Essential Flag | Morroblivion

I was wondering if the Skywind team was going to flag all the essential NPCs from Morrowind as essential in Skywind. The reason I ask is because that word popped up in a spreadsheet in the recent development video that was posted on your YouTube page (development video #3).

I'm hoping the answer is no. One of the pillars of Morrowind was the player's ability to do whatever it is they wanted, even if it broke the game. "Essential" in Morrowind meant that players were greeted with a popup message whenever they killed an important character and told as much, meaning they could kill anyone and everyone they came across if they wanted to, even if it meant (main) quests could no longer be started or completed. "Essential" in Skyrim is entirely different, completing removing the player's ability to kill any character they wanted if those characters were deemed too important to die (related to quests).

I understand that Skyrim (Oblivion, really) brought with it new mechanics that could cause trouble if all the important, quest-related characters could die because the world is "living" and dynamic, and characters out in the open could fall prey to other characters without the player ever even getting involved. However, I think the "protected" flag would help prevent that, as well as allow players to play the game however they choose to do so, even if it means failing quests. It seems like the best of both worlds, to be honest, and I'm hoping that's the route you guys are taking.

Schwerpunkt wrote:

Schwerpunkt
I understand that Skyrim (Oblivion, really) brought with it new mechanics that could cause trouble if all the important, quest-related characters could die because the world is "living" and dynamic, and characters out in the open could fall prey to other characters without the player ever even getting involved.

You answered your own question. Especially being a mod, it will have 10x as many bugs and problems as a full game. We don't want half the games quests to be unplayable. However, it hasn't really been brought up, but I think the technical limitations will definitely make it so we have to have essential NPCs.

The world won't feel living and dynamic if you can't progress in any quests and entire towns are missing due to cliff racers.

I agree that NPCs need some

I agree that NPCs need some sort of protection to ensure players we able to actually play the game, but I don't think the "essential" flag is the right choice. Yes, it protects NPCs, but it also limits the player in what they're able to do. The better route would be to use the "protected" flag. It protects NPCs from the game world, but not the player, which solves both problems.

There's a "protected" flag in

There's a "protected" flag in Skyrim also, which means that nothing within the world can kill an NPC, but the player can. That is what we should use for the NPC's that are essential to the story.

Yep. That's the way to go.

Yep. That's the way to go. If the player severs the prophecy or breaks questlines then it's their own fault.

Not to mention that in

Not to mention that in Morrowind characters important for quests usually stay put in safe interiors, where there are little physical implements that could harm them.

And making Sinnamu Mirpal protected would kind of ruin the whole point of her quest.

I agree. While I would

I agree. While I would ideally prefer no 'essential' or protected NPC's, the new dynamic game world constraints kinda make some form of protection necessary. That goes double for NPC's in the middle of hostile territory like Hlormar Wine-Sot (the poor bastard doesn't even have armor or weapons to defend himself if an alit comes close, damned witch!)

Ah, I had no idea the

Ah, I had no idea the protected flag was a thing. That definitely sounds like the route to take, it can please both sides. Not sure if we've started marking NPCs yet, but we'll get around to it.

Notification like in vivec

Notification like in vivec case that you killed someone important for some quest it could be good too. If it is not already implemented.