Hi, can anybody state some key numbers (no. of NPC, cities, quests, dungeons, estemated size of the game world)? Especially I'm instresting too know how many unique NPC there is in Daggerfall, so I can comparire it with the other TES games. I have tried too look up this kind of information on some of the greatest sites about Daggerfall I know by now:
http://www.tesguides.com/tes2/index.htm
http://www.svatopluk.com/daggerfall/
http://www.jceason.dircon.co.uk/dagger/dfindex.htm
But sadly I was unable too find some hard facts about the game. Maybe I'm a bit lazy but I'll be very happy if someone here have such kind of information, and are able too support it with some sources if possible.
Bethesda most have been making some press release prior it was released back in 1994. But in thise days the internet was not so widely used as it is now.

The notion of "unique NPCs" is, I think, problematic in Daggerfall. There are literally thousands, if not tens of thousands (or more?) of persistent named NPCs, not to mention the unlimited number that are spontaneously generated and destroyed that populate the city streets. The land mass is literally comparable to real world land-masses: I've seen figures along the lines of twice the size of Great Britain, or the size of Turkey. There are at least 44 provinces of varying sizes, from small island countries (such as Betony) with a number of communities in the teens, to great sprawling decentralized regions (such as the Wrothgarian Mountains) with a number of communities larger than I care to count.

But NPCs in Daggerfall aren't the discrete entities they were in Morrowind and Oblivion. The ones who are in motion are little more than mobs, and the important ones are little more than sprites with scripts attached to them. So someone who needs the world handed to them on a silver platter will likely see nothing but a mess.

But from such simple dots, a very complex picture emerges. Each and every one of them has multiple factional affiliations, and the number of factions is significantly greater than in Morrowind (and certainly more than in Oblivion!). I can't count the, since most of them are undocumented; I'd have to dig into the game files to find out... and even then just opening them in a text editor probably wouldn't be enough. Daggerfall is the kind of game you start out lost in, that you have to sink into a bit before you finally see the big picture. But once you do (if you have the patience), it's like finally catching the incredibly intricate picture in what was before just a fuzzy mess of dots, or finding the three-dimensional figure in the magic eye print.

In a way, Daggerfall is to Oblivion what an impressionist painting is to a four-color comic book.

Daggerfall has unique npcs and generic npcs. In fact this distinction applies to almost anything, items, locations, houses. Everything can be either a unique thing or a template to create something. Lady Brisienna, for example, is a unique npc and also the Privateers Dungeon and a named artifact. Something refered to as a common ingredient, a rich house or an average sized dungeon in the same kingdom as the questor is a template which is used by quest scripts to associate things with quests randomly.

There is a list of all unique npcs somewhere which includes characters and faces i never found in the game. Each main quest dungeon is unique and if you visit the major cities you will find unique buildings in there but the exact list i can't tell for sure. If you browse a main quest walkthrough you can find references to all unique stuff in the game.

ALL the dungeons are unique, ALL the dungeons are static. The quest scripts associate a random item with a random location, but the locations themselves do not change. If you charge south of a town to find a dungeon in one game, you can go so far as to wipe your entire operating system and start over from scratch, re-install the game, and the SAME dungeon of the SAME name with the SAME layout will still be there. There are a few unique dungeon elements, found only in specific dungeons consistently linked to by the main quest (the letter chamber in Orsinium, the vault in Castle Daggerfall, the painting room in Castle Wayrest, the force field puzzle in Castle Sentinel, the room with the objective in the Blades stronghold, the King of Worms' court chamber, and, of course, the Mantella Crux).

I'm curious about people names now. I'm fairly certain merchants are generated, but they could be static at start, but generated when replaced by a quest event. There are certain people in certain castles whose names are static (main quest people), and the layout of people in the castles is static, but what about their names? I'll have to check that. But the only real difference between the main quest people and everybody else is the scripts that are linked to them... nothing more.

npcs are horribly generic in daggerfall. they are merely there to provide direction and one rumor of choice. in a way, npcs took a step down from arena to daggerfall. in arena, you could at least ask about themselves, and some had dialogue relating to their look. daggerfall never did get far in enabling most npc content.

dungeons are like in arena, where there are noticable "blocks" that are used to build dungeons. after a number of dungeon dives, you'll recognize dungeon the dungeon blocks. cities and towns are built this way too.

i thought the size was half of great britian.

But if all persistent NPCs have the same names and location in every Daggerfall game you play, it most be possibly too count them all. I don't request that you try too do soo, but can you please try too descripe a method too count and documentated all the persistent NPCs in Daggerfall. I meen will it be possibly too make an database of all such persistent NPCs that are placed in-game before a new game start.
Btw. do anyone have some interresting place where I'm able too read about the making process of Daggerfall? How many year did it took to make Daggerfall?

Yes yes, I think I understand the essenes of how Daggerfall is. But with all that generic and template generated NPC, misc items and dungeons, and things in general what is the most unique aspects of the game. In your opinion of course?

Sorry for my bad english :cold:

The gameworld is about 130,000 km^2. That's about the size of England.
With 100 speed and no equipment, it would take you approx. 25 hours to run from one corner to the opposite corner of the map.


Outdoor NPCs are randomly generated on the fly, with random names.
Indoor NPCs also use the random names; however, are static. Every single one. Just like towns and dungeons, they look the same and have the same names in everyone's game. (exceptions are indoor NPCs generated for a quest)

For instance, go to Daggerfall, The Yeomton Farmstead. Inside the house you will find Agrane Yeomston. He is a noble looking gent with a staff and a scroll. He is useless and not used in any quest in the game, yet he is the same in all our games.

Now go to Ykalon, The Laughing Cat Inn. Inside The Black Helm, go to your right and you will find:
Carololda Hawksley carries the buckets
Mordistair Copperhouse is the innkeeper
Agrore Kingwing is the noble gent
Elyzolda Hawkhouse is the jester
And Morgorya Moorwing is the comely woman in the hallway.

On a side note, I really enjoy the random name generator in the game.

I knew this info was recorded somewhere. The UESP has a list of all unique things in Daggerfall (by unique i mean things that have a proper name and can be referenced by their proper name in a quest) and all main quest dungeons.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall%3a%50eople

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall%3a%50laces

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Artifacts
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Items

This lists both unique (artifacts) and generic items.

Daggerfall building units are places, items, people and also events. just to complete the list these are the periodic events:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Holidays

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall%3a%44aedra_Summoning

We can also think of quests as unique or generic event things. Repeatable quest as a non-unique event and main quests the unique events in the world.


@Tarvok
I have made grammars to generate names for all people in all social groups in Daggerfall. I will put them in my Daggerfall roguelike, but if you want to see it i can post the grammars here.


"For instance, go to Daggerfall, The Yeomton Farmstead. Inside the house you will find Agrane Yeomston. He is a noble looking gent with a staff and a scroll. He is useless and not used in any quest in the game, yet he is the same in all our games."

Didn't know about that. I wonder if i could make a quest script and add a person resource like this "person unique Agrane Yeomston" or add a location resource like this "place unique Gothway Gardens". Even if npcs appear in he same place there's still the possibility of a duplicate Agrane Yeomston appearing somewhere else or a dungeon named The Old Hermits Place appearing in different kingdoms. From a programmers perspective things are a little more complex. Thing about two different people having the same name but different social security and identity numbers. With a unique NPC like Lady Brisieanna there is the guarantee that there aren't two npcs named Lady Brisienna in the world, which means it's safe to access the NPC data record using his display name.