Like it or not, a blacksmith is a "natural" sort of contact for a band of adventurers,
I already covered this in my previous post. A couple of these don't even offer services to the party, so there's no reason for the champion to even come in contact with them.
My (admittedly, vague after a few months since i've played the game last time) impression/memory of the Winter City is that it's a dead-empty little square where nothing happens attached to a big-ass palace with three people spaced across dozen+ locations where, between few quests, also nothing happens.
Because, if you'd actually read my previous post, we never promised, nor hyped it up as anything more than the dungeon that would cap off act one; the city itself was meant to be an empty setpiece. There were absolutely no interactable city or repeat NPCs promised as part of the package; anything else is a bonus. And downplaying four NPCs, two of which are considerably major, one sub-dungeon, three quests which originate from the location, one major holiday event and multiple minor events where the place was intended to be barren from the outset is, frankly, disingenuous. And yes, Alypia's walkabouts and Ryn's dates are far more effective than a bunch of clones of Anon's or Burt's.
Actual comparisons to locations that are intended to be population and content hubs -- Hawkethorne, Khor'minos, the orcish warcamp -- would be more appropriate.
If one wants to see it, write it. But no bars or shops.
would it have been better if those were all locations we could explore ourselves?
would of been better as basically two corridors and a tour giving a summary of the location.
This is a false dichotomy based on a hyperbolic statement. The choice isn't between shops and bars and having absolutely nothing.
***
So, in a short exchange, we've had:
-People pressing points which were already addressed previously, showing either not reading or attempting reinforcement through repetition.
-The conflation of "pure infrastructure" with "no worldbuilding permitted".
-A false dichotomy of "do something else than bars and shops" vs "have no content".
I don't see any point in engaging any further. Anyways, Rudra, if you're still here, a summary of the relevant guidelines to your question:
-You are expected to have sex in your submission; pure infrastructure is the privilege of staff and a couple trusted community writers, and rare at that. Since you do not belong to either group, having no sex in your submission is going to get it binned. We expect a reasonable amount (4-5 scenes per character, suggested ~1500 words in a scene after parsing, strongly recommend scenes for all genital configurations unless they have particular tastes).
-You are strongly suggested to consider steering your submission away from well-trod ground; this is a sentiment that's not just shared by me, but also creative control in the form of Savin. When it comes to such content, you should be aware that the bar for review will be set much higher, cetris paribus, than it otherwise would be. While we won't pass up absolutely stellar content, you'd have to do a truly novel spin on the subject matter and work on Alypia's level.
