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[Bauglir]

I was thinking that Skyrim could do with more excess population. It makes it a bit difficult as a werewolf when every place you attack will probably include someone related to a quest.

Inconsequential NPCs is the mod for you!

[Mech#4]

Heh, foolish of me to think that such a thing wouldn't exist.


It is an advantage of Daggerfall's larger scope I think. The large amount of towns and villages makes more sense. Maybe if the map in Skyrim was increased in size but the number of locations was kept the same. Larger distances between each but it would allow for more bare wilderness. Skyrim can feel rather cramped at times.

Of course a different overland travel would be needed. Faster horses or flying dragon mount to get around. Fast travel as well but that's usually only to places you've been to already.

[Zanzetkuken The Great]

I don't like the whole "essential" NPCs mechanic at all. Morrowind handled it better, I feel - the game would let you kill everyone but warned you when a quest NPC was killed.

Granted, now all NPCs move around and travel, and without some being 'essential', then you could come into a situation where the NPC was killed by a random wilderness encounter, or by a dragon attack on a town.

[Mech#4]

I think maybe part of the essential NPC issue is there's too many labelled as such. In Morrowind I believe it was only NPCs relevant to the main quest who were labelled as essential, whereas in Skyrim NPCs related to quest lines like the Thieves Guild, Companions, Mages Guild and so on are also labelled as essential.

[starscream]

a good way to handle essential npc is to have them fall unconscious if you "kill" them.  and they should stay down until you leave the region.  while they are unconscious, you'll have to option of performing a coup de grace knowing full well that you can break some quest lines by doing so (and even break the main quest, so beware of using this).

[Radiant_Phoenix]

So, basically, "Protected", but with the following changes:

• "Fix" the edge cases that get them killed by non-player effects in spite of that status.
• The player has to deliberately kill them; it doesn't happen by accident.

[Arcvasti]

In the Dragonborn DLC, there's one miniboss Master Neloth sends you to go kill which only dies when you "E" her and select the "Rip her heart out" option from the little menu that pops up. Having a system like that for essential NPCs, except with the "Rip her heart out" option being replaced with "Coup de grace them? This might break one or more quests!" might work. And may even be moddable. The downside is that my game crashed at least once trying to access the little menu thing for the miniboss, so it might not work as well as I'd originally hoped

[Rolan7]

That would be nice.  My current playthrough is using destruction magic among other things, and it's revealed to me just how underpowered that is in Skyrim.  Specifically, I basically can't shoot fire at targets my companion is engaging, because the melee wanders around rapidly and randomly, and the hit-area for spells is weird.  Sniping with bows was no big deal (at close ranges).

Because the companion AI being a suicidal nincompoop has no consequences unless I brush them with my fire magic, in which case they're permadead.  It's... kinda arbitrary and weird.  There were situations in a recent quest dungeon where my companion went down on a long walkway, and was keeping the enemies from getting past.  The enemies were able to shoot and cast over him, but I killed him a couple times with spells.  I eventually pulled out a bow I was only carrying for loot value, and sniped them with 2-3 arrows.  15-ish marksmen skill. 

I swear, in vanilla Skyrim, Marksman and Alchemy are both flipping overpowered.  (yes, I know alchemy was infinitely better in Morrowind heh...)

[Arcvasti]

Never really used Alchemy much in Skyrim. Wasn't my kind of thing. And even my largest binges only raised Alchemy by 1-2 each time. Usually I just eschew companions altogether. I will agree Destruction is underpowered mid-late game, at least until you get good enough gear to cast the best spells with little/no mana costs.

[KingofstarrySkies]

I need to get the DLC. D:

[Mech#4]

The companions in Skyrim (Uh, A.I followers, not the fighters guild) are a fiddly issue. One the one hand if you make them vulnerable to damage I don't tend to take them because they die to traps, enemies or my own flailing. On the other hand, if they're immortal you can sit back and let them handle the situation.

A resurrection system, or maybe recuperation period (since I don't think resurrect really exists in "The Elder Scrolls") where your follower is out of commission for a period of time (Possibly shortened by your skill in restoration) might work. You could visit them in your house of the temple to heal them with spells or potions.

At the risk of making it too complicated, the followers could accrue injuries until a limit where the next downing kills them. The injuries could be cured by random quests to find a specific cure item in a dungeon somewhere.

[Sergius]

I don't like the whole "essential" NPCs mechanic at all. Morrowind handled it better, I feel - the game would let you kill everyone but warned you when a quest NPC was killed.

Granted, now all NPCs move around and travel, and without some being 'essential', then you could come into a situation where the NPC was killed by a random wilderness encounter, or by a dragon attack on a town.

Alternatively, have named NPCs not be attacked by random dragons and animals. That's what guards are for (add nameless respawning townies if that's really an issue).

[Nighthawk]

I like using Knockout Overhaul to deal with the weird NPC immortality conundrum.

It also comes with the added bonus of being able to knock people out and take their stuff without actually killing them or risking a failed pickpocket attempt.

[Knick]

I just restarted Skyrim.  I have only been playing it for a little while, since I got it during the Steam Sale.

My first character was a Nord (of course) who specialized in hitting things hard with a two handed Flawless Skyforge Steel sword of frost.  I tried to be a good guy--I really did--but wound up a bit of a cannibal while pursuing the Oblivion Walker achievement.  But no problem!  I can make good by assassinating everyone who knows my secret, and use Eola to get the ebony mail, that'll make up for killing Verulus, right?  Right?

So, overcome with guilt, I restarted.  This time, I had chose an Altmer named Drogo (since I made him look like Kal Drogo).  I have decided that he will be a bit of a bastard, specializing in magic, stealth, assassination, and thievery (last time, I destroyed the Dark Brotherhood).  I am looking forward to killing as many NPC's as possible.  I am probably going to start with Sven, once I have leveled a bit.  I will say it was strange walking to Windhelm and not being able to stop off to visit the girls in Breezehome.  I am also kind of avoiding Sofia.  It feels awkward since I can't adopt her.

I'd suggest getting a mod that lets you deactivate protection for vital characters without flat-disabling it all the time, otherwise you'll be spending a lot of time with the console.

Yes, I'm still on that kick about how the "Thieve's" Guild cut-rate mafiosos all need to die terrible deaths.

Still playing as a High-elf mage/sneak.  I was disappointed to see that Bulethor was killed by a vampire attack.  I do not like Bulethor, and was looking forward to killing him myself.  He bothers me.  However, this means I am lacking a ready buyer of goods.  I do not want to have to travel to Riverwood every time I want to sell a necklace.

Trying to decide what to do next.  I have managed a few dungeon crawls.  I tried a sneak and snipe on a bandit camp, but failed. DId a frontal assault with Uthgerd, and that went well.  Frostbite is very effective.  Also, I really like Uthgerd.  Her voice is much less annoying than Mjoll's.

As an Altermer, I feel I should sow as much chaos as possible.  I think that would require that I support the Stormcloaks.  At the same time, I don't want them to be too strong, so when I have leveled up a bit, I might try massacring some of the encampments.  Is it possible to kill sick people as well?

[Rolan7]

I know you can kill them as a werewolf anyway 
If you get the "Fence" perk from speech, you can sell stolen goods to any merchant you've invested in.

And yeah, screw the "thieves" guild.  I want to steal things, not threaten peoples' families.  More a criticism of the faction than of the game, it makes sense that a bunch of desperately poor criminals living in a sewer would resort to such means.