NPCs Should Fear You

[Cowabungaa]

I remember the enemies in RAGE trying to flee or retreat when they noticed they were getting overrun. Pretty well done I must say.

And of course Halo is a good example of it. Shoot a pack of Grunt's beloved Elite leader and they start soiling their pants. Run little ones, run!

 

[Emiscary]

at some point this really should come into play, especially when you're widely known as a mass murder machine (even if you're just murdering bandits)

eventually the city guards should be hesitant to try to arrest you, knowing full well you could start a massacre at any moment if provoked

I'll echo that sentiment with a vengeance. And on a related note, the whole "knowing you could start a massacre at any moment if provoked" thing should definitely tie-in to any existing "intimidate" mechanics in a game. Because I've been sent into frothing rages more than once in an RPG whilst playing a sociopath by a smug NPC telling me *to my face* that I'm bluffing when I say I'll kill them if they piss me off. And here's the thing, when I make claims like this in a game:


I'm not fucking kidding. My default character in Skyrim has an entire wardrobe stuffed to the brim with black soul stones who used to be incredibly stupid people.

 

[Lionsfan]

I think it should also refer to Townsfolk.

Listen up you little chickenshit, I've murdered hundreds of thousands of people for trying to attack me, I've killed a bunch of dragons/trolls/demons, and I have survived it all and gotten stronger. Now show me some respect!!!

 

[DoPo]

You get my point here right? Unless I'm facing down mindless automatons or the criminally insane, my enemies should demonstrate that they value their own lives.

I think the worst part is that they attempt to show that but fail miserably. When I started playing and finally got enough firepower to stand up to an enemy without hesitation (or the need of potions/running/meneuvering, etc) Just some blasts of flame and the enemy was left whimpering on the floor begging for their life. "I yield" was what the guys said. I barely had a scratch on me and the flame spell was ready - it would take my character the same time to flip the guy off or to kill him (and that's an inclusive or there) and he just straight charged at me when he managed to stand on his feet. Despite "yielding". And I was so glad that Bethesda had introduced an "OMG I'm begging for my life, please let me go" mechanic only to be utterly disappointed seconds afterwards.

Yes, the game needs a more realistic AI. My character right now is a stealthy archer. Imagine, if you see your buddy falling dead with an arrow suck in him, then your other buddy, and then your other buddy, and then all your still living buddies start running towards where the arrows most likely fly from, only to fall dead after a few paces. When this is happening, does it make any sense at all to run at the BIG DARK PLACE WHERE SOMEBODY ONESHOTS ANYTHING MOVING or would you rather want to survive? I'll let them go if they wanted, I swear but anything else is classed as suicide in my book.

 

[ChupathingyX]

In Samurai Warriors 2 killing the leader of a squad will cause the rest to run away in fear.

And let's not forget these guys from Spyro the Dragon...

 

[EHKOS]

Ha, I was just talking to someone about how I wanted to show mercy to the Red Faction enemies who run away but right afterward they turn around and shoot you again :/

 

[TrevHead]

I dunno I like the idea of more realistic AI but not at the expense of game play. If enemies forever ducked behind cover, ran away or stopped fighting half way through a battle it would quickly become tiresome.

I think better voice acting and maybe fear used sparingly would be good so that it doesn't brake up the action or flow, or maybe just have the odd cowardly enemy types. I think realistic fear like I mentioned would be better in games where the player feels fear himself. Either fear of dieing because the player doesn't have many hitpoints like in Dark Souls or a full on horror game.

Most of the examples of how fear is used in existing games is good

 

[Entei]

Agreed. Also fix the enemies who try to beg you for their life, Bethesda.
I can't count how many times I almost killed an enemy when they go "Please, spare me! I have a wife and a child to support" etc etc so I let them live then they go "NAO UR GONA DAI!!!!" then I respond by hitting them in the face where they die. I'd prefer it if they get up, and cower in fear in the corner, or don't get up at all.

 

[samaugsch]

The Total War series implements this pretty well. If you decimate enough of an army, the remaining troops will become significantly demoralized and flee. Of course, this can happen to you, too.

 

[RaphaelsRedemption]

In Borderlands, it is implied that the bandits are pretty much insane anyway. That helps the immersion for me. There's just something about how it's set up that helps me slaughter away without fear or annoyance.

...I can't wait for Borderlands 2 *wipes tear*.

 

[samaugsch]

I think NPCs should auto-fear me. In vegas i killed any NPCs i didn't like and ate them.

