Online talk:Generic NPCs

Generic NPC combatEdit

I've noticed that many of the NPCs in game tend to follow certain combat "classes" aka they have different names, appearances etc. but essentially fight the same way. I've given tentative names to these NPC classes as follows, with a brief description of what they do: (they may or may not have official names):

- Soldier: (melee attack + throw dagger)

- Enforcer: (shield bash)

- Ravager: (uppercut, cleave)

- Fire Mage

- Ice Mage

- Storm Mage

- Necromancer

- Archer

- Assassin (whirlwind, backstab)

- Healer

- Shaman

- Knight

- Ranger (summons beast to help fight)

- Bonelord

- Thundermaul

- Conjurer (burdening eye)

- Berserker (twin slash, agony)

- Brute (low slash, charge)

- Witchman

- Fear Mage

Would a page that summarises this generic combat info be useful? The benefit is when writing combat info for generic NPCs we could just refer/redirect to one page instead of repeating ourselves. Contraptions (talk) 19:12, 7 July 2015 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea in general. There are four classes in the icon datafiles which don't match the player classes, so it's possible that some of these are based on those. They are "Healer", "Mage", "Rogue" and "Warrior". --Enodoc (talk) 08:07, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

A page about NPC classes would be definetly usefull, but figuring out all the information of the abilitys we cannot use ourselves may be a bit harder. I doubt the icons Enodoc is talking about have anything to do with these classes as there are only four of them. I find it more likely that they are remnants of some classes during development (just a speculation, of course). Are those NPC's that use what seems to be a mix of Inhale and Flame Breath as well as their own Lava Wip already included in the list? -- SarthesArai ^Talk 15:30, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Yes, that's the Knight (or Dragonknight). As for the ability names, the only ways I can think of to get them is to 1. Die and check the death recap for the abilities used. and 2. As a templar, cast Eclipse on a monster and watch the damage scroller for the name of the ability. This unfortunately only works if you have FTC installed. It will also only provide the names of single target spells used by monsters, and will not work on AOEs, melee skills, or skills that don't do damage (like the Healer's healing beam or the Fear Mage's stun). Hope ZOS loosens the API slightly so that NPC ability names show up... would make our jobs much easier. Contraptions (talk) 16:42, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Ah okay, wasn't sure. Regarding the abilitys, what about this? Haven't tried it out yet, but soon will (if it is still compatible to the current patch). -- SarthesArai ^Talk 16:57, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Okay, scratch that, it only produces errors -- SarthesArai ^Talk 17:08, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Yeah that's the FTC I was talking about. The most updated version should be hosted on Tamriel Foundry (I think). I'll try to upload a screenshot later to show an example of a NPC ability name.Contraptions (talk) 17:20, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Here's one example out of many I found: The Ice Mage's basic ranged attack is called "Ice Arrow" Media:User-contraptions-Ice arrow.jpg Contraptions (talk) 11:41, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

I think we should try to stick to the in-game naming conventions rather than making up unofficial class names. For example, "Thundermaul" is the usual name given to lightning melee NPCs and therefore should be the one we use, but alternate titles exist ("Charger"?) and need to be redirected/mentioned. Some NPC types even have their own unique names for these classes, such as Dremora. But before we start grouping generic NPCs by class, several enemy types need to be changed from Creature pages to NPC pages, since currently enemies like Skeletons are treated as creatures on the wiki despite using these classes. —Legoless (talk) 15:33, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

I'm not too sure about the exact distinction between creature and NPC, but the classification I'm suggesting here is meant for all humanoid enemies, regardless of "type". When doing the writeup we could avoid using the terms "NPC abilities" or "creature abilities" when possible to avoid confusion, but from patch notes ZOS seems to use the term "monster abilities" so that term may be preferable. As for the class names, ZOS has mentioned a few in their patch notes under Combat and Gameplay. 1.4.3 mentions Fire Mage, Berserker, Shaman, Necromancer and Ravager, while 1.5.2 mentions Fear Mages, Frost Mages, Knight and Storm Mage. 1.6.5 mentions Battlemage, Bonelord, Nightblade, Pet Ranger, Spirit Master (conjurer above) and Thief (soldier above), Assassin and Bruiser (brute above). Just missing a few now (like Thundermaul and Healer). Contraptions (talk) 17:23, 11 July 2015 (UTC)

(←) I've started a sandbox here. I looked through all patch notes, but could have missed something... If anyone has any additions to make, feel free to do so, but please provide a source. -- SarthesArai ^Talk 09:33, 4 September 2015 (UTC)