a new random to help encourage friendlyness?

[neogeo0823]

well i had this inspiration come to me after reading a thread in the general section. hows this for an idea?

 

 

 

a random event that can appear at any time, while your doing anything. it doesnt just appear next to you, because that would be obvious, it walks up to you from just outside the edge of the map. its not seen on the official runescape randoms page because jagex wants it to remain secret. its... its... ITS...

 

 

 

 

 

"The Random Noob"!

 

 

 

heres how it works: like i said, it walks up to you from outside the edge of the map and talks to you. whatever it says is also displayed in the chatbox. it is dressed in a random outfit from the character selection screen and is wearing no armor or anything. also, it has a random name. jagex could probably pick a list of ten thousand names from its "perm banned" bin.

 

 

 

anyway, it walks up to you and says something to the effect of "hi, im new and i need your help. could get me(insert easy to get item)/tell me where i could get(item)/could you tell me where i am?/what level i need to be to do (insert event here)?" the conversation will try to be as random as possible to minimise recurring conversations.

 

 

 

if the person ignores the TRN, it just goes away and nothing happens. if the person helps out the TRN and gets them the item it needs, leads it to where it needs to go, or gives it the appropriate level number, then the TRN says something like "thanks for the help! well, im going to get going now. see ya later!" and walks aways.

 

 

 

after a minute or two, the TRNs "counterpart", "The Random Noobs Alt" walks by, dressed in all the ritzy, high cost rares, and gives you a reward for helping his alt account. it could be runes, money, jewels, whatever. but it will be something valuable.

 

 

 

the point of the random is not to discourage autoing, as is the point of most randoms, but to encourage people to take some time and help out those in need. thats why everything must be random, so no one can definativel identify it. this way, you never know if your helping out a person or a random. for the players that always help out others, it will be a welcome reward. for those that never help others, well, it might encourage them to help out a bit more.

 

 

 

the other point of this random is that it encourages player to player interaction on a more "human" scale, rather than just killing each other in the wilderness. who knows, it might help to bring back a sense of community to the game.

[x_Mindless_x]

I love the idea but it makes RS life easier. I don't think there should be a random that gives out expensive stuff. Nice idea though :) Maybe you could get fancy clothes from him or something

[neogeo0823]

yeah, maybe. the reasoning behind the expensive reward comes from the fact that if you dont help him, you get nothing. besides, i wasnt thinking it should be anything too extravagant. maybe something in the neighborhood of a 1-5kgp, two or three uncut gems of random assortment, maybe 30-200 mid-high level runes, or maybe a random mid range weapon like a steel long or a mith kite or something. nothing too good, but better than what you normally get.

[x_Mindless_x]

That would be much better. At first I thought you meant giving away more party hats :P

[Sp00nLord]

Or...even better than fancy clothes, you could get a full set of noob clothes! Which could consist of various ripped clothes, and random pieces of armour, of course they wouldnt be called the normal armour, they would be called, 'Noob Helm' and things similar.

[Bubsa]

That's an interesting idea and I see your point on that. However, on the flipside, who's to say that this wouldn't encourage people to think that whoever they help they'll expect a reward from, or learn only to help if you are rewarded?

 

 

 

I don't necessarily think that would happen, but there's a slight chance it might. I'm all for incentives to make the community friendlier though, so good job! :)

[ancalagon_2]

i think its too difficult to make a thing like that; when you are conversating with it, it must had the right answers and when you ask another thing than you are supposed to ask, the event won't have a correct answer.

[magician_xy]

i agree with ancalagon, it would take an enormous amount of programming, since you have to make it sound human (not computerized), and you'd have to program each seperate question individually. Other than those setbacks, This is a GREAT idea. I'm tired of everyone calling eachother names and being mean to one another. This could help!

[ancalagon_2]

i like the idea too but it won't be realised cause of the massive amount of programming

[neogeo0823]

i like the idea too but it won't be realised cause of the massive amount of programming

i dont think it would take to much programming. lets look at it like this:

 

 

 

you have a seperate bit of programming for a "walk up" encounter, instead of the normal "teleport" encounter, you have a seperate bit for randomizing clothes and names, and you have a bit of code to randomize what the task is that you have to complete. those are the little tiny bits of coding. not much there.

 

 

 

the big ones would be the conversation code, but it wouldnt be too hard. it would work like the swear filter, but instead of recognizing individual words, it recognizes common phrases.

 

 

 

for example: the TRN walks up to a person whos woodcutting and says "hi, could you help me for a second?"* if the guy ignores the TRN, it asks again, then walks away if ignored a second time.

