NPCs with faces

[Watcher]

I'd welcome faces and voices for NPCs.
The text does work well though and keeps things somewhat less cluttered so I'm not convinced jettisoning it would be a good move.
My feeling at this point is that keeping the text as is makes sense but this can then be expanded upon. Perhaps the ability to open up further dialogue options in missions by contacting the vendor, you could negotiate a high price perhaps or beg to be given a chance at a lower price point? This would be a good place to add faces and voices and is also a reasonable sort of starting point for persistence NPCs. Could consider adding these people to your contacts list at a station if you've had a few interactions...
For ship to ship perhaps the ability to open up comms for extended dialogue options as well, this could then open up a bigger video link etc etc but still retain the text for simple comms and wing command options (I assume we are going to need these fairly soon).

 

[rdizz]

Yes please.

 

[Arubeto]

well, personally I like the text only style while your flying through space. But, they could add voices. But, only when you accepted the missions otherwise it wouldn't make sense. I mean you are accepting these mission via bullet board.

Yes, that's why Zustiur was against NPCs faces at least at bulletin boards, too, i think.

But there are many other occasions where they could greatly improve the atmosphere and character of the game:

- stills / pictures in GalNet news of important lore characters (Emperor, his "stupid" son, the president of the Federation, etc.), i.e. "Tier 1" NPCs
- portraits of authority pilots in comms in open flight - could be using a jet fighter pilot helmet like the one I posted a few posts above to avoid the need for individual portraits for every cop
- research personal in doctor's overall on science outposts, shady figures as black market contacts etc. etc.
...

 

[Zvanya]

My guess is that the current mission interface is a placeholder while they work on a proper one with NPC's.

 

[Arubeto]

My guess is that the current mission interface is a placeholder while they work on a proper one with NPC's.

If they are indeed, why can't they just tell us so? Then I could finally stop whining...

 

[Arubeto]

I'd welcome faces and voices for NPCs.
The text does work well though and keeps things somewhat less cluttered so I'm not convinced jettisoning it would be a good move.
My feeling at this point is that keeping the text as is makes sense but this can then be expanded upon. Perhaps the ability to open up further dialogue options in missions by contacting the vendor, you could negotiate a high price perhaps or beg to be given a chance at a lower price point? This would be a good place to add faces and voices and is also a reasonable sort of starting point for persistence NPCs. Could consider adding these people to your contacts list at a station if you've had a few interactions...
For ship to ship perhaps the ability to open up comms for extended dialogue options as well, this could then open up a bigger video link etc etc but still retain the text for simple comms and wing command options (I assume we are going to need these fairly soon).

Yes, I definitely agree. Even if we don't see any persons with faces until the first person space and planet walking expansions hit, having interactive NPCs with dialog options would add immensely to the atmosphere of the game!

 

[Aquila Oculus]

I miss the personality of Elite 2. +1 for faces, would go some way to combating the lack of "soul".

 

[Mr Duffo]

imagination land

 

[Arubeto]

I can totally see that FD doesn't want to make the effort of implement visuals for NPCs twice, once now and then again when we need fully implemented 3D models of the characters once the first person extensions hit, but doing something ASAP about the total lack of personality of the current ships/mission givers/NPCs is mandatory, IMHO.

 

[mattensky]

I can totally see that FD doesn't want to make the effort of implement visuals for NPCs twice, once now and then again when we need fully implemented 3D models of the characters once the first person extensions hit, but doing something ASAP about the total lack of personality of the current ships/mission givers/NPCs is mandatory, IMHO.

I 100% agree with the need for NPC faces/more meangingful interaction - the game feels sterile and odd with the lack of human contact. I hope that we see it in one of the earlier updates - aside from bug fixes I personally think it should be a priority. Best of luck with your campaign

 

[Armour]

They should have the logo of the organisation/faction giving you the job (a question mark for mystery employers), and maybe some kind of small icon depicting the type of mission, so that you can see at first glance if anyone needs to get whacked in the process, or if you will get any moolah as a result.

NPC faces will be fun for about 10 minutes, and occasionally if a particularly awful one shows up (like that Pioneer game seems to specialise in). I'd rather they have some people visible in the stations and the other ships first, but maybe way down the line once we can all walk around our ships (and get blown up because we got lost while an interdiction happened) they can implement PG faces for the bulletin board.

