I really like the way Vandraad thinks about faction overall. And I love the webbed metaphor.
I never minded seeing opposing races in familiar towns and cities fighting (Trolls vs Elves), but I'm against killing necessary NPCs. They might create content where separate NPCs may spawn for those types of interactions, leaving the vendors, quest NPCs, etc. out of that complication.
I loved everquests ability to kill anything in game, not sure ive ever seen a game with that... and with that, being able to faction with baddies was awesome. Would love to see more depth to non playable races having quests if you faction with them by going against a playable race.. for instance killing elves to befriend the orcs for some unique reward
I know some people find all NPCs being attackable makes the game feel more open and believable. I find the opposite to be true: it draws attention to the artificiality of the game and its rules for these reasons.
As long as quest (or dialogue) NPCs are phased and give no exp or loot when killed I'm indifferent. Having phased (only interactable with a player flagged to interact with them) NPCs is relatively easy, and having it yeild no loot or exp nullifies the ability to "farm" the NPC for any beneficial reason, but allows them to be killable if the player really wants to kill them - and it doesn't negatively impact other players' experience because they all have their own phasing for key NPCs. This obviously shouldn't apply to content designed to be contested, but only key NPCs that killing would only grief other players.
A a fun example of phasing for quests could be if a quest (designed to only be completed once for a special reason, like epic quest) required a player to collect the head of an NPC, the character that looted that NPCs head would no longer see that NPC as long they had the head in their inventory/bank (even if the NPC respawned X hours later)... because to your character, that NPC is beheaded. For something like that it would be important to have it be for a quest that only a specific class needed due to the fact that at least one character would no longer be able to interact with the NPC once defeated until finishing the quest, but it would make for a fun mechanic - as well as reduce camping with the intention of monopolizing a quest NPC (while potentially promoting camping to help people that need the quest NPC defeated for the head).
Add: I didn't say that all NPCs should be phased, just very key ones (like a Banker, class trainer, or important quest/perception NPCs that if killed would do nothing other than diminish the game experience for many others). The alternative would be to just make them invincible, or give them some "death touch" mechanic... which is kinda lame (why are we playing as "heros" when the banker can slay a dragon by touching it or kill all of the king's guards because they're invincible?).
Counterfleche said:I know some people find all NPCs being attackable makes the game feel more open and believable. I find the opposite to be true: it draws attention to the artificiality of the game and its rules for these reasons.
- I can't assist the NPC due to no PvP so it feels very unheroic for my character to stand by and watch someone getting murdered.
- To balance it, NPCs need to be very challenging. This only makes sense for a small minority of them. Most of them should be far weaker than our characters, after all we are the ones out adventuring, so if we struggle to defeat random villagers it breaks immersion.
- They respawn, further making the game world feel artificial and unchanged. Nothing changes, aside from some minor delay. It's as if every NPC is Teddy Roosevelt (or his son).
1. We should totally be able to assist those NPCs that are being attacked, no question.
2. Maybe the more vulnerable NPC quest givers could be further inside cities, harder to reach, surrounded by guards which are much more challenging. The weak ones could stay weak that way.
3. Respawning is a limit to the realism, but worth it for the radical free-for-all that makes the world feel much more alive, imo.
"1. We should totally be able to assist those NPCs that are being attacked, no question."
One way to solve that is to make the cities PVP if the faction you are on isn't up to the lvl it should be. The faction in question should be on "KoS" not dubious of course,
but an ogre that walks into an elven city should not be surprised if the heroes of said city go and try to elminate the threat that might put into danger the unarmed citizens.
I am against PVP in general, and I don't see a reason why you should be authorized to kill enemy races outside in the wild world... in a city however...