Highlight Key for NPCs... Alive and Dead

[Der Nibelung]

Using the 'Alt' key to highlight dropped items is a big help in this bleak environment. What about being able to highlight NPCs, living and dead? (color coded for aggression levels)

[Chinsei]

Using the 'Alt' key to highlight dropped items is a big help in this bleak environment. What about being able to highlight NPCs, living and dead? (color coded for aggression levels)

I support this it would help when trying to remember where that body was you left laying around. Especially when you wanna stick them in a cage to recruit/enslave them.

[Hatsune_Neko]

the ALt key for finding things is indeed good

using it for NPC's. not so good. coding it to show current faction relations would most likely take a lot more time coding it in as a system for it is not in game currently.

it also takes away from game play. as i have enemies but they don't always attack. and then there is the ruining the chance encounters part because you have a type of radar. if they not in your LOS you should not be able to sneak a view of where they are.

now if it was made for the bonedogs or anything that can smell blood/Scents and used in that fashion ( with no visual indicators ) then that would be a better option. kinda like tracking.

[Chinsei]

the ALt key for finding things is indeed good

using it for NPC's. not so good. coding it to show current faction relations would most likely take a lot more time coding it in as a system for it is not in game currently.

it also takes away from game play. as i have enemies but they don't always attack. and then there is the ruining the chance encounters part because you have a type of radar. if they not in your LOS you should not be able to sneak a view of where they are.

now if it was made for the bonedogs or anything that can smell blood/Scents and used in that fashion ( with no visual indicators ) then that would be a better option. kinda like tracking.

Well for me i'd just like the ones that are down an out highlighted. so that there easier to find so i can loot/capture them. because sometimes there either hidden by the ground or in the bushes or something.

the relations thing would be a bit over the top. because part of the fun/tension is when your walking by this group of enemies that out class you hoping/praying they aren't going to attack you o.o knowing before hand what each enemy is going to do would be a little lame.

[Der Nibelung]

I do see the point in not having too many visual aids; it takes away from the thrill of having a heart pounding RPG and scared to make a move!
I just wanted an easier way of seeing and looting corpses, the 'High-light all NPCs' would be emersion breaking =(

[Hatsune_Neko]

the not being able to see the bodies is more of a bug. as they can ragdoll under the ground, there for losing them. maybe that will be fixed in future updates so the collision mesh of the ground does not let them throu.

[Sol Lignum]

It may be a bug, but it could become a feature. After all, on a real battlefield, downed combatants may fall in some bush, or be swallowed in mud or just be stomped down into soft soil by others, not to mention even crawl away while they still can in a heat of the battle. So to find them all after the fight would become a task anyone would hardly take. Just grab what you can and leave fast. I like the current state of things and don't see need in highlighting. We have items highlight though, so corpse highlights may end up being implemented as well

[CarnageAce]

Corpse/unconscious being highlighted would be a big help, with the current bug of them falling under the ground and when the battle spreads over a large area and your not even sure what direction to look for the bodies.

[ishar]

Eh necro, but having a button to outline peoples names on the screen would be really handy; e.g. picking a particular corpse out of a stack.

I don't think it'd be problematic for NPCs as long as it was kept at the right level of detail; e.g. distinguishing beak things from cannibals sure; distinguishing a friend from an ally, not so much. Though, since faction clothing is already a thing, it would probably make sense to go off that. Though, of course, if enemies ever took advantage of the disguise system things could get...interesting.

Stopping it from being a radar would be trickier, but it'd be nice if it worked similar to how it works for NPCs. I assume that they have a detection radius that drives interaction/attack; if your squad had something similar it could be used to control what shows up; e.g. it's only a radar when your squad (and probably the enemies) are already aware of the other. Thus you still would be surprised by things, especially if enemies ever used stealth.

If constrained like that, it'd become more of a useful tool that makes it easier to interact with the game world; e.g. controlling combat / post combat looting. It also would open up interesting interaction with stats/game mechanics; e.g. if something fools your guys, it should fool you too.

[DoPo]

Stopping it from being a radar would be trickier

What I've personally been thinking is just reduce the range of it. If you can highlight all the NPCs roughly within a city that might be enough. Although it also depends which city - perhaps it could be an adjustable value (maybe through mods, not vanilla options) but I've been picturing it as roughly the size of Clownsteady, so probably something like half the size of World's End. Overall, my idea was that you'd be able to find people in settlements easily - maybe requiring a couple of "scans" and outside of cities you'd need to get close to a group to examine them but you'd at least be able to find who is who without requiring to click on each of the characters.

[Encrtia]

it also takes away from game play. as i have enemies but they don't always attack. and then there is the ruining the chance encounters part because you have a type of radar. if they not in your LOS you should not be able to sneak a view of where they are.

Agreed & disagreed. Yes, it takes away from the gameplay in terms of potential encounters, but no, it adds to the gameplay because it aids the user in areas a game lacks. Like in an FPS, a damage indicator appears on the side of the screen letting you know when & where you got shot from. One could argue that such an aid takes away from the game's realism/immersion, but the reality is, if you were there in the game - you'd feel the bullet & know where it came from - thus, such an intrusive indicator simply tries to emulate what you would otherwise not know due to the limitations of gaming.

Similarly here, I too would like a "highlight" button. I propose in the opinion of minimalism: a highlight button that simply highlights all NPC's visible to the selected character(s) through the already established stealth system, & (what I originally came here for) all downed NPC's irrespective of sight. I don't fear being ambushed by skeletons like that & is less effort than a LoS addition. Do away with outlined colours for different factions/hostility levels; just a nice simple white outline for all.

And then have a bonedog with increased vision through walls from sniffing

But above all remember, the only reason one wants an outline, is when finding bodies obstructed by our "God angled" viewpoint, as opposed to the perspective of our squad which would have been able to see it. So it's not a scan, nor a "check for ambush" button, but an aid to rectify our bad angle & avoid accidental loot missing from God-perspective negligence. I missed several chests in armories & libraries because I couldn't highlight what was activate-able as opposed to decoration T_T but, that's a whole other topic I'm not even bothering to push for xD