[WIPz]/[Idea] The Molecular Destabilizer (Essential NPC Killer)

[ToroMontana]

If there's one thing that bothers me in an Elder Scrolls or Fallout game it's essential NPCs.

 

The games I think should have been done in a such a way that it's always possible to kill NPCs when you want to. Unless maybe there's a really good reason something should be essential like maybe someone canonically being immune to due magic/alien devices you must disable/whatever.

 

I know what you're thinking, you can disable them with an easy tweak in some ini file, there are problems with that however:

 

1. it breaks quests without a proper conclusion as the quest scripts did not account for the NPCs dying (try for example roleplaying the Director of the Institute who wants to "clean" up the Institute, free the synths, remove the bad guys from power)

2. you can in fact lock yourself out of storyline quests but you won't know about it right away like in Morrowind

3. companions become almost useless if essential tags are disabled, they're not very smart, they rush into battle, they lose their HP fast, they can be easily damaged with friendly fire, perhaps it would be better if you could:

 

a. get a 90% damage reduction on active companions or a 20-second window to stimpak them before they die for good

b. able to use stimpaks at 50% of their HP instead of 0

 

Even the "Protected" tag has issues, one being that you can't dismember them

 

 

So I propose a new somewhat more immersive way to kill off these NPCs: A laser based gun that removes the essential tags called the Molecular Destabilizer (or whatever name fits). You only need to shoot once and then the NPC becomes vulnerable to all other weapons and it even removes the Protected tag. It will also be single target only, never area.

 

This makes it possible to choose which NPCs you REALLY want killed without using console commands (you can't anyway in Survival and it's not very immersive to have to pause the game to type stuff), no need to worry about killing someone off by accident who's actually important to the story or rendering quests broken without your approval.