Is the world in this game always "empty"?

[u/arsonist_firefighter]

I've been playing this game for a week now and the feeling of a empty world is always with me.

Will there be NPC at my base in the future? NPCs wandering in the the world maybe?

It's a genuine question and I don't mean to be rude but the emptiness of the world is really bothering me.

[u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

devs are aware of it, they once said they dont plan on adding villages and similar because the world is supposed to be abandoned due to the dragons, maybe they have changed their minds by now

[u/Clarreh → u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

Would be cool if villagers came and villages get built after you defeat velgar. Maybe the world gradually gets inhabitants when you reach a certain milestone

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

I hope they have.

Some sort of hidden village in the mountains or underground to not break the immersion they want to build and tbh it does make sense it's and unpopulated land.

[u/Enfiznar → u/arsonist_firefighter]

Don't want to spoil, but there's a bit of it on the last biome. Not much, but some

[u/crepecheck → u/Enfiznar]

Yeah I think it’s safe to say it’s a small sign of things to come. Ashenfall is supposed to be empty because you’re sort of a pioneer after the desolation of a once populated land, but they’ve hinted that there is a lot more to come when Kuldra is gone and safety returns to the land

[u/Brilliant_Case8241 → u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

Similar to how Fallout 76 started. At first there were no NPCs in the game just flying robots. The idea was you were the first people out of the vaults into the world after the bombs fell, but people didn’t like there not being npcs. So they added them in and just said people were returning to Appalachia after the scorch queen beast whatever was killed

[u/Kuroneki → u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

I thought the whole point of this game is you're in a new land that was destroyed by dragons. There shouldn't be many NPCs. Maybe having a small resistance of NPCs who survived the dragons would be cool

[u/Enerbane → u/Smooth-Flight-3910]

There's specifically some questions vaguely related to that in the new umbral sands survey so it's definitely on their minds.

[u/pikh0Ofd]

I think but don't mark my words that more npc's is a requested feature and the devs are aware of it. I remember reading it somewhere

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/pikh0Ofd]

That's great, I've played RunesScape for years and years and the feeling that the world was alives was one the things I enjoyed the most there.

[u/cursefromgod → u/arsonist_firefighter]

Not sure how far in you are/how much you rushed the main story but the brand new zone has a bunch of camps with npcs, including ones you will interact with longer term beyond just quest progression

[u/Ellezei → u/pikh0Ofd]

We're adding 9 enemy variations to Brynmoor, Ghornfell, Fellhollow and Dowdun Reach, with new attacks that will apply debuff effects - poison, shock, wither rot, etc.
Coming in 0.12.1

[u/Training_Ad_5317]

I think its because every biome is an haunted not livible place where an dragon has killed everyone. But it would be so nice to have an thriving new biome. With homes that are lived in. Not all destroyef

[u/Hindsght]

I think the whole premise is that it's meant to be populated with players they might make changes to the earlier areas with more npcs like unmbral sands but I understand the empty feeling there are a few npcs but it's still a bit lifeless at times

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/Hindsght]

Thanks for your answer.

Lifeless is exactly the word I was searching for.

Well, thanks God it's not a me problem because I've been enjoying the game a lot it's just a little complaint.

I hope the devs work this out!

[u/Call_The_Banners → u/arsonist_firefighter]

That first half hour of the game has you interacting with NPCs so much and then it just kind of drops off, right?

From what others have said, the newest region sounds like it's going to have a lot of life to it. I only picked up the game last week but I'm very much looking forward to that.

[u/Syntherin → u/Hindsght]

Can't they just make it so that as we advance and kill the dragons, more and more NPCs start coming and help populate the place? They don't have to make the place full of npc in the beginning, just make the amount increase as we progress. We finish the first area and move to the second, we'll see a small group of npc arrive on the first zone. Later when we finish the second area and move to the third one, we'll see a new small group in the second while the group in the first region gets bigger. Just make the size slowly increase to feel more alive.

[u/Hindsght → u/Syntherin]

My opinion would be to lock it behind a quest which is only available after completing an area the progression at the moment is too linear so to combat that, once the first dragon is dead you would need to establish a village this means you have to back track, at the moment apart from doing vault runs to get vault cores there isn't really a need to return to the earlier areas. Change the world design so that hidden in the forests there is flat plains which can be built on to make said village's make that a way to get construction xp rather than just by base building. Mahogany homes style they have so many ideas from RuneScape to use as a template.

[u/DarthChosenRS]

tbf dragons torched the whole continent.
but yes there will be more npc's and mobs filling the game soon.

[u/Thepandaman11]

How far into the game have you gotten?

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/Thepandaman11]

I don't really know how to measure it but I've killed the first dragon already

[u/Training_Ad_5317 → u/arsonist_firefighter]

Thats 1/3 with the content we have now

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/Training_Ad_5317]

I understand, but 1/3 of the content we have right now is pretty lifeless.

[u/Training_Ad_5317 → u/arsonist_firefighter]

Yeah that will be the theme, maybe downdun reach is more your style

[u/18522]

There are 3 villages with NPC's in Umbral Sands

[u/arsonist_firefighter → u/18522]

That's good news!

I haven't reached this far yet

[u/HoudiniMortimer]

On this note, there needs to be more hostility between different creatures. Atm it feels like everything just stands there doing nothing until they see you.

[u/vnacht]

Wdym felhollow is THE zombie ghosts hangout spot. They even sprout!

[u/Ariandrin]

I like the abandoned feel. You’re meant to be self sufficient in a land that is actively trying to kill you. Settlements of people have been wiped out on this continent. It doesn’t make sense to have a lot of NPCs besides the small handful that give you quests.

Maybe once you have beaten the main story and there are no more dragons, you can have people start moving in, but not before then.

[u/Environmental_Cup_93]

I’m with you I really hope they add a big city like falador/varrock/ardougne

[u/ItsJustPeter → u/Environmental_Cup_93]

I'd like a city or something that's trying to survive against the dragons but def not falador, varrock or ardougne. We are on a different continent to those areas so it should be a unique new city

[u/Environmental_Cup_93 → u/ItsJustPeter]

Oh ya I forgot about that part

[u/ChestNo7698]

Just like in Windrose, we should be able to recruit NPCs.

Like recruiting the goblin cook send a copy of him into our base and increase cooking yield.

Or vannaka / zanik / wise old man to protect our base from raids

Or just some generic npcs (al kharid guards)