It seems this time around that there are several "unkillable" NPCs. I really don't like that idea at all. What is the point of this? New Vegas got it right. Kill anyone you want, but if they are associated with any quest, its insta-fail. This makes more sense. If you are running around axe-murdering people, you're bound to kill somebody related to a quest about giving graqes to little Johnny.

What's your opinion? Should all NPCs be killable?

Yep, don't worry though, mods will fix this.

I did like how morrowind did it, the whole "persist in a doomed world" thing, but there were only like 5 of them anyway right? I figure I won't run in to any that are that big of a deal, and if I do i'd just move on to the next unlucky bastard lol.

Not children for obvious reasons but yeah I think you should be able to kill anyone you want. Sadly, I see a lot of stupid people going on killing sprees and then complaining that they can't finish quests.

I'm disapointed at this, yeah, but its nothing game killing for me. Oblivion had this and I loved it, its my favorite game of all time. They should have just made children unkillable and leave it at that, but oh well.

Companions are killable. I think only main quest givers and children are "immortal."

If you desparately need to fail quests by killing important people, use console or mods or whatever.
This time there are three tiers anyway, immortal npcs and killables as before, and 'protected' npcs, who you can kill if it's that important to you, but who are flagged essential as far as being killed by the environment or enemies.

I've always been of the opinion that all NPCs should be kill-able. If you kill a quest NPC then it's your loss. But NPCs that won't die or ones that miraculously revive after a few seconds seems lame.

Not knowing which NPCs are necessary and which are not adds some weight to your actions, which is lacking in most games.

Im ok with being able to kill 99.9% of the population. I mean, Im a maniacal killer sure, but even I get lonely sometimes.

At least have the essentials be knocked out for 24 hours or more and give them severe amnesia.

I thought there were essential characters in New Vegas?

Don't really mind either way, I'm not one to go on rampages so doesn't really make a difference

it doesn't bother me at all to have however many unkillable characters, I would hate find find out 10 hours prior to a recent save id nailed someone quest specific and totally wrecked my play through. it's much easier to ignore these invincible bunch than it is to start again and i'm sure i wont come across them oftern enough to be bothered by it. It also seems a bit much that this would ever be a turn off/on feature in options.

I'm actually fine with quest NPCs at least being environment unkillable. I do like the idea of injuries and recovery though.

I would prefer the "important npcs can't be killed by random critters/berserk AI" npcs, actually. I'm not talking about a dragon attack; I'm talking about the random wolves, will o'wisps, bandit type of thing. Besides the accidental falling through the bridge type of accidents that prevented people from buying the house in Skingrad, finding your target for the first murder [not the assassination Lucien sends you on] for the DB killed by a wolf or bandit was rather irritating. Or when one of the accidental brawls ends up killing the shopkeepers and clearing the Marketplace. If the player wants to kill advlt npcs, you should be able to do so, but I would like a way to eliminate the collateral damage from the game mechanics.

No, I don't think everyone should be killable. I always thought it was counterproductive to being able to finish the game.

What's the point of not allowing players to kill fictive children when we know we'll never do such a thing in real life? Gaming isn't about doing bad stuff in the real world. Besides, Bethesda gaming allows prostitution, drugs, and other "taboo" stuff from the society like interracial six (mostly a fandom thing) and cannibalism. Killing those virtual kids in a video game won't affect my morality in real life. I'd rather not having them at all or have a toggle in the options to make them disappear from the game if they're not related to the quests of any sort.

when i feel the need for mass murder, i just save, commit said mass murderings, and then reload after my bloodlust is sated

prostitution, drugs and extreme violence seem more common place in video games these days, but i don't think I've come across one that allows you to kill children, and i'm sure bethesda don't wanna be the first. most people would find it to be in bad taste and it wouldn't really add anything to the game.

I liked MO's way. You could kill anybody, but if you killed someone who was important to a quest, you got a message saying "Hey, you [censored] up! You needed that person!" of course I'm paraphrasing there(side note: does anybody remember the actual message that pops up when you kill someone important?) But until you got to that person's quest, or part in the quest, you didn't know what quest they were a part of, and it would be to late after you realized that you needed them.

LOL. That is exactly what I do.

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What's the diff between killing teens, advlts or children? NONE

You could kill children in games 15-20 YEARS AGO.

Fallout 1 kill children check
Fallout 2 kill children check

You know.. are you aware betsheda didn't make fallout?

Also don't tell me or anyone else what you belive is "bad"I taste should apply to everyone else.

unkillable NPCs are weak.

if I want to break the main quest that's between me and the axe buried in my adversary's head.

As long as the Essential NPCs are actually, well, essential, and not just random schmucks like in Fallout 3, then I can live with it. There's nothing more annoying than going on a killing spree and having some unimportant shopkeeper in Rivet City get up again and again after you kill him, because it turns out he's part of some forgettable side quest.

Hopefully the whole Radiant Story thing will mean Bethesda will be easing up on Essential NPCs, and the ones actually flagged as Essential are actually important to the game. Like, main quest/guild NPCs or something.

I think the whole children issue is a no-no topic, so unless we'd like the thread locked, let's stop going there.