A suggestion, if this is ever updated again.

[meo]

On the first continent every single town has a ridiculous, unnecessary number of NPCs in most every single room. A twitch streamer tried to talk to them all at first, only to realize many of them said nothing of interest and those that did said more or less the same thing. Even shops were giant on the inside and had about 20-40 people in them.

If it's updated, shrinking the size of these rooms and squeezing all the NPCs inside into 2-3 relevant NPCs might be a good idea. So people don't get burned out and give up on talking to NPCs altogether.

The second and third continent are much better about this, with more realistic sized houses / buildings and fewer NPCs.

[DJC]

I completely agree the vast majority of NPC characters wandering around towns are worthless, and that map designs for cities are poor at best. Lazy design and developer disinterest.

If I did a complete remake then I would address the mapping, NPC placement and volume issues. Every town ought to have a relevant place in the main plot or meaningful side quests. All NPCs should have a specific function and unique identity. This would take an enormous amount of time, though.

I had smaller plans for an update, writing lore appropriate dialog that NPCs would randomly or sequentially respond with according to their location and function. Most houses would be locked and empty. Players could unlock buildings with Keen's abilities, then steal any valuables.

[AU]

Don't swing the pendulum to far in the other direction. It's perfectly fine to have a bunch of NPCs that serve no real purpose other than decoration, as long as it fits the scene. Having 20 people in a little farm town smithy is as nonsensical as having 3 in what is supposed to be the imperial capitals main business district.
Better to have the important ones stand out in some other way, be it special sprites or some sort of marker.

In a realistic world, not everybody you meet is going to have anything to do with your personal quest or even be relevant to you. Sometimes you just come across Peasant #234834 who doesn't affect your life any more than you affect his.

[DJC]

Jun 7, 2016 14:09:06 GMT -5 AU said:

Don't swing the pendulum to far in the other direction. It's perfectly fine to have a bunch of NPCs that serve no real purpose other than decoration, as long as it fits the scene. Having 20 people in a little farm town smithy is as nonsensical as having 3 in what is supposed to be the imperial capitals main business district.
Better to have the important ones stand out in some other way, be it special sprites or some sort of marker.

In a realistic world, not everybody you meet is going to have anything to do with your personal quest or even be relevant to you. Sometimes you just come across Peasant #234834 who doesn't affect your life any more than you affect his.

Making changes to city inhabitants and maps was cut from the pending update. It would be too much of a massive overhaul, and the time was better invested elsewhere. The important NPCs (recruitable) all show up in the Finder Display pop-up upon entering their city at least.