« A Tale or Two Role Playing Board | Main | Avalon Message Board and Web Site »
June 7, 2001
Barkeep 2.0
Gromm posted the following 'Bartender Design' on the official UO.com Boards:Ladies and germs, we have an update for you on the Barkeep. I give you...
Barkeep 2.0!
First off let me get this out of the way - NO MORE HOUSE LIMITATIONS!! That's right, friends and neighbors, anyone who has a public house can have a barkeep. As a matter of fact they can have two.
Also we've changed the message system on the barkeep as well. Before the barkeep would say a pre-scripted message when "tipped" with gold. There will still be a tip message. However the tip message will be completely customizable by the owner. If you don't give him a tip message, he won't take tips.
In addition to the tip rumor you can now add three, count them, three oracle style messages to your barkeep. That's three phrases that the barkeep can say when the keyword you choose is spoken. You say "jump", he'll say "How high?" Well, if you want.
Many of you wanted personal town criers. Now you'll have them. Say "news" to a barkeep and he'll give you the current scenario rumor.
Now for the big changes...
Barkeeps are going to be fully customizable just like a player owned vendor. Actually, even more so because he'll have an option to change his title as well. We're planning on putting a list of "job" titles that you can choose from so if you'd rather have a butler, pirate, paladin, mage, etc... do it. Note that if you change him from a barkeep to (for example) a paladin he's not going to sell you drinks.
Now let's say you want an elderly grandmother in your house to give people a clue for a quest you're running. You go out, you buy your barkeep deed with your hard earned gold, bring it home and WHAM-O! You've just dropped a strapping male barkeep! OH NO! What is a RP'er to do?? Change it's sex of course with the handy dandy "Male / Female" option! You want a male, make it male. You want a female, make it female. You want to confuse your pet, switch it back and forth really fast.
Many of you wanted a greeting attached to the barkeep. We didn't quite get that in, however, add a greeting and make the keyword "vendor buy" and anytime people buy drinks the barkeep will say your greeting.
Have a phrase too big for the barkeep to say? Divide it into two phrases and give them both the same keyword. The barkeep will say both phrases in order when he hears the one keyword. If you want you can use all three custom messages with just the one keyword.
Want people to know about your involvement in the event scenarios? (Of course you do!) Let's say I had a barkeep right now. I could set a message "Lord Gromm is leading a hunt tonight for the beasts!" and set the keyword as "news". If someone were to say "news" to my barkeep he would respond with "Orcs are attacking various cities throughout the realm! Lord Gromm is leading a hunt tonight for the beasts!" because "news" is the keyword for the scenario rumor and the message I entered.
Setting up your own quest? That's where the tip rumor comes into play. Anyone can get the tip rumor with gold, so that's your gateway. You can now make additional phrases with the three oracle style messages that relate to the tip message. For example, you could set up a barkeep with the tip message "There is a hunt on for Gromm." Now you set one of your 3 other messages with the keyword "Gromm" and the next clue you want to give visitors.
We want you to get creative with this sucker and we feel now we've given you the tools to do it. A HUGE thanks to all of you that gave us feedback when we first announced the barkeep, your ideas and concerns have had a massive impact on the design. Want to have some more impact? Here's a tentative list of the job titles we're going to put on the barkeep. Let us know what you feel needs to be added or taken away.
barkeep
butler
cook
servant
hermit
paladin
artist
bard
beggar
blacksmith
brigand
carpenter
farmer
fisherman
gambler
innkeeper
mage
mercenary
miner
monk
noble
peasant
pirate
ranger
sailor
scribe
tailor
thief
tinker
waiter
warrior
merchant
scholar
sage
librarian
curator
alchemist
Enjoy!
Gromm
Designer, Ongoing Content
Posted by Thellaren at June 7, 2001 12:28 AM