Lo-Fi Games

when npc's are off screen there should be text bubbles to the side of the screen closest to their location. Several times i missed the tax collector and got raided, simply because i never saw when he arrived..at whichever of my 3 gates.

You can check the map. A white dot will show who it is and where they are.

Actually when they arrive a message does pop up at the bottom of the screen to say they are there. But it's too brief and often easy to miss.
I would prefer a scrollable text window that would show the a few lines of anything that was said. I know about the dialogue window in the user interface, but that is not visible unless you want to leave it open, and then it hide half the screen. Also it only records some text not all, and often times when it feels "full" will stop recording anything.

An always on text box, (you could make it check box optional), that shows every line and warning would be much more helpful.

Sidescreen bubbles for the nearby offscreen NPCs is awesome, already suggested it. Not all base visits are marked as raids: settlers, for instance, and they're quite easy to miss.

Sorry for necro, but that feature is really needed.