NPC A familiar face...

So, here's the story.

You're playing through Starbound. You're on your third character, about 4 tiers in. You're having fun, exploring new planets, seeing stuff you missed on your last playthrough, what have you.

So you head back to your base/home planet one day, and meet with your manager NPC. They mention some new NPCs have moved in or are visiting, including a new janitor. You decide to give them a cursory inspection, see if they're useful in some way.

Having determined their usefulness, you're headed back to your ship whe- is that my fully decked out first Starbound character sweeping the floor?!


The idea is that there is a slight chance that one of the NPCs that you meet is a former character of yours. There are many possibilities; you meet him/her in your base/home planet as a resident, a guardian of his/her home planet, or even a chance meeting while exploring a new planet.

How the encounter goes would depend on the player; if you approach him/her peacefully, you may gain a powerful ally, but if you're a bit more domination than diplomacy, well, what better way to prove a new character's superiority by challenging the old?

Personality and dialogue could depend on the personality you chose for that character, or they could play it safe and have them be mostly mute, with a few one-word responses such as "Yes", "No", and "Die".


A little part of me always felt a little bad leaving behind an old character, so the chance of seeing them again while playing as a new character appealed to me, enough to make this suggestion.

What are your thoughts?

 

I like the idea of a past character making a cameo appearance as the janitor. It seems like it would be easy to implement too.
A possible response or action could be 'unintelligible grumbling'.

 

SATY

 

Actually, I really love this idea, I would definitely like something like this in the game.

 

Stupid question, but what does this mean?

 

Suddenly All The Yes but you've probably never heard of it

 

I must say, this is a VERY clever idea. I do think randomly seeing an old character of mine doing Janitor work would be quite amusing. But, then I realized I might see my favorite Malus doing such menial work and it would destroy my soul.

To whatever great god rules this world, Make this happen, but prevent Malus from ever being given such a grim task! Give it to Soma... he's a useless dark lord anyways.

 

OH YES! Oh dear, just lost my third lung, *pops back in* Seriously.
Gonna be really epic if it actually records whatever you chat the most and replay those messages from time to time.

But I think it should only be done to previous deleted characters, just to give you a taste of regret/ reminiscence.

Starbound, seriously next big thing when it comes to creation games.

 

hmmm very amusing idea...Call it an "easter egg idea" for this forum. Really I do like the idea, maybe I should get developer check on this and see what she/he thinks about this forum.

P.S I just contact ghoster...I hope she doesn't get all...mad -.-"...trying not write such weird poetic these days or strange meaning.

 

10/10

 

agree, I can't believed this I didn't check on this on last Thursday...*sigh*busy looking for new jobs these days.... -. -"....I don't want to move...

Anyway back subject, the idea really bright idea, I hope SpaceKGreen you do best you could if you have any idea suggestion would bring easter egg or other better for the game future (don't let this go over your head).

 

This is a really awesome idea, I'd love to talk to myself and ally myself with myself in game myself.

Redundant words aside, it's still a great idea. Though I don't know how the specifics of the mechanics would work out.

 

This gives me memories of Dragon's Dogma, where [offline] the final boss you face is your previous player character.

Support, though I don't know what you mean by former. Do you mean deleted?

 

Not deleted, just a character you haven't played in a while because you've been playing a new character.

Although, maybe there could be a "retire" option for old characters, and clicking it would add them to a list of former characters that the game could choose from as NPCs. Playing as them again, and then using "retire" again could update their entry.

 

I like this idea, a lot. Seeing a familiar face is nice! Maybe it would be interesting to just randomly see a character that you have tucked away exploring a planet, in a fleeting moment. Nothing momentous, you just sort of see him or her wandering around. Perhaps, if the game keeps track of certain events, talking to the character would give you a tip on a boss or enemy that character has defeated, or even more rarely they'll share a crafting recipe with you. Just a thought!

 

I love it!! ^-^ I'm the same way, I always feel bad abandoning my old characters

 

Ha! That would be awesome! Maybe they could give generic dialogue based on any random side mission you completed as that character.
"Did I ever tell you about the time a friend of mine asked me to go look for a trinket he lost on Travius VI?"

Y'know, stuff like that.

 

I like it, a lot, would give us a companion we care for and is absolutely badass if we played decently last time.
The only thing I would change is that there is no explicit 'retire and into the candidate list' option, since that would make us know beforehand who could come back.
Instead, have the game keep registry of each of our characters, it updates every time we play with them, and should we erase the character, it stays as last seen, so ALL characters you made are available, even if it was one you never liked, making this actually random and more fun.
It shouldn't be hard to keep such a database of characters, odds are we have less than 20, and all it has to take into account is appearance, gear, personality if existent, and what sidequests it has done so it can give funny commentary.
Terraria already keeps check of many things across several worlds, so it is not impossible.

 

Yes my good sir!
I do think of it fondly as to see an Old Character of mine doing such remedial work as mere Janitorial Work!
Jolly good! Jolly good idea indeed!

 

A final quest that allows your character to retire, leaving an NPC that sits around boasting about his achievements or die heroically, leaving a landmark. (a tribute statue or a gravestone?)