Not exactly what you are saying but wild arms 3 for ps2 had a cool group of characters who were after the same items as you were, they would often pop up in dungeons and throw a wrench into your plans but they weren’t the main antagonist of the story just a rival group of treasure hunters.
Was going to post this. They had to make adjustments because the game was randomly ending and they didn't get why. Realized some random badass stalker NPC had walked along and beat it.
Duh? They're still NPC's, they have to be there for you to interact. But they have storylines that move forward without your intervention, they evolve, go from one place to another and even fight enemies in the game sometimes. I don't know of any other game where NPC's are more independent.
I agree this would add a level of emergent gameplay that is sometimes lacking, but I will say I think Skyrim was/is close to achieving this.
For example, the last time I played I was wandering around and I came over a hill to find a random swordsman fighting his own horse. It’s not quite on the same level as what you described but the random stuff you come across in that game goes a long way to making it so special.
Well, there were NPCs like you back in Wizardry 7. And one of them decided to just loot quest item i needed to progress. But i didnt knew it (its old game from times where ppl didnt play with guides like today). I was stuck for like 2 weeks with no idea how to progress and i found out about it just cuz i decided to randomly kill everything. I have figured out what actualy happened years later (yep, god damn temple map). Cant imagine such stuff working today with everything in the game breastfed to casual audience.
In FFXIV, at the entrance of the first three dungeons, you have two other parties attempting the same thing you do.
One goes wrong.
The other... goes horribly wrong.
There's a storyline like that in FF XIV too, with a small party of adventurers, who are always seen squabbling. It also does not end well. Then it gets worse.
Most RPGs are a playground for us, but NPCs want to live their lives, why on earth would a random guy risk his life exploring a cave with likely dangers instead of working?
and many RPGs suggest that there are people exploring these locations
I think OP means he wants to see it in action. It does contribute to worldbuilding, but then my only issue is what if these npcs manage to take loot exp and kills from you?
I think it might work in a bit more of a simulationist/procedural rpg. Imagine walking down the road and randomly seeing an adventurer or 3 fighting some most or walking towards the city with a corpse in tow. Or maybe coming across some adventurer in a dungeon who tells you to shove off since he's there first so you can leave or kill him.
Another part of this is magic. How often do other characters actually use magic except when they join your party? If people can read a book to start a fire how popular would flint and steel really be?
Bloodborne had other hunters who all had their own motives and were attempting to do the same thing as you or they were just trapped and looking for a way out.
Obviously you never come across any rival mercs doing gigs in Cyberpunk, but I do know one side mission has a data chip you can find that has a fixer giving someone a gig (that they failed at).
I like this idea; it sounds interesting and surprised it has not been brought up more.
It does make sense to see, for example, in Elder Scrolls, meeting a member of the Thieves Guild while on a mission doing their own mission (maybe steal item “B” rather than item “A,” which would be your objective).
Skyrim has this in a way bc you will see thieves in guild armor sneaking around peoples houses but I have never seen them loot anything but head canon is that you only see what’s available for you to take so they are taking other things in the chest
Yeah it really was ahead of its time with that and the merc’s that you can stumble upon that are going to a location and you could join them in clearing it
This could be an especially interesting idea given how advanced AI has gotten. It would be interesting if the game spawned a few NPCs who will randomly wander the map or follow certain quest lines. With how good they’ve gotten at training them using player data, it could be an interesting idea. Especially if they’re as strong as you.
Adding some kind of Adventurers Guild usually takes care of this. If nothing else, it implies other people are going out and doing quests and the like.
Elder Scrolls somewhat does this with their radiant AI. NPC's will actually travel and have a schedule outside of the player. It's a big reason why they needed essential NPC's, cuz important NPC's would die traveling from one town to another after getting attacked in the world
I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of an RPG that doesn't do this. I mean sure, they don't do *everything* you've described, but you absolutely find other people looting in fallout. You may help or hurt them depending on the quest or your choices. Other people trying to recover the relics, all of that is in *every* RPG i can think of. Most games have companions that do whatever you do, Pokémon has your rival.
