Named characters that I see give me the option to reach out for their soul, or 'step back', when I click on them.

 

Am I completely unable to speak to these characters?? Or do I need to activate some sort of speech control that I can't see.

 

Thanks for any replies on this!

In so far as I know you can only look at their souls - there'r still plenty of other people to talk to though :D. 

Edited March 27, 201510 yr by Gallenger

I was kinda sad about this, especially when you find out someone did a gruesome deed and I want to punish them for it!

That's a weird design decision. I can talk to uninteresting townspeople but not to the interesting chars unless they are part of a quest.

I found this odd at first, but I'm of the opinion that this has something to do with the overall story, which we'll discover later on.

 

*edit* Or are these the Kickstarter named NPCs, perhaps?

Edited March 27, 201510 yr by Ink Blot

Yep, I think they're all Kickstarter NPCs.  I suppose the backers submitted the "soul stories"?  They're basically just there to read and add some flavour to the world.

Yeah I'm pretty sure those are Kickstarter pledge rewards in some way or other - You can tell these NPCs apart from "normal" ones by the gold tinted nameplate (hold TAB)

I actually read through them all thinking I'd be quizzed on it at some point haha.

i too read a bunch thinking that they would be relevant to a quest or puzzle or something in the game but after noticing the quality is all over the place i came here to figure out what's up.

 

i think it is really lame to have these npcs everywhere. the graveyard memorials i can deal with but these npcs are all over the place there are just too many. i don't expect this sort of thing in a $45 game...feels very unprofessional.

It only adds to the story.

i too read a bunch thinking that they would be relevant to a quest or puzzle or something in the game but after noticing the quality is all over the place i came here to figure out what's up. i think it is really lame to have these npcs everywhere. the graveyard memorials i can deal with but these npcs are all over the place there are just too many. i don't expect this sort of thing in a $45 game...feels very unprofessional.

 

Yeah, they really detract from the quality of the world IMO. I'm changing their names to generic names with the IE mod and ignoring them as far as conversation goes.

The names and wacky appearances are an unfortunate side-effect of how the KS reward worked, but I welcome the opportunity to read the little in-world storylets. 

 

It would be nice if the option to do the reading were locked off until after you find out The Thing That Makes Charname Special.  It would have made the conversation with the old dwarf a bit more impactful if you hadn't already read the souls of half the population of the town. 

Edited March 28, 201510 yr by Enoch

It would be nice if the option to do the reading were locked off until after you find out The Thing That Makes Charname Special.  It would have made the conversation with the old dwarf a bit more impactful if you hadn't already read the souls of half the population of the town. 

 

Exactly. That conversation was entirely anticlimactic because of that. Quite disappointed in Obsidian for letting a KS reward screw up the atmosphere and story (supposedly a major focus!) of their game like that.

 

Not saying it's not a great game - it certainly seems to be so far. But the backer NPCs are an annoyance, and should have been implemented differently.

Edited March 28, 201510 yr by Matt516

Completely agree. It detracts from the immersion rather than adds to it, since there is no point to the NPCs save for their short stories. Wish they could be diabled somehow.

So you're saying, neat little "soul lookery" stories detract from the game more so than Peasant #9520 saying the same things as every other peasant in a zone? 

 

The only inconsistency is that you can't look at certain peoples' souls and it doesn't really explain why as far as I've seen. 

They feel... tacky. Like the game sold off little pieces of its soul.

Well I enjoyed every single one I encountered and am looking forward to reading some more. But like others said it would be much better if there was some further way of interacting with the NPCs. I'm sure that mod will come one day

yeah a toggle in the options menu would be great. it could just leave the npcs there but not make them noninteractable. unfortunately since people paid so much money for those npcs i doubt they would ever add any interface to hide them.

i see now they have yellow name backgrounds but having to check every npc for that is tedious and also easy to miss since its hard to notice from regular names.

the problem is that it is amateur work. when i pay full price for a game i don't want to read weak fanfic stories from random people (some of them are well written but many are not). im paying for a product by professionals. not to mention they have no relevance to the world and story. maybe if this were a $10 game it would be acceptable.