Yeah, you'd think anyone who catches someone devouring thugs would be like, "Oh shit." and run away. Or at least attempt to kill you without being seen. Also, you'd think the corpses would turn into skeletons after being eaten.

 

[templar1138a]

You want your enemies to run in fear from you, thus depriving you of their loot and the experience from slaughtering them wholesale?

Next I suppose you'll want them to be capable of strategy. Laying ambushes, using hit-and-run tactics, and razing a village for each bandit lair you clean out.

In all seriousness, I can see both sides to this. Personally, I was more annoyed by Skyrim's lack of a New Vegas-style hardcore mode.

 

[templar1138a]

I think NPCs should auto-fear me. In vegas i killed any NPCs i didn't like and ate them.

Yeah, you'd think anyone who catches someone devouring thugs would be like, "Oh shit." and run away. Or at least attempt to kill you without being seen. Also, you'd think the corpses would turn into skeletons after being eaten.

Do you have any idea how much meat is on your average human being from their skeletal muscles alone? I'll give you a hint: Far too much to fit in your stomach.

 

[Moriim]

I'm more frustrated that I can't spare, or at least ignore enemies in Skyrim who say "Stop! I cannot best you!" because 10 seconds later they're insulting my mother and swinging a sword at me again.

 

[Squilookle]

I think FarCry 2 had something like this. Or at least, it said it did. The more quests you did the more renown you got, and higher renown made people recognise you once you got into the fray.

Far Cry 2 jumped to my mind straight away too. That game had a few really annoying immersion breakers with it's NPCs, but this was most definitely not one of them.

In some ways, stalking a bunch of goons and hearing them get more and more terrified as their numbers dwindled was the very best part of the game.

 

[Shadow flame master]

I see that this could work in some games but not all of them. For instance: Kingdom Hearts and their Heartless/Nobodies/Unversed. These three groups of baddies all work for one thing: your death, which is understandable(they wouldn't be baddies if they didn't). However, the nature of them are different from your common bandit/rouge knight, that being that they are single minded in their mission.

Their mission? For the Heartless, it was to seek out and devour hearts, leading to the heart of the world and eating that. They come in swarms from the darkness, and the darkness in peoples hearts, meaning that if someone has so much darkness inside them, they will turn into a Heartless. The problem with this baddy and fear? They don't care if you kill off an entire planet full of them, if there's any darkness inside some one, they will be there. If there are hearts anywhere, they will be there to feed off of them.

The Nobodies I can see having some fear in them, but at the time of KH2, their leader Mansex Xemnas was stronger than them and more powerful than the mobs of white moving bags with zippers that you fought through out the game. They, just like the heartless, are aiming to obtain hearts, but only to be whole again. Since the Nobodies are created when someone loses their heart to a Heartless, they are basically hollow shells wanting to be full of life again. Because of this, their drive to regain their hearts may over-ride their fear of you or their leader.

Now the Unversed, from KH: Birth by Sleep, have no reason to fear you regardless of your planet-killing status. They are essentially made from emotions from the game's big bad's dragon. May I also mention that said dragon is all of the evil incarnate of one of the protagonists. Meaning that they are not only innately evil, they are made from chaotic emotions and only show signs of flat out killing you, or others that got in the way, on the spot. You can argue that since fear is an emotion, and that they are made of emotions, they should also feel some fear, but I could argue that what if the dragon decided not to put any emotion in them that would hamper their people killing behaviors.

I'm gonna end this saying that yes, NPCs in some games should feel some fear and run away when they see your character pop up. However, if the enemies in the game are like the ones that I posted, then they shouldn't feel any fear at all.

 

[Bocaj2000]

In Fallout 3 I would be wearing raider armor. The megaton people don't flinch, and the raiders still hate me.

 

[Lunar Templar]

the newer batman games do this (AA and AC)

City of Heroes KIND of dose this, enemy's will ether flee on sight or take off after taking so much damage, and some of the random non-target NPCs (the citizens) will express 'fear' depending on what missions you do

case in point
Aliceid you feel that? i just walked by Tyrantess and got cold all of a sudden. like i was walking next to the Grim Reaper

random citizen AFTER i had condemned an un-know number of souls (stated several times as 'countless') to 'the void', and i was a good guy

 

[The Great Purtabo]

In Fallout 3 I would be wearing raider armor. The megaton people don't flinch, and the raiders still hate me.

there was a mod released a while ago that fixed that, but yeah, that really pissed me off when I first played the game :/