Add more NPC's and let the player activity to be input

[Misty_Dark]

I was thinking about the suggestions about moving all Power Play to open only, Community done in solo etc, etc.


So what if we based the number of NPC in system on the player activity, letting NPCs doing the same activies as the players are doing.


Let's take a Community goal where we are to deliver Gold to station X.
Now I would expect to to find alot more NPC ships carrying gold to station X, from where players gathers gold. I know this will require some(alot?) rework to how certain NPCs work, as I would expect that NPC ship goes to System Golddigger, buy a load of gold, and then flies to Community Goal station, and deliver that gold, just as players do. But now players can intercept that NPC ship, just as they can intercept player ships. it would be possible to actually follow the NPC player the entire journey. So now regardless of mode you play in, you will how popular that community gioal is by how "crowded" the system is...


If we have many players doing the cargo run, we will add more NPC players in PrivateGroup/Solo doing the same.

If we have many players intercepting these ships, then we will add NPCs doing the same, that targets both to real players and those NPCs.

If we have players defending these cargo ships (regadless if it is an NPC or a player), by jumping into the signal source, and fending of the attacker (regardles if the attacker is a NPC or a player), we can add NPCs doing the same. So we do not only have security coming to your aid, you have freelancers doing the same.


I think this will make the Elite Universe alot more alive and reflect more what is happening. Now if someone is trying to do BGS/PP stuff in solo/private group, then all modes should see an increase of NPCs doing the same thing. