I think having NPCs would take away from the atmosphere of the game. The sense of isolation and mystery would just be gone.
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It would be very cool with some sort of outpost’s scattered around the map that have NPC’s in them which you can barter with and get quest from!
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Several topics where players have requested more use for NPCs, merged into one, neat topic.
//Mod
When the world is more fleshed out, perhaps when some time has passed and the Machines really have taken a foothold on the country, I could definitely see active NPC outposts. Could be cool to defend them and such. More quests/missions, like repeatable, would be very cool to see.
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Personally, I would like to have no more NPC’s added.
Reason: one of the unique features of this game was the lack there-off.
IF you got to hear an NPC, he got killed off at some point, brilliant.
For LONG I wondered, am I the only one?
How far is this going?
Is it the whole planet that’s overrun?
Will I ever see another face ALIVE?
That got extremely killed off by the first NPC’s introduced, and nearly made me quit the game, as this unique feature suddenly was destroyed.
I mean, think about it…
You’re racing around for any life form that is not a bird.
Survivors at X?
You head there to see more dead soldiers, maybe police, maybe a civilian.
You there learn, there might be at Y, you rush over there, to see a machine “standing over a fresh kill”.
You hear that radio message… cut off since a machine ended the caller’s life.
That was so amazing, so very Generation Zero…
And then someone figured to bring in NPC’s.
What would it be, that in the next DLC, you get called back to Hjimfall, to help the survivors fight of a new menace, but you just get there to see the hotel in ruins?
Then you’re called back to the FNIX outpost, to help those survivors… but the place is empty, not one person found, only a hint to a new part of map, where these are brought to for whatever reason.
But no matter what… all you get to see… more and much more dead people, or empty places.
That would restore the origins of GZ: the totally lifeless city deserts, inhabited with machines… and nothing but machines…
Are YOU the last one alive…?
But… that’s me.
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That same concept has been used in other games as well and it made the gameplay a lot better. To name the few that came to my mind: Subnautica, The Solus Project.
In those games, there were radio transmissions of survivors and some locations were set up like they were just recently abandoned (e.g burning campfire). This gave the player a hope that they are getting closer and closer meeting other people. But at some point (well into the game), the thought of you being alone started to sink in and as you advanced, the evidence showed gradually that you are completely alone in the game world.
This kind of concept gives hope in the beginning and once you’ve realized that you are alone, then the search for answers (where everybody go) begins.
I, personally, like this kind of concept more than the one we currently have in GZ. I’d rather be the last one alive, figuring out what happened with everyone else, than meeting others and running errands for them.
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Thank you SO much, miss, coming from you this means a lot to me.
You’re basically the lore master, there’s very few you do not know.
Which makes it all the more appreciated. 
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NPCs were a popular request that we already have. A roll-back to NPCs is going to be just as illogical as having them be some sort of Vendor. Y’all are imagining something that I wouldn’t like either, but the concept is similar. The issue is we have to find a way to make it work, since they’re already here… You can’t just make them all leave suddenly and ask for you to forget about them. The co-op or the NPCs can’t make that perfect fantasy or illusion that there’s someone out there anymore, but for them to have needs is human.
Just to be clear, I don’t want vendors and currencies, but favors and trust. It can be mechanically presented as levels to give a sense of progression, but what I really want to see is those NPCs be fleshed out and making sense for them even being there and not dead yet. The cultists are behind bunker doors and aren’t afraid of the machines, often spilling blood… This is where all the silly and illogical melee challenges can go with their respective attire as rewards for being just as insane. Alpine’s survivors don’t want to leave safety, so you can go for food runs and help fortify things more. They’re exposed and FNIX knows where they are, so constantly keeping the area safe and giving them resources would make sense. There needs to be some sort of return or the players are going to whine again, so that’s why titles, attire and visual progression is my request.
It’s a done before concept that I’m taking the least invasive approaches to, since the NPCs are already there. We need ideas to build upon the existing foundation try not compare/remember/copy other games entirely.
The sense of Wonder is gone for those who came so far in the game, but there are more things to wonder about. It’s in the hands of Devs to make the better moves (not entirely the right ones (can’t satisfy everyone)) and carry forward with new incentives/driving forces.
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Sir, the game, main island, had no human NPC’s.
As I stated before.
And made the game very unique!
The ILLOGICAL part was introducing human NPC’s in the first place, sir.
Rolling this back, would be, in every sense of the way, the logical, right thing to do.
I totally fail to grasp this “need” for human NPC’s, for various reasons.
I equally fail to grasp the fact, that the Devs gave in to the request.
It destroyed a LOT of uniqueness to GZ, sir.
What’s next, we move to the US?
We get even stronger weapons?
Or space ships?
Or heck, remove the machines and have dinosaurs instead.
Granted, though, sir… that too would be fairly unique.
Especially if they spoke Swedonianese.
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Totally agree with Xog, I didn’t see the need for NPC’s in this game.
And why is the main island has no survivors while the most heavily guarded and dangerous place on the map have survivors, doesn’t make sense to me.
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Precisely, good sir.
Could someone please tell me, what their thing, their “obsession” even sometimes, is for human NPC’s?
Why are these so important to you, what is it, that they have, that cannot be done as in the original release: through left messages, or radio calls, or…?
Thank you.
