NPC Renaming
I should be able to rename my companion NPCs or at least give them a nickname. NPCs have random names, but I still occasionally run into (and recruit) several people named TonZa or Alphai or even Dusk Gao. Having two or more companion NPCs with the same name can get quite confusing.
Mission Enhancement: Show Questgiver’s Name
I’ve got several missions from each of my NPC companions. It would be nice to tell if this “Kill 100 Zombies” mission came from a NPC named FrozenFoxy or a NPC named Gattsu or someone else without having to talk to every single companion I have.
Muzzle Flashes
For some reason, muzzle flashes in CDDA aren’t simulated. I fire a gun at night without the muzzle flash briefly illuminating me, but a laser rifle at night gives away my position. I suggest having guns briefly illuminate whoever’s shooting (Whether its the player, a NPC bandit, a turret,etc) for a short amount of time (one turn?), but the muzzle flash shouldn’t be light up an entire football field. Muzzle flashes could be reduced or eliminated with suppressors or flash hiders.
More bleeding
Turret filling me full of lead? NPC Bandit placing a rifle bullet between my eyes that I just barely survive with a sliver of health left? Impaled with a knife spear to the chest? I don’t bleed. It feels weird to get shot or stabbed a bunch of times and not bleed. I can’t even take a bullet to the gut and die a slow, painful death, nor can I do the same to an NPC. Bullets, knives, and spears causing bleeding would be nice. I’ve never seen them do that.
Special injuries
Liberal Crime Squad had a special injury system where teeth could get knocked out, eyes could get destroyed, neck bones and spines could shatter, and lungs, livers, stomachs, kidneys, spleens, etc could get injured. If Cataclysm had something like this (But toned down in some areas, since in LCS you can blast someone’s entire face away or shoot someone’s tongue off, which sounds ridiculous), injuries would have more of a long term effect other than “Massive amounts of pain and having less hit points”.
Something would probably have to be done for the sake of gameplay, though. This would probably be too difficult to play with if it gets in without any adjustments, like somehow recovering from special injuries (Maybe with the Regeneration mutation, or first aid kits having a random chance to heal special injuries).
Throwing From Ground
I should be able to throw stuff from adjacent tiles. I can already activate and read books from adjacent tiles, so why not throw stuff?
NPCs Using Their Skills
In Fallout 2, your party members had skills of their own and could even do things for you (Picking a lock, for example) if their skills were higher than yours. In Cataclysm DDA, your companion NPCs have skills of their own, but can’t do anything requiring a “skill check” for you. The guy following you with actual skill in hacking computers will gladly stand by and watch you fail at hacking a computer.
NPCs with higher skills should offer to handle certain tasks (Hacking, lockpicking, safecracking, etc) for you.
NPC Tactics: Hit and Run
NPCs aren’t that smart when it comes to zombies and melee combat. They just stand there exchanging blows with the zombies rather than doing what the player would do, which would be to smack the zombie and run.
Locking Doors
[c]lose a door from the inside to lock it. Useful for when an angry NPC is chasing you and you want to hide inside a gunstore or something.