The point is to add excitement to the world. In any case locks could prevent this to a large degree, and there should be a way to track the perpetrator.

However, I don't want this stuff to only happen to the PC, thieves should break into other NPC houses as well of course.

I want them to be able to do almost everything except kill npc's.
I would not want to find all the NPC's I need for a quest dead.
If the Person is a member of the Dark Brotherhood then I would like to see Radiant Story add a random assassination quest for some of the members to do as long as the NPC's will not be related to any Quests and Battle Mages with the Mages Guild going on raiding trips into Necromancers dungions.
If NPC's can kill then let it be randomly generated people only

Well on Oblivion the chances of a successful pickpocket attack depended on the pickpocket'd persons sneak skill so maybe if NPCs can pickpocket on Skyrim, if your sneak skill is higher than the NPCs sneak skill you get a little pop up or notification of sorts saying it's happening allowing you to confront the thief where their disposition and social status will determine if they fight, beg for mercy or give you your items back.

Actually, Necromancy isn't illegal in Skyrim OR Cyrodile. It was illegal in Morrowind. In Cyrodile, Necromancy was only outlawed by the mages guild - controlling buggers that they are. The Empire actually has a history of supplying its Necromancers with fresh bandit corpses, and has used Necromancers as vital resources in past wars.

True, there is a bit of social stigma about "raising the dead"...but Necromancers shouldn't really care heh. Imo they should do it both out of combat and in combat, building their undead army any way they can.



I like the idea about reacting to pickpockets - especially where the cue is stronger if your sneak skill is higher than the pickpocket.
What I really want to see though, is npc's pickpocketing other npc's. This would really make the world seem more alive since something is happening iniated by an npc, to an npc, no player interaction needed to set it off, and no player interaction required unless desired.


Interesting - it would be awesome to see a town slowly equipped with more and more high quality enchanted items, as you sell your loot at the local stores and they buy it. And repairing items is a must - and also opens up more dynamic options for the player to take.

For instance, buying out all repair hammers, stealing all repair hammers you can find in the town, and killing the blacksmith would prevent guards and other npc's from repairing their stuff.
If NPC's can buy armor and weapons, they could get buy with enough gold though.

Speaking of NPC gold - now that NPC's actually have jobs, lol, will their gold increase daily or weekly as they're paid? Something to consider.

NPC's getting themselves killed shouldn't be much of a problem, since most of them are randomly generated "Megaton Settler" type people. No names, no importance. The named NPC's, I would rather them not be able to steal from others, or anything else that'd get them killed.

And then you hunt them down, bash their heads and take the sword back.
Easy!

Anyway, I'm for everything on the list and even more under the condition that it's preformed well.
If I can sneak attack on other people and steal everything they have, I don't see reason why they shouldn't be able to do that to me.
Of course, it should be balanced so it doesn't end up that even every bloody bee will try to sneak attack you or steal everything from you.
It would be kinda fun if a thief takes my favorite sword and then I have to find him and teach him some manners. ^^
It would be also cool if we could decide what to do with him when we get him.
Are we going to slice him in half on the spot, are we going to give him a slap and let him go, report him to the guard or actually give him some gold/food if we notice that it was just some poor fella who is fighting to survive and we feel sorry for him.
Still, if we plan to slice and dice him in front of a guard, we will still get the bounty on our heads since his theft shouldn't mean that he should die.


Well then, maybe just make quest NPC off limits for assassinations then?

Also, shouldn't there be new NPC arriving to replace already dead ones?
You know, you or NPC kill other NPC and then it's kinda dumb that it stays like that.
I think that after certain amount of time a new NPC should arrive and replace the dead one.
Well, not in all cases, but yes in some.
Shops and houses should get new owners and stuff like that.

This ALL sounds amazing! I wish there were a totally immersive and realistic way of doing this! The only issue is all of the X-factors involved. I believe that if anyone could pull it off seamlessly, Beth is the one to do it. I almost guarantee that they have thought of this idea or have at least toyed with it. Maybe they could add 5-10 more people to their team and get it in the game before release??? Very wishfull thinking.....Eh?

This.

If I remember correctly, besthesda stated that " If you kill a shopowner, his wife might take over. Or if you kill a quest NPC you can work your way around it."
If this is true, then I say let the NPCs do whatever a player can do. Should the player have to be present? No, but I would like the player to be targeted every now-and-then. Imagine if you are out for a quest to collect so-and-so for whomever. You come back to see his house razed to the ground by bandits and a funeral procession nearby. You talk to his widow and she gives the reward etc. I also say that NPCs should be able to buy from stores much like the player, but only if they have use for the items and suffecient gold to do so. Pickpockets/thieves: You should be able to lock up your house and/or hire guards. I would also like to play "beastmaster" and have a little black bear in front of my house.

I voted no on any option that resulted in the NPC killing someone. The original problem with Radiant AI was the fact that NPC's were too ready to kill someone - and the emergent behavior was everyone in the town being dead a few hours after some diphead NPC stole something.

If they could tone down the "kill" behavior, and augment it with "go to jail" or "get in a relatively harmless fistfight" behaviors, I think they might be onto something.

