I think that rather than having a single type of hostile NPC, it should change according to each level of the map. All of these NPCs would wear lootable clothes, that could be taken off and kept.
- Roaming Farmer/Camper Bandits
These would spawn in small-ish groups in low-tier levels of the map (around spawn areas) spawning with civilian weapons (hunting rifles, marksman rifles) and no armour, or minimal, civilian-grade body armour/makeshift armour. Killing them would be relatively easy, and they’d drop food, ammo, and civilian weapons among other things (raw materials, weapon components, scrap pieces). They’d be dressed in bandanas, farmer clothes/plaid shirts, farmer hats, and corduroy pants/trouser pants/cargo pants/cowboy jeans or farmer outfits (or whatever 4.0’s equivalents to those will be). They’d spawn in small roaming groups, either on horseback or on foot.
- Ranger/Guerilla/Paramilitary
These would spawn in higher-tier areas of the map, in small bases or encampments, with military tents and makeshift-looking barricades surrounding the camp, and camouflaged with ghillie netting. Makeshift technical trucks, pickup trucks or 4WD/offroaders could be found parked in these camps, and crates full of loot. They’d be dressed in MOLLE backpacks, hunting camouflage (see picture) either ghillie or regular hunting outfits, and not military outfits. Headwear would either be baseball caps, balaclavas or ghillie head coverings. They’d be armed with AR15s (or AK variants depending on map location ) hunting rifles, or low-tier submachine guns/machine pistols/auto pistols (something like 3.0’s vipers, H&K SMGs or the like, and Glocks or something similar).
They’d drop any of these, as well as ammo, survival kits, medkits, canned food) or some kind of survival food/trail mix) scrap parts/weapon components, and armour parts. They’d have higher-grade body armour, better vests, and be slightly harder to kill, and more skilled with weapons.
- Hostile Military Members
These would spawn in higher tier areas, around the military base area. Their camps would be more militarised, with watch-towers, HESCOs, sandbags, and turret mounts. Alongside tents, there would also be barracks-style buildings. Loot could be found in crates/containers here, as well as military vehicles (military offroaders, HumVees/MedVed type things, jeeps etc, but no APCs or tanks). Or helicopters/aircraft, obviously. They’d spawn with military-grade weapons, like assault rifles (AUGs/M16s,AK-12s) but tend not to have sniper weaponry. They’d have high-tier military armour/vests. They’d be dressed in all kinds of military clothing (although each group would be dressed uniformly). They’d wear military helmets or berets for headwear.
They’d drop ammo (obviously) all kinds of military pistols, and assault rifles, as well as MREs with differing contents, medkits, and military combat knives, as well as weapon cleaning/repairing equipment, but no scrap parts. These would be more skilled than the guerilla NPCs in terms of sheer bite/damage and quicker reloading time, but with a shorter range.
- Roaming Deadzone Bandits
А ну чики ьрики в дамку!
These would be the tankiest of all, spawning only in deadzones, and the hardest to kill, with much better loot drops. They’d spawn alone, armed with light machine guns and grenades, or flame-throwers. They’d look much larger and far more muscular than regular players, and look slightly deformed from the radiation, and wear gas masks or more advanced breathing appuratuses, with some form of mechanical exo-suit, and covered in thick metal armour plating. There would be a weak spot on their back, that you could get to by flanking them, and shooting it would temporarily disable the exo-suit, and you could then shoot its head, or shoot its legs and make it fall to the ground, and stab it to death or shoot it dead. They’d drop many many armour parts, scrap metal, mechanical parts, weapon components, and a lot of hi-cal ammo, as well as their grenades and LMG or flame-thrower, as well as a gasmask and filters, MREs, and some radiation medicine. They’d fire streams of flames or machine gunfire, as well as throwing grenades, and reload incredibly quickly, but it would be possible to run from their flames or gunfire, as it would take them a while to turn around and follow you with their gun.
I’d definitely like to see something like this (or similar) in II, I think it would make the game feel more alive and add more gameplay opportunities.