 

 

 

if the guy responds with something like "sure, what do you need?" the TRN will recognize that he acknowledged it and continue with his request. he will say "i need some logs(because the guy is woodcutting), but i dont have an axe or any woodcutting xp. could you spare maybe 20 logs?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...holy wow, i just realized im going to be late for my next class. ill continue this either after i get out or after work, ok? keep discussing!

[kolko]

I do that sometimes on a noob, asking people to bring me from falador to draynor or something, and then they get a nice reward (once gave away 1k cooked lobs :D)

[ancalagon_2]

i do,'t think that it is so easely; all those dialects, typefaults, ...

 

there are people who play rs but who can't write english properly, but the other players understand them cause they know what those people wanna say even if its wrong spelled, ...

[Striker6]

We have enough noobs running around runescape as it is, why not go and help one of them?

[Fors_recruiter]

Brilliant idea !!

[ancalagon_2]

one point: when a someone comes and ask you for example 50k and you give it due to the new event, thinking that you will be rewarded with much more but it wasn't the event. how would you react? and it will also bring life to many beggers, cause with that event people will give much faster things away, and that is not the spirit of runescape; you need to work for your own succes instead of begging for it.

[x_Mindless_x]

However, on the flipside, who's to say that this wouldn't encourage people to think that whoever they help they'll expect a reward from, or learn only to help if you are rewarded?

 

 

 

Simple answer to this. Give them a virtual cookie and BOOM problem solved 8)

[neogeo0823]

one point: when a someone comes and ask you for example 50k and you give it due to the new event, thinking that you will be rewarded with much more but it wasn't the event. how would you react? and it will also bring life to many beggers, cause with that event people will give much faster things away, and that is not the spirit of runescape; you need to work for your own succes instead of begging for it.

the TRN would ask for something thats very simple and easy to get. it could be based on what your doing, or just a random easy thing. for example, if your woodcutting, he might ask for 10 or so logs, or if your mining, maybe one or two ores. im sure there are people who could part with two iron. or maybe just something random, like 10gp, or a set of bones, or a jug. its not going to be something significant. this way, youll be able to tell the scam-beggers from the TRN because they might ask for 50k or something like that.

 

 

 

now then, to continue what i was saying earlier, heres a recap:

 

 

 

i like the idea too but it won't be realised cause of the massive amount of programming

i dont think it would take to much programming. lets look at it like this:

 

 

 

you have a seperate bit of programming for a "walk up" encounter, instead of the normal "teleport" encounter, you have a seperate bit for randomizing clothes and names, and you have a bit of code to randomize what the task is that you have to complete. those are the little tiny bits of coding. not much there.

 

 

 

the big ones would be the conversation code, but it wouldnt be too hard. it would work like the swear filter, but instead of recognizing individual words, it recognizes common phrases.

 

 

 

for example: the TRN walks up to a person whos woodcutting and says "hi, could you help me for a second?"* if the guy ignores the TRN, it asks again, then walks away if ignored a second time.

 

 

 

if the guy responds with something like "sure, what do you need?" the TRN will recognize that he acknowledged it and continue with his request. he will say "i need some logs(because the guy is woodcutting), but i dont have an axe or any woodcutting levels. could you spare maybe 20 logs?"

if the guy ignores him, the TRN would say "please? i just need a few" or something like that once or twice, then walk away. if you trade him for the logs, the TRN checks the trade screen for the item, or an item that could get you the item (in this example, he would check for logs or a pik) and if he sees either of them, he would cancel the trade and say "wait, never mind, i dont need them after all" and walk away. if you put up anything else, he cancels and says "i need logs, not(item name), please." if nothing happens, then he cancels trade and walks away.

 

 

 

this is another "scam proof" that shows that you are being scmmed by a real life begger. the TRN will never go to the second trade screen. after that, the TRNA will approach you as said before and hand out said rewards.

 

 

 

also, the bit about the different dialects and stuff written earlier: its not that the TRN has to function just like a human, it just has to seem like it. it only has to recognise the phrases that jagex puts down, so a long list of recognizable words and phrases might be created, but it will only add to the realism.

 

 

 

on a side note: if jagex were to introduce the TRN, the best way to do it would be to only put up a reminder on the updates page like this: "weve noticed lately how horrible the community has become and we feel that people should take the time every now and then to stop and help your fellow players, especially the ones who are lower level than you."

[Kierte]

I really, really love this idea. But here's another problem. Say the TRN asks for 20 logs, like in the previous example. But you're down in the members dungeon fighting chaos dwarves, and you're not anywhere CLOSE to any trees? A player wouldn't even bring up a trade screen if they just didn't have it, they'd say something like, "sorry, I don't have any right now". Or "they're in my bank, so I can't get them at the moment." What would TRN do then?

