Does the size of the city really matter? I know Hemp is big in-game, but it's a big city so it should be big. The size doesn't seem to be the point, though. Consider the main places within the city most people will want to go: the bank, the craft halls, maybe the guild halls. There is one way into the city(1), so the main path is going to go from the pond, through the gate, wallow around the big eagle a bit, then bearing right around the fountain, through the transition to crafting destinations (yes, I have not included the kitchen). If there is to be a benchy gathering for RP, isn't that a reasonable place to find it, along that theoretically high-traffic path? The place to be in Hlint was on the benches by the bank, right? That was the high-traffic point. Sitting by the barn in Hlint wasn't going to get the same result. Does anyone else remember that Hlint had a barn? heheYet it is rare to find someone sitting along that route in Hemp. I've had Jennara stand near the little pond to sell pies several times because that seems the best spot for passing traffic, and those times tend to be long, boring, lonely hours punctuated now and then with a few minutes of nice RP. Maybe Jennara isn't someone people want to RP with for more than a few minutes. Maybe people would rather be RPing in a more active setting these days rather than just sitting around to RP. If crafting halls are an important factor for gathering groups, why is Hemp so dead? Is it not a central crafting location? Why would anywhere else be any different with a crafting hall? I'm going off-point here, but I think those are good questions.My point is that someone has to be the first to stop and sit if there are ever going to be "spontaneous," unplanned gatherings, whether in Hemp or in Hlint or at the Shack or by the portal-entrance at Wayfare or wherever. There aren't as many players as there once were so it may be a long wait, and maybe that's why no one does it. I imagine people would rather spend their time in-game accomplishing something and having fun, not sitting their characters alone on benches somewhere waiting and wondering what everyone else is doing wherever they are. But you have to try to know for sure, right? If anyone gives it a go, I wish you the very best of luck.
A better design though would be nice, and since most of the city is destroyed it seems like now would be an opportune time for that to happen..
The chance of meeting someone is inversely proportional to the size of the city. The chance of meeting someone is also inversely proportional to the size of the areas. Its quite possible to pass through areas of Hempstead on one side while missing people passing through on the other.
The crafting halls themselves aren't a gathering point. People generally go the the halls to craft. Once they are done, they leave, because there is nothing to keep them there once they are done.
The amenities need to be focused around a central hub (one area) so that all the people that are coming and going to those amenities are bumping into one another. However, if those amenities are spread over numerous areas (however realistic it may be), that isn't going to happen.
The reason the pond isn't a high traffic area as might be expected is because Hempstead doesn't get the portal traffic and it is competing for amenity usage with its nearby rival Vehl.
If you want to encourage people to stop and sit, you have to give them a good chance that their time spent waiting is going to be rewarded. This is even more important with a lower server population.
(1) Ships passage is the other way into Hempstead.
That's why I mentioned one path that should have the highest traffic of the various possible paths. Storold picked a nice bench to listen to the Crier and all, but that side of the fountain doesn't see as much traffic as the other, so maybe not the best side for a sit-and-gather, y'know?
I didn't say they were. They weren't in Hlint, either. Craft halls were mentioned by some as a reason a city would be a good gathering place, though, and if that is the draw of a city, then sitting along a path between the entrance to the city and the craft halls should help you meet people with all the coming to and going from, right?
In Hlint, the bank was on one end of the two areas, the craft hall and shops on the other, with the smithy and kitchen along the way but still separate (you can't tell who's smithing or cooking without going in to look) and no advanced craft hall at all. The main difference in Hemp now is that the smithy and kitchen aren't along the same path between the bank and other craft areas, so maybe that could be "better," yeah. But I did stop my description of the high-traffic path at the AT, since sitting along the gate side or right side of the fountain in the main square or by the pond should give you a good view of anyone coming and going (by land), and them of you. Coming in the east gate of Hlint to go to the craft hall was no different than coming into Hemp by sea to go to the craft hall; either way, you'd miss any gathering on the high-traffic hot spot.
Which portal traffic?
Since Wayfare is a portal destination and people arriving that way have to pass the pond to enter Hemp, I don't understand what portal destinations have to do with it, ...
And since anyone wanting to go north from Vehl or south to Vehl has to pass that intersection by the pond outside Hemp - ignoring ship travel, of course - I don't understand what Vehl competition has to do with it, either .
The reward is the RP, if I'm reading correctly, like in the good ol' days. We never got anything more than that for sitting around Hlint. If we need to toss out extra incentives to get people to RP like they want to, we're in trouble. I actually don't expect to see anyone sitting, really, because there are fewer players. There isn't much chance of the reward of RP by just sitting and waiting.
I'm not opposed to something different. I said a long time ago that the current start locations are nice on paper but don't work out so well in practice. We just don't have enough players to make it work. And I'm not sure Hempstead is a great choice for a start location anyway (size being a factor), but that's not a fault in Hempstead itself but in the choice by whoever decided to make it a start location. No biggy. I'm not pointing fingers. I may have made the same choice. Redesigning Hempstead to have a more defined flow path might help. Except that I would basically be volunteering someone else to do toolset work (which seems kind of rude), I don't see any reason not to try it. I'm just not sure there's really a lot of traffic to funnel.
I can accept that Hlint is not in the running for a new start point, which seems odd, since lore and nonplayer attitudes can be changed with the stroke of a pen.
Lore and NPC attitudes were changed because Hlint was such a hub and the grief that such hub-ness brought to the little farm town.
Yep I remember the garbage can near the benches being the target for practicing mages. People running into Hlint with a horde of goblins following them. The adventurers got just a little out of hand. Kind of like a small town in the wild west.
lmao...What if someone, such as a player, built a crafthall or something?
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Topic: Hlint (Read 1725 times)
