again. I gave up on that path a long time ago. Story on the otherhand is always something I can bang out and ask folks to add to it for polish.

If anyone wants to use my ideas. Feel free and do so. If not. I’m the wrong one to try and write coding. Some folks will be surgeons and find it a decent path. I would be the arse that leaves half the kit in the poor patient. This is my coding perspective.

On that note. anyone can ask me for writing and ideas. I am not always online, but I will get back to you with whatever you want to write. =D

[mlangsdorf]

Again, JSON isn’t coding.

Nevertheless, this is not how you intend to contribute. That’s fine - people have different strengths. But in the future, please don’t complain about how improving NPCs are last on everyone’s agenda without mentioning that you didn’t care to make the effort to improve them, either.

[hydroplatypus]

How would one go about adding a new mission? I can see the dialogue options in the json, but it looks like TALK_MISSION_LIST is populated somewhere in the code (looks like npctalk.cpp is involved, but I imagine it’s more than that). Plus there’s the actual mission effects that somehow need to be implemented. For instance, the canned food fetch quest idea should put the retrieved food items into the storage room in the center (or alternatively delete provided items and spawn new ones in the storage room.) . Then there is the mission-specific dialogue, which does not seem to be in the same json file. I’ve not looked over the code base beyond a quick scan, but some pointers to where to look might help get something working.

[Erk]

In my experience the mission code is pretty messy. The dialogue that initially enables the mission is in JSON. I haven’t found all the mission dialogue in the cpp files yet… Going to have to pretty soon though :-/