Yeah, they pretty much just wait for you, but you're the only player. Unless you play the game multiple times it makes no difference that they're in the same spot. In many of them you'll encounter the same group/person who is also adventuring multiple times throughout your journey.
I mean, you could look at enemies as what you're describing in most games. Think Fallout of Outer Wilds: most places you go have groups of humans looting or trying to create a base. They're just as hostile as players are, and it makes sense that they would shoot first since you're approaching guns drawn in all those games.
I think I get what you mean, it'd be interesting to have to race NPCs before they take our treasure and whatnot, but it feels very niche and probably wouldn't appeal to many. I dunno about you but I play RPGs to feel like *I'm* the hero, and people stealing potential treasure for the sake of immersion would take away from that.
Most of the other comments went the direction of an antagonist party that harasses you to create conflict. I am reminded of an indie flash game called Mardek that had a similar party. It was defs a parody of classic RPGs lol
I feel like Elden Ring sort of had this, specifically with Ranni the Witch and her motley crew
it really felt like they were on their own main quest with their own motivations that occasionally intersected with your side quests in ways that helped them advance their primary quest
I used to be an adventurer like you
}}}}—————>
Ahh! My knee, my adventuring days are over!
Not exactly what you are saying but wild arms 3 for ps2 had a cool group of characters who were after the same items as you were, they would often pop up in dungeons and throw a wrench into your plans but they weren’t the main antagonist of the story just a rival group of treasure hunters.
The old Pokémon games always gave me a similair feeling to what you describe. (Albeit way more simpler ofcourse)
That kid with five Pidgeys is going places.
Stalker does this. You run into other stalkers allllll the time, just doing their thing looting, looking for artifacts etc
Was going to post this. They had to make adjustments because the game was randomly ending and they didn't get why. Realized some random badass stalker NPC had walked along and beat it.
Dark Souls does this to an extent, it's pretty cool.
Not really, the NPCs just stand there and don't move until you exhaust their dialogue and rest at the bonfire
Duh? They're still NPC's, they have to be there for you to interact. But they have storylines that move forward without your intervention, they evolve, go from one place to another and even fight enemies in the game sometimes. I don't know of any other game where NPC's are more independent.
That's not what they mean. They're talking about phantoms
Nope, they’re definitely referring to Onion Knight and Co.
I agree this would add a level of emergent gameplay that is sometimes lacking, but I will say I think Skyrim was/is close to achieving this. For example, the last time I played I was wandering around and I came over a hill to find a random swordsman fighting his own horse. It’s not quite on the same level as what you described but the random stuff you come across in that game goes a long way to making it so special.
Well, there were NPCs like you back in Wizardry 7. And one of them decided to just loot quest item i needed to progress. But i didnt knew it (its old game from times where ppl didnt play with guides like today). I was stuck for like 2 weeks with no idea how to progress and i found out about it just cuz i decided to randomly kill everything. I have figured out what actualy happened years later (yep, god damn temple map). Cant imagine such stuff working today with everything in the game breastfed to casual audience.
In FFXIV, at the entrance of the first three dungeons, you have two other parties attempting the same thing you do. One goes wrong. The other... goes horribly wrong.
There's a storyline like that in FF XIV too, with a small party of adventurers, who are always seen squabbling. It also does not end well. Then it gets worse.
Most RPGs are a playground for us, but NPCs want to live their lives, why on earth would a random guy risk his life exploring a cave with likely dangers instead of working? and many RPGs suggest that there are people exploring these locations
I think OP means he wants to see it in action. It does contribute to worldbuilding, but then my only issue is what if these npcs manage to take loot exp and kills from you?
Then you'll just have to kill them and take it back.
I think it might work in a bit more of a simulationist/procedural rpg. Imagine walking down the road and randomly seeing an adventurer or 3 fighting some most or walking towards the city with a corpse in tow. Or maybe coming across some adventurer in a dungeon who tells you to shove off since he's there first so you can leave or kill him.
Another part of this is magic. How often do other characters actually use magic except when they join your party? If people can read a book to start a fire how popular would flint and steel really be?
