I'm actually very content to read your replies Zarathustra217, they sound perfectly within reason. (And quite frankly more open towards change than I expected! Awesome)
Making the NPC workday a little longer might seem minor, but I think it's a big gesture that will definitely be a VERY significant positive change.
Assuming an hour is 6 minutes (or 7? I'll stick with 6 for now), you'd open up the window of "moving around outdoors" by an additional 12 min. That's reducing the chance you log on stuck indoors (when the night spawns are up) by a few real life hours(!) every day. Which is massive, shortening the amount of potential wait time for the night time spawns to move away from the doors from a maximum of 72 min to 60 min. Less stressfull rushing to.
And like I said, I do like the closing of the gates and the tense atmosphere city has, I wouldn't want to see that completly removed.
If the spawns could be toned down or more cleverly spread to accomodate RP better, that would be great though.
Right now the city is so dangerous, the gates feel redundant or even counter-productive... trapping the citizens of Vallaki like rats in a cage? A bit ironic.
Like with the Village of Barovia, I don't think Vallaki actually needs to rely on the hostile spawns to add an unwelcoming and gothic horror kind of atmosphere.
The locals / NPCs do a fine enough job acting like (loveable) bastards as it is! And don't forget that more freedom of movement for PCs, also translates into more chances for them to become potential MPC victims. Let's not ignore the added value our Monstrous neighboors can bring to the table when players aren't forced into corners by the hostile NPC mechanics as much, we might even see more MPC encounters away from the outskirts.
I also really like the suggestions Geiger is making, about influence checks, etc. to get across the inhospitable setting. As long as the IC addition to the immersion isn't outweighed by the OoC hinderance. We likely don't want banks to require influence checks with a DC of 20. (The lack of distinctions being made between native and outlanders PCs by the NPCs also worries me, it might lead to very awkward scenarios where Barovians are refused at their own stores, haha)
And maybe a neglectable suggestion here, but in regards to the ideas of downsizing Vallaki...
Would it be helpful if there's a list of all the indoor locations and NPCs within Vallaki? Noting which ones are canon, of clear importance or possibly disposable?
Things like this could easily be done by members of the community and might relieve the devteam of some (boring) preparation and workload?
