Fame&NPC's who seek you out. (Not necessarily to murder you)

[chizfoshiz]

This seems to be a fairly popular section of the forums so I figure "Hey, why not throw my nonsense in here too!", so here goes.

I know Chris is looking at adding some kind of fame/notoriety system to the game, or expanding the faction relations to do this, and that down the road we'll have factions hating us enough to send armies after us etc. And that's awesome and super exciting.
It's also been stated that we'll be able to enter a town and pick up rumors/overhear panic and what-not over bandit threats etc., and decide then and there whether we help, abandon them and all that business, also awesome.

What hasn't been mentioned (At least not that I could find) is whether or not we will only encounter these kinds of situations by travelling and seeking out the information ourselves, if this is the case I propose the following:

A system whereby characters can gain a sort-of General notoriety or Fame/Infamy, which will in turn give the potential of NPC's seeking out the player via tracking them down, or simply turning up at their base of operations/owned business/whatever, and requesting their assistance. If this is already on the table then everything else I am about to write is useless drivel and feel free to skip through then post telling me I am dumb/blind/ignorant.

What excites me most about this idea is that it can be used for a lot of different applications, hidden from the player you could have different types of notoriety all building based on player/faction actions, your faction could be gaining combat notoriety and the above example plays out.

You could be gaining mercantile notoriety by trading well and requests for specific goods could arrive, or to invest in an NPC's new or struggling business.

There could be notoriety for crafting, NPC's seeking out your masterpiece weapons and armor, or shopkeepers looking to fill their inventories with bulk orders.

Or they could just murder you.

[Phaser Rave]

I love games that have such a feature.

[Cat_Fuzz]

This seems like a solution to a thread I started recently about inter personal faction relationships. I support your idea, but also it would be cool if the NPC's went somewhere else if another faction did these things better than you. Would cause more reason for competition / faction rivalries etc.

[chizfoshiz]

This seems like a solution to a thread I started recently about inter personal faction relationships. I support your idea, but also it would be cool if the NPC's went somewhere else if another faction did these things better than you. Would cause more reason for competition / faction rivalries etc.

This, also. Dynamic behavior like this will go a long way towards making Kenshi feel like a real, living world, in my opinion at least.

[zibathy]

I think if you're a general jerk that should have a small factor on your standings with all factions. Bandits will respect you if you are ruthless and murder people. Nice factions will respect you for freeing slaves, etc. Of course these would be very minute, so you can still be a dick and have a 'good' faction like you by doing a good favor every once in a while. And since that sounds like painful micromanagement, maybe have it so you have a scale from good to bad, like the Karma system in Fallout so you can be mean to a point and then you're as bad as it gets and it ceases to be an issue, allowing you to raise standings individually, or make yourself a good guy and reset everything. I dunno. Just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
What do you guys think?

[DrSalvador]

I think if you're a general jerk that should have a small factor on your standings with all factions. Bandits will respect you if you are ruthless and murder people. Nice factions will respect you for freeing slaves, etc. Of course these would be very minute, so you can still be a dick and have a 'good' faction like you by doing a good favor every once in a while. And since that sounds like painful micromanagement, maybe have it so you have a scale from good to bad, like the Karma system in Fallout so you can be mean to a point and then you're as bad as it gets and it ceases to be an issue, allowing you to raise standings individually, or make yourself a good guy and reset everything. I dunno. Just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
What do you guys think?

I think a fame/infamy increment would be better than good/bad, as that is basically good/evil which i dont think kenshi should have. also bandits wouldn't care if you kill people, that'd make them more eager to come after you since you're a high profile target. now, it could make them more likely to be non-aggressive, but i still think bandits would only respect you if you actually helped them

[Santaissick]

I would like to see Honor. When you have high honor, honorable factions respect you and might even help you when you need healing or food or bed. Bandits think you are rich because you come from honorable faction. Or bandits think you are so powerful that attacking is no use.

When low honor, towns might forbid you entering or ask for high prize and bounty hunters come after you. Bandits might think that you are easy target, or they feel compassion towards you because you are rubbish , just like them.

Honor would also fit the theme. And when fighting in the arena or Colosseum, win bring you Honor, losing reduces it. And when one of your men loses against other factions fighter, your honor of course drops, but you can get the honor back and get it even more by doing seppuku with that man who shamed your family/faction.

[zibathy]

I think if you're a general jerk that should have a small factor on your standings with all factions. Bandits will respect you if you are ruthless and murder people. Nice factions will respect you for freeing slaves, etc. Of course these would be very minute, so you can still be a dick and have a 'good' faction like you by doing a good favor every once in a while. And since that sounds like painful micromanagement, maybe have it so you have a scale from good to bad, like the Karma system in Fallout so you can be mean to a point and then you're as bad as it gets and it ceases to be an issue, allowing you to raise standings individually, or make yourself a good guy and reset everything. I dunno. Just throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
What do you guys think?

I think a fame/infamy increment would be better than good/bad, as that is basically good/evil which i dont think kenshi should have. also bandits wouldn't care if you kill people, that'd make them more eager to come after you since you're a high profile target. now, it could make them more likely to be non-aggressive, but i still think bandits would only respect you if you actually helped them

I like Fame and Infamy more than my idea.

[soulsain]

(First post, hi guys!)

As there is already a reputation system in place, I think it is safe to say there will be player repercussions (or benefits) later on. However, I would also like the world characters to recognize/react to that reputation in more ways than just attack or heal/defend my squad. It would be interesting to see any one of my squad characters gain fame (like OP is suggesting) for something he has done (win a hugely disadvantageous battle, has a legendary weapon, etc.). Rather than have a fame system (since reputation is already there) that is actively progressed, I think it would be best to have it passively progress. Some kind of random element that prevents players from achieving fame easily would be necessary, such as rescuing an important member of a faction, company, royalty or the like without knowing who he is, later slowly spreading tales of his and depending on their importance people could listen to or ignore him (perhaps one of your own characters turns out to belong to a long bloodline of warriors/kings/anything relevantly famous and is discovered by random).

TL;DR I like the idea for a Fame system and, most definitely, dynamic behaviour.

Edit: Its my first post and I forgot to mention... I think this game is awesome as it is already.

[Nater]

Great ideas. This Fame system seems like it would help greatly in late game to keep you going which is a concern of mine. I don't want to have to attack outpost for the sake of finding a fight later on in the game.

Perhaps your blacksmith starts making swords that are better than Edge Walkers. You could have people travel great lengths to have you make them a sword. They could be like The Bride (Kill Bill) and ask you for help or maybe they will pay a substantial amount for a <your faction name here> sword -OR- maybe they will be like Thulsa Doom (Conan the Barbarian) and try to take your masterpiece by force.

Perhaps you become known for producing many expensive goods and foods that others want to kill you for.

Faction fame would be great too. Perhaps you become well known as a faction of great warriors which attract some to join your cause and others to try to stop you. Perhaps one of the other factions decide you are usurping their power in the region... the possibilities are great.