How many family members could you possibly have?! : V

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:52 pm

When quest-giving NPCs die they are replaced by a relative NPC, which makes them the new quest givers.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea and all, but if I kill the new quest giver... will he be replaced with a new NPC?
How many relatives do NPCs have?! Will there be like a million? infinite? I hope eventually the quest dies with the quest giver......

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:02 am

I thought that was only for shopkeepers? Anyway I hope that when a questgiver dies the quest ends too. Or maybe they can't die because Bethesda is going to make them essential.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:45 pm

I don't it's going to be infinite. Imagine what work the voice actors could have if that would be the case...
It's probably going to be the quest giver and 2 replacements max.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:25 pm

I hope they are killable... if they can't die we're denied of our choice in the game, which is the main concept of TES games.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:05 pm

I think thats the best idea that a game has ever had. The only bad thing is I play as a goody two shoes so I wont be killing too many shopkeepers.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 5:49 pm

I think thats the best idea that a game has ever had. The only bad thing is I play as a goody two shoes so I wont be killing too many shopkeepers.

Me too >_>......

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:42 pm

I hope they are killable... if they can't die we're denied of our choice in the game, which is the main concept of TES games.

True. Oblivion lacked choices imo. If I want to cut someone I cut someone, if I want to kill someone I kill someone. If someone who I don't like gives me a quest I want to kill him and say [censored] the quest. And if a relative will offer me the quest again that I'll kill him/her too.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:45 pm

When quest-giving NPCs die they are replaced by a relative NPC, which makes them the new quest givers.
Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea and all, but if I kill the new quest giver... will he be replaced with a new NPC?
How many relatives do NPCs have?! Will there be like a million? infinite? I hope eventually the quest dies with the quest giver......

Provided a smart random name generator, they could, in fact, be infinite. Though by the time you kill family member #3 you'll probably have a bounty on your head regardless of whether anyone noticed you. Hence you'll have other things on your mind, like a (&@|*load of guards on your tail. If you're still stubborn even then, well, then it's a madman system for a madman character.

Fitting.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:25 pm

Provided a smart random name generator, they could, in fact, be infinite. Though by the time you kill family member #3 you'll probably have a bounty on your head regardless of whether anyone noticed you. Hence you'll have other things on your mind, like a (&@|*load of guards on your tail. If you're still stubborn even then, well, then it's a madman system for a madman character.

Fitting.

Don't you think it'll be a bit weird to have NPCs replacing one another ALL THE TIME?

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 8:21 am

Yeah, I really don't get how the voice acting is going to work for this. It seems potentially like a huge waste of time and resources.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:43 pm

Yeah, I really don't get how the voice acting is going to work for this. It seems potentially like a huge waste of time and resources.

Well, that's kind of the whole point of Radiant Story. Neither the quest-giver nor the specifics of the quest are pre-locked.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 11:30 pm

I don't think NPCs can be replaced infinitely, it's probably just a couple times at most, so it's more like the game's way of giving you a second chance if a quest giver gets killed than the game allowing you to kill as many people as you want without fear of breaking quests. Or maybe it only works if that NPC already has living reletives, we'll see.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:28 pm

NPCs will have as many relatives and replacements as Bethesda initially decides to give them. :shrug:
The relatives are probably marked as non-important to begin with and have thus limited dialog options with more opening up whenever Radiant Story decides its necessary and the dialog actually existing. Not all quests logically can be passed on to a relative. Take for example a man who wants his sister killed but instead you kill him. It wouldn't make sense for her giving you the quest afterwards. She might give you the reward because you spared her life but thats it.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:05 pm

You will probably see the npc's that act as replacements walking around town. I doubt they pop out of thin air,also to make up for VO resources they don't all tell you things. If a man is carting logs around he might say "I cant talk now,the fire is out at home" or if a woman is sweeping "damn orc's always tracking dirt everywhere they go."

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 1:45 pm

It's not like the game's gonna have a closet that can only store a couple of dozen NPC backups. If it doesn't generate them until they're needed then the game can keep replacing them forever. As for the voice acting, if they use the same VAs for all of a given gender of a given race again, that wouldn't be much of a problem either.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 10:56 pm

It makes a lot of sense. I mean, would people really leave shops empty?

While I'm no expert on law in nirn, I find it hard to believe the immediate family wouldn't have some sort of claim over it.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 9:35 pm

Thing is, will we see the replacing NPCs in our everyday lives (gameplay everyday lives...) or will they be generated by the game as random NPCs of certain race and family?

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:23 pm

If you go back far enough, we're all related...
Then again, not sure that works on Nirn...

I like the idea of some quest givers or shopkeepers being replaced if needed, but at some point they should stay dead.
No matter how many times my skeleton army killed all of the imperial gaurds in Caldera, more always showed up, and that was annoying (and laggy)

But I'll be happy with this system pretty much however it turns out.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 6:32 pm

I would really like if NPCs in Skyrim lived in large family groups with different siblings and their children and grandparents under the same roof. Maybe with more distant relatives living in the same city or elsewhere nearby. It was actually quite jarring how modern the living accomodations were in Oblivion and Morrowind with single persons owning houses that are quite big even by modern IRL standards. With some higher population density there could be a reserve of NPCs maybe three or four iterations deep for Radiant Story to use, all already existing in the gameworld.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 7:46 pm

given how terribly vague all the descriptions of how this [censored] will work have been so far, i don't really think it's possible to speculate with any degree of accuracy how any of this will actually play out in-game until we see the actual demonstration at E3.

i highly doubt this will be for EVERY QUESTGIVER, though. it'll most likely be for a handful of quests, and the game might not so much GENERATE A FAMILY MEMBER as just pull one from some other part of Skyrim. hell it might not even just be family members, it might be friends too.

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 4:46 pm

Come on, after a couple of new shop owners die, the shop should get a reputation of being cursed or something

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 3:14 pm

Perhaps after a few deaths they'll be replaced by "Biff the Understudy".

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 12:16 pm

The only thing we really need to know is how soon does the replacement show up, and does that give me enough time to loot the entire shop?

» Thu Jan 27, 2011 2:05 pm

I hate that the quests are gonna be passed off to the next NPC.
If I made the choice to kill him/her then I made the choice to lose access to that quest.
Damn handholding crap...
But whatever, it's in, ain't gonna change, so I at least hope that if we kill the next NPC then the quest dies with it. Permanently.