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Outpost Service EZ Finder
User	Tennessee Ernie Ford
Categories	Mechanics → User interface

Outpost Services Can Be Easy to Find!

In brief: Create a new NPC tab in the Party Search window, to make it easy to find NPCs.

Background: it's too hard to find NPCs

Anyone who has landed in Cavalon for the first (or 10th time) has trouble locating the unrestricted Xunlai agent, the Luxon faction NPC, or the merchant, never mind the quest-related or local color NPCs. The topography is odd, many of the services are not conveniently co-located, and many NPCs cannot be seen even from a central location. The problem is worse yet in underground outposts, which have to be remapped each time the player returns.

Rather than force developers to worry more about player convenience when designing outposts (after all, we players want each outpost to look and feel different), let's make sure that form can be divorced entirely from function.

Suggestion: add NPCs to the party search window

Create a new tab in the Party Search window for NPCs, to go alongside the Player/Hero/Henchman tabs.

• Functionality: clicking on an NPC in the window makes it the active target, even if that NPC is outside of compass range
• Listed NPCs:
  • at minimum, all utility NPCs are listed by service, e.g. Merchant: Gron Fierceclaw
  • if easy, quest NPCs should be included
  • if easy, list should be sortable by NPC name
  • ideally, all NPCs should be listed (depending on the programming, Gron, above, might be easier to list multiple times: as a quest NPC, as a merchant, generically)

If it's too hard to find NPCs outside of compass range, there are a couple of different options:

• create service signposts and way-point signposts that can be seen and reached from more locations
• restrict the list of services on the new tab to essential services (merchant, xunlai, and others to be determined)
  • allow those services to be reached through the new tab
  • might require adding virtual NPCs in the larger, less navigable outposts; these would be available through the tab, but not otherwise visible

Noteworthy examples of difficult-to-navigate outposts

(Thanks to contributors for many of these examples: Rose Of Kali

• Henge of Denravi
• Cavalon
• Most outposts in Echovald Forest
• Gate of Anguish and other Realm of Torment locations
• The Kodash Bazaar
• Sunspear Sanctuary (esp. since you have to re-map it on each visit)

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