Lost quest item fixes - Merchant NPC

[MadMikael]

First time I played, I didn't pick up the book from woodcutter and had to find a moderator to fix. This is a common problem. I don't know why quest items aren't added to inventory automatically, maybe thats not possible. So I figure maybe another solution (rather than bothering mods) is needed.

QUEST ITEM GIVER HOLDS ITEM: maybe if you didn't grab that book, you could talk to the woodcutter again and he'd give it to you. I don't think this would work from what I have read about how quests work. Also not all quest items are given, but are found/dropped. In this case I would suggest talking to quest giver would reset quest item(s), but this could be abused (see below).

STRANGE TRAVELLING MERCHANT NPC: I like this idea, and think it could work. This guy wanders the land and finds lost items (not literally). When you talk to him, he can give you quest items you have lost or forgot to pick up.

The way it would work is it would check your "quest triggers", figure out what quest items you should have, check your inventory, and offer you what you are missing (perhaps at a small charge depending on item).

BEWARE OF ABUSE: Great care would need to be taken to prevent player abuse of this. Quest items should not be sellable at all, or be made so you lose money if you try to. Players could find ways to mass duplicate these items by dropping/picking up or just trading with others. I could also see someone with a full inventory not picking up an item knowing they could get it later. This is why I suggest a charge for more difficult quest items. By this point the player should know how to pick up items anyway.

I would suggest placing this npc at the respawn point 0.0 so new players can find him easily and get that logcutter's book before they harrass everyone or get fed up and quit playing.

[Gandalf]

nice ideas the idea to add quest items directly to inventory seems easiest among ur suggestions.
i would only use this effect for storyline items? because, some thrill of losing stuff seems fine. or is it just annoying?

[MadMikael]

nice ideas the idea to add quest items directly to inventory seems easiest among ur suggestions.
i would only use this effect for storyline items? because, some thrill of losing stuff seems fine. or is it just annoying?

Yes this is only for storyline/quest items. Not weapons or armor etc. An example would be the bookshelf in the library. I clicked on the shelf (the item is displayed as a dropped item to pick up, and no longer on shelf). Now if I was attacked and killed at this point, before picking up the book, it would be gone, right? I would have to track down a moderator to help me out. This is where the merchant comes in, to ease the strain on moderators.

Of course, automatically adding to inventory is best, but it could be full.. and the programming of it could be difficult. In that case this merchant could be an alternative to complete code overhaul.

[Arashiko]

BUMP + ∞

[SellSword]

Is this a "hey, MadMikael sure liked to complain back then" bump or "hey, MadMikael sure looks prescient with this update" kind of bump?

I tend to agree with the basic ideas, but I'm obviously late to the party, so to speak.

[MadMikael]

Haha nice necro.
This was before I even became a GM lol.
Still some good ideas 4 years later though.

[madmaniacal1]

I have noticed that drops remain (and the "vanish" timer resets) if you change maps or logout. That solves the death vanishing issue you mentioned early on.

As for that book, perhaps a message prompting players to pick up the book (similar to the "stats intro" you get when first starting) would alleviate the problem easiest. A second message telling players that quest items will always drop like that would teach them, and have fewer issues in the future.

[blitzcraig]

yes, the drop timer helped A TON with this... still a permanent fix like mad suggested would be nice

[MadMikael]

Yeah when I originally wrote this post, there was no drop timer.
A disconnect at a bad time would really mess things up for you - and it happened to me a lot back then.

[LostKnight]

Wonder how difficult it would be to program "quest items" and PvM drops to appear same as

• /msg,
• /sell,
• /+friend

in "envelopes" that stay put until you open them.