Give them all random names. Immersion or not having a character of relevance get a name while giving everyone else a moniker just turns those populated cities into games of where's wally, since you'll skip over even looking at the generics.

If every single NPC in ESV was detailed and opened up to you with dialogue like they did in Oblivion, it would be strange to be honest. You can't walk around a city in real life and expect every person you talk to to tell their names to you and give you interesting things about themselves. Most people will just shrug you off and keep moving. These people should represent generic people in ESV.

There are clear exceptions... It is realistic within the game, just because you are part of a prophecy. That isn't a social thing, rather it is a plot thing. Socially, there is no reason the people of Tamriel should be any more forthcoming with information than your average person on the street.

I actually don't agree with you. Some of what you said makes me worried for you (and all of you who 100% agree with him/her.) In the real world you don't know everyone, and some people probably don't want anything to do with you. I think it makes it less immersive that there are only 50 people in a very large city and they all like me.

Why not have the best of both worlds? Create a name generator to give names to generic NPCs (because apparently, people care about names) while also have them able to be interacted with for basic conversation, much like the majority of non-random NPCs of the past games already were.

Pros: Cities are more populated, feel more real; generic NPCs still have names and are able to be spoken with; non-generic NPCs are still abundant, of course

Cons: I honestly can't think of any cons. Adding generic/random NPCs to help populate cities/towns, while still being named and able to ramble off generic topics (it's not like past NPCs were not particularly generic, they just weren't random) could only add to the feel of the world, in my opinion.

Not necessarily...

It would be unrealistic for you to seek out your destiny through dangerous quests given to you by universally accepted and believed gods and written in a series of ancient documents that have predicted the future completely accurately all throughout history without fail?

No, I mean you're not necessarily part of a prophecy.

I like having a bunch of generic NPCs.

More people to kill/ mess with.

I want there to be a decent amount of fleshed out characters, but when their dead the city becomes empty.
Generic NPCs respawn so we have people that do things and die but we won't care wether they live.

Just make a random name generator for generic NPCs and give them some level of interaction and that would be fine.

While yes you have a point about real life, I'll throw out the obvious and say "this isn't real life". I'd also like to mention that you play the role of the hero. You are essentially the only celebrity that anyone would have heard of in this type of medieval setting (besides like a king or something). I would imagine most, if not all, people would be very receptive to you (assuming you haven't pillaged their town lately).

Comparing TES to Fallout here is obvious. Are we forgetting about bandits in Oblivion? They were perhaps not as prominent in Oblivion as Fallout, but there were tons of recycled baddies with generic names (and Lewt). I don't need every random, hostile NPC to have a name and back story, especially if I am going to be too busy killing them to even read their name. A little off topic, but I would prefer if the "bandits" in Skyrim at least were part of a visable faction with some back story. That way we would know the reasons behind their aggression without the NPCs having to be fleshed out with background.


That would be awesome. I just hope it isn't TOO random, as in totally generic or repetitive. It would be lame if 20% of the population used to work at the same Inn somewhere in Tamriel.

The game could benefit from having an actual organization of bandits and mercenaries; I was thinking of something along the lines of the Talon Company from Fallout 3.

Having a bunch of generic, cookie-cutter NPCs is like having a bunch of houses with doors you can't open. It just doesn't befit an open-world game. Bad enough that it happens with NPC enemies as it just reduces them to just fleshy cannon-fodder, instead of giving the illusion that it's a real character that's out to kill you and protect themself.

Regarding dialogue and NPCs, do you think Bethesda should add a few lines of dialogue for a few of the voice actors for random NPCs for hypothetical events, that you may or may not cause? For example, if you kill everyone in a town or city, should there be a few small lines for something like, "I can't believe everyone in Riverhold has been killed."? You'd have to do that for every city and town, but it's not that much more voice-acted dialogue if you only do it for a few of the voices for each location that you may randomly kill off.

Then again, it's not a big deal if it doesn't get in, because it's a minor detail, but it would be really neat if they actually did this.

If it's implemented (which I doubt, but still), it would have the greatest effect if it's only spoken once by the NPC that says it, and not have the NPC that was spoken to about it speak the very same thing again back to the original NPC. This was a problem in Oblivion.

The only way to make cities feel alive and populated is with generic NPCs. Other open-world RPGs use them to good effect, there's no reason Skyrim shouldn't. Two Worlds 2 to use a recent example, has tons of generic NPCs in it's cities that you can push your way through like Assassin's Creed.

Like Oblivion, I want every friendly NPC to have a name. If they were nameless it would be hard to feel any emotion towards them if they were nothing but a face in the crowd. :confused:

Yes, I'd rather have less people than nameless people. I like the sense of realism you get that a) they all have names, and B) they all have lives. They all have schedules and places where they live and things they do during the day. I don't want to see nameless middle class and yet somehow homeless people wandering around doing nothing.

Randomly generated names shouldn't be difficult.

As long as vast amounts of random story-less NPCs doesn't impact the number of NPCs with backgrounds I don't see how it'd be a problem.

Heck, they could use http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/?p=modding_data/ngen

I admit, it did bother me a bit in Fallout. At the very least, NPCs should have a name (no "Whiterun Settler" please) and a place where they turn in for the night. Even if I can't have a real conversation with them, give them a unique line of dialogue when approached.

Heck, how about just not giving generic NPCs names or titles at all (no "Whiterun Settler" and no real name). Just let them be blank, because you'd never find out most of the random people's names in a real life location anyway and "[city name] settler/citizen" is sort of immersion breaking.

I agree. It's a tiny thing, but having an NPC with a name and a backstory adds a lot more meaning to their existence than the "Megaton Settler" who brushes you off with "Sorry, I don't trust strangers." if you try to talk to them, or who might walk up to you with a squirrel stew or 5 caps every once in a while.

It's one of the things I loved about Oblivion. Almost every NPC in every town had, if not a backstory of their own, at least had something unique and interesting to say. It was enough to make you feel some connection to them, and it's a definite addition to the immersion factor.

This basically.

Since dialouge isnt done in a static zoomed shot anymore the generic npcs would make more sense. But at least givvem a name so when i kill him i cansay i killed "john doe". Im not a fan of generated names either because then i cant tell my buddies who i killed. Because all the people will be different

I like saying, i killed lucas simms cuz hees the sheriff or i killed fargoth cuz hes a theif.

When they dont have names encounters arent nearly as fun. I like when its possible to kno all the people who attacked me when i stole stuff from a shop. I hate bein killed by megaton settler its stupid. I wanna be killed by lucy west or gob or rindir from rindirs staffs, i like to think there motives have all been set for me to evaluate. Mob of generic angry people arent fun. Might as well play nazi zombies



Do the megaton settlers come back after you killed them?
If i kill someone they should stay dead. It should change my game

I hope it's like Oblivion. Maybe have the children use generic names like for example, son of Alga Northwind-seeker.