Highlights and Names above heads ? (Dev) Replied

While watching the gameplay-videos of SotA I was wondering: Richard Garriott said that he wants to do away with all of the things like questionmarks above the heads of people and arrows showing the way. Then why have names floating above heads of NPCs and highlights around interactable objects and enemies?
I think this distracts from the gameplay experience. And I hope that those things can be turned off in the options.

 

Agreed.

 

Totally agree.

 

Absolute must - sorry to make it such a 'me too' post, but there's no +1

 

Maybe after you talk to someone they could have a name floating above their head if you put the cursor on them. Before talking to them how do you know he is the gravedigger?

 

And in real life how do you know what are people doing - you point cursor on them?

It's just a game I know, but guessing professions by behavior, clothing, and finally getting it from the talk could be great experience imo. Singleplayer experience, maybe in multi that does not matter.

 

Hehe, true that... but the cursor (once you have talked with them) could act like your character's memory... I don't really want to have to remember what each NPC's profession is, if I have talked with 100s of them.

 

Agree, the game should remember if and what have you found.

 

To a degree. I think U9 did it best with the journal. It wasn't the hand-holding you get with most MMOs, but it sure beat what you got with U7!

 

My instinct, and personal plan, is that you will not see NPCs walking around with nameplates over their head. Possibly an option or hotkey to see them, but I'm pretty sure the default experience will be as immerse as possible, and to me that means no nameplates overhead.

 

Does this also apply to players?

I forget where.. probably under wish list.. we were talking about not automagically knowing everyone's name. You would have to learn them first. One person suggested a / command like /introduce that would introduce yourself to people in the area. I suggested it could be done by catching keywords in dialogue..

For example: if you had a sentence where you said 'my name' and your character's name then whomever was in earshot would then know and be able to see your character's name.

It was also suggested that players be able to lie about their names by being able to preconfigure X number of aliases. So if you said "My name is " -alias- when characters didn't know your real name.. they'd see the alias instead but if they knew the real name then alias wouldn't work and players would know you were lieing about it.

 

Most npc's you should be able to tell what they do based on how they are dressed & where they are situated, You don't go into a pub & wonder who to ask for ale, all the waiters/waitresses look the part & are carrying a tray with glasses & bottles, etc. You see their nametag when they get close, but you'll not necessarily remember it the next day. So +1 to no tags as default

 

I'd be happy with restricting names to characters I have interacted with (learned their name).

I think the names serve a purpose, since if I know Fred I should be able to recognize him from across the room. I'm not sure if the art will be up to this task without the names.

 

Having names show up after you've met them will just ruin the immersion as well, because eventually you'll get to a point where everyone has nameplates.

Also, an interesting side effect could happen, such that you are now even more conscious of people you haven't spoken to. Enter a town and you immediately spot the stranger, the new NPC, etc. Not saying that's good or bad, but it could drive certain player behavior unintentionally.

i say keep it simple. on or off, as an in-game option or toggle.

 

i prefer the idea of recognizing people, npc or pc, by their appearance rather than a bunch of text/bars above their head. i mostly hope there are at least no bulky healthy bars above the heads.... names/guild/title i'm a bit more ok with. all should at least be toggle-able. but my point is i hope that character customization is good enough to be able to recognize people by their appearance.

 

The problem with that is that even if there is a sophisticated character generation process, you can't get the same degree of precision to replicate real life. Further, with the over the shoulder 3D view, even when you are right up on someone, you are not as close as you are in a real life point of view, so a tradeoff has to be made. If names can be toggled on and off, everyone can have the display they prefer.

 

Where I think names above players heads could be extremely problematic is when some one trying to be stealthy. Imagine trying to hide behind a tree or bush in a PvP situation but you were discovered because of your floating name.

 

What @ND3G said

I dont want names to be visible at all for players that are flagged for PvP
So many times I have seen people "hide" behind a tree trying to be sneaky, only to see...

Taskma|............|haox (Dev)

In big red letters.

Now, I dont know how or if this is a problem that can be solved, as I am sure people want to have their badass titles displayed (I know I do)

Maybe its something as simple as having a "Hide" skill (Not stealth) that removes the nameplate as you crouch down?

 

Why not just do it like Ultima and require the player to ask the name and job of the people they intereact with. Once the player discovers this, the name and job of the person your talk to could be accessed easily by mouse hovering, selecting and so on.

 

If I'm trying to find my friends in the game, without some visual indication (usually their name above their head), how do I do that? Do they give me a visual description of their character? That's problematic because unless there's a huge variety of wardrobe options & facial/body-type features, everyone's going to look the same or similar. I think a toggle is the best solution for names because it eliminates some of the guess-work when it comes to grouping and finding/meeting others.