I see people talking about cities filled with people
But thats what i hate about FO:NV, FO3, and the fables

What i liked about OB was that everyone had a name and a story. From then on they started getting lazier. FO:NV has tons people, but most of them might as well be brahmin because they dont do anything. Not only does it make it less immersive but it makes it way less fun killing them.

It was waaay funner shooting lucas simms in the head than megaton settler.

Anyone with me on this?

I agree with you 100%!

100% agree. Nameless people mean I don't care, give 'em a name and story and I'll care.

I agree. I want more NPCs but I'd like them all to have names...

If Bethesda won't create names for every single filler NPC, randomly generated names for filler NPCs could probably work as well. I think Daggerfall had randomly named NPCs.

Same here.

FO3 has lots and lots of nameless respawning enemies, because otherwise players would run out of weapons. Oblivion didn't quite seem to follow this path, so I don't see why Skyrim should (in TES, you don't need an unending supply of identical weapons to repair each other).

At the very least I would like to see some random name genorator. So, I agree as well.

I want NPC's with names so I can care about them but random travlers in the wildernes would be great.

at the very least I want to see them interacting with each other again

How many people in your life do you truly know? How many stories do you actually know? How many people on this planet could be nameless without it making a difference to you?

It's more realistic to assume that half the people don't want to share anything with you in a city that actually makes sense in scope, than to have 30-50 people be the entire population of a major city that in lore would have hundreds of thousands of people. Also people who are going about your business don't stop to talk most of the time. It is for the best imo.

Nameless enemies I don't care about, but I definatly don't want nameless NPCs walking around the city. It's gives a sense of freedom to have the ability to talk to anyone.

Socially speaking, do you have the ability to, right now, just go to the nearest city to you with a population of 100,000+ people and just talk to 100 different random ones in great depth and learn all about their pasts?

I have a feeling that this new Radiant Story feature will not only randomize a lot of aspects in the game, but possibly give us random NPCs with backgrounds, names, stories and even quests.

Well, one could always try, but if some stranger wanted to know all about me, I'd run the other way pronto.

This. I don't care if there are filler NPC's, just so long as you can't spot them the instant you see their name. They might as well of given every Wastelander in Fallout:NV a giant floating sign that says "IGNORE ME" in big bold print, because that's all it means now. That's why I loved Morrowind so much. The fact that even if an NPC really had no use, you could still talk to them and they had a name and you couldn't instantly tell that they were worthless. It made indiscriminate slaughter weigh a little bit more on your mind.

Disagree 100%.

I'm sorry, but there are many thing Beth is willing to do for their fans. After we found out the Imperial City in Oblivion had about 20 people tops, we all got pissed and demanded more populated cities. But we also demand every single NPC have a name and a story. I'm sorry, but it's either one or the other: big population or distinct NPC's. Choose one.

When I walk into a city, I don't instantly know the names of every single person living there. I won't interact with every single person living there. I'd rather be in a crowded market place with hundreds of nameless NPCs than in a marketplace with on or two named NPC's (again, a la IC).

I just don't get your logic...

50 named NPCs = immersion
50 named NPCs + 50 unnamed NPCs = no immersion

How could adding filler people possibly hurt anything especially if you'd get the same actual content that mattered anyway?

No, but they still have pasts. They still have names. This isn't real life anyway, it's a game.

This is a bit of a difficult issue, because on one hand, I want to have cities that are largely populated and you can't do that with all detailed NPCs because there's just too many NPCs to detail, giving dialogue to and voice-work for, etc. On the other hand, I want to have NPCs that are interesting and that have depth, personality, and emotion.

A balance of this would be the best idea in my opinion where you have both of these implemented. Let's have many detailed NPCs that are tied to quests and some not tied to quests. Let's also have NPCs to fill up the rest of the city that do certain things such as going from place to place, reading, eating, sleeping, etc.

I'm thinking that the generic NPCs shouldn't have much to say, or at least most of them. They should be more like some of the NPCs in Half-Life 2 that say, "Hm?", "Don't bother me", "Who are you?", "I'm busy", etc.

Basically this. They can have generic NPCs, but give them a name (even if it's random) and generic things to say (rumors and all that crap).



Realistically, you don't go walking around town and in people's houses looking for dramatic, enriching, and life-threatening jobs to do.

You're right, but your argument was that it would be more realistic or "[immersive]" to not have unnamed, generic NPCs. Realistically, you would never find out anything about the majority of the population of a large city. Before anyone says something about how "realism doesn't mean like real life", well, socially speaking, the Elder Scrolls doesn't seem much different from the real world.

I own a pet pig. You will never see it or eat it. There. Does what I just told you impact your life in any way?

I got no opinion. Obviously I'd want them all named, but that might be a bit hard. Maybe a name gen, meh forget that.
Fortantly for pc users, they can easly mod that...that is IF we get the TESCS

If you had read my later post, you would have discovered that I don't care if all NPCs have backstories and hand-placed features in their lives. Just as long as you can speak to them and they have a name.