NPC naming

[Wulfic]

It bothers me alot in roleplaying games that you see a bunch of npcs named for example citizen and one John. Well we know from the start that John has a quest for us or something. I would rather have a system were after a conversation mwhere the NPC introduce themselves ,the name appears above the npc. Also it is stupid that u walk to every npc and ask them if they need help. Quests should be done differently.

1. The NPC approaches you by himself

2. The NPC is in a situation which is visually presented

3. A information board,book,notice or a towncrier

 

And many other possibilities which I cant recall right now. But yeah, it is a small Idea which can change our gameplay drastically in my opinion ( THe npcs will be more memorable ). What do you think ?

[Osvir]

^Baldur's Gate, the NPC's walk up to you, sometimes they don't most of the time you need to walk up to them I believe (As long as it's not main plot). No one has any names on their heads, or anything like that hmm, perhaps an NPC could indicate if they have anything to say to you by waving their arms or something? If they don't have anything to say to you they'll just continue on with whatever they are doing until you approach them imo.

 

I'd dislike hovering names, the IE games had this cool feature where you held Tab and you would see their names on this scroll that unfolded itself. It would be cool if everyone are unnamed until I talk to them though...

 

Got to be honest, misunderstood this thread first (the quote below is for renaming companions). It might be fun being able to name all the Commoners (if it's an easy to implement feature).

 

http://forums.obsidi...51-rename-npcs/

Perhaps a Nickname feature that shows up in your choices that you make:

 

1. "So what's the next cause of action [Ed]?"

 

Which could trigger Edair to get a specific banter "IF [Ed]". There could be Easter Eggs, if someone randomly puts Edy in there Edair could react in some funny way (just a minor thing like *Edair sighs as you call on him* or "I don't like that nickname.....").

 

Regardless, if a Nickname feature exists in the "Records" tab with the Biography and everything, it could replace every "Edair", "Forton" that is seen in your Dialogue Choice when applicable. Perhaps you could even talk to Edair and say something like:

 

1. "What do you think about the other guys in our group?"

 

Which triggers Edair to say something like "Anyone specific?" where you get a list of all the companions, let's say I pick:

 

1. "Aloth"

 

Edair responds "What about him?"

 

1. "I want you to call him [Nickname]" which would make Edair call Aloth "Al" where applicable.

 

^Looks like too much though... just a fun feature

Edited November 16, 2012 by Osvir

[Kaz]

I like the idea of making quest givers less obvious, but also dislike the idea of having to talk with every single commoner for quests.

 

Another option might be to allow your characters to notice things about their surroundings and communicate things out of the ordinary through some brief text. This could be automatic based on proximity, or discovered manually by the player through an inspection mode or tool. As Osvir pointed out we could take the ol' tool tip scroll that rolls out when we hover over stuff in IE games and beef it up a bit. So for the most part you would see the same old "Noble", or "Local drunkard" type descriptions, but once in a while you would find a person who triggers some text which hovers over them like

"You spot a noble standing alone looking rather distressed. He carries a sheathed blade by his side"

If an interesting description like that popped up it would be enough intensive a lot of players to go over and talk.

You still have to do some hunting, but it's just a matter of hovering over stuff, no dialog initiation required. It's also non-intrusive and lets the player initiate those conversations on their terms. I remember big cities being a pain sometimes because you couldn't get from A to B without a bunch of people walking up to you serving up more quests in yo face.