Lmfao! What if they let you’re NPC be hostile, and you left him in a PvP zone, and when you log in you’re inventory is full of loot, and you have a bounty over you’re head. In all seriousness tho, I think a sleep walking mode would be cool.
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Okay, let’s hear it. 
What have got for me Z? I don’t need all the details, I just want to know why you landed slightly on the against side. 
Man… people seemed to like it so i wanted to play nice and stay out of it XD
Well now you asked for it…
i would say i am a against, not so much that it would make me want to avoid the game, but atleast a bit to be annoyed.
This would be if you could only do this in your beacon. if you can do it outside then it can go bad or worse. bad would be if the offline npc would do all of the things that affects player economy, such as gathering materials, fishing, farming. all of those things, as was mentioned in another NPC thread on the old forum, which i agree with. ‘‘NPC’s should not be able to do the player’s jobs for them’’
worse would be if it went out, you got slaughtered cause its an npc and you basically lose your entire inventory.
Then there is the argument how hard/easy it is to make for the devs and if it worth the time. i have no programming but as another person so nicely summed it ‘no matter what, it would still be harder than not having it’’ i think making smart ai for npcs would be a bit tricky.
there is the main argument that you want to use it as a shop keeper, which is basically just a way harder to make system of this (sorry to link my post, hate doing that)
https://forum.oortonline.com/t/3-simple-solutions-to-3-bigger-problem/898
then there is thorbjørn’s argument
which he have used alot. while i understand the point all i can say is ‘‘really?’’ many mmo’s use it, and while it adds a certain effect how often does people actually notice the npc’s? i would like cities to be populated by players. and as he pointed out in other threads ‘‘different people play at different times, hence the cities would feel empty’’ i have 1 thing for this. 1 thing i think would solve a bit of the issue and still be very basic, when you log out you lie down and go to sleep at that spot. this is not something i think is insanely necessary, however it would make for some good mechanics. like if you log out in a bad spot then you will most likely get killed, if they add buffs for logging out in beds you could have taverns that would rent beds to people and you could see people resting. also inside their homes, that would atleast make it a bit more logical.
and this is an argument that some might find stupid and scoff at, but ‘‘the character i make is my character’’ yes go ahead and laugh, but think about it for a second, we all have the same starting options in any game, we all have the same choices to make, and those choices shapes our character. what defines our character in a game is how we decide to build him, what skills, armor sets, gender, race, class all determines the character, not to forget playstyle and personality. i know some people dont give a dang about this, but i do. imagine me making a deathknight that instills fear in every other player in the game, but when i log off he gets up and starts watering flowers. that would be a bit of a bummer xD
oh wait you said ‘‘not in details’’ whoops.
so in short:
Npc’s of any kind should not do the player’s jobs for them (farming, leveling, gathering mats)
While it might be possible, it might also take a lot of time and resources from the devs which could have been used on something else
The argument that it makes a city seem less dead is valid, however what makes a city alive shouldnt be mindless bots but the bond between players.
The characters we make should be our characters, not just 1 in a million mindless NPC’s, when we log off we would just be one of many, which makes characters seem less unique and for some even make them feel more distant to their character, because they know when they log out it will start acting a certain way.
just my point of view though. as i said it is not really a bad idea, and the way you want to use it compliments what i would personally like to see in the game anyways (even if it wasnt like this) so i am a bit indifferent.
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Two points by me: …
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I also don’t want the npcs to do jobs. Just the vendor option. If players want something, they have to work for it… May be sleeping as a NPC in a bed gives a buff, but that would be my personal maximum of advance through NPCing.
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Yes, a watering Deathknight may be paradox
… Sitting, walking and may be sleeping should be the only options to avoid that ;D
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I totally agree with you in the point that watering flowers or gathering resources would be a bad feature for “NPCing” (that’s the term for this topic that i will use from now on^^) but how about the simplificated version that I´ve suggested? With your character just standing still or randomly wandering around like a creature (since there is already a creature movement code this would be basically no effort to implement).
I personally like the NPCing trader idea more than your box idea (alone for the immersion) but that’s just my opinion. Also this two systems take equally effort to implement (both need a trading code linked to an object [player or block]) and are basically used in the same way (you click on something and it opens a trading window).
Probably never but I´m sure you would notice the lack of them.
I´m in the programming sector (although far far away from game developing) but i would say that a trading GUI like @DarkRepulsor designed it would take one person about 3-4 days to make. And as i already said, giving the character model a basic creature moving pattern should also be easily doable since there is already a code for that that just has to be “connected” to the character model upon logging out.
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@Zouls Thank you. 
I know people can take offense at your sometimes blunt demeanor, but I am not one of them. I know the value of honest critique.
Yeah, exactly. NPC’s are a background thing – but that’s what makes them important.
It is possible that we are oversensitive to the emptiness of the worlds at this alpha stage – a year from now, with many more players online, this may not be an issue at all.
It’s also probably a numbers game – what ratio of NPCs to live players is considered “enough?” What ratio is “too many?” Because yeah, if 60% of the players on a server are in NPC/sleepwalking mode, that might turn it from feeling “empty” to a “city of ghosts.”
imagine me making a deathknight that instills fear in every other player in the game, but when i log off he gets up and starts watering flowers.
