Forums » Elder Scrolls

Essential NPCs: Hate it or Love it?

    • 743 posts
    May 29, 2015 12:34 AM EDT

    Thanks man, hopefully you're correct and we will be one day.

  • May 29, 2015 12:56 AM EDT

    If killing a certain NPC would ruin the game for you, then don't kill them.

    • 1217 posts
    May 29, 2015 1:05 AM EDT

    • 5 posts
    May 29, 2015 6:07 AM EDT
    I suppose it's down to how the world changes when a death occurs. In the real world a death isn't just the removal of a person, it has an impact on friends and family and can sometimes have wider and profound effects (start wars, change laws, etc). In skyrim for the most part an npc death is simply the removal of one of the limited pool of actors. It just subtracts from the game as a whole. I'm not saying it should be like that or that's how I want it. When I talk about having more depth in the game that's what I mean, have more impacts programmed in for player actions. Have various ways that story lines can play out with different npcs assuming roles if others are dead (much like the shopkeeper thing mentioned below but on a wider scale). As it is the developers could only get as much depth in as they did and so in order for the quest lines to work they needed to ensure that various actors were going to be available when needed.
    • 50 posts
    May 29, 2015 6:11 PM EDT
    Hate it. It seems most people that tick me off the most in this game are essential.
    • 50 posts
    May 29, 2015 6:11 PM EDT
    Hate it. It seems most people that tick me off the most in this game are essential.
  • October 19, 2015 1:47 PM EDT

    a Necessary evil. in the future when it's far easier for them to write games, then I imagine they'll be able to code for a thousand different possibilities, including quest lines changing if you kill a major character (like a Jarl)

    • 40 posts
    October 20, 2015 12:59 AM EDT

    Hate it, for sure. There's nothing more detrimental (outside of glitches) to immersion than raiding a Stormcloak camp in the name of the Empire and putting everyone to the sword, only to have to awkwardly "retreat" after putting down the commanding officer for the fifth time. I mean, at least make it so I can arrest them if they're part of a rival faction to the one I chose. I much preferred the mechanic if Fallout: New Vegas, where everyone can be killed. Yeah, you fail quests, but that's part of it. If you want to kill everyone in a town, that's the sacrifice you're making, and nobody goes into it not knowing it, so this system feels like adding a railing to keep me from falling off of my couch. Not helpful, and not fun.

    • 26 posts
    October 20, 2015 1:38 AM EDT

    Well, they are in more danger from my murdering thieving Kajhit :P   I love the idea that I can kill NPCs and alter the story, but I also don't want to find that I can't complete a quest (not so bothered about side quests, but the core quests). Ideally there would be alternative storylines, alternative NPCs etc to step in.

    • 33 posts
    October 21, 2015 10:38 AM EDT

    I don't really have a problem with some Essential like the assassins but their are some I want to kill like the blades so at the same time I don't really like it they can get in the way of many things. Fallout 3 did this with some dumb npcs that I want to kill but I can't. Anyways I like it but hate it at the same time.