Posted By CommonlyQuixotic at 2:46 PM - Fri Jul 21 2017
Posted By Gunnlang at 07:29 AM - Fri Jul 21 2017
Posted By Maulvorn at 7:11 PM - Fri Jul 21 2017
Most of the time you won't be able to differentiate NPC or PC at a glance.
That is assuming they make the NPCs as good as they talk about them. It could fall way short and we get NPCs which stand out.
I think OPC's will blur the line some. I imagine that OPC's and NPC's will be very similar, and it's unlikely you will be able to tell them apart from players at a glance. It sounds like you will probably be able to tell if you start a conversation, however although we don't know for sure.
NPC's can take many roles in this game. They can be your characters parents, spouse, children, neighbors, teachers, apprentices, rivals, bosses, employees, lord, vassal, suppliers, customers, etc. There will be skilled NPC's in every skill tree at the start of the game who can teach us their skills. My understanding is that NPC's are intended to be integral to society at every level. We'll see how well this works out based on how robust their AI is, but that is my understanding of SBS's goal for NPC's.
NPC's will have the same needs as players and will have a wide variety of personalities and goals. They will be active in the world. I'm rather fascinated by SBS's intentions for NPC's and I hope things work out as planned.
i do remember on occasion hearing remarks from the dev's that lead me to believe their hope is for one day most of the positions to be filled by players.
whether or not that is realistic is surely debatable but i know at one point i had seen a dev (probably caspian, as lets be real he is the face of this whole thing) talking like they would like that to happen, or at least be possible, so whether or not npc's end up being integral to the game and its economies i think will likely be very dependent on players and whether or not a server is all players as well as the number of players in the game who are interested in farming.
EDIT: i would add however i haven't watched a Q&A since around a month or two after kickstarter ended. i prefer to not be too involved in a game in development when i pledge for it, can ruin the game for me. though i do read the written updates.