The Density of NPCS in Starfield vs Older Bethesda titles

 

How alive will the NPCS be in Bethesda's Starfield?

The greatest space RPG to come out in the video game industry is almost upon us and I have been replaying some of Bethesda's older classics to see how the density of NPCS was done.

I have haven't played any Elder Scrolls titles before Oblivion, but I am aware that Morrowind's NPC density was about the same as that game. Towns were reasonable in size, but they were not overcrowded at all. 

When we look at a game like Oblivion, we can clearly see that the developers were interested in making the cities as realistic as possible for a game that was running on the Xbox 360 and later the PS3. It is important to remember that this generation of video games had games such the introduction of the Assassin's Creed franchise, which had tons and tons of npcs walking around. Its cities were dense and filled with life. These weren't really NPCS that you could interact with, but these games were incredibly realistic compared to the games that came out a decade earlier when video games were transitioning from sprites to polygons. Daggerfall and Arena were incredibly ambitious games and pushed the boundaries of that generation of video games. After Daggerfall, we notice that the size of the game starts to decrease in size. 

It understandable why this happened. Ambitions get too big and its time to scale back.

In Oblivion in particular, I notice there are several things going on with the liveliness of the cities in the game. In comparison with Assassin's Creed games that came out, it is clear that the cities in Oblivion are a lot emptier. Of course, there is a lot more going on with Oblivion's NPCS than in the cinematic Assassin Creed games, so one can state that the developers were simply being careful with using their limited resources.

Cities like Bravil, Skingrad and Bruma are especially empty looking. However, the Imperial City, generally speaking, has more npcs running around, most noticeably in the Market district of the Imperial City.

One looks at Oblivion now and compares to games like Cyberpunk 2077. It is clear that Oblivion was limited by the technology of the age. Cyberpunk 2077 has tons of npcs but it has a major deficiency in comparison; the intelligence of the npcs. I am still amazed at how alive the NPCs are in Oblivion, even if they do have memable moments that make everyone laugh at them. I just love going into a building and just start walking around and staring at the npcs just to see what they are up to. It is one of my most favorite parts of the game. 

When we look at the Fallout games, we see that Bethesda is very interested in making its npcs come alive rather than adds tons of them. We see in Fallout 3 that the smoking animations were in there. However, the npcs had many of their radiant conversations toned down, probably because Bethesda didn't want any more embarrassments. However, one thing that remains the same is that the npc density is largely the same. Cities like Rivet City and Tenpenny Tower tend to focus more on character rather than density and numbers of NPCs.

Skyrim came after Fallout 3 and its cities are incredibly boring and lacking in character and density. The only city of real note was Solitude and if I am being generous, the next city that comes even close is the city of Whiterun, which most players go to. It is not surprising that Bethesda spent more effort on Whiterun than any other city in the game. Most of the other cities in the game are not even cities but are more like villages that lack walls or fortifications to protect them from various attacks. This is probably one of Bethesda's worst efforts I have seen in terms of trying to make cities. 

Fallout 4 continues in the great tradition of continuing to make cities incredibly small and lacking in any attention by the NPCS in the cities. These cities, if you can call them that, are incredibly small and lack much character. The only settlement that has any character is probably Vault 81 in the game, as it makes sense from the standpoint of the lore and the gameplay. However, this game was truly a disappoint when it came to depicting cities in post-apocalyptic Boston. While graphically and stylistically, this game was better than Fallout 3, it seems it fell short when it came to creating vibrant and beautiful cities that made the player want to live in them. 

As I look at some of the other games in the Bethesda library like the Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76, it is clear that Bethesda knows how to make large cities that are truly works of art and inspire the imagination but the cities need to have lively npcs that are able to make it seem like you have been transported to another world. That is what I want to see. 

Hype builds for Starfield and its AI.

The anticipation for Starfield is huge and Bethesda has been working on it for many years. I believe that the team has every right to be proud of their great achievement. They have made something that would utterly tire out other development teams. However, I hope that they paid special attention to making sure that the cities are filled with life and have diverse set of characters and situations. While I like the evolution of their usage of AI in their games, In hope that the AI provides an experience that we haven't seen before.

What I do not want to see is a Cyberpunk 2077 redux with fancy graphics and yet idiotic ai. Here is what I want to see in each major cities in the game.

New Atlantis: This one reminds me of the Imperial City in Oblivion but on a much grander scale. I hope that the AI in this city eludes the ethics and ideals of the space republic that Bethesda has said that the United Colonies represents. 

Akila City: This is a futuristic version of a Wild West town, and I hope that the inhabitants of this city repersent the ideals of the Free Star Collective.

Cydonia: It will be interesting to see how Bethesda conceives of how people act on Mars in the future.

Neon: This is probably my favorite city and I want to see how Bethesda handles all the corruption and cyber runners in the city.

While we are not sure about all the cities in the game, I believe that these are going to be main ones. We should be on the lookout for what other types of settlements that we can find in the game.

Starfield will prove to be one of the greatest games ever made. However, what I hope is that the AI is livelier than their previous efforts have shown. Even though the AI in previous games has been rather disappointing, I believe that Bethesda has made strides in making their AI more and more intelligent, but I hope that Starfield is truly the game that will allow for players to live in a living breathing virtual environment that is unlike any other. That is my hope for this game when it gets released on August 31 in a couple of days from now.