 

[DYSEQTA]

Every clickbait troll thread like "Yaw is awful, I want a refund" gets tons of replies, but a thread that actually tries to make some constructive suggestion like this one is left to starve.

Do I really need to bump this thread myself until it gets some attention? Is noone else interested in the topic? Should I use more angry smilies and words written purely in capital letters in the thread title?

I am very interested in this. However, there is a fundamental problem with this topic. They won't show faces of any kind until their character creator is done. The character creator won't be done until the expansion involving players being able to interact as their characters, as opposed to ships, is done.

We can post wishlists for character creators all we want but nothing is going to speed up the representation of humans in Elite short of Frontier finishing (have they even started?) their character creator.

That said the current best in class, that I am aware of, are:

• EVE
• APB
• Black Desert

I put them in that order because although Black Desert's creator is quite spectacular in its flexibility it is also quite stylized. APBs creator has an awesome library of features to chose from. However, EVE's creator in my opinion still produces the best overall results when in the hands of someone with skill and an eye for detail. EVE's creator provides respectable realism whilst avoiding the "Uncanny Valley".

I guess the ultimate creator would involve EVE's shaders and animation for body parts, APB's level of customisation content, and Black Desert's physical feature sculpting capabilities.

 

[celebroom]

I think that faces here and there would add character. The game is quite sterile in that regard. Commanders are just ships, bulletin boards are just that... Text. And why in heavens name is nobody else required to pilot these massive vessels? No crew, nadda. But then, Rome wasnt built in a day and I know its supposedly "coming". One day... The underlying theme is that this game needs a bit more life. Didnt artwork show people roaming about the station at some point? The planets also look like they're all completely untouched by civilization For me, this emptiness breaks immersion in a big way. I expect space to be empty and bleak, but where there are these massive stations or planets supposedly inhabited by billions, I expect more than what we have.

Just my two credits.

 

[Arubeto]

I am very interested in this. However, there is a fundamental problem with this topic. They won't show faces of any kind until their character creator is done. The character creator won't be done until the expansion involving players being able to interact as their characters, as opposed to ships, is done.

We can post wishlists for character creators all we want but nothing is going to speed up the representation of humans in Elite short of Frontier finishing (have they even started?) their character creator.

Yes, you're right. That's what I realized, too. But still, it's good to see that others are interested in getting some personality in the NPCs as well, at least.

That said the current best in class, that I am aware of, are:

• EVE
• APB
• Black Desert

I put them in that order because although Black Desert's creator is quite spectacular in its flexibility it is also quite stylized. APBs creator has an awesome library of features to chose from. However, EVE's creator in my opinion still produces the best overall results when in the hands of someone with skill and an eye for detail. EVE's creator provides respectable realism whilst avoiding the "Uncanny Valley".

I guess the ultimate creator would involve EVE's shaders and animation for body parts, APB's level of customisation content, and Black Desert's physical feature sculpting capabilities.

I didn't know APB, thanks for mentioning it.

For others that aren't familiar with the game, here is a video of the character creation tool:

[video=youtube;M3JT2O3d9OM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3JT2O3d9OM[/video]

And even Biowares character customization for Mass Effect 1 holds up pretty well for a 2007 (!!!) video game:

[video=youtube;8o0iuDNcM-c]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o0iuDNcM-c[/video]

Tbh., all of the proposed character creation tools would be fine with me, some better then other perhaps, but all are better than just having text boxes to talk to.

And like

 

[Arubeto]

They should have the logo of the organisation/faction giving you the job (a question mark for mystery employers), and maybe some kind of small icon depicting the type of mission, so that you can see at first glance if anyone needs to get whacked in the process, or if you will get any moolah as a result.

That's a pretty good idea. But since there is such a huge number of organizations and factions (and hence they or their names were procedurally created, too), the devs could never provide original and convincing symbols for all of the thousands of factions in game. Perhaps we could have just one more step in the class hierarchy. So instead of just having symbols for the main factions - Empire, Alliance and Federation - all their sub-factions could be grouped into larger clusters (by region, government type or whatever) and then at least those clusters could receive handmade symbols?

NPC faces will be fun for about 10 minutes, and occasionally if a particularly awful one shows up (like that Pioneer game seems to specialise in).