I never agreed to NPCs, but they’re here. Stripping away from the game in this already barebone canvas, as someone mentioned, is just damaging. Since you’re bringing hyperbole in to this with space ships, which I had a good chuckle at myself from time time (Rideable UFOs), you can’t really deny something this integrated from the game. I hate melees and challenges. I want a gritty and bleak reality filled with mystery that I get to unravel myself, but I also think of the others with their perspectives. I can’t agree or disagree, on the point you’re trying to make, since at the time it became a popular request… I wished they wouldn’t add it and when it happened, I wished they’d at least do it right. You’re somewhat wrong in thinking we’re obsessing in the NPC implementation.
Right now, if you were to tear away the NPCs and the story of Alpine and FNIX rising, what can you originally bring to the table that’ll completely fix the current gameplay loop? How do you think to introduce something new to bring new engagement and fix the trust you take away from those who requested NPCs and got them. My idea of this all is sectioning those challenges that are just sitting in a tab to make connections to logical and more realistic things. Instead of an UI telling you to kill machines with melees, let it be those cultists that are actually the type to make those sort of challenges… There’s so much more I could tell you, but text is very limiting.
If implementation was done right, you wouldn’t be disagreeing here, so you should try opening yourself up to these concepts. Imagine exploring a cultist member’s coping mechanisms and their beliefs with what’s their perspective in this apocalypse where they choose to go flesh and bone against fuel and steel… You’d want to get in their head to understand how these people cope, how they got so ‘insane’ that they’re out there slaying machines in CQC, but you couldn’t outright do that in a world that’s cold… stringing you on in hopes of finding someone. Besides, you’re a human teenager that’s probably just as nutty at this point. If it was you out there, you’d certainly want to meet humans. Humans are social animals.
I’m open to DM and get us in a call to discuss, because I don’t believe you’re failing to see the reasons, rather are choosing to ignore them to align to something you believe in. We can discuss or argue, as I like both. In private, so to not go against Forum rules.
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Then why is the player still alive? Doesn’t make sense to me. Let’s roll the credits for GZ and wait for GZ 2 
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Well, as I said, the damage was done by introducing these.
Reverting that damage would be the best thing ever, I think…
Yes, another thing that makes me wonder about sanity… 
Gritty, bleak, mysterious… it was that before the NPC’s showed up…
And this will be restored, partially, by removing the NPC’s again.
Naturally, it has to be done through story, not just ‘delete’ them.
Hence the idea I wrote about the missions around their disappearing.
Have us head back to Hjim (new mission, DLC maybe), to find a smoking pile of hotel.
Not a soul around.
Make us go to the FR pit, our “head quarters”, to find it empty…
Let us begin a search for them (never ending of course), and voila…
Problem solved, dear sir.
What I’m trying to say is: EVERYTHING you want can be done… through other means.
Left messages, a radio communication, hell, a telegram from space.
There’s no need for NPC’s, as far as I can tell?
Much of the game’s original uniqueness was the lack of NPC.
This lead, to you looking for answers, for any form of life, but where it had to be… it got taken from you: only more dead no matter where you went to.
Let me restate my question, sir: just what is the “obsession” with human NPC’s.
Why is the urge much larger, than the uniqueness of the game in its original state?
Sincere question, sir…
I TRULY fail to get this.
PS, I DO have to say, you write well, and you motivate well also, sir.
The player arrived in a boat from outside the area and landed on the archipelago which are less mech-infested, from there your right…this player have been downed 53 times on the latest save and still alive and playing 
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@Balla_Jazzuz
Glad you made it sir!!!
Kick some Mech arse for me, will you?
But we were speaking of human NPC’s.
What is your opinion on that topic, sir?
In regard to the original lonely (playing only solo) atmoshere and constant revealing of what had happen I definitely preferred a world without human NPC’s for sure, but I don’t think a reversal of this will be useful or logic unless they dies in an massive attack in future updates…
BTW have taken out about 9000 mechs from this world on this save…feels good to smash them to pieces 
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That’s where my idea came in: being called back, to both “human infested” areas, but only to arrive too late.
They all were abducted by the machines for whatever reason.
Fits perfectly into the story.
Then we are set on a course with as goal to find them, which, in the end, will never happen.
Hop, 9000 killed… only 264’632’477 to go… XD
Congrats, sir!!!
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Agreed, some twist and turns in the story would be nice!
Btw I think a return of some survivors would be nice later on in a future DLC (the last DLC…?)…but this was too soon.
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And with that -
This Can be done, but some again will feel lonely or that the game’s incredibly desolate. Some don’t fall for the simple red herrings of ‘Keep looking for survivors’.
Other people drive these concepts more than others. It’s a bit irritating, but to fight demand isn’t a good move.
Even I think if you read the first mission strings ‘Search for survivors’, it’s BS as it goes ‘Oh, there were survivors here, must’ve gone further’ and ‘Oh they went even further’ at which point it finally broke off to search for what the military knows about the enemy, rather than looking for survivors at the start of the game. The first ‘searching for survivors’ quests sounded cheap… not convincing, then it got interesting, because the player/teen started asking some real questions. This is where the game’s lore and implications accelerated.
This is a point I can wholeheartedly agree on. No discussion here. It had a charm of that, but imagine if you just dig and dig and dig. It’d be a rabbit hole and even you can get tired of That. This is why I can agree on the the disappearance act, but it Has to be done right. My evolution for NPCs would’ve given more gameplay-wise since the game was never lacking in it’s lore. The Lore is amazing, but it was all just shoot and loot. If we remove this idea from the table, if we continue building on this new mystery of disappearance, there need to be other Gameplay solutions added, not story solutions in this case.
I can go at length through voice calls, so if you’re ever interested… I can find time to discuss
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