NPCs needed in all towns even Player run towns.
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As the title says we need to have NPCs in the game. They help towns feel more alive. Even if they just wonder around town saying basic lines it all helps players feel like they are in a move alive and living area. Instead of a table for auction houses put an NPC or even a few NPCs even have them shouting basic lines about stuff being auctioned off, again it all helps towns feel alive. Having NPCs you can stuck up with player made items is an idea but might be a bit more difficult to implement properly. Finally allow NPCs to sell the very basic beginning level items gives the option for people who want nothing to do with crafting an other option. These basic item NPCs will not affect the player economy in any way as people will want to go to a player for better items like the game intent.
Town guards that do nothing but look nice will help a town look alive and lived in. However, giving guards actual town defense abilities and help out in other ways like keeping the base and making town sieges that much hard for the attacker. Towns should be hard to take and any guild that invests in a grand guard should have better defenses.
If nothing else just have NPCs in the game that do nothing but fill out any town. A game with No NPCs makes a game look dead. Do not go down the path of Fallout 76 their first year of full release was a disaster because they thought NO NPCs would work, it didn't and it took them a while to recover even after they put in NPCs.
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Vendors, farmers for hires, even just wandering the town would make it feel alive
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I can be your NPC
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@MalliXX I actually like that idea. It allows the game to look full without taking away the players' ability to evolve the world.
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Although I'm mostly for no NPCs, there are some roles they could fill without overly belaying tge spirit of what FO offers.
Hired farm hands to automate some crop watering chores.
A town Cryer to make town/guild level announcements.
A minder for town level work-benches keeping track of who's mats go in and out.I don't want NPCs selling even basic supplies. All sale items should still be player gathered/crafted. I'm ok with NPCs tgat may buy certain items, especially ones tgat become obsolete later. (Extra Recipes for instance or captured armor/weapon pieces w/o full durability)
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Just add domestic NPC that need to be 'build' by city members just as buildings to make city more attractive. This can also include some unique NPC that require some recipe and rare materials, so having it in the city can prove that social status of the city.
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I like the suggestion for NPCs.
like @GorethMolier mentioned, it would make the world more living.
Especially the Town Cryer and Minder that Doc ( @GamerSeuss ) mentioned I have also in mind.The Town Cryer could be configurable by Governors to tell the people in town about the towns news, status and maybe even history.
Then NPCs for workstations. I would go not per workstation, but one NPC per Workshop who keeps track of the stations in- and outcome and also will have a short instruction to the Workshop itself. (maybe just a link to the houses description.)
I could even imagine an Innkeeper behind the Taverns bar that act like the Marketplace, except you are limited to sell&buy only food related stuff.
This btw. would have a massive immersion on the Marketplace itself, placing NPCs behind every tent and make prefiltered stands. I would even be okay if everything just would be a link to the whole market, because player would not get crowded around the Markettable.Beside NPCs I would like to have the possibility to place signs with editable text.
Of course there has to be limits for the amount of signs per player that can be placed at towns and it's permission level.Like Doc said, NPCs that provide anything not player made, I never want to see in the game.
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The easiest implementation is indeed made around the marketplace.
You can add NPCs to every station, to the bank, to the tavern, shrine... whatever.
Each npc when talked to simply opens the marketplace of that city, and sets the filter to the one specific for that npc. You talk with the barman? You open the marketplace with the filter on food.
Would make a lot for the aesthetic of the game with probably not a lot of effort.
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Totally agree with author. In my opinion - NPCs could bring more sense for PVE side.
NPCs it's part of surroundings. and also could be part of character development (teachers from guilds, wandering masters ) and world exploration(characters from lore, avatars itself, language teachers, treasure maps sellers, riddles masters, storytellers, coachmans etc.).
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I'm with Doc on this, sorry but this isn't a theme park MMO.. Lets keep the sand in the sandbox and let the players decide where to congregate. If the town is doing well and players want to be there, then it will come to life. If the town is poorly located or poorly run, then it should look as such IMO.
