It bothers me that NPC's that clearly have no business attacking the PC, do so. What I mean is, a lightly armored, poorly equiped NPC, say a Bandit, or even just a common Thug, should look at a PC with good (or just FAR better than their own) equipment and just figure, "That person will kill me. I am no match for them. I will wait for the next traveler and take their things, but that person, hell no."

It's just dumb that some idiot in rags will attack the PC in full glass armor, or wearing archmages robes. I get in Oblivion everything leveled with you to an extreme. But in Skyrim, (unless the PC is low-level, or they're just using crappy equipment, or a random thug is just totally insane/stupid, or there is a GROUP of thugs/Bandits that think (collectively) that they have the upper-hand) I would prefer lowbie NCP's to leave my character alone. For the sake of clarity, I understand that I will be attacked by Bandits, but by level 15-20 or so, I should have a reputation. My equipment will probably be good enough to be seen from a distance and it will probably tell people that I kick asses for a living. So lone Highwaymen should probably have the brains to leave me alone. Two or three or MORE, sure, they might try their luck, but one? Hell, in some cases, I think two should probably let me pass. And at higher levels, even more so. Kill 50 bandits and they don't attack except in groups larger than 3. I'm not sure exactly how I would implement this.

I have no idea what kind of perks they're planning on implementing, and in truth, they could make you use a perk to get this, but it should be an earned perk, like the ones earned in Fallout: New Vegas.

Keep in mind, I do not mean the animals. They'll do what they'll do. But if it's a smart creature... maybe them too.

Generally, what do you think of this idea?

EDIT: typo.

Yes to sense of self-preservation, for npcs and creatures. And for the love of Azura, the comments and swearing they do during combat should be concordant to their health bar. It's ridiculous to hear "I'll crush you like a worm" or something like that when the enemy is 1 millimeter away from death.

Someone was mentioning that attacking NPCs should run for their lives when they're about to clearly lose them, and register the death (anger/distress ?) of their companions.

That makes sense, as do your suggestion. Perhaps it could be that they would not attack you openly, but more go for ambushes ?

I like this idea. Maybe you could also have the AI check player health as well as equipment and level. If you're wounded, they'd be more likely to attack you in hopes of finishing you off.

Eh, they make my skill go higher.

I DON'T like it when civies that I'm escorting go and try to help fight a monster.

Idgits :toughninja:

I'm not sure how easy it would be to put in game but I do admit it would be very cool and realistic.

it sounds interesting, and they might be able to get that kind of intelligent AI someday, but who knows if its possible without its share of problems just yet...

but who knows, maybe they'll have some form of it... i mean, it said in GI that some enemies may engage in dialogue with you, right?

maybe there will be a way to scare intelligent enemies away, or something... just never know.

hopefully the first video they show us, whenever that is, will give us a taste of the AI's level of... well, intelligence.

A little bit of situational awareness in general would be a nice thing. I was just on a Fighter's Guild mission in Oblivion and with me this Maglir dude the guild had equipped me with. I ventured into an abandoned house and helped myself to some of the vegetables on the table. He then proceeded to scream for help and pointed me out as a thief, after which the guard arrived and arrested me. For the love of the Nine, man, we're on a mission TOGETHER!

It's kinda funny when a poor bandit attacks the damn Archmage on the road. It's equally funny when you destroy him and proceed to burn his friends alive.

I'd rather have it that if that particular brave bandit, while in the middle of getting [censored] starts running for the hills.

The image of the best mage in the realm running after a gang of bandits while raining fire and lightning (dual wielding ofc 1 effect/hand) on them is hilarious.

This sistem could be based on fame alone, above a lvl of fame (good or bad) people will recognize you and think twice or trice about what to do. But there s always the idiot of the village that will do whatever he thinks or the fame seeker thinking he can get some on your name.

So its a sticky situation.

Fame + INT + Plus random dice roll = Attack /ignore / flee/bother/adore .
Same principle could be applied in battle, few people and very few animals, will battle to death unless they know they will die, and even then some dont, so there should be system around that. Fame (kind of matter this time) + damge suffered /perception of damage on the ennemy = battle / surrender / flee.

I agree with you. Also if they know they normally couldent beat you they should use some form of tactics. It would be interesting to have one bandit come out and pull a sword and start taunting you then when you take the bate you get shot at by archers hidden in the woods or his friends come up behind you and attack.

It would be crazy walking down some dark road just to get hit by a flurry of arrows then they stop. You look around trying to find them but see nothing since they are sneaking around to try and get you again.

I want things that are a lot lower in level to ignore , or possibly flee from, you. Kinda like Earthbound

This also. At least decrease their "aggro" radius like a lot of MMOs do.

I think it's a great idea; and it shouldn't be too far to implement, if I'm understanding this right. Just a couple (a lot!) of variables taken into account, but in the ends it's just multiplying and/or dividing the players health/skill/whatever with the NPC's, then add variables for apparel and the number of enemies raiding together. Then you get a number from the equation, and the likelihood of the enemy attacking depends on that number. Hell, I think even I'd be able to make a simple equivalent of this.

Bethesda can do it, no problem, I'm sure.

I think if your personality + infamy were high enough in obliv, bandits/marauders would stop attacking you.(You could still trigger the "pay 100 or else" thing but others would have the rumors topic)

You had to be extremely high in both though I think.

You're thinking of the highwaymen. And yes, they'd let you go if your Fame was high enough.

I think that is a good idea, but I think at higher levels there should also be assassins and crazy people who attack you because of your high renown.

I think they've already announced something like this. I think it was GI that said that if your fame or certain skills are high enough, random townspeople would challenge you to duels in the street through the new dynamic+random quest system.

Lol'd very hard.

While such a thing sounds nice in theory, I can see one problem. You get to a point where you're high level and have the best items and guess what? No one wants to fight you! Sounds like it'd get kind of boring to me. Then there's the problem with NPCs running away when their health gets low. Sure, it makes sense. I gotta say, though, it doesn't sound like much fun to spend my time chasing down countless enemies just so I can finish them off and loot their corpses.

Not just highwaymen. Any human enemy will become friendly with enough personality+fame/infamy(besides black bows apparently)

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion_talk:Personality#Befriending_Enemies

I always kept a Paralyze or Drain Speed spell handy for these situations. Very helpful, especially against that Mythic Dawn Storeroom Guard that you ran into when you had to retrieve the Mysterium Xarxes (the one who had the key to the room with like 2-3 boss-level chests in it).

Word. :goodjob:

I agree and I have since Morrowind.

When some piss-on bandit sees the living legend, the “Champion of Cyrodiil, Night of the Imperial Dragon etc” is he really gonna try to mug them?

They should say stuff like “Its him! Flee fools! Flee for your very life!” as you cut them down on horse back. (Or whatever your in to)

Or they think to themselves, "Hey, it's the Champion of Cyrodiil! If I kill her/him, I'll be famous!"

It has been mentionned that NPC will be WAY more intelligent and preventive. Tjat said, I think it means that you'll have some kind of reputation, and NPC will "judge" you in relation to that. That means that if you look like a natural born killer,, lvl 3 NPC won't really bother you.(Yes, you will still find lvl 3 bandits at lvl 25, level scaling won't be as stupid as in Oblivion, same thing, once you enter a cave, the monsters lvl in this cave is fixed for the whole game and won't change.)