Not so living, breathing world (spoilers)

[Wormerine]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ln_plWALAoI

4:37

 

When Deadfire was pitched one of the features mentioned was a more “living” world. NPCs would have daily routines they would follow. Beyond obvious visual boon, that would play into quest design with areas getting depopulated, various opportunities opening at different times of day.

 

There is a trace of such behaviour in the sidequet available in the beta, where one of the NPCs changes his location throughout the day (home to work to crime scene). However, he doesn’t walk anywhere but rather teleports when not in view. Also he mentions that he goes to the beach at night because no one will se him then, but the beach is just as full as it is during the day. I don’t think I have seen NPCs react to weather either.

 

Do you think NPC behaviour has been seriously downgraded during the development or do you think those are just placeholders and said mechanics are coming back in full game/later beta updates?

[Lamppost in Winter]

I've definitely seen that NPC walking from the beach. Dunno about to.

 

I've seen some cool stuff happen, like people running inside when it rains, or one NPC leaving his post and going fishing if you complete a quest a certain way. There's still some stuff that's not great, like the interrogator standing in front of the prisoner all night, or merchants being available all the time. Hopefully this is just alpha roughness.

 

There's also an absolutely awful line some villagers spout randomly; "Priests are very respected in our society". I really hope that one's just a placeholder.

[ShakotanSolari]

Honestly, I was pretty excited about this feature when it was first announced, I'm the kinda guy who gets bored very quickly of running around the same static town a hundred times and seeing nothing change, anything to liven the place up and make it seem more... natural is good! That being said, the village honestly felt exactly the same to me both day and night, none of the important npc's went home to sleep, the bunch of dudes chillin on the beach at midnight was weird, vektor was still selling his goods (He is a Vailian though, coin is more important than sleep to those guys right?). I hope this is just something that has yet to be fully implemented in this area, or maybe something that will be more noticeable in the larger or more populated areas.

Edited November 29, 2017 by ShakotanSolari

[AndreaColombo]

Agreed. Even when it rains not everyone in Tikawara cover their heads and look for shelter. I hope the feature is improved upon come release.

[Wormerine]

There were people walking, but from what I saw there was a set of static NPC who never moved, and set of “static” more reacting to weather walk-ing NPC.

[daven]

I have the strong suspicion that it's been massively downgraded.

[fable123]

There's probably more to come on this. Also remember that voices haven't been fully implemented yet so we are only getting visual cues in the beta so far. Using the 'wait' feature while in town can help see the changes but I agree with folks that the changes are far and few. I am more interested in seeing the story line depending on the environment, for example, "meet with person X and he/she only comes at night in the woods". Tangentially, it would be cool if night time and rain would affect battle conditions, like decreasing accuracy and slipping on the ground, but that might be stretch on top of everything else that needs to be completed/polished for the game.