Beat NPCs to unconsciousness and bind them

[Sheppard]

Okay, so, since everyone is writing about features they want to see in the game, I thought I could join.
Well
As yo devs said, you can choose which part of NPC’s body to hit with your combat system.

So I suggest, if you hit an NPC with NOT a weapon item (like a bottle, wood chunk, etc…and maybe a shield?) to HEAD, they would slip into unconsciousness.

(I guess, that the item would need to have a reasonable weight, so you can’t just hit the NPC with a woodstick, weighting like 0.000kg, and the NPC would be like “ooooh im soo unconscious right now”)

And I suggest, you could paralyze them by binding them up and then carry them somewhere else. It would improve the stealth way of playing the game.
You could actually bind them only if you have a rope in your inventory and if you a have needed perk
(called for example binding ppl n sh-t i dunno)

I think, that the NPC would wake up after some time (like 5-6minutes ingame, maybe longer to be more realistic?)
They would start trying to get out of the bindings and depending on your binding skill (lol), they would eventually get out of them.

Also I would like an ability to burn people with a torch.
And to make them scream, when they see their close ones being hurt.
Totally not related to the main subject of this topic.

Would you welcome these features too?

[Potter]

you know it can still kill someone if you hit them in the head right, so it shouldn’t always guarntee a knock out as you might screw up, especially if you try to club the unconscious etc.

[AhmadKhan]

Playing Theif 1,2,3 recently

[SavageBeatings]

Yeah, I would like some non-lethal options. In real life, you have a conscience, and because of that and other things, you just wouldn’t kill people in certain situations. In games, you never really care about nameless NPC guards, and it’s always less of a hassle to quickly and quietly stab someone in the neck and just loot his corpse than it is knocking him unconscious, tying him up and hiding him in some closet. But the option to do so would be nice. Maybe you want to roleplay someone who just wouldn’t slit the throat of a prison guard, who is just doing his job to provide for his family, just because of a quest to slip in and out of a dungeon to leave a certain prisoner a message.

There’s not really any incentive for anyone not to kill the guard though. It’s not like it would be easier to knock him out, or that you would receive bad karma, which is an unnecessary mechanic anyway. I guess the world would have to be shaped to tell you that it’s not always the best option to kill a person rather than knocking him out. Like in the example I provided, the prisoner you talk to after the deed could react negatively to what he just saw you do. “Did you really have to cut him down? The Baron won’t be happy with me now.” And then when other guards find the corpse, the search for you could be much more intense than if you had just knocked him out, since they are now searching for some godless murderer in their castle.

Oh well, something this could be used for though, could be for quests where you are to track down some escaped criminal or some other person of interest, and the reward might be much better if you bring him in alive. Just find him, knock him out or maim him, then tie him up, throw him over your horse and ride into town.

[213]

i don’t particularly care about gameplay incentives, i just like to beat robbers and bandits unconscious so i take them back to the lord for jailtime, torture, then eventually execution. though, i guess it could contribute to gameplay if i can pardon them and recruit them for something i need to be done.

though i’m not sure if it would have been wise to fight them with non lethal staffs and clubs when they’re coming at you with swords, polearms, etc. i think a surrender system, if you wound them lightly enough times, would be preferable.

[SavageBeatings]

That’s kind of an incentive right there - you would like to bring back bandits to the lord to have them jailed, tortured, executed. That’s a feature which needs to be in the game and it would “promote” knocking people out rather than killing them. If you can knock people out in the game, but there is nothing good or at least fun that comes out of it, they just lie there unconscious on the ground until they wake up, then you might just kill them instead. So that’s what I mean with “incentives”, what reasons are there to knock people out? Bringing them to justice for a slight penny is one thing, other things could be quest-related in that someone needs a man alive for some reason, or you could just tie up a bandit and torture him for information like where his bandit friends are such. Those are good incentives. Then there should also be a system where you injure people to the point where they can’t or don’t want to fight you anymore, and you have the option to execute them, to let them go or to bring them to some kind of justice (if they are wanted for crimes comitted or if they are noblility who can be ransomed.) If you let them go, they might show you some kind of graditude, A reputation of you being merciful might spread. Especially if it’s a named NPC, a person more important to the game than an unnamed bandit, or if it’s a peasant who attacked you out of a misunderstanding.

[Jorge]

I think it would be great to have a system of knocking NPC’s unconscious. I’m with @Potter on this as well, if you screw up and bash someone in the head with heavier object or accidentally hit them twice they would die.