Although the lore of Cataclysm tells that 99% of the world’s population is dead or turned into zombies, I think that evac shelters should be full of people. Evac shelters usually are placed next to cities so people should have an easy access to them. Humans feel safe, stable and secure when they are a part of a team. Each NPC at an evac shelter should be friendly and eager to join the player. It may provide more opportunities to trade with them or use them as faction camp’s workers
I’d rather keep the single NPC at the spawning shelter, and 0-5 NPCs at each other evac shelter, some of whom are hostile.
4 Likes
I would agree. IF there were any extra survivors, there’s no reason they’d be excited to join up with anyone… They’re going to be preoccupied with themselves or worrying about friends/loved ones and could just as easily be openly hostile to anyone saying to follow him/her. If anything, a shell shocked survivor who has a 50-50 chance of outright attacking or just sitting there in a crumpled mess about current events leading up to them arriving at the shelter.
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I would love to be able to find around 5-7 NPCs at evac shelters.
Maybe some filled with zombies.
Maybe some where NPC’s are fighting zombies.
What if only the evac shelter that you’ve spawned is filled with NPCs? 3-5 maybe? They could add several fixed early game quests to teach the player how to survive the early-game. Like hunting for food or collecting items on nerby towns.
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NPC backgrounds, which are currently in a PR waiting to get commited, will help this out a bit by having your NPCs talk about their own Evac shelter experiences and giving the idea that a lot of these places were abandoned as death traps early on.
It would still be nice to run into fortified Evac shelters with hostile or friendly NPCs now and again.
5 Likes
My idea is based on the evac shelter in which characters spawn. Random evac shelters with friendly NPCs will act as very simple versions of refugee centers. The difference is enormous due to the fact that a given player will be able to cooperate with 3-6 or even 6-10 NPCs at the beginning of his adventure. If so, NPCs may be VERY helpful
6 is a lot of NPCs in the current paradigm. I might consider adding a fortified evac shelter with static NPCs that get unique dialogue as part of my dialogue update, but we’d be talking about probably a fixed number, two or maybe three I’d think.
There is a lore reason for evac shelters to be empty and devoid of survivors. Would you stay even for a minute if your promised land of an evac shelter stuffed to the brim with all the goodies, food and medical and survival equipment for months, was suddenly just a bluff building over an empty damp basement?
That actually gives me an idea. Like I said, my dialogue update makes it clear why most Evac centers are empty… It would be fun to make the rare “fortified Evac” NPCs talk about how their center was one of the few that actually had a lot of stuff in it.
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