Do npc artifact questers follow, or actively seek out, rumours when tracing the whereabouts of an artifact?
That is one of the premises of the update, NPC parties Will seek out artifacts, your adventurers if you have them, or slide/contact into a fortress to get them
I mean, how well will they be able to follow the rumours? Will it be a case of giving up and going home until another rumour turns up when the artifact isn't where they thought it would be? Or will smart npcs wander over to the nearest hamlet to see if anyone saw what happened, picking up new rumours? Eventually giving up when they hear that some albatross-man adventurer dropped it into the middle of the ocean (or not...triggering a series of mysterious ocean drowning suicides scattered throughout Legends...).
We kinda have to suppose a little bit here, as Toady hasnt given any specific information about that, that I know, of course
If we base our ideas on the Ockham's razor and the history of Toady updates, we'll probably have some rather simple mechanics for the first update, and it'll probably get better and more complex as the game evolves. Also bugs, thats for sure
Im talking about npc getting stuck on trees, getting increasingly angry and killing eachother, bad escalation of interrogatories on taverns ending with everybody dead, and a large etc.
Some mechanic like this, as its based on behaviour from npcs, personalities should play an enormous factor too, so a rather inconsistent dwarf might stop the search at the firsts inclemences