Yeah, that’s a good point. Limiting the behaviors helps, like @TheBirne said (walking, sitting, sleeping), but yeah.
it might also take a lot of time and resources from the devs which could have been used on something else
Yes. I don’t know yet where I’d put this NPC Mode idea on the list. I think I’d like to know what the devs had planned for the Economy I feature, and see if this idea fits into it as part of an already-planned feature, rather than an ‘extra.’
I had suggested the ‘shop box’ idea before as well, however, I think it would be more fun to trade with an actual character, instead of a board or box or whatever.
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I agree with this due to the fact i played runecsape alot and while playing that a good amount of players were botting to get wood, ores etc then selling them to make money or to get skills up it really ruined the game and not something i would want.
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And another thought: to have a trading NPC mode does not exclude the ability to build trading boxes or vice versa. In opposition: both are quite equal programmed as the trading NPC is just a trading box in form of a character
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Been following this thread while on vacation and I’ve not really had a chance to comment just yet till now, but let me first say; WOW!
I really like the direction this is going! I really like some of the ideas and love those illustrations! I do wanna stop and consider which of these ideas would make the most meaningful impacts in gameplay, and which are just added weight. I think the best way to implement this would be having two options in the log out menu, “Exit Game” and “Log out as NPC”. Exit Game removes your avatar from the game world after 30secs WoW style. That way it’s a choice if you leave your body behind or not.
Logging out as an NPC should put you as a stationary bot that behaves in a predetermined way, such as rest, vend, or guard. Guard could put you in a defensive stance that defends itself against hostile creatures that attacks it. (Does not collect loot or engage players)
Also, if we’re given a “hearthstone” type item, then trapping an NPC won’t be much more than a slight annoyance.
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Awesomest idea EVER!!
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I’m a bit split about the idea of being able to set yourself as a guardian while NPCing. It sounds cool as a feature, but having players standing offline in a nonbeacon area or in a PVP beacon would seem confusing and breaking the atmosphere of the “lone wilds” outside of towns or settlements. I think people should not be able to be npcs outside of beacons, but having a pose like “heads up, shoulders broad and weapon readied” as an NPC can become a good way to stand in front of the guild town gate just as a decorative element while offline
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I didn’t necessarily mean guard mode outside of a beacon, but maybe at a cities gates. Would be a cool way to keep mobs out of your city when the gate is open and you’re offline. Still, perhaps it does not do enough to warrant being in game.
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I really like the idea of posting sentries that keep hostile mobs away, however, I don’t think it should be sleepwalking players. With beacons there is no need for a ‘defend’ mode, as they cannot harm you nor destroy your stuff.
If there were a few different kinds of Oort-powered sentry blocks (like turrets or even those soulgem-powered things in Skyrim), that would add a fun defense mechanism, as well as open the possibility of TD mechanics…someone start a thread about this!!
But the idea of putting some sleepwalkers in Standby outside your guild hall to ‘stand guard’…love it!!
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For those against the box. boxes are just the general terms, as long as we can get something like it i would be happy. @Vastar while i understand your argument ‘‘all you need to make is a trading menu’’ i dont think it is just that simple. i imagine the hardest would be keeping the data constantly online on the server. with a '‘box’ you just have a stationary vendor that doesnt need to keep as much information as it just counts as an item.
trying to avoid hijacking but i think players should be players. and npc’s as they said, are not part of the plan. i think you can make up for alot of things using magic or creatures. for example a summoned shop keeper familiar.
and stuff like that. being able to set yourself up a shop would be fine in my eyes, problem with this system just being that you can then only run a shop by being offline, which feels pretty counterproductive in my eyes XD
ääähm, no, I thought that built vendor boxes/tables/MrsPiggies were ment to be also funtioning when offline. I thought to built up a table for selling my stuff in my house and some cities to sell the wares I collected, even if I’m offline … So for me having a NPCing option for vendoring is just “one more tanle” per player, nothing gamechanging. And for me trading with tables when offline is a must … even Ultima Online had this function through vendors ^^
yeah. some way to sell your wares will be needed, i was against it at first but somebody mentioned that not everybody was online at the same time, and if you had to physically sell your stuff you would lmost never get it done.
i think it could work, but i would still prefer it not being the player character itself. since it is a bit sad to see awesome characters become 1 of many (if they made anything like this then the amount of stuff that the offline person could do would be insanely limited)
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I can’t really grow angry at the only person that have the keyboard to spell my name 
This.
Also if you don’t want your character to wander around you just avoid pressing the button that makes you stay around after loggin off.
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Yeah i know. i agree it might feel empty without. but it is still something i personally am a bit split on. as i mentioned i think the thing that makes a city alive should be players and not mindless bots. i know its ideal but still. it might make cities more popular if that is the case. that you have a few bigger cities where people gather up 
I would be fine with the system if i could just let my char sleep or something like that. as long as it is not forced automated commands, so the biggest reason i would be kinda against it is how long it takes to make vs how much of a difference it makes.
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Now we are on the topic. i think it would be cool if we had an animation for logging in if the character stays in the game. i would love an sao style blink when we enter the game
not sure how hard it would be to make though 
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Would be simple and have no weight on the server if it were all user side.