Non-companion NPCs.

[Kane_Severance]

I hope we have a few NPCs in the world that you can actually develop a relationship with. Too many times you just feel like NPCs are walking quest/lore vendors. I'd really like to see a few that grow to know you better throughout the story and are interested in the player and his/her adventures.

 

This would be especially good in the player home or stronghold. A butler or trusted subordinate who has their own personality and opinions about your exploits would add a lot to the atmosphere of your abode. If done right, it'd be someone you'd want to go and talk to to hear what they have to say as opposed to just looking for the next step in a quest chain.

[RaccoonTOF]

Very much agreed here...the shopkeeper/merchant that you regularly unload your goods from your adventures on, the chamberlain of your stronghold, local "nobility" that are sending you on your quests repeatedly, etc. Basically anyone that you have frequent interactions with but that you don't necessarily bring out into the world itself with you...

[Agremont]

I very much agree too. It would be a very nice touch.

[Mazhlekov]

It's very complicate task! I will be very pleased to see such characters in the game, but I dont think they will have enough time and energy for this...

[Pshaw]

I agree. As much as I understand the need to focus development resources on companions, antagonists, and story elements I think it would be nice if a handful of people out in the world were more than just quest givers or vendors. I know it's come up in the thread regarding guilds/factions but I think that is an area where this sort of thing could really shine. Your character is clearly already involved in their cause so they have some common ground to stand on. Generally you have lots of interaction with these folks as you go back to chat with them and get more quests from then and the like. So why not have these relationships go beyond simply completing their quests? Let them set up shop in your stronghold and maybe add extra features to it by being there.

 

I certainly wouldn't be upset if the NPCs were what they've always been in RPGs. I certainly think there are more important things worth spending time on first. That said I'd be very pleased with the inclusion of some sort of extra interaction with the NPCs out in the world.

[Kilroy_Was_Here]

Didn't 100 people shell out the Kickstarter cash to create their own NPCs? I would hope that they at least would be interesting...

[Hassat Hunter]

Well, of course we need to have a few of these.

This isn't Diablo.

 

Good characters are needed for a good story.

[Kane_Severance]

Right, but even the IE games didn't do a great job of this. There just weren't very many NPCs that had much to say after the first time you exhaust all their dialog options. I want a reason to go back to towns I've previously visited. I want a reason to talk to an NPC whose quest I've already completed. I don't want to feel like once I've left a "quest hub" there's no reason to ever check back in and see what's new.

[Frisk]

Didn't 100 people shell out the Kickstarter cash to create their own NPCs? I would hope that they at least would be interesting...

 

I just thought of something that would be really, really cool.

 

We don't yet know what the limits of modding will be - but if I had an NPC "of my own" in the game, I would be tempted to expand its role, so to speak - create a plor, or a quest around that NPC to make it more memorable.

 

Now if you had a group of people willing to cooperate on a project like that, the community might be able to create an entire story arch, with multiple quests involving their own NPCs.