Three questions:
1. Do you care how life like (in action/reaction) NPCs are?
2. In your opinion, what actions/reactions do you expect and/or appreciate from an NPC?
3. What games have the most evolved NPC system?
For me,
1. Its annoying to see the same NPC in the same place doing the same thing all the time.
2. When you walk into a room, the bartender (for example) should look at you (make eye contact ) have some kind of emotional reaction (annoyed, pleased, indifferent), a change in facial expression and some form of memory if they've seen you before. NPCs should have a schedule and make progress and changes in their life. Have all 5 senses would be nice. Reacting to sounds and sights and even smells. If you just crawled through a sewer, it would be nice if the npcs noticed your stench.
3. I like some of the feature in Oblivion for scheduling sleep and work. And reactions if you hit them and if they see another guard lying dead when they are on patrol. They even treat you differently if you look sick. Games like HalfLife are making progress with squad formations/taking cover/calling for backup.




