This is one for the RP/Writers:

My suggestion is purchasable NPC characters who can be named and used to post in RP forums. 

Key Points:

- NPCs would be purchased with credits.

-Player may select who they are posting as from a drop-down menu

-Posts from NPCs could be notated with an asterisk or something.

-NPCs can be selected as senders of Mobmails. 

-Posts from NPCs would not accrue points.

-NPCs can't be killed, maybe would disappear when primary character dies. 

- You do realise this is a game that is supposed to be humans role-playing humans, right? 

- Seriously, we have too many NPCs as is. We do NOT need any more. The NPCs outnumber the actual players as is. 

- You can put your own asterisks around your NPC's contributions.

- This can be very easily abused by people responding to their NPC all day and accruing points this way.

- This will diminish the already low interaction between players.

Fair enough. I suppose I see a number of these things differently than you. 

Outside of CAs and Durdens, I don't feel like the game is overrun by NPCs, but I'd like to hear other opinions on it.

I think it would be fairly easy for the admin to code it so you can't abuse the points to your own CA. 

Finally, I feel that in-character player interaction is on a great rise at the moment, and that an addition like this could bring more depth to the stories that writers create.

Just my thoughts.

well, will have to pay someone to type story's etc for them, or write it for them.

could just ask a mate to paste it for you.......

sorry i don't see relevance of this, nice thought tho

I like the idea behind this as I have a fair few NPC's floating around as part of my character story. Not sure how it would best work, yet I like to role play as these other NPC's. Maybe not the mail option, as that could be abused. But maybe it could tie into the named bodyguards somehow, as they are already personalised members of ones entourage. 

I was on an RP site once that allowed you to register another username (or several) that were associated with your account.  For each extra name you wanted to be associated with your account you had to pay for it (using something like the credits system we have on this site) and then whenever you went to write on the forums, you could select which character name you wanted to appear with the post from a drop-down menu.

So when replying to a thread, instead of just seeing:

Body

You'd see this -

Post As

DROP DOWN MENU FEATURING CHOICE OF NAMES YOU'VE PAID TO ASSOCIATE WITH YOUR ACCOUNT -
Isabella-Luciano
Patches
Ciri
Martina
Officer Adams

Body

I think it would constitute a pretty sizable change to the code of the forums to make this happen, but it would be kinda cool.  It is essentially a way for Squishy to make more cash off RP writers who want to have a sea of usernames associated with their account for all their rp npcs and the only major change would be a cosmetic one - you would see a different character name on the boards when the owner of the account is posting.  

It's not offering anyone any unfair advantages, just changes the name that appears on the thread, that's it. 

If it could be done this way, I'd give this suggestion a +1

Yeah I don't see how that could hurt anything based on your input Isabella. As long as the name clickable as Reply by: Patches links back to the main username on the account, it'll be easy enough to find out who that NPC belongs to.

This is purely for writers who engage their experience at this level, btw. Other users wouldn't be affected by this, at all, other than needing to click the name to see which user is behind it.

This imo, would open up avenues for players to create more intricate stories and deeper character's. But of course, not everyone likes this side of the game, and are quite vocal against the story writing aspect. Even so, this should have no affect on those that don't enjoy this level of game play what so ever, if done as Isabella is suggesting.

Plus, more money towards the site, as suggested.

+1

Excellent thoughts, thank you both! 

I know some people dislike the addition of credit awards to VIP writers (as a point of note, I like anything that encourages activity on the forums) but at least something like this would give RP writers something to spend those credits on other than MIAs and Durden spawns.  It might help folks who are here for the combat side of the game who might not write, to feel less upset about how those who write are earning so much from their writing... though trust me, if you're writing a lot, you're not clicking half-as-much as if you're not!

I'm pretty sure that those who write the most on the site would dump a fair number of credits on the ability to have a "post as" option for all their npcs and YES I agree, that each npc name should direct to the owner's profile page.  I wouldn't suggest this be allowed to become a way to hide your identity or to speak anonymously in the streets.  It should be a fluff addition for roleplay writers to enjoy - not a new way to smokescreen bullshit behavior.  ;)

Hmmm. I'm a bit split on this. I don't think it's necessary, but that part doesn't seem to be getting any objection anyhow - we all recognize this as a fluffer. I'm a bit confused as to why you would want to intentionally give up experience and the boost to your Info for posts just for the realism aspect, but hey, that'd be up the individual I suppose?

I've found that simply changing colors, putting asterisks, or otherwise noting that there's a character switch does the trick just fine. That having been said, I'm not opposed to the idea if: 

• The NPCs were hidden from the X Members online in the past few minutes list (or if there was an option to toggle them out of sight - I do agree that between all the CA's and Durdens there are far too many NPCs as is) 
• The posts from these NPCs did not give XP, Info, or VIP points to your character. (The price you pay for being picky? Idk, if you want realism, there it is lol) 

If this were to get put in, would there be a lifespan on these accounts? Would they be shootable by anyone, or just the person who owned them? What would be a fair price? 

There's a ton of stuff on the To-Do list I'd rather see done, but provided it was done right, I could see this being a pretty good addition for those who immerse themselves that deeply into writing.