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Originally Posted by Maple Leafs
Why don't they have NPCs? If I'm understanding things right, it's at least a little bit like Elder Scrolls Online, which is crawling with NPCs. It feels like they just made a marketing decision -- every human you see is a real person! -- and they stuck with it even as it became clear it was hurting the game.
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They were going for an experience similar to DayZ or Rust. I expect an update later on will add maybe Enclave and Brotherhood of Steel NPCs on a limited basis as their way of dipping their toes in and testing how NPCs work in the world they made. Those factions are already in the game and you're able to join them so the world is already built for it.
I feel they wanted PvP to be a significant part of the game and probably felt NPCs may take away from that experience, but PVP just isn't happening. They built a system that's kind of stuck in the middle on PvP and since the risk/reward just isn't there no one is really doing much PvP as far as I've seen. It's like they wanted to capitalize on the popularity of a PUBG, Fortnite, DayZ, and other primarily pvp games but didn't want to alienate their core player base. Instead, they created a system that doesn't really cater to either group.
There are robot NPCs that give quests. I did a quest chain last night that came from one of the robots. The entire quest chain took me a couple of hours and the writing on it was excellent. Experiences like that are why I know I'll get my $45 out of the game, but the potential is there for a lot more if they bend on some design decisions.
The NPC thing isn't what bugs me the most btw. No typed chat system at all really sucks. Voice chat is on by default and is the only way to communicate other than emotes. It's annoying.