John Epler wrote...
That sort of feature is always best suited to true sandbox games - games where breaking the plot may be inconvenient but it's not truly detrimental to the enjoyment of the game.
That's not to say it can't be done in story games, however, but in those cases you often end up with a new person serving the exact same function - and if they're supposed to be anything other than plot-agnostic exposition fonts, you run the risk of damaging credibility a fair amount. There's a reason why Skyrim brought in Essential NPCs - you can hit them until they drop to their knees, and after a bit they'll stand back up and chase you out of the area.
It comes down, mostly, to where veracity and narrative sit on your list of priorities, and if narrative is about veracity, killing everyone who's walking around is likely not going to happen. Even STALKER, which is pretty open-world in most ways, doesn't let you pull out your gun in particular locations. You simply can't shoot a few of the NPCs.
but at least you could put actual stats for random npcs or use some mechanics that make the game world more realistic. In dragon age games, I could cast a fire storm in the city area and the random NPCs in the area are not affected at all. I think the best mechanics would be like the witcher 2. Put some gurads in the city area who will prohibit weapon or magic. Or if you think that requires too much scirpting than make it like Mass Effect 3.
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