Originally Posted by Zerael
Maybe I would give that there is some point of "inmersion" in seeing them going to sleep in a determined hour every day, but after the first time you see that, don't you feel that they are just robots doing the same things again and again? And even worse, don't you think that schedules directly affect gameplay? I don't care if an hypothetical herb seeker goes or not to do his/her job in a determined hour or day if that interferes with my quests.


I think it's actually more robot-like for them to just stand in the exact same place 24/7 ready to sell me things in the middle of the night (visit the Ars Magicana in Divine Divinity to see what I mean).

I really appreciate day and night cycles. I like games that change the world in the night-time, with different/more powerful monsters lurking, brigands more likely to prowl, or perhaps certain disadvantages/powers given to the player at night.

I don't expect NPC schedules unless I'm playing a game that purports to immerse you in a living world (Gothic, Elder Scrolls, Witcher, Kingdoms of Amalur, Arcanum). By contrast Dragon Age had lifeless towns and static time-of-day based on region. I think Divinity 2 suffered from a lack of day and night too, though not as much.

But more important than NPC schedules is making them really important to gameplay. If NPC schedules just means I have to wait or sleep/meditate somewhere to turn in a quest, then I agree it's just annoying.

Despite the schedules in The Witcher games, most NPC's would still get out of bed in the middle of night to talk, trade and do all kinds of stuff. Some others would tell you to go away or would just be fast asleep. If they weren't at home, then you could still find them out and about and interact/advance quests. Many other quests required meeting characters at a certain place at a certain time of day. It was a decent balance (except for one quest-giver in TW1 that was only in the meeting spot for about an hour each day, and never even told you where/what time to meet him).

In Arcanum, NPC schedules meant that any sneaking, breaking in, searching, or theft, was better done at night while characters were likely to be asleep or elsewhere. Many quests called for night-time antics.