In FNV you could kill EVERYBODY and EVERYTHING, well at least 99.99999% of everything

Yes.

Listen Op those NPC's are vital to the game, I mean how else would they be able to keep the game so linear.

It should be like fallout that if you kill them then you just lose all their given quests, be a little more realistic

I'm with you, but I'm sure someone will make a mod for that.

Bethesda decided it was necessary to protect people from themselves.

Ghehe. Every game has its limitations, OP. You've found one.

Not for consoles though ...maybe it's just time for a gaming PC

I...I just don't get you OP how can you tell a story with out Invincible NPCs

why are they still vital after their quests are done?

Fallout did it. Granted its not as good of a story as skyrims but it still pulled it off

Probably because there's nothing in the engine to allow for "essential" to be toggleable.

And dragons

You can edit the files in PC version to make them "non-essential" though I'm not sure how that would affect the gameplay.

I wanted to slaughter Irileth so badly.

It's handholding at its worst.

They could have easily made semi-essential like followers, which would have made them safe from random dragon attacks. Instead they go the "treat-us-like-kindergarteners" route and make it physically impossible to kill anyone who is even remotely related to a quest (which is about 1/2 the population).

Semi-essential status + Morrowind system = perfection.

That would protect them from dragons and not ruin an aspect of the game.

"With a fearsome battle cry I did charge forth with mine battle axe, hurling its terrible blade with a ferocity that Ysgramor himself would envy! Mightily did I swing that tempered steel that had driven giants to the ground, cleaved the heads of wicked dragons, and sent foul Daedra scattering to the winds of Kyne! Lo, did mine axe relish the taste of blood as it made to split the head of the foul Black-Briar witch whose wicked tongue had made a den of vice out of once fair Riften. And as my steel found its home ... she fell to one knee ... and started breathing heavily ... with this stupid scowl on her face ... and she moved not a foot as mine axe did strike her again ...

" ... and then got up ... and started attacking me. And then fell to one knee again when I struck her a third time ... and ... aw $&#@ this."

Yeah, that's a pretty stupid story.

. If you do a quest and it says you must kill Bob gro Boblob, his essential-ness would turn off. There should be a check in place to see if that person has a quest and if they don't it should be gone. I mean, Bethesda is't poor or anything they made lots of money from Oblivion, Fallout 3 and New Vegas so I'm sure they can do something. Would they? Probably not. Who wants to work for their millions. The richer you get, the lazier you get.

That's not really what I mean. I mean there's probably no way to turn it on or off through the scripting. So characters either are, or they are not.

Name one other TES game that let you kill any NPC... and don't mention morrowind that would make me wrong.

Couldn't you kill anyone in Daggerfall? Haven't played that since Windows 98!

Of FNV can do it...skyrim can do it as well

This problem show up at it's worst with NPCs that are only needed for minor quests, and in some cases where there is no reason for it (like the Stormcloak/Imperial Camps). One one hand it's a nuisance cause you can't be a very effective murderer but on the other I think a lot of us would feel pretty pissed if we just got back from retrieving someone's lost sword to see them be burned alive by a dragon. I don't think the follower-type semi-essential code would protect common people from dying from the persistent damage of dragon breath.

I've said it in threads years ago after Oblivion came out ... so I'll say it again:

Just include a toggle in the game options menu to turn on/off non-essential NPCs.

Bethesda, I hope you are reading this ...

Agree 100%