Ways to Improve the NPC GuyFollow

We waited in line for hours. We yelled and blacklisted line-cutters. We ran around Jeuno customizing our perfect Pet NPC Guy/Girl, and cooed over them on LS like newborn babes endowed with sword, shield, and Scale Mail.

But we're greedy little sods, and I know there's something you noticed on your first day out you wished were different....

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Let me introduce you to my Happy Friendly NPC Man Guy Elvaan Thing. I should say first of all that he rocks. A lot.

His name is Desrenmeineaux....or something like that.
The day we first fought together, I was teamed up with Mbv in the Carrion Dragon BCNM. Mbv's NPC was a female Hume; Dairyqueenauflambe is an Elvaan male.
The first thing I notice about him is that he doesn't like to voke.
Mbv's Hume waded right in, blew Voke immedately, and tanked the dragon. Derelictimieux on the other hand was content to swat at the dragon and try to look invisible.
I let him off that time, since he seemed very earnest in the cutscenes.

Once we're finally out in East Ron, he materializes out of the ether like Batman from the fog, looks at me, and says "You're here, I'm here, let's get moving."
Amused by this Valentino of artifical intelligence, I settled in to make him my tank ho while I levelled Bard. He did ok, voking when he felt like it (sometimes twice in twenty seconds) and not being excited. By ANYTHING.
"Over here." he says in /say, like a noob, blowing Voke. I told him to put his macro stuff in /p tell, but he ignored me.

About twenty minutes later, we had just finished up a Carrion Worm when Degroovymonsieur lost all interest, probably because I was only fighting EP. (I didn't want him to die, since he was so voke happy).
"Hmmm," he said, with typical flaming enthusiasm, "I think that's enough for today."
He promptly tilts sideways like some kind of Nosferatu and disappears, leaving me blinking at his foggy point of departure.

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Now, on to the original point: things I would personally like to see different. Feel free to add your own. ;)

--PUT HIM IN THE PARTY FOR GOD'S SAKE.
I couldn't tell how much HP he had without targeting him, and forget about it if he was a magic-user. In order to even see what kind of damage he was taking I'd need to turn off a ton of filters, which I'd invariably forget to turn back on and go insane in my next exp party. Just let me join pt with the guy so I can watch his HP.

--Make him more fun.
Actually never mind about this. I kind of like the fact that he could probably watch Kirin aggro us both and comment dryly on the fact that his HP was low. He's like a white-haired, scale-mailed Spock.

--Why don't Bard songs and Barspells affect him? <.<

--Can he stay a little longer? plz? ; ; I mean, come on, it's a twenty hour recast...my Chainspell sticks around longer than he does, and it has 1/10th the recast time.

--When I met him at the Rendezvous Point, why in the name of god was he wearing Thick mail for a body piece and *STARTING RSE* for his leg gear? Can we give the AI a sense of 'gimpy gear' please? <.<

All in all he rocks. His recast sucks, I mean, what is he doing for twenty hours that he can't hang with me? Paperwork?

But the quest and the waiting was worth it, if only because of this rich potential for new humor in the game XD

Edited, Thu Jul 21 19:25:33 2005 by Sioux

First of all, rate-up cuz that was friggin hilarious. I actually laughed-out-loud at a few of your comments.

My observations:



That started off fun and quickly became a nightmare, after Hoodlum, Funkywunky and the rest of the idiots showed up. 4+ hours of waiting on that line, I finally got in to the BC, after spamming the Hut Door, competing with the other six people competing against me.

Her name is Sufhi. She looks exactly like me, down to the hair-color and size (I did it intentionally, don't ask)



Yep. Her Provoke macro is: /s "Your fight is with me this day!". I told her to make it something simple like: /p "Provoke>>[<t>] <call21>" because this isn't 'Final Fantasy Tactics' and I didn't want people blacklisting her. She didn't listen... So I blacklisted her... which also doesn't work... -.-

I took her out into Battalia Downs with my 31 NIN because supposedly, she starts at Lv30 (but is wearing Scale mail), so I figured it would put us on even ground. I was excited. I found a DC Ba and engage. I hit it once, she runs up, draws her sword and Provokes. So far, so good, it's attacking her and not me. I throw a Kurayami on the bird, which turns away from her and makes a bee-line straight for me (Maybe she's subbing WHM or something, I dunno).

We rest up and I find us a nice EM Tiger. I engage once again, this time sticking to melee attacks only. She holds hate just fine with her Provoke and attacks. Then i see an Orc running in our direction. I /check it and it's Tough. Crap. It aggro's, so I disengage and run for the zone. I dunno where the hell she is at this point until I see her say "I am too weak to continue" (means she's dead). At this point I'm overtaken by the Tiger and the Orc a few hundred yards from the zone and I'm forced to Mijin-Gakure.

All-in-all it was fun and 100% my fault that she died but that's fine. I can see her in another 20 hours.

I head to the Rendezvous Point in Ru'lude Gardens to check up on her. She shows up, like a friggin' Tamagotchi, wearing full Mithra-RSE and gives me a few options:

[li]She asks if I want her to let me know if she's low on HP or MP.

[li]The "Talk" option: She mentions something about the little girl we saved in Eldieme (I'm assuming there's more to the quest?)

[li]Something like option #1 but a little less defined (I think it means she'll talk more in /say)

[li]Her stats: Her lvl and style (kinda like a job. She's set on "Shield". I'm pretty sure that's the default setting for all of our buddies. No idea how to change it yet.)



From what I hear, only spells/abilities that can be used on PT members can be used on your NPC (no songs, sneak, invis, regen, refresh etc.



Yea seriously. Can we dress them up? Please? It's like buying a Barbie with a painted-on outfit.



I'm pretty sure that each NPC has a different personality. Whether it's determined by the name you chose, hair color, hair style or whatever, I haven't heard any specifics.



I think they're doing something with the mirror... What exactly? I don't wanna think about it.



If ya like that, we'd get along famously then! I love to watch a mob aggro someone, then mutter something about needing a cure XD



I couldn't agree more ^^. I can't wait to be in a PT without a tank and say, "Hey guys, I know someone who could tank for us! All they do is Voke and melee but it's better than nothing. Or I could just use my NPC..."

Edited, Fri Jul 22 00:48:06 2005 by Solrain

ROFL!

You just made my day. Rate up.

Edited, Fri Jul 22 01:04:55 2005 by rayado

Edited, Fri Jul 22 01:08:13 2005 by rayado

If you click on them again within ten seconds or so, they'll stay. SE's way of making accidental clicks a nonissue, I guess.

Accually Im guessing your NPC wears brass scale mail since its lv30.

/throws his pants at Tracylou!!

lol, nice oversight by good ole' SE^^ Thanks for sharing Tracy!
My lil taru buddy got killed last night and I thought I actually had to wait 20 hours.. >_> /kicks dirt :P

/catches Sephir's pants and does a lil dance!




Thanks Sol^^ Next time I am able to get on the game that early, I will try that.

I took my Galka, Mugido, out to Xarcabard last night. It's so awesome to watch him provoke at the beginning of the battle. I got so wrapped up in watching him provoke and listening to his chatter, that I forgot to heal him. Yes, he still amazes me even after having him for almost a week. I am a BAD npc healer.

Well Tracylou, if you were healing him instead of throwing your panties at him, mooning him, spanking him and casting fal...falla..felati...whatever that spell you cast is called. Maybe he would live longer. loveyoulongtimenoshiite.

I enjoy my npc buddy a lot as well. We make a great team, I beat stuff down, and she cures me up. But yea, npcs either need to stay a lot longer, or the recast needs to be a lot lower. Have fun