At first I thought this was a horrible Idea, but it makes sense. It would be cool to show up in some unnamed city somewhere in Tamriel, and see everyone as "Citizen of " then you go up and talk to someone and introduce yourself. They then introduce themselves, whoever they are, and all of a sudden they have a name. This is in-fact a very interesting and realistic idea, and I think that it should be implemented in this or other games.

This idea would also work very well with "Morrowind Comes Alive" type mods, where any given number of randomly generated NPCs is placed in a cell upon entering. Said NPCs would be nameless, until approaching them and introducing yourself. Whats really cool about it is that only maybe 1/3 - 1/2 of NPCs are placed at any given time giving the idea of NPCs moving from town to town.

They should all be named - Daggerfall's soulless townies had randomly generated names, and even hostile NPCs in Morrowind did. It just makes everybody, good or bad, feel more real.

This.

And for the argument of "everyone should be -generic name- until you talk to them," that wouldn't solve anything. We still can't talk to the "rumour mill'' NPC's so the would forever be -generic name-
As for the argument of "Well, you wouldn't know there name anyway" True, I wouldn't. But this is a video game. I also don't have to go to the bathroom. I can carry 300 pounds of loot and 15 claymores. The realistic argument does not work here. :shrug:

I would much prefer these "rumour mill" NPC's to be at the very least have randomly generated names.

We don't know how these filler NPCs will function. I'm hoping that they're persistent and each have their own home and the like, which means Bethesda would probably name them (or otherwise we would, assuming they aren't all instanced from a single actor or something). I mean, it only makes sense - what would they do otherwise? Appear and disappear on the streets?

I don't like this idea. Keep it the way it has been in past games. :thumbsup:

I don't mind random NPCs (remember the likes of guards and enemies have always been random "Bandit", "Guard" etc) but as long as they have little lives (as all regenerating randoms in Oblivion do) I'm happy. I would much prefer if even randomly-generated citizens had uniquely generated names though, and were persistent until death upon where they could be replaced.

The Witcher's city feels dead and fake compared to Oblivion's where all urban life has a meaning, goals and such. One of the boons of Radiant AI.

I'd personally like there to be no names for people who you don't know, and then have it optional for the names to show up on people who you do.

I take it you started with Oblivion? In both Daggerfall and Morrowind (Don't recall in Arena) everyone had a name. You never saw a "Guard" or a "Bandit" I was when I saw my first "Imperial city guard" in Oblivion. But I can accept that, and even "bandit" too. But please, let's at leas not have any "___Citizens" Especially when everyone NPC has a schedule with RAI. I don't want to see "Door to Citizens house"

I dont mind the odd person in town being a generic nameless dude/dudette. But the named should outnumber the nameless. Or they could give the nameless ones names from the naming genrator Silgrad Tower :shrug:

Bringing up the topic of discoverable names, i like the idea, it would good for quests and is more immersive and gets me to talk to people. The only problem i see with it is during quests i will be harassing everyone in town to find the person i want

I agree. The fallout style people could increase immersion, and I'm all for the idea of hidden names since it makes more sence.

I'm all for immersion but in this particular instance I would say no. I am not sure it would work in a vast open game setting like TES. It's one of the few times I would rather take practicality over realism.

I'd want it.

Makes sense that you do not know people. Gives that whole unfamiliar feel.

But I would want generic npcs to haves random generated names.(if there are generics, but I'd rather not have generics)

Yeah, that's kinda the whole point. A sense of unfamiliarity in an unknown city, and a sense of familiarity in a town you know very well.

Absolutely; spot on! You totally nailed it; one of my favourite things in Morrowind was also the fact that everyone was named. It really does add gravity to the situation if you're killing someone and not something. Morrowind bandits were people too; by having names, it made me think about them, and why they were bandits, whether they had any family, whether they had a hard life that just led to crime, etc. It just made them real, made them human (for lack of a better term, since this also applies to the Mer and Beast races )

On the other hand, bandits in Oblivion were completely dehumanised by having generic labels. I would never feel bad about slaughtering entire troupes of bandits, even if some looked young enough to be minors. They didn't have names, and psychologically I didn't see them as people anymore. A bandit meant the same to me as a wolf or a bear - just another brutal animal to be put down. And when you realise you're thinking of people that way, well it's slightly upsetting.

A good anology would be prisoners in the real world who are assigned numbers; if prisoners don't learn prisoners names and refer to them by generic numbered labels, the prisoners become dehumanised; they lose their status as people and just become prisoners. Nelson Mandela wasn't Nelson in prison; he was 46664 - just another worthless piece of prisoner scum to his guards.

Bump. I know Morrowind's were preplaced whereas the level scaling in Oblivion and Skyrim may not make this possible, but can we have named bandits, please! :hehe:

my idea is that in the beginning, none of the NPCs will have a nametag AT ALL, so you really don't know if the NPC is generic (in Todd's words, not important), or is quest-related until you start a conversation. after the conversation this NPC will have a nametag of his name. This also helps you keep track of whom you have talked to already and whom you have not.

But I agree that for NPC's who wouldn't talk to you at all, like the bandits, when you don't know their name you probably wouldn't even know if he's the target of your quest. Not mentioning that not knowing the bandit's name makes them feel generic. How about, no matter whether you have talked to an NPC before or not, once the NPC is dead, the nametag is displayed? Because during a battle you probably don't have time to pay attention to the enemy's name anyways.

This please

I'd rather no fallout style stuff in tes games. I dont want to see anyone named Windhelm Settlers or any other pointless people like that. I'd rather oblivion style npcs.