Duck and Cover

How do you want the NPC's to work?

I want them to work the same as fallout 2, but mid-combat you can shout instructions to them (like hit the deck! if you want to burst over theyre heads, or run away or something) I also want to order them to mabye create a diversion by mabye starting a fight somewhere while I steal stuff, or go and hide while some guards check a room.

I want some strong NPC's that are rare (like the current ones), ability to hire mercenaries and mabye even hire gangs of thugs to follow you around.
Also mabye come across a robot or something you can program similair to the charecter creation screen at the begining?

I want the NPCs to have their own will... More than in FO2...
Also, I want to have plenty of NPCs to choose from...

i want the possibility to recruit just about anyone. obviously some people will not be able to, depending on they're job, karma, etc. this will put more emphisis on the speech and charisma skill. also making high charisma and intelligence charactors more playable. this would also make tons of different kinds of player-types. say if you convinced a gun dealer to quit and join you; he'd join your group with crazy gun skills, and alot of weaponry. i also wanna see more customizable appearences. and have armor you put on in your inventory, look like it should from normal view.

there's one negative point I've always been pondering about with having NPC's armor show... Take Fallout 2, f.ex., how am I supposed to tell the difference between Sulik, Cassidy and Vic, if all three of them is wearing Power Armor..?

Ganymedes wrote:there's one negative point I've always been pondering about with having NPC's armor show... Take Fallout 2, f.ex., how am I supposed to tell the difference between Sulik, Cassidy and Vic, if all three of them is wearing Power Armor..?

Giant neon signs attached to each NPC's back.

I want them to work the same as fallout 2, but mid-combat you can shout instructions to them (like hit the deck! if you want to burst over theyre heads, or run away or something) I also want to order them to mabye create a diversion by mabye starting a fight somewhere while I steal stuff, or go and hide while some guards check a room.

This is a pretty good idea IMHO.

It could, and should, work as if you were suggesting that they do stuff. Whether, how, and how quickly they do what you ask them to could be dependant on thier stats and personality. This would enhance their independance and character depth.

Ganymedes wrote:there's one negative point I've always been pondering about with having NPC's armor show... Take Fallout 2, f.ex., how am I supposed to tell the difference between Sulik, Cassidy and Vic, if all three of them is wearing Power Armor..?

easy, names floating under them. now was that so hard?

kinda a dumb reference, but they should have the little thing over their head like in "TheSims"
that litle green thingy like:
/\
\/

and you could turn it on and off...

but names over their heads would be better.

*slaps Strapon several times for The Sims idea.*

What about you can color your npc's armors with different colors so you can recognize them easier, it works in Baldurs gate that way.

/me hides behind himself because he mentioned BG.

that could work. but unless you have a cape in the PA(idiotic idea) you wont be able to tell when all of em have on power armor.

Well, all powers armors wouldn't have to be identical. If there only would be a few power armors in the whole game then why not make them slightly different from each other. (color, rust, bos logos/paintings in the back?)

This leads to the question===how did they recognize theyre comanders and stuff in ww3?


anyway, perhaps the power armour could reflect theyre personality.

the vault dweller-a big 13 painted on the shoulder pads
vic-lots of stuff added to it, like instead of a wasit plate, its car door pr something
sulik-a rib-cages and skull nailed onto the front and helmet of the PA


and so on...

i would love to personalize my power armor , buy some paint and make some tag or grafitti on it

I'd rather rely on a good game design. Let's say there is only ONE power armor you can get (after finnishing a tons of quests or killing a hordes of mutants, of course). There are two humans NPCs of different sex that can join you (and mutants, deathclaws, ghouls etc). Then everyone look different without need to "hide" their armor. :!:

Ghetto Goose wrote:i want the possibility to recruit just about anyone. obviously some people will not be able to, depending on they're job, karma, etc. this will put more emphisis on the speech and charisma skill. also making high charisma and intelligence charactors more playable. this would also make tons of different kinds of player-types. say if you convinced a gun dealer to quit and join you; he'd join your group with crazy gun skills, and alot of weaponry. i also wanna see more customizable appearences. and have armor you put on in your inventory, look like it should from normal view.

Only one problem with this.
I can recruit some shop keeper take his stuff, then dump him.
I'll take the good stuff off everyone, and then take the NPC's I like.

I prefer fewer NPCs, as long as they're interesting and well done. Fallout didn't have too many NPCs, yet there was enough and they were well done. I'd rather like to see them have a personal style, look and a personality different from others. Talking heads are always a bonus. Some NPCs should only join if you have a positive karma, some if you have a negative karma and some NPCs that don't really care about what your karma is. I'd hate to have mindless robots, with no personality at all as NPCs. NWN is a good example of this. Communication/character control is also important.

VasikkA wrote:I prefer fewer NPCs, as long as they're interesting and well done. Fallout didn't have too many NPCs, yet there was enough and they were well done. I'd rather like to see them have a personal style, look and a personality different from others. Talking heads are always a bonus. Some NPCs should only join if you have a positive karma, some if you have a negative karma and some NPCs that don't really care about what your karma is. I'd hate to have mindless robots, with no personality at all as NPCs. NWN is a good example of this. Communication/character control is also important.

I think Arcanum handeled this pretty good.

I think so too. Although it could have been made better, sometimes you lost control of your NPCs. Their AI was the weak spot, IMO. But the different races and types of characters made it easier to 'familiarize' with your NPCs, I'm sure I picked the wrong word to express that.

if you can reruit just about everyone this willl become an advanced post apocolyptic "King's Bounty" and your Minions will do all the work.

: you find: Gypsy camp:
: there are 20 gypsys for $10 each
: you have 0, can purchase 12

and then they shoot magic and shit... BAH!!! thats gay