Larian Studios Forums Divinity: Original Sin 2 Divinity - Original Sin 2 - General "Recycling" NPCs and locations

I think it is sad that most not-main NPCs only have certain roles and mostly short stories, after that they are like forgotten, sometimes we go back to them to trade something and that's it.

For example Esmeralda in DOS: we made the investigation, she was in jail or not, but after resolving Jake's murder she didn't have any more role. And this is true for almost all characters in DOS. Sooner or later they are just empty.

Similarly if we discovered and plundered a location, there is no more reason to go back, even if it was a nicely designed, beautiful place.

Well, sometimes I'd love to see that after many gaming hours we have to go back and speak with an old NPC about something totally new and different from earlier topics, they could move more also, it could be fun to go here and there on the map just to find a moving patrol or traveling people, whatever.

Also it would be cool to find something, a treasure map or another reason for going back to an old location and find something new. Or we have to pick up something from a long fallen foe, similar.

I know, some of these were in DOS in a form or in another, for example the treasure maps, but still..

I know some of this ideas could be hard to implement, but I'd love to go back to old NPCs and have new dialogues with them about totally different topics. That could be much more depth for them.

Recycling is not the exact word for this, but sounds ok.

What do you think?

If recurring NPCs are usefull or not depends on the story. There are base oriented story line (you have a base and from there you go out and solve mysteries, finish quests and other stuff) or moving forward storylines. DOS1 and DOS2 (at least the Fort Joy part) are moving forward storylines. You started at the beach and moved forward from one region to the next. There weren't many NPC fitting for a recurring role, backtracking would have been probably more annoying than enjoyable. Honestly, Esmeralda for example was never really important, outside of being a trader. Even during the quest she was only a false track, a distraction.

Not sure, if you will have any kind of a base in the other part of DOS2, it could be that you will form a of base for operations with the seekers.

Reusing npcs is a pretty significant design challenge because you always have to take into account that at any time, for any reason, the player could kill either purposely or accidentally any npc. It makes it very hard for the player to gauge the consequences of their actions when one person getting snubbed out could ruin not just one but numerous quests. Imagine if one of the npcs in the middle of the starting "town" in DOS2 got caught up in one of the many skirmishes that happens there and that death caused a lengthy quest line to vanish. This is also a problem for the designers themselves as they have a vested interest in you experiencing most of the content they create. IMO, it is better to have a few interconnected npcs that are made clear to the player from the get go. (no spoilers but in both games right off the bat we meet characters that seem to be obviously intended as reoccurring)

It also just wouldn't make a whole lot of sense in most cases for npcs to be moving from town to town. Imagine if Esmeralda, as the OP brought up, suddenly popped up in a later area. They would literally have to come up with some wacko excuse for why she was there and not back in the town in which I personally am less okay with than just accepting that a lot of npcs will not be terribly useful after you have finished your business with them. The alternative is to have the npcs stay in the same place but having new quests or interactions available which is probably the worst option since it creates backtracking issues that would need to be designed around. (ex: some sort of immersion breaking notification system for when people randomly decide they are important to you again)

TLDR: Could it be done right? Yeah. Is it worth the extra design considerations and potentially game-breaking problems it introduces? Probably not.

This is my concern as well. Reusing NPC's and locations is certainly possible, but tricky.

While it would be a player's own fault if they murdered someone and later learned that they were vital for a quest from farther ahead, it would certainly be irritating.

The only NPC I'd care to see come back is Paladin Cork. And I truly do hope that he does in fact return. His presence was a blessing. A boon! The story kinda made me not like magisters, true. But after meeting Paladin Cork, I was inspired! I quested for vengeance! Nary a magister stood on Fort Joy the day that I met Paladin Cork. So great was the slaughter, that even criminals and fauna perished along the way. Truly a battle to behold!