Fallout naming could be in Skyrim, to help make the cities seem more alive, crawling with people. They mentioned that the more minor NPC's won't be able to be interacted with directly... I think this mean that they could be generated to make the city seem more alive, and have a randomly generated name or a preset name such as "Riften Citizen".

The problem with this system is, that the non important NPC's really stand out from the ones that'll have something to say, and this generally decreases immersion. My idea is that, EVERYONE is unnamed, and given a preset name at the beginning. But, when your character learns of their name, either through introduction to that NPC or by reference, their name then changes from the preset one (such as "Powerful Looking Mage Lord") to their actual name (such as "Divath Fyr"). This means that when walking through a bustling city street you've never been before, everyone around you will seem unfamiliar, and perhaps as they don't know you, will not greet you as you pass them by. However, go to the small village which you saved from a Dragon, and they're all named and will greet you happily as you pass them by. I think this will add a certain immersion to the game that personally, I would enjoy.

What do you think?

Might as well only name NPCs that will actually talk to you. How do you even find out the names of those that don't?

No. Please, no.

I love the fact that the NPCs are all named in TES.

But how would you know their name if you've never seen/heard of them before?

Randomly generated names, yes. But not generic names such as "citizen".

I didnt understand what Todd meant by "most "inimportant" NPC like simple villagers won't have any dialogue tree (instead they'll directly comment on rumors or on what they're doing) ; only important NPCs will actually exchange dialogue with you" does that mean minor NPCs will only say random useless comments?

I like this idea if they're already planning on making random nameless NPC's. Makes it seem like you're looking at things through your character's eye if, when you look at an Argonian, the name only shows up as "Argonian" at first, because you couldn't know that NPC's name yet.

I think it may be like when you see a "Megaton Wastelander", if you attempt to interact with them, they'll just say a bit of rubbish, and that's all you can get out them,

no just no i hate playing fallout and not being able to talk to everyone i think it ads more imersion into the game if you can talk to everyone and there not just named citizen or better yet call them citezen until they introduce themselves then you know who you have met already

One thing I loved about Morrowind is that even the bandits in non-quest locations like caves and tombs still had names. It was fantastic. It was as though every single NPC in the game was someone. I didn't like fighting "Bandit" for the thousandth time in Oblivion. I'm also not a fan of seeing "Civilian" for the thousandth time while playing Skyrim. I agree, it does break immersion. It makes it so I don't even acknowledge those characters as existing since they don't matter at all whatsoever, whereas seeing named NPCs everywhere makes me think they might be part of a quest later or be involved in something in some way. It makes the cities and the world feel alive. Unnamed NPCs just make it feel...like a video game.

That might be fixed if EVERY NPC is unnamed to begin with, but I can't say I'm a big fan of that idea either in comparison to all NPCs being named. I might end up assuming that no one is involved in quests or is important later and would just start disregarding everyone in sight.

We'll see how it goes though, it might end up working a lot better than I'm imagining it.

Yeah, one interesting thing is, cities will seem different to every player, since they know the people in one specific city more than some other person playing Skyrim.

I just want to point out by the way, that I'm not in favour of randomly generated NPC's. All NPC's should have a house and have a place in that world. However, I do think that some of them shouldn't be able to get much interaction with. This will increase the amount of NPC's they can add, and also, some people you wouldn't be able to just have a chat with.

Thats a really good idea. I am not sure if they will end up doing that but they have to make all people named. It would take maybe ONE DAY for them to name every character in the game. I don't care if I see someone named "Bandit" but not a citizen named "Citizen".

Why not just name the random ppl like Charlie (The random name) The Thug

I hope everyone is named, but your idea is certainly preferable to a FO3 system where some are named and some are not. Either everyone has a name, or nobody does, until you discover their name through quests or dialogue.

Citizens should be named simply *Town Citizen* until we learn their name. Sometimes we initiate the introduction, sometimes the NPC (if he is an important one) does it, and sometimes a third party does it ("Who, Mr.X? Sure, he right over there" - and points, Mr.X now has a nametag). For players who wants tags on every non important NPC, he gets to have it by doing the introduction (I sure don't state my name if I ask the time). Some of us may want it less cluttered, so that we can delay having a nametag on someone until we're ready to do their quest.

A problem in Oblivion (and FO3) was that I drowned in quests and named characters my harddrive simply overloaded. I couldn't comprehend all this information given at so little time and many NPCs remained completely anonymous despite having a name. Some originals stood out though of course.

I think this is a great idea, however I think they should just be named according to their race rather than "citizen".

For example, one character may be titled as "Breton Male" until you open up some dialouge options with him. Then after you get more acquainted with him, the generic title would be substituted for his name.

I hope not I like how the NPC's in Oblivion were named and had there own life cycle.

IMO, generic names aren't acceptable. If they didn't want to come up with a name, couldn't they just use a name generator? At least it'll sound good then.

No Fallout Style. I would want it to be like oblivion, EVERYONE has a name. (Except guards, which would be nice to have names).

You should be able to learn the name, but everyone should have a name, not just a generic indicator. Granted, we'll never find out people's names if they won't talk to us...

Everyone should be named and we should be able to talk to everyone, unless they are really, really busy/talking to others. They however, shouldn't have names we know untill they tell us what their name is, which means that they could give us a false name that we call them all the time, only to find out their true identity much later.

I agree that EVERYONE should have a name, a house and a life frankly. But I don't think anyone should be named at the beginning, I would much rather have discoverable names to add the depth that comes with discoverable names.

I like that you can't talk to everyone, extremely annoying in oblivion when you go to talk to someone and they have nothing to say. I do think they should all have a name you learn. Because everyone in oblivion had a name, I couldn't tell you important peoples names, too much info.

If there is another influence from FO I really don't want to see in TES apart from VATS and modern guns, then it'll be this. The latter suggestion has some merit though.

Edit: I have learnt that it might be not so different from what we have seen earlier in OB and MW. No problem then.

He's saying that, the NPCs that are put in the game as "fillers" won't have a branching conversation, they'll just simply greet you or tell you a rumor. This is a good, realistic thing, as not only does it make the cities have a higher population, but it also stays realistic in that not EVERYONE you meet wants to tell you their life story, or has anything to really tell you at all.