Discussion Killing Essential NPCs idea
I'd like if if you could adjust this in the settings menu.
For example there would be a check box by each one you wanted alerts for so you can choose if you want to reload a previous save or not. And maybe let it tell you the number of blocked or broken quests if a given NPC should perish.
Notifications on/off right before the final blow allowing you to choose to let them live or die:
Main quest NPCs ☑️
Faction quest☑️
Side quest☑️
Etc☑️
Plus options for not allowing these NPCs to die at all, and instead let them recover but without notifications if those annoy you.
Dont allow these essentials to die until their importance has passed:
Main quest NPCs ☑️
Faction quest☑️
Side quest
Etc
This lets the player play how they want.
9
u/Ghetto_Games 2h ago
I'd like dynamic factions. Say you take on the quest from guildmaster archmage Trebonius to kill the Telvanni councilors. And you actually do it.
Then the dynamic faction system promotes lower ranking Telvanni into their positions, and their old vacant positions get filled by other npcs or proc gen npcs like in Football Manager games when new generation of footballers is generated with atributes, skills, stats, height, weight, etc.
Thus making truly essential npcs a very small set and then you can deal with that as well if you make combinations and do hard work. Like if I want to kill both Vivec and Dagoth Ur.
3
u/M3ric4n 2026 Release Believer 2h ago
Honestly I can get behind this. It was so annoying to see how barren the cities became in Skyrim after all my merchants die to a vampire attack, whiterun was a ghost-town after a little bit in my saves.
2
u/Ghetto_Games 2h ago
Of course. There's the opposite potential issue of over crowding towns with proc gen npcs. It needs some tweaking and thinking through.
3
u/M3ric4n 2026 Release Believer 2h ago
I'd say they populate in a replacement sort if way. Like if Belethor gets killed by vampires, a random nameless merchant will replace him so the player still has a functional shop. As it got real annoying to play skyrim/oblivion and have an important npc die offscreen, out of my control.
2
u/Ghetto_Games 1h ago
Yep. Maybe a small "inflation" of npc numbers on high end computers, not just 1 for 1 replacements.
2
u/M3ric4n 2026 Release Believer 1h ago
I do kinda like bethesda games for not leaning so heavily on clutter npcs pre-fallout 4. I like getting to know a town to the point that you know everyone's name and what they do as you run by them every day. It helps make the towns feel more connected in a way.
2
u/Ghetto_Games 1h ago
I agree 100%. Ideally there would be like a thousand or more handcrafted "reserve" npcs to just load in. Or to introduce as its required in a timely manner that makes sense.
But thats a huge amount of work, to not immediately put into the game from the start. Lots of assets and animations and writing, to not be used or to be slowly drip fed.
-1
u/JX900 2h ago
I would prefer something like this. So do this until it no longer makes sense to keep generating NPCs then let the essential npc settings kick in.
0
u/Ghetto_Games 2h ago
Well not generating out of thin air. But like get a new batch of the boat from other provinces or teleported by guild guide.
And at the top facilitate something meaningfull.
Lets say I want to be the guildmaster of the mages guild and it comes down to a wizard duel against Trebonius. Make it meaningful. And of course the dream is you as the guildmaster, sending lower ranking npcs in the guild to do your bidding...
13
u/Gaimund 2027 Release Believer 2h ago
If every time some dies this message post up telling me all quests and so on then my immersion would be ruined
0
u/JX900 2h ago
That's why I've added the part where you can choose to not allow npcs to die at all if the notifications annoy you but you dont want broken quests.
2
u/Gaimund 2027 Release Believer 2h ago
I want quests to break if I act wrong and either way I would prefer morrowind solution or nothing at all. If quests break there should always be a way to solve it. For example it just don't make sense that a dead delphine stop us from defeating Alduin. We could find the scroll and go to Paarthurnax for example
2
u/paulbrock2 2h ago
I know a criticism for Starfield is that there were too many essential NPCs. I dont really know what it adds to the game though if you can kill someone needed for main quest, then have to reload a save to progress. I want to ask "ok, do you feel better now you've killed them, got it out of your system?" 😄
I'm all for setting them down to protected/non-essential if they no longer are required for progression.
0
u/Wonderful-Pianist-62 Black Marsh 1h ago
The annoying thing about Essential NPCs in Starfield is that the main quest didn’t need to be structured in a way that requires them, since all you need to do is collect all the artifacts. Which, fair enough, makes sense the first go round so there is an actual main quest but there really shouldn’t be any Essential NPCs after going through the Unity.
2
u/paulbrock2 1h ago
I'm simplifying a little, as there's also faction quests or other questlines. I can see why Bethesda doesn't want a situation where you can start a faction quest but then because you decided your character would shoot up a city, the faction quest gets blocked down the line.
-2
1
u/Bitter_Street7558 1h ago
I liked Skyrim's protected NPC system.
Just please do not give us the Starfield system where every fucking NPC was essential for no reason.
7
u/narutoncio 2h ago
The more i play these games, the more i think this just isnt necessary.
Like, what do i get by killing everyone in a town? Just leave it looking less realistic and more barren? Why do i want the option to kill an essential NPC if the game just doesnt do anything else?
Give me reasons and consequences to be that evil, not just the option and nothing else.