This is awesome stuff. I see a world where you can pick some small settlement in the middle of nowhere with a few shops and slowly beef up the area by either leaving items or by selling them in stores. Really like Markath Side (sp.)? Make it the most powerful city in Skyrim. This almost borderlines with the theory of Dynamic Scaling (I think I just made it up). The world only get's as powerful as it does because of your actions. One faction gets too strong and you might have to even it out a bit. But, that is a topic for another time.

naturally we would all love a lot of stuff, but i think ppl forget that putting time and money into small stuff like NPCs breaking into your house and having the game allowing u to retrieve the items, while really cool idea, is time and money taken from a different feature that might have a much bigger impact on the "fun" of playing the game.

there shouldnt be a poll like the one in the first message. there should be a few other options like "what would u sacrifice in order to get all those features in?" because THIS is the reality.
i would much rather have a great combat system with good looking animations and smart AI than once in an hour see an NPC pickpocket someone. and why would it matter to much if each NPC has it's own money and micro-economy? is it different that much from just having an NPC that once in a while has a different sword randomly? no, i dont think it does. how many of us will remember exactly what items where at what shop and which of these items has moved to another NPC? very few. it it worth sacrificing a more pronounced gameplay feature for this lil thing?
to me it doesnt.

the only things i'd love seeing is NPCs having quarrels with eachother, thieves pickpocketing, assassins assassin or vampires feeding and even those things should happen rarely enough to not break immersion. i think it will be strange if the ppl who u quest for will occasionally die without the player's interference. twice or thrice is enough for me and THAT could be done as a part of the radiant story elements. not as a part of the radiant AI.

Bethesda doesnt have infinite resources. ppl should consider this. it's like ppl arguing why the state doesnt put more money into one element of the economy and forgetting that it's about a state's budget and there should be balance. asking to balance random stuff like radiant AI is hard and takes time. i will not be happy if my NPCs will actually and amazingly sell things amongst themselves yet in combat they will notice me from 20 yards when im in the dark behind a bush while invisible because the detection system is flawed.

Slightly off topic but when my friend read this post he said and I quote: "That'll be so stupid of NPCs can steal your stuff. If they put that in I'm not buying the game." Does anybody else think that was perhaps a slight over reaction? I mean is a small feature, which I'm sure if implemented would have "safey-safes" (NPCs can't steal anything more than..I dunno 100 gold in value? YOu can lock your house. You can just not buy a house. You could just not keep especially valuable items in your house..) really a reason to skip out on quite possibly the best game of 2011?

Again I shall mention the X series, a totally realistic autonomous world sounds good, but things that go on that you don't even see are seriously just a waste of processor power

Agreed. NPCs shouldn't really be concerned with doing crime against eachother (except maybe if you start up a bar brawl then they'll start "Assault and battery"ing all their buddies) but there should be NPC crime that effects you directly (getting your stuff taken, getting attacked in public by an NPC you pissed off earlier (which WILL happen here and there, but I dunno if it'd happen in public places))

Boo will be on my pockets, :swear: noone shall touch Boo!

I mean i wouldn't like npcs stealing my stuff not to break on my home :ninja:

here is my idea for a pool of npcs that could make there way in the world. these npcs would have the same oppurtunitys as you accept they cannot do quests. release a certain amount of npcs from prison along with you. these npcs have the abilties to level up and progress in skills and talents just like you. have them on some sort of random system that picks there alleigance, skills, and what they want to do with there life. another could be a mage looking to become a master enchanter and so forth. if ay of these npcs die just release another random one from prison with a few possesions that fit his choices of a life and off he goes to do his stuff.

you do know that all NPCs could do those from oblivion, except for lock picking, going to jail (well 2 NPC did), and feeding

I can't believe so many people want NPCs to be able to rob them. Seriously stuff that you worked hard to get and perfectly arrange around your house should not be able to be stolen by anyone. Think of FO3 and the glitch where a certain paladin appears in your house and steals your stuff, then runs off with your stuff...not cool.

Lol maybe that wasn't a glitch ;P

Anyway, I see where you're coming from with that but like I said they'd probably have either a way to track down the thief or something like a thief can't steal anything worth like 150 or 200 gold and above. Or maybe only steal things out in the open that ARE NOT artifacts (I mean honestly why would you really have anything like a steel longsword on display in your house? That's nothing special..)

Doesn't matter to me, if somebody breaks in and steals the spoon I left next to the plate on my table I'd still be mad. NPCs shouldn't be a nuisance to the player and if they steal anything from my area thats supposed to be safe storage then they definately cross that line. Consider this, do you enjoy containers resetting and destroying all of your things? It might as well be the same if an NPC can come in and steal something from me.

Containers resetting and magically vanishing all your items in them is not the same thing as a thief coming in to steal your things.

Consider that npc's only carry out dynamic actions when you're in the nearby area - mobile shopkeeper's are artifically moved around behind the scenes according to the calender, for instance. Therefore you would only be robbed when in the same vicinity - probably while asleep.

Giving us the option of locking our doors is only really meaningful if there's reason to do it - and the option of locking your door prevents theft from happening.

And if you forget to lock the door before going to sleep, you might be woken by the message "You hear loud noises from downstairs. A thief?" And then you get to go clobber the poor khajit to death for home invasion. Everybody wins! Well, except for the khajit.

Ok lets try this. If you played New Vegas and had your companions go to your lucky 38 suite they eat and drink all of your perishable things including your rare and unique stuff that is edible. Now imagine this happening without you noticing because the person stealing your things came in and stole your stuff while you were busy doing something in another room. It might as well have just disappeared from the game world because chances are you're not going to find it if the AI is actually given free reign to sell your steal and sell your stuff. I'm telling you guys it would only sound cool until your stuff actually started coming up missing.

Thank you. I don't see so many people don't seem to agree with me on that. I'm pretty sure if not completely certain that if theft was included from NPCs in the game, they'd have a lot of failsafes in order to keep you from permanently losing anything too valuable. Hell, it could even lead to some pretty nice side quests with Radiant Story; Thief steals Flaming Sword of Fire, track down thief in local dungeon, and either A. buy the weapon back, B. beat him senseless and take the weapon back, C. go into town and nark to the guards where he is and let them take him to jail (or whatever)