NPC Wingmen (Sandro)

shadragon

shadragon
Hey Sandro,

Will I ever be able to put one of my spare NPC pilots into one of my spare ships? Not asking for an ETA or guarantee, just a yeah or nay to the concept. It's a QoL thing I'd like to see.

I'd love to put my NPC pilot into my Vulture to cover my butt in the T-9 when trading. I'd like to have a couple of NPC piloted Viper MK III's helping me with base assaults, or cargo recovery. The enemy is dropping into the USS in a Wing to stop me. Why can't I form my own for protection?

I love SLF's, but they do have limits. I have ships in storage doing nothing. If I can cover the rebuy, why not use them.

Cheers mate and keep up the good work.

Your friendly neighbourhood shadragon.
 

lokvette

lokvette
Would love to see this.

But wouldn't it check yet another huge spanner into PVP balance, Im a non pvper so might be speaking out of where me sun shines. That and I have no idea how hard it is to make or get in game. But in the words of one capn, P: Make it so..
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
lokvette said:
Would love to see this.

But wouldn't it check yet another huge spanner into PVP balance, Im a non pvper so might be speaking out of where me sun shines. That and I have no idea how hard it is to make or get in game. But in the words of one capn, P: Make it so..
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Nobody cares about PvP balance, also a wing of a CMDR + NPCs will always be weaker than a wing of CMDR + CMDRs.
 

Friedenreich Xante

Friedenreich Xante
Seeing how NPC's go Pop on sight, I'd rather don't trust them with my ships. Oh well, a low rebuy one, why not. But then having my tediously ranked-up Crew killed, I'd prefer not.

But in the end, if others want that Feature, it doesn't bug me if it gets implemented. Maybe for additional cargo hold, it would be nice.
 

verminstar

Banned
verminstar
Would be cool to see this happen actually, especially out here in the black and the very definition of alone ^
 

lokvette

lokvette
babelfisch said:
Nobody cares about PvP balance, also a wing of a CMDR + NPCs will always be weaker than a wing of CMDR + CMDRs.
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True. Was thinking along the lines of one with and one without or..

Oh would this mean we would start seeing "I just got ganked by a player and his AI wingman" threads...
 

MickyG1982

M
See, I'd love to be able to use my spare NPC pilots to move my spare ships about - would make them worth their pay for hanging around sitting on their backsides!
 

Urbanski101

Urbanski101
NPC wingmen would be cool.

Couldn't care less about PvP or balance thereof.

I'm sure the whole point of PvP in ED is for the fight to be unbalanced anyway.....mostly.

I'd actually like to be able to hire NPC pilots from the pilot lounge to fly as my wingmen for a set time, maybe they clock up an hourly rate and when you dismiss them you get the bill. That way you don't have to worry about losing your ship to a clumsy NPC or worry about losing an NPC pilot you spent some time building up.

The hourly rate would scale with their ship and skill, mostly harmless in a sidey = cheap, Elite in an FDL = expensive. Pilot availability in any given pilot lounge would reflect the system and station you are in, so a primary station in a busy trade hub system would have a good selection, a lonely outpost on the outskirts of the bubble would have a poor or zero selection.
 
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Sandro Sammarco

Lead Designer
Frontier
Hello Commanders!

This is something we still haven't reached a decision on.

The idea of NPC wingmen is totally cool, but there are some interesting issues, mainly revolving around balance. What we'd prefer to avoid is a wingman being a "no-brainer" in terms of effectiveness.
 

Vingtetun

Vingtetun
If it was expensive and you had to cover the npc wingman rebuys as their employer and you gained no credits from their kills it might work

Potentially tied to reputation too. A commander who kept getting his npc killed would find it hard to hire but one who made them rich might get better deals

Basically expensive escorts/protection.
 

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
Sandro Sammarco said:
Hello Commanders!

This is something we still haven't reached a decision on.

The idea of NPC wingmen is totally cool, but there are some interesting issues, mainly revolving around balance. What we'd prefer to avoid is a wingman being a "no-brainer" in terms of effectiveness.
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Woooh, Official response!

I had an idea. Just a little one.

What if, (keeping current NPC crew separate), hirable NPC wingmen had *drum roll*


Morals!

A clean bounty hunter NPC would simply refuse to attack a clean ship, or even work for, a wanted CMDR. Even in Anarchy.

A pirate, or psycho NPC would be willing to murder with you, but they'd always be Wanted. Which means security will pester them constantly, and they might be uneasy about going in to secure systems.
They also won't go bounty hunting with you.

So you can have a wing of pirate NPC's, but getting them to Eravate might be a problem. Lol

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
 

shadragon

shadragon
Sandro Sammarco said:
Hello Commanders!

This is something we still haven't reached a decision on.

The idea of NPC wingmen is totally cool, but there are some interesting issues, mainly revolving around balance. What we'd prefer to avoid is a wingman being a "no-brainer" in terms of effectiveness.
Click to expand...
Appreciate the feedback.

The balance question would be the same as an Anaconda vs a Viper MK III. I doubt you'd ever balance it perfectly, but to that end, how about these ideas to balance risk vs. reward.

- No NPC Wingman can use an SLF. They pilot their own ship only and have no other NPC crew on board. (Might be wiggle room for NPC SRV escort though.)
- CMDR covers the rebuy costs of the ship AND additional 10% penalty for NPC death expenses.
- CMDR receives no bounty for NPC kills (per Vingtetun's sugg)
- Only allow one NPC Wingman.

That could mean two Federal Corvettes cooperating, but that's a heck of a rebuy to risk.
 

Viajero

Volunteer Moderator
Viajero
Wingmen AI is pretty much there arlready with ship launched fighters and NPC wings. But I guess one of the most delicate issues about NPC wingmen is to establish the right level of cost for efficiency/skill of said NPC´s.
 
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