[NPC dialogue] Asking about other folks in town.

[Silenia]

Sometimes when you head into the civilized world, it's because you're looking for a specific NPC or specific kind of NPC. (E.g. you need healing and now are looking for a sage; you got a quest in the middle of Driik lands and you're trying to figure out *which* of the dozen villages 'a couple kilometers to the north-east' this Mielitty the Driikiläis craftsman actually lives in; hell, perhaps you're looking to hire a companion and you want one with specific skills.)

In those cases, it would be nice to be able to actually ask that tribesman that keeps crossing your path if the town has a sage/they know of anyone in town good at the skill you want your companion to have/they know [name of the person you're meant to give a message/etc to].*

*Considering how common some names are, this'd probably occasionally result in a false positive. "Oh, you're here to visit Old Man Ruuri? He doesn't get many visitors these days..." and it turns out that while yes, there is a Ruuri the Old driikiläis man living in this town, it's not the one you're looking for. That might actually be a good thing, though--after all, how is Random Townie supposed to know that you really mean Ruuri-the-Old-man-from-two-towns-away?

This could work in the same way as asking about locations does, in that sometimes you get a 'well, I wouldn't really know' kind of response (especially when it comes to skills; the towns are small enough that probably everyone at least knows whether or not they've got a sage and/or someone by a specific name).

Relatedly, it'd be nice that, when you've finished a quest and now are back in town looking for the quest-giver, you could ask other townspeople about the whereabouts of said NPC, at least similarly to how they act when you're first *looking* for that person. (So basically, the quests where there's no secrecy going on. Old man's punt, gathering branches for kindling, stones for rebuilding the sauna, etc.--stuff where the player most likely heard about the quest through the 'how's it going' option from someone else than the questgiver)

[PALU]

I believe this has been proposed before, but that was probably on the old board.

I believe townspeople SHOULD know which person with a given name you're looking for, because you ought to have additional identifying information that's not displayed by the game either because you've met the person before or because the quest giver should have provided some recognition traits. After all, in real life when we're sent to look for a person we don't know, the person who sent us typically provides some clues to help us weed out most people (hair color/style, tall, fat, limping, squinting, always smiling,...), not just the name.

You ought to be able to ask about the people in town, professions, and skills, and it wouldn't hurt if the person asked could respond to a question with "no, he's not living in this village, he lives in the one to the <direction>. After all, we're talking about small villages within a kilometer of each other, so everyone should really know about everyone else in such a small region.

When it comes to directions to villages, it would help if villages had names.

[Silenia]

[...]

When it comes to directions to villages, it would help if villages had names.

Or if, at the utter least, the region's name was mentioned in the direction like it is for various other quests. Would eliminate at least *most* of the possibly-confused villages in the majority of cases.

[PALU]

It does help marginally to know that UrW seems to round distances UP, so a village 4 kilometers away is 31-40 tiles away (I tend to count them as I go, just in case).

[Silenia]

Yeah, I had noticed the same. Not just distances for that matter: it systematically rounds up weights too. (I suspect we've all had cases where we try to craft cords or clothes and it turns out that nah, that "1lbs" hide and "2lbs" scraps of a fur cloak aren't actually sufficient to craft 5 cords. If the rounding up is particularly egregious, it occasionally isn't even enough for 4 cords.)

It helps a little, yeah, but feels a bit "gamey". I'd prefer an in-game solution that allows me to stay immersed in the roleyplaying. Still, it's useful enough to keep in mind.