Tbh, I don't believe that the faces will get boring so soon, if done right. Even in Mass Effect (which was so far ahead of it's time regarding it's face rendering), where all male and female characters apart from the main characters shared a lot of facial features and looked like they'd all be very close relatived, it was fun until the end of the game and still added so much atmosphere long after you saw all the different face archetypes. Just strolling around the citadel was quite a unique experience, not just because of the great ambiance, but because of all the characters that populated it!

I'd rather they have some people visible in the stations and the other ships first, but maybe way down the line once we can all walk around our ships (and get blown up because we got lost while an interdiction happened) they can implement PG faces for the bulletin board.

That's a scenario I'd be very much looking forward to as well, and I really hope FD will leave room for the player to take the risk of living the ship with noone at the helm and then getting interdicted without being able to evade. It would add such a great aspect of freedom to decide on your own if you prefer to play it save and remain in your seat while in SC (or, instead, assign a friend or NPC crewman with the task of taking the helm until you return, if that will ever be possible) or if you take the risk to have a look at your precious goods in the cargo bay.

 

[Arubeto]

Every time I stumble about some screenshots of old games with even the most simplified bitmap representations of NPCs, the lack of faces / persons / characters in ED becomes really apparent. Hell, even Star Control 2 back in 1992 had NPCs and they were awesome! The galaxy became alive thanks to them (the game was great anyway, but the NPCs just added to it's greatness!):



Edit: and right next to it the new HD remaster of Ur-Quan Masters:

 

[Arubeto]

Ok, I can see that we probably get real NPCs/characters/persons/faces into the game with the first expansion that let's us leave our pilots seats and wander around ships, stations and planets to interact with those characters. Otherwise such an extension would be pointless, right?
But what about at least giving the faceless NPCs (if you can really call them that) which are in the game already some more options to interact with them? At least some very basic dialogue options like if you want to sell stuff to the Luxury goods buyer in his Lakon 9 or not. Right now you sell your stuff automatically when coming within a 300 meter range around him, if I understand it correctly. Why not at least add him to the contact tab so you can hail him and then decide between "sale stuff" and "abort"? Or even some additional dialogue options just for vanity reasons? Please, please, FD, give us some options to interact with the people that are supposed to populate this impressive galaxy you build!

 

[Timech187]

I'd like some faces too please.

Would be great to add personality to the game.

 

[Arubeto]

Ok, apparently I am not the only one who mourns the absence of actual NPCs/persons in the game. Apart from the feedback in this thread, there are many other threads in which the users state their wish to interact faces instead of text paragraphs:

starjump argues that at least the faction leaders / tier 1 NPCs should have faces / appearances that we could relate to:
"Suggestion: Portraits of the rulers and other VIP's"

The result of Fnools poll speaks a clear message: two thirds of the commanders want NPC faces!
"Was the lack of NPC faces a good idea?"

maboleth reminds us of the human touch that the portraits in "Frontier" gave the game:
"People faces like in Frontier"

astrologos voices the same complaint:
"NO full motion video character faces at stations? Even simple pictures?"

And one more from ARZUMATA, mentioning the same strange discrepancy of having NPC faces in a game from 1995, but not in it's successor from 2015:
"Depersonalised station services..."

And there are many more threads like these:

"Not a single visible human or other lifeform anywhere..!"

"It's all a bit... Soulless"

"faceless , human Alien FREE game"

"Player interactions with NPC / missions, dialogs and faces"

"FD, please make the game more personal!"

...

There is no shortage of users requesting NPCs with faces and interactions, I could go on and on with this list. These threads go back as far as early beta or even alpha, and people were still clinging to the hope that FD might just wait for the first release version to show there shiny NPC characters, but no, we are still interacting with menus and text paragraphs, only.

I am not even demanding to see those NPC faces immediately, but couldn't the developers at least give us a statement about their NPC plans for the future? Is that really asking to much?

 

[Arubeto]

Even that pretty limited character creater in Destiny would already go a long way to add personality to the game:

[video=youtube;2FtYyhK1HWU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FtYyhK1HWU[/video]

Or take that from Dragon Age: Inquisition, more than adequate for the task at hand:

[video=youtube;nZilJMncZ6g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZilJMncZ6g[/video]

Most of those games get it right, and it doesn't seem to be such an huge undertaking that FD wouldn't be capable of doing something similar.