The Panhandler

[Ukase]

Just a thought. 

 

I see this npc. I click on him to "help out", and there's no dialogue or method to help them out. 

My suggestion: 
Randomly allow the player to donate some paltry amount of influence. Not for a badge (although I guess it'd be easy enough, but anyone who has multiple badgers might resent the suggestion because who wants to log in 100 characters for a badge?) 
But upon donation (or choosing not to donate) would elicit a response from the panhandler that would be completely random. 

They may have a traumatic brain injury they haven't recovered from, or have resorted to drugs to deal with their issues of returning from a war. 
So, if you had a ton of inf, and chose to just give 100 inf, (a suggested option) the panhandler gets upset and smacks you with his bucket of change, doing untyped damage, stunning you. (mez protection or not). 
And maybe he insults you for being cheap. 

And of course, it could also be gratitude, a blessing where he drops a random inspiration on you (presumably one of his "pills".) 

A total waste of dev time, but it seems like a fun idea. 

[Rudra]

6 hours ago, Ukase said:

So, if you had a ton of inf, and chose to just give 100 inf, (a suggested option) the panhandler gets upset and smacks you with his bucket of change, doing untyped damage, stunning you. (mez protection or not). 
And maybe he insults you for being cheap. 

Dumb question: Why would a panhandler attack someone giving them money and insult them for it? Sure, that person may think to himself/herself/themselves that the donation from such a well off person is cheap, but the words that come out are always along the lines of thank you, bless you, or something else to express gratitude for the money.

 

Also, since inf' isn't money, despite how it is used as money in the game, there is no need to give the panhandler inf' as a donation. That would be like transferring some of your rep to a beggar. That is illustrated in the St. Martial Rogue arc where regardless of how much inf' you may or may not have, the tech guy that seriously needs a beat down comments that you have a lot of (actual) money already available to you in your account(s).

 

So a modification to your proposal I would suggest is that the panhandler become clickable and either asks for money when clicked on, thanks for you the donation, or just gives a simple greeting of some sort. (With the asking for money being the one I think would make the most sense.)

 

Edited December 16 by Rudra
Edited to correct "I" to "a".

[Ukase]

1 hour ago, Rudra said:

Why would a panhandler attack someone giving them money and insult them for it?

Because folks that are homeless are generally unpredictable. Certainly that's a generalization. But it's just (to me) a fun way to interact with the world around my characters. Give them too much, they may very well feel insulted. 

And as I said, it'd be random. No amount of inf would be the wrong amount every time. Or maybe there is no wrong amount; kind of have it work the way secondary mutation works. Every so often. And I'm not suggesting they become an NPC to fight; the pan upside the head would be akin to the baseball bat or the snowball. 

It could even be as simple as the panhandler swinging his pan and missing, and then saying, "Oh, sorry. Rikti War flashback." 

Edited December 16 by Ukase

[Rudra]

3 minutes ago, Ukase said:

Because folks that are homeless are generally unpredictable. Certainly that's a generalization. But it's just (to me) a fun way to interact with the world around my characters. Give them too much, they may very well feel insulted. 

And as I said, it'd be random. No amount of inf would be the wrong amount every time. Or maybe there is no wrong amount; kind of have it work the way secondary mutation works. Every so often. And I'm not suggesting they become an NPC to fight; the pan upside the head would be akin to the baseball bat or the snowball. 

It could even be as simple as the panhandler swinging his pan and missing, and then saying, "Oh, sorry. Rikti War flashback." 

I've dealt with a fair number of homeless. They always expressed some form of gratitude for anything they got. No matter how small. And if I gave them a lot? Their gratitude was excessive. Like I was an angel come to earth to deliver them. People already avoid them. Showing anything other than gratitude for getting anything at all is a good way to make sure that even people that will still interact with them won't any more.

[Captain Valiant]

Seems to me that it'd be a perfect source of a clue to a random mission/arc.

 

[ShardWarrior]

I rather like the idea of being able to donate inf to a panhandler and rewarding badges based on total donations.  Would make for a fun little inf sink.

 

37 minutes ago, Captain Valiant said:

Seems to me that it'd be a perfect source of a clue to a random mission/arc.

 

That is not a bad idea either!

[Chris24601]

37 minutes ago, Captain Valiant said:

Seems to me that it'd be a perfect source of a clue to a random mission/arc.

 

Okay, here’s a thought; there’s already the base item for spending a Merit to get a specific tip mission.

 

How about donating inf grants a random tip (in lieu of hunting for one if they’ve gone thin)? 

[Rudra]

48 minutes ago, Chris24601 said:

1 hour ago, Captain Valiant said:

Seems to me that it'd be a perfect source of a clue to a random mission/arc.

 

Okay, here’s a thought; there’s already the base item for spending a Merit to get a specific tip mission.

 

How about donating inf grants a random tip (in lieu of hunting for one if they’ve gone thin)? 

Maybe there is a chance of getting a tip just like there is a chance of getting a tip when you defeat a mob instead of it being guaranteed? That would retain @Ukase's desired randomness, avoid the negative stereotype, and give players a reason to interact with the target. Or if the desire is to focus on the inf' sink portion, make it a 0.1% chance of getting a tip for every 10 inf' given. (Edit: You could even cap the chance of getting a tip so that no matter how much you give, there is still a chance of not getting a tip. Or even more complicated, make the chance a case of diminishing returns so that once a threshold is crossed, anything beyond that threshold has progressively less effect on granting said tip. This would effectively maintain a percentage cap, still give players with too much inf' a reason to dump preposterous amounts, and reflect a homeless person's view of wealth being anything past a threshold.) (Edit again: Make the threshold like 40% chance for 4,000 inf', with anything past 4,000 inf' getting diminishing returns.)

 

Edited December 16 by Rudra

[Yomo Kimyata]

My personal preference would be to leave that NPC as is.  If you want to work in a charity aspect, which I'd fully support, let's not do it by reinforcing or creating stereotypes of people who are frankly going through a difficult time.  Add donations to one of the people stomping for aid for Galaxy City, fine.

[Jacke]

If you've ever read The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul (1988), you'd know that, besides sometimes the Owls are not what they seem, sometimes the Panhandlers are not what they seem either.

 

 

Edited December 17 by Jacke

[arcane]

My first thought was of that bosmer from TES III: Tribunal who asks you for help and then when you give him money he goes into a loop of asking for more and more money until you inevitably have to say no. Then he shows up later in full ebony armor with a maxed out luck stat and attacks you for not giving him enough money. 😭

[Echo Night]

23 hours ago, Yomo Kimyata said:

My personal preference would be to leave that NPC as is.  If you want to work in a charity aspect, which I'd fully support, let's not do it by reinforcing or creating stereotypes of people who are frankly going through a difficult time.  Add donations to one of the people stomping for aid for Galaxy City, fine.

Some of them are also scammers. Not all homeless people are homeless and there are even some who would rather be homeless than deal with the bills, neighbors and the many other headaches that arise from 4 walls and a roof. Not my cup of tea, but there are people like this.

[RikOz]