I'm currently in Talanzaar and when asking for directions the NPC is available as it should be.

However, if I ask a second Talan for directions to the same NPC character (still with me?!), then it's not available in the listed names.

That seems poorly worded - it's 1 am here and brain is on slow-mo

edit to clarify:
For example:

- I want to find Zoss
- I approach and speak to an NPC
- I click on Find Talan and then choose Zoss
- The talan provides directions to the region that Zoss is located

but then as I'm nearing or in the correct region:

- I approach and speak to another Talan
- I choose the option to Find Talan
- And Zoss is not available as choice

Hope that makes sense and appreciate any help as I'm spending most of my time searching for Talan's that provide quests.

I haven't played Outcast in a long while, but I seem to remember these "endless" searches for the right Talan. So I don't really have any useful answer to you other than to keep seaching...

It could also be a bug?

Unless, of course, the Talan in question is on another "page" of the options, if you get what I mean. IE If there are too many options / whatevers to choose from, you can select a "more" (or some such name, I don't remember) to get to the next page.

Thanks - There is an "Other Talan" option which I do check. It seems that there is a maximum of 7 choices per page and Talanzaar has more quest NPC's than available slots.

For now, I'm having to make manual notes which is an inconvenience rather than a game breaker.

Let me know if anything else comes to mind and thanks again.

It's a bug.
There are only two pages of Talans you can ask for.
If they are full, then right after you ask about a certain Talan for the first time, his name is moved out of these dialogue pages (let's say it's moved to hidden, third page). In order to get it back, you have to ask for some other Talan whereabouts (from the first page for example). It sometimes takes more than one try before name of the Talan you're looking for returns on the last page.

This won't be a problem in every area, but it can be a real nuisance in Talanzaar

I'm currently playing the game and I've experienced the same problem. One thing I noted is that sometimes when you ask for a talan the list changes so if you don't find the right character try asking for someone else and inmediately ask again to see if the talan you need is in the list. You can repeat the process until you find your man.

This worked for me a couple of times (not always).

Another option is to save and subsequently load the newly saved game. The Talan you are looking for will once again be included among the options when asking for directions. Unfortunately, the bug persists so if you need to ask more than once then you may have to repeat the process.

Please note that in case you're looking for Heza his exact location will change every time you load a saved game.