[harper128]

So much to say about this....

 

 

 

First of all, coding it wouldn't be that hard. Using a random number generator you can pick out the clothing. Also, a large(and growing) array of names could be used to pick out a random name which could be loaded from a text file. Making it load offscreen wouldn't be too hard, and then you just put in a "walk to" command, which would just flag the character instead of a location or it could use the follow function.

 

 

 

You would also have to remember to flag the map dot white(player color) instead of yellow(mob color).

 

 

 

As to the question and answer, 2d array, or a linked list with each node containing a question and answer. The linked list would probably be better because then you could set up an array of answers to be searched through.

 

 

 

As to getting items...well, I don't know about that. After all, if I'm out chopping Yews and some newbie comes up and asks me for 10 logs...I doubt I'm going to hand them over nor will I be willing to hand over my rune hatchet.

 

 

 

As well, you would have to limit the areas in which this random would appear. You may be able to justify a new player in Members worlds, you might even be able to justify them in wildy (although you might have other players trying to kill them then), but in some of the dungeons, you would not be able to justify them being able to make it in there.

 

 

 

There will also be ways for players to recognize the TRN. Such as those with public chat off. As well, if they don't respond to other players offering to help. They will always have to include the name of the player in any form of address, etc.

 

 

 

Mind you, I like the idea and I don't think it would be all that hard to program, just making it realistic enough that it would fool players consistantly, that would be the hard part.

[neogeo0823]

I really, really love this idea. But here's another problem. Say the TRN asks for 20 logs, like in the previous example. But you're down in the members dungeon fighting chaos dwarves, and you're not anywhere CLOSE to any trees? A player wouldn't even bring up a trade screen if they just didn't have it, they'd say something like, "sorry, I don't have any right now". Or "they're in my bank, so I can't get them at the moment." What would TRN do then?

the logs situation was just an example. the TRN wouldnt ask for logs in a place where there are no trees. im sure that that would be easy enough to program in. it would try to ask "task appropriate" questions where the person its asking can easily give away any common item to him. and at that, this is assuming that the TRN is asking for an item. remember, it could ask for directions, or any number of other things.

 

 

 

as for harpers comment:

 

As to getting items...well, I don't know about that. After all, if I'm out chopping Yews and some newbie comes up and asks me for 10 logs...I doubt I'm going to hand them over nor will I be willing to hand over my rune hatchet.

 

 

 

As well, you would have to limit the areas in which this random would appear. You may be able to justify a new player in Members worlds, you might even be able to justify them in wildy (although you might have other players trying to kill them then), but in some of the dungeons, you would not be able to justify them being able to make it in there.

 

 

 

There will also be ways for players to recognize the TRN. Such as those with public chat off. As well, if they don't respond to other players offering to help. They will always have to include the name of the player in any form of address, etc.

like i said, if it asks for an item, it would have to be an easy to get item. if your cutting yews, which are always surrounded by what else other than normal trees, it would ask for normal logs, not yews... well, maybe 2-5 yews or something.

 

 

 

as for the public chat being off, i wonder if theres any way to have the TRN check for public chat status and act accordingly? that would solve that problem. also, how about instead of asking a particular player, it just asks for anyone at random to help?

 

 

 

for example: if it walks up to the peer at karamja and theres a bunch of people(maybe it can be programmed to check how many people are in an area and act accordingly) it might ask "is there anyone out there who can spare some shrimp?" or something and the first person to respond or trade will be the one to get the reward, assuming everything goes right?

 

 

 

next, the

[Striker6]

This is such a dumb idea, as i've already said we have many noobs toddling around runescape as it is, why do we need more?

[neogeo0823]

This is such a dumb idea, as i've already said we have many noobs toddling around runescape as it is, why do we need more?

gee, thanks for the kind words... -_-

 

 

 

i dont think it would encourage more begging noobs in the long run. if it is convincing enough and jagex does a good job of downplaying the release of it, then it shouldnt even really be noticed at all, let alone identified as a random. after a few months, when jagex sees how much abuse(not like bug abuse, more like bad treatment) it will probably be getting then they may make a formal announcement about or they may not.

 

 

 

i honestly dont see how it would create an influx of beggers.

[Striker6]

That's not my point, my point is why do we need npc noobs walking around when there are plenty of real life noobs that can be helped, it just seems pointless.

[harper128]

Heh, I think the point is to encourage other players to help as well.

 

You can also think of it as conditioning. By getting players to think that they MIGHT get a reward by helping other players, they will be more likely to do so. Eventually, this may bring back the community spirit and feeling that RSC had, correct?

[Striker6]

Well in theory, I never thought of it like that, sorry for jumping down your throat neo.