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Have a look at cities skyline and see their NPC running round doing things to build the economy this could happen in the online game world of Eco.

You have NPC so they run the economy and players cannot be silly and try and crash it. You could have a balance online where there are some players playing and other NPC to fill roles that the player have not. As not everyone can be online all the time so make sense to have NPC to be there 24/7 when their world is active.

The game will sell more too if players who can't be online play offline with NPC.

I have looked at the servers online and most i see is 10 and they are in US or europe. If you have NPC then anyone can run their server and have a balance amount of NPC in their game to invite other players to come in and take over those jobs.

It's a very good idea cause not all players like to heavily RP but having NPC will change that as they are force to RP. It destroy the immersion when your online and players don't talk to you don't help me just want to be on their own when this is all about community. And also as the city advances like renting if there are NPC it makes the game more alive.

NPC can be given job that players find boring and players can concentrate on the interesting one and it does not have to stop there it can be change so players can use the NPC to how they want it.

Does everyone like this idea as it works for other online games requiring NPC.

NPC does not mean you just head offline for good as it just a choice and many benefits to using NPC.

Players who dont have much time could play in a game that have functional cities and laws created by the NPC. And they can get to see what it be like as this cannot be done with just one person. NPC could be set to have different laws and for players to try out each of them of what will happen. Maybe a strategy to convince the other NPC to be more greener? Something that might never happen with players cause players are not consistent and NPC are. :)

Attracting Sim 4 fans

You could attract them in to your game if you had this? As these fan love the sim and what they can do in the game and your already touching on homes and decoration and all the beautiful internal things. But this cannot be done with out the NPC as even the sims had this at a very basic level. Players can as said work on their homes then just going out and doing everything and worrying about the science. They can employ NPC with the knowledge so that be a challenge in itself to satisfy their needs.

Eco NPC have needs and wants etc like a real avatar that a player controls

So why not give players who love the sims the choice to just concentrate on family life and the things they love doing in the sims 4? But just can't in that game cause its offline and the AI is not very helpful at all.

NPC can progress in eco will be a game changer and i am sure will attract so many sim 4 fans!

Sims 4 fans pay 600USD for all packs cause of the amount of relationship roleplaying they can do. Why not give that to fans at a much cheaper price but at a price so you can maintain official servers and can keep updating the game?

Eco players can work on relationship in the game and give over the chores to the NPC like in the sims. There is a massive game being done this way that is COMING! :) So you be left behind if you dont have this feature.

Things still can run the way it is currently as players have task to do but with NPC it just be more efficient. Players can focus more on other things if they want like in the sims and create a persistent community. Where logging off does not mean the city then start from 0 or a player logging of does mean something in the game stops.

So many ideas that will help Eco! :) It still a community game and NPC does not take away this but just enhance it. :)

There is alot of construction how about now turning to the needs of the residents? How they relate to each other? Things that happen in a city? Like stealing? Police? Breaking the laws set for the game? NPC with these jobs could do RP it. :)

To have NPC having different cities and laws for players to join? :)

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over 3 years ago - /u/SLG-Dennis - Direct link

Our focus in Eco is on collaboration between real players in every single mechanic, hence we decided that NPCs are not suitable to reach this goal and won't be included in Eco.

over 3 years ago - /u/SLG-Dennis - Direct link

Originally posted by Teagan_75

That is a shame because you are only encouraging players with lots of time on their hands to play on servers. Real life is more important than this game. I hope a mod dev will take the challenge.

However, you can still make NPCs part of the game without taking away from collaboration between players like the op said. Don’t let the NPCs do jobs. Make a whole new game mechanic for them. Increasing housing bonus if you marry or have kids etc. Have players fulfill requests like gifts. There is a lot you can do with NPCs especially with the government aspect which I never get into because I play with a small group of friends. But, if I had to manage a city of NPCs then I would explore that part of the game.

The creation of AI, which is what NPCs do is extremely time-consuming and difficult and given it's not even remotely linked to anything we envision for the game, using up the development time for this is simply not going to happen. It makes no sense.

Even for a marriage mechanic, we'd definately prefer players marrying other players ;) Government is the same thing. Eco is about governing human people. Learning how government works, how people react and being in place of those people often hate on - their government. NPCs cannot replace this.

Modders are of course free to give it a try, if they're interested in NPCs.