I've seen a lot of topics about actually filling the trails that lead from town to town with people to make the game feel more alive and I love the idea. I also love the idea of having bandits n such actually wander around too. Instead of just seeing a group of bandits always hanging around one spot, that they would wander just like any body else. And also make it so they aren't always aggro, like you could see a group of obvious bandits just wandering, but not causing havoc at the moment. Or for a group to wander into a small village on the road and start making trouble and you can ride in to help the townsfolk. It would be really cool to wait by some cover while you watch a group of bandits walk by and ambush them! Also depending on how you play the game as in if you're a good character or a bad character will determine if bandits attack you or not. But then there will also just be renegade bandits who will attack any body and you will of course have to lay down the law all over their faces... Also they would be obvious "bandit" types, not just normal looking NPCs wandering around. If you pay attention you will be able to see them coming, in their grungy bandit wear.

Thoughts?

Like highway men but more dynamic? i like that idea but wouldn't those traveling guard guys kill them?

its easier for bandits to not be named npcs. and a certain percentage of people would complain about constantly being attack by an npc that was friendly just a few minutes ago without warning. (yeah, thats how a bandit would behave in the real world) but this is a game so that much realism isn't necessary. its easier if they spawn off the side of the road as if they were waiting to ambush travelers.

Their adding random events right? this could be one of them and it could be limited in frequency.

two worlds did bandits right.

if your rep is high enough, they wont attack you and will respect you.

I really hate the way beth does suicidal mindless bandits. Wearing deadric armour with a giant flaming sword? chiltin dagger wielding thug still thinks he has a chance.

It wouldn't be like a crazy common occurrence and they would obviously be bandits. It's not like you would see a "normal" looking NPC and all of a sudden be getting mugged. I mean they would be like a group of grungy looking "bandit" types. You could choose to avoid them, choose to attack them, or every once in awhile get snuck up by them. RDR implemented a feature kinda like it where every so often a random NPC would show up and try to steal your horse or trick you into helping them only to find they have 4 thugs waiting to rob you. It would be something you just learned to look for and when you were a high enough level they would either be afraid of you and never attack or they would be so easy to kill that you would just laugh at their feeble attempts at robbery.

I like it would also be nice if bandits would camp at night as well allocating their plundered treasures with one another.

Guards won't be everywhere, and it would be cool to find a group of guards trying to fend off some bandits and you could go in and help the guards.....or the bandits...... >:]

Lol as long as the bandits wouldn't try to kill me afterwards also i would probably wait for one side to die and then attack the other.

They should hide off the path and ambush you (a bit difficult with the music system).

I like it in Morrowind how I could talk to a bandit first and didn't know whether or not they were a bandit, it created some intersting encounters.

we already had bandits who don't attacked you when you had cheap clothes (value less than 10...) but yes they should be scared when i come along with all my awesome skills and kill them with one or two hits...

there was a situation sort of like this in OB. but with the followers of the mythic dawn once you got to a certain point in the MQ, since they were common named npc's they acted normally until that point in which they would suddenly change and attack you on sight.

My ranger character walks in the moonlight, he has spottet a fire deep in the woods, and goes to investigate. It turns out some bandits sleeps around the fire, and in bags they have some neat loot from their latest raid. One bandit is guarding the fireplace and the others. With one well aimed arrow from the shadows I kill him and draws my sword. I run into the little camp, killing the sleepy bandits before they can grab their weapons. It would be cool too have random camps like this, and also encounter bandits in tombs and so on, never knowing where they may turn up.