. . .And since you mentioned randomization - what about an inkeeper, who offers random mercenaries? Something like petshop selling heroes, but the sortiment would be randomÃzed.
. . .
A mercenary shop sounds interesting, and although I have no idea about a possible realization, it definitely would be a good way to spend all the money collected.
Actually I believe GPG were thinking of something along these lines at some stage during DS2's development.
If you look in the info folder in DS2's map files (World.ds2map), you'll find a very interesting file called hire_shops.gas.
If you open up hire_shops.gas you'll see a block called hire_shop_specifications filled with sub blocks called [hire*], [hire_templates] and [hire_names].
It seems to be arranged to offer a pc_content type random selection of types of mercenaries to hire with a selection of names to assign them.
Delving into DS2's logic file, you can also see in the ui\interfaces\backend\hire_shop folder a file called hire_shop.gas. This seems to contain the ui information to display a hire_shop.
Also in test.gas found in the dev folder in the world\contentdb\templates folder, there's a template called andiemus_hire and reference to Test hire shop. In components.gas there's a hire component whose doc states "Allows the owner to generate and sell npcs".
So there's evidence that GPG were looking at perhaps the player hiring mercenaries instead of or supplementing the current party system.
Whether this bare bones system could be resurrected and implemented in DS2 is unknown.
Actually I believe GPG were thinking of something along these lines at some stage during DS2's development.
If you look in the info folder in DS2's map files (World.ds2map), you'll find a very interesting file called hire_shops.gas.
If you open up hire_shops.gas you'll see a block called hire_shop_specifications filled with sub blocks called [hire*], [hire_templates] and [hire_names].
It seems to be arranged to offer a pc_content type random selection of types of mercenaries to hire with a selection of names to assign them.
Delving into DS2's logic file, you can also see in the ui\interfaces\backend\hire_shop folder a file called hire_shop.gas. This seems to contain the ui information to display a hire_shop.
Also in test.gas found in the dev folder in the world\contentdb\templates folder, there's a template called andiemus_hire and reference to Test hire shop. In components.gas there's a hire component whose doc states "Allows the owner to generate and sell npcs".
So there's evidence that GPG were looking at perhaps the player hiring mercenaries instead of or supplementing the current party system.
Whether this bare bones system could be resurrected and implemented in DS2 is unknown.