Hired NPC's are awesome but could be so much better

Darth Ender

D
I love hired npcs. The woman who neurally controls things with me takes credit for all the kills and is otherwise competent at her job.

What's missing is more communication. She should be making comments here and there about systems based on her backstory. She could bring up informative things while i'm in Supercruise like if maybe i'm running low on fuel or if the upcoming jump is to a dangerously close binary system.

She could crack jokes about pirates trying to interdict me or about wanting to launch her fighter (like a little "put me in coach!")

More trash talking about killing enemies.

NPC hired crew is everything wings was supposed to be but still manages to not be due to crap networking and relying on other people's schedules.

We should also be able to set a default order for when npc's take control over a ship. My vote is for "defend"

If an entire release cycle was dedicated to making your npc hired crew more life-like in how they interact, that would be amazing.

And I only play in open. It's just rare to have everything come together to get a functional wing together day after day. Having the npc there to help makes a huge difference to decreasing the boredom of playing alone. Which is often the case even in open.

tldr. NPC crew is great. It needs to be the focus to make it even better because it's the single greatest avenue of immersion and enjoyment available right now.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Darth Ender said:
I love hired npcs. The woman who neurally controls things with me takes credit for all the kills and is otherwise competent at her job.

What's missing is more communication. She should be making comments here and there about systems based on her backstory. She could bring up informative things while i'm in Supercruise like if maybe i'm running low on fuel or if the upcoming jump is to a dangerously close binary system.

She could crack jokes about pirates trying to interdict me or about wanting to launch her fighter (like a little "put me in coach!")

More trash talking about killing enemies.

NPC hired crew is everything wings was supposed to be but still manages to not be due to crap networking and relying on other people's schedules.

We should also be able to set a default order for when npc's take control over a ship. My vote is for "defend"

If an entire release cycle was dedicated to making your npc hired crew more life-like in how they interact, that would be amazing.

And I only play in open. It's just rare to have everything come together to get a functional wing together day after day. Having the npc there to help makes a huge difference to decreasing the boredom of playing alone. Which is often the case even in open.

tldr. NPC crew is great. It needs to be the focus to make it even better because it's the single greatest avenue of immersion and enjoyment available right now.
Click to expand...


Are your sure you want that? As in REALLY sure? Maybe if an absurd amount of time would be spend on it it could work, but otherwise you'd just end up with Betty 2.0. :(
 

Ziljan

Ziljan
The fact that they repeat the same silly advice comments when they relaunch after a destruction is a bit annoying, as if the fight was just starting. I'd say frontier needs to focus on improving the current scope of chatter, so NPCs know when to talk and when silence is golden. More situational awareness would be good, like saying something encouraging/fearful depending on the actual odds of success after a recent fighter destruction and relaunch.
 

Darth Ender

D
sleutelbos said:
Are your sure you want that? As in REALLY sure? Maybe if an absurd amount of time would be spend on it it could work, but otherwise you'd just end up with Betty 2.0. :(
Click to expand...

I'd rather a lot of effort went into making npc comms more realistic and less repetitive, random() or overly limited than most other features. It impacts the game significantly more than you would think since 99% of all players interactions with the game are with npcs ...regardless of the mode they're in.
 

milligna

milligna
I'm sure they'll build on it. The audio team has been doing exceptional work from day one and Frontier knows how popular this stuff is with the players.
 

Adhock

A
Voice acting takes awhile but Frontier have stated before that there's going to be a lot more of it done in future updates.

But yes, I would love for that kind of active atmoshere!
 

Martian Successor

Martian Successor
The single greatest improvement to NPC crew in my opinion would be......

To let every one of us that are flying two seater ships be able to hire a copilot to sit in the chair next to us. Anything after that is a welcome bonus.
 

Mercury7

M
They need to give more situational awareness when in a fight. I found my fighter was attacking another ship last night that I had no idea about! First I knew of it was "my shields are dropping!". I turned around and engaged.

I prefer to set them to "attack my target", and only defend when nothing is apparently going on.
 
Last edited:

TargetLost

T
Betty was ok. Ysha and Ren were the Problem. Show me your warez.

I was just in 2 war zones with my Crew and I have to say I had a blast! She warns about reinforcement and that is really cool.
The com is keept at ist Minimum but it is the spark of life that was missing slowly comming. First the ATC voice than this.
Yes I would like what OP says but I really worry it can end very bad and anyoing. (You know that X game that doesnt deserve the X at all)

2.2. is great. Also when I had to give up my loved python and get back my parked anaconda and now have to do all the engineer again just to have something of my Crew it is Great. I even let my mostly harmles Crew Control my anaconda in battles and enjoyed the fighters. After 2 war zones she is already competent and I am emotional attached.
Gahh.. I know main ship dead Crew dead...irks.
 

hookandsling

hookandsling
Martian Successor said:
The single greatest improvement to NPC crew in my opinion would be......

To let every one of us that are flying two seater ships be able to hire a copilot to sit in the chair next to us. Anything after that is a welcome bonus.
Click to expand...

Yeah this would really help.

I don't fly large ships. Despite being around a long time I'm relatively skint. I also like smaller ships.
As a result I'm largely cutoff from a lot of the new content.

Fighters I get - small ship - makes sense.
But the empty seat next to me?

Admittedly there isn't anything for them to do right now - but there could be..
Imagine how controversial a human nav / jump autopilot would be! :p
 

Xious

Xious
Couldn't agree more... The fighters and crew add a lot to the game and if the crew members could be enhanced with more dialogue and personality, that would rock.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
[up] Can't rep you enough OP, you are spot on. FD have hit a home run with talking NPC crew and fighters and now need to capitalize on it.

From the Beta experience, for single pilots, such as myself, it is ground breaking for immersion. It makes a real difference to how I perceive the game and where it could now go.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom