Hi all. As many of you have, I have put many hours into this game -over 800. I play mainly solo as I never seem to find a good server that isn't already over developed. I quit playing because, let's face it, the island is a very lonely place. Just you and some animals. So I gave it some thought on how to get NPCs in the game in what I think should be fairly easy for the devs as many of the mechanics are already in the game.
Option 1. There is already a character creator, a crafting system, a placement system for items crafted, an inventory system and the paper-doll system for putting on clothing, armor, etc. So give the player the ability to 'craft' NPCs much like you might craft a chair. You need a specific skill to do so, maybe in the 'religious skill' after you are pious enough you can get NPCs in your place. Maybe a different skill. You craft the NPC, place the NPC where you want it, and it simply stands there with idle animation running. When crafting the NPC you have the option of choosing male or female, then the game randomly creates the NPC based on the character creator. It just quickly generates the stats and spits out an icon into your inventory for the NPC. Would be nice if you could name it also. These NPCs let you at least see other people around your place.
Option 2. All of Option 1 plus, give the NPCs some random audio - "Evenin' M'Lord", etc. that triggers playing 1 of 5 or so randomly (can even set it up so players can set up their own audio clips - just set up an audio file folder under a folder with all the NPCs. NPCS folder/NPC1/Audio, etc.
Option 3. All of Options 1 and 2 plus, ability to give the NPCs tasks. Example: set an NPC cook. Give the NPC a radius of influence (5-10 meters or so) and any ovens or cookfires, etc., in that radius are 'linked' and accessible by the 'cook'. You place food ingredients in the cook's inventory and access the cook to assign things to cook, instead of clicking on the oven or cookfires. You can choose whatever is available based on the ingredients in the inventory. You can even choose random. You simple choose how many items to make. The ovens, cookfires, etc. will need to have fuel in them and the cook will automatically turn on and off the oven, etc. as needed so fuel isn't wasted. Other NPCs can have the same radius of influence options such as near a barn, sheep will automatically be shorne, cows milked, etc. NPCs assigned as guards will automatically attack any hostile person or creature within range (5 meters if hand to hand, 30 meters or so if bow/crossbow, whatever). If the guards kill a wolf, for example, they will also auto harvest it for meat, fur, bones. When passing by, the guard might say to the player "killed X when it attacked M'Lord" prompting the player to check the guard's inventory.
Option 4. Add or also add NPCs wandering in the wilderness the same as wild animals. You approach them and offer them food. If it's good enough, they will choose to join you. No need to go through the crafting system of creating them. Just find them and 'tame' them into joining. You then set them up wherever you want to assign them. More advanced options would be to set some of them to hostile, but tamable if you can sneak up and feed them the way you do with Boar, etc. They might have some random base starting skills.
Option 5. Add ability to marry one and start a family. Need your religion skill high enough to perform your own marriage ceremony =P Any children would likely need to be instant adults. But with zero skill at anything and need to practice.
NPCs could auto handle any standardized tasks the player does and NPCs would be able to 'skill up' over time, the same as the player can. A beginning cook would only be able to do basic cooking at first.
Lastly, because they need to eat, have the option to create a 'larder' ? Is that the right term? A box where the cook automatically places all food once cooked. All NPCs within the claim site will automatically take food from this box to eat, so it is the player's task to ensure there is always food for the NPCs. A Lord/Lady must provide for his/her people!
I think Option 1 could be implemented easily and quickly and would make the game playable for me again. All the rest would be icing on the cake.