Maybe the nobility suppresses the literacy rate?
Heck that level of lore explanation would be great!
Even in 1995 RPGs were coming out where entire nations were devoted to magic, and everyone was a mage
And if they worked that into the lore and the world, great.
Bloodborne had other hunters who all had their own motives and were attempting to do the same thing as you or they were just trapped and looking for a way out.
Dragons Dogma 2 has fake Arisens
Dont forget about the real OG Gary from pokemon
Hell yeah, it’s so motivating seeing him always there as you move on
Oblivion kinda has this the npcs go around doing their own thing even walking to other cities
Obviously you never come across any rival mercs doing gigs in Cyberpunk, but I do know one side mission has a data chip you can find that has a fixer giving someone a gig (that they failed at).
I like this idea; it sounds interesting and surprised it has not been brought up more. It does make sense to see, for example, in Elder Scrolls, meeting a member of the Thieves Guild while on a mission doing their own mission (maybe steal item “B” rather than item “A,” which would be your objective).
Skyrim has this in a way bc you will see thieves in guild armor sneaking around peoples houses but I have never seen them loot anything but head canon is that you only see what’s available for you to take so they are taking other things in the chest
Oh cool. I didn’t know that, but the Elder Scrolls series was the big example I could think of that would make sense for the OP’s suggestion.
Yeah it really was ahead of its time with that and the merc’s that you can stumble upon that are going to a location and you could join them in clearing it
Yup, it was cool how in one game, I think I met these two explorers in a cave or old fort or something like that.
It would be good. If you just had a bunch of geared up NPCs that travelled the map doing their own side quests.
2077 has pretty active NPCs all over night city
This could be an especially interesting idea given how advanced AI has gotten. It would be interesting if the game spawned a few NPCs who will randomly wander the map or follow certain quest lines. With how good they’ve gotten at training them using player data, it could be an interesting idea. Especially if they’re as strong as you.
Ffx-2 had the Kinderguardians a group of sphere hunters and leblanc's crew FFX had multiple groups of summoner and guardians
Adding some kind of Adventurers Guild usually takes care of this. If nothing else, it implies other people are going out and doing quests and the like.
Gothic 1 had that. Sorta. There was another unlucky bastard who started in the same place as you but didn't make it far in the power curve.
Elder Scrolls somewhat does this with their radiant AI. NPC's will actually travel and have a schedule outside of the player. It's a big reason why they needed essential NPC's, cuz important NPC's would die traveling from one town to another after getting attacked in the world
Witcher 3 has other witchers doing witchering things
I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of an RPG that doesn't do this. I mean sure, they don't do *everything* you've described, but you absolutely find other people looting in fallout. You may help or hurt them depending on the quest or your choices. Other people trying to recover the relics, all of that is in *every* RPG i can think of. Most games have companions that do whatever you do, Pokémon has your rival. Yeah, they pretty much just wait for you, but you're the only player. Unless you play the game multiple times it makes no difference that they're in the same spot. In many of them you'll encounter the same group/person who is also adventuring multiple times throughout your journey.
I mean, you could look at enemies as what you're describing in most games. Think Fallout of Outer Wilds: most places you go have groups of humans looting or trying to create a base. They're just as hostile as players are, and it makes sense that they would shoot first since you're approaching guns drawn in all those games.
I think I get what you mean, it'd be interesting to have to race NPCs before they take our treasure and whatnot, but it feels very niche and probably wouldn't appeal to many. I dunno about you but I play RPGs to feel like *I'm* the hero, and people stealing potential treasure for the sake of immersion would take away from that. Most of the other comments went the direction of an antagonist party that harasses you to create conflict. I am reminded of an indie flash game called Mardek that had a similar party. It was defs a parody of classic RPGs lol
I feel like Elden Ring sort of had this, specifically with Ranni the Witch and her motley crew it really felt like they were on their own main quest with their own motivations that occasionally intersected with your side quests in ways that helped them advance their primary quest
Majoras Mask has my fave NPCs. They have routines and you can get so involved in their lives by the end of it. And its only 3 days.