Automated Assistance for Server-Wide Guild Events

[Naruhodo]

{disclaimer} I was going to wait till after heRO's birthday events to post this thread, but I needed to get my ideas down before it totally slipped my mind. I know the heRO staff is really busy at the moment but hopefully someday down the road we can make this happen!

Ok, so here it is: heRO support for Guild Events!

{background} Many brave social guilds like our humble Divine Service and the wonderful Algid Skepcis have organized server-wide events with prizes, such as Payon Zombie Runs and Poring Island Poring Smashes. The issue is, preventing cheating for events and evening the playing field so all heROs have an equal chance to participate and win. The way this is done on official server events is to have novice events where the GM can control exactly where the event novices go and what they get. However, players don't have this same power to control their events, so it's possible for novices to cheat by using bwings or getting potions from stores or friends, etc. Additionally, players have difficulty getting people to attend their events since they can't do a server-wide announcement the same way that GMs can.

A Possible Solution
I think some well-placed NPCs and smart use of custom maps could solve this problem and help make guild events a great, effective part of the heRO community. One idea is to have a special Guild Event NPC in towns that can do various functions that help guild masters conduct events. By using this NPC, a guild leader can create an event, for example, a novice pvp event, by putting in a set amount of zeny as a jackpot and also an reward item of the guild leader's choice. The event NPC will then announce to the whole server that ______ guild is holding _____ event with _____ as a prize and start accepting applicants for the event.

For Novice PvP, there could be another NPC that event novices can talk to in the area that you start out in before you're born (the place with that NPC Shion). This NPC would "register" them for the event and then warp them to a waiting room. When the guild leader is ready to start the event, all the event novices in the waiting room will be ported to a map like the ToH PvP map. The novices will be on one side of the map, and the spectators to the PvP event will be on the other side. The guild master can watch and see who is the last person standing, and designate them as the person who will recieve the prize from the event NPC. (Or perhaps the NPC will automatically know who survived the longest? Dunno if that's scriptable...)

So yeah that's my idea, I'm sorry I really don't know anything about RO scripting, so I don't know about the logistics of this... but if anyone has any ideas or input that'd be awesome

[GM-Ayu]

Sorry but I don't think that we will be doing that. Guilds who are trying to ask their guildmates and close friends to join an event can use plenty of means to try to join already such as their private forum or guild notices to set up dates. The amount of events that players can make without any assistance is quite limited, so I don't think that the NPC will be frequently used. If you need private spaces, you can always rent the private DB room if you don't want people to join in.

[Frogboy]

i don't necessarily think he's wanting it limited to just a singular guild participating in the event. it sounds more like a player running a server-wide event offering up a guild loot and/or zeny as a prize to the winner of the event.

it would be an NPC that would help free up GM from having to set up events and more along the lines of not having to wait a long time between said events. this would be something for individuals/guild leaders to set up via NPC to announce to everyone willing to participate in this event.

the priority is to increase the number of events happening in the server. granted there is still limited flexibility in the types of prizes available to be given by any guild leader, where GM have a limitless range of choices to offer up as prizes.

that's my take on what naru is wanting.

[Naruhodo]

Yes, Frogboy has it right. I'm talking about helping guilds host server-wide events.

I'm sorry that my original post is really long-winded and probably not too clear... (I edited it again, but dunno how much that helps...)

Anyway I still think the idea holds some merit and would like it to be discussed further before it is ruled out completely

And about NPC use, I can assure you that at least the guilds Divine Service and Algid Skepcis would use such an NPC often to hold events open to everyone in the server, just to have fun and give out prizes. I'm going to talk to other guild leaders and see whether such a NPC would be useful to them or not.

Edit: I think it would be possible to set up at least a novice pvp event map and a zombie run map with a little creative thinking. I think having even just those two events available to be run by guild leaders would provide a lot more fun for heROs new and old.

I know it might be a lot to script but there's no rush; if we get enough support for this idea, and it is added to heRO's list of possible coming projects, that'd be all I ever wanted

[Kenshiro-san]

In response to this, I support this.
Seriously, it is quite troublesome to bother GMs for a server event.
Also, consider this.

So we do an event. Okay, and someone cheats. Who are they gonna blame it on? The person? No. They'll blame it on the guild because of "lack of supervision".
But when you have like 30 people in an event, plus a lot more PMing you about joining a guild and your guildmates are all busy with the event as well, organizing what is coming next and such, then you need to have some help controlling it. I'm afraid some GMs might be too busy to help at the moment too, and we don't want to bother them much for it.
I personally would use that NPC very frequently. Algid is "resting" for the moment on the server events but we're getting full on events after halloween, and I'm not sure if you GMs would want to be pestered so much.

[SkyStormKuja]

It's a feasible idea, but might make events so common that it becomes a bit too average? Usually events are enjoyable when you are online and a GM appears announcing such an event. I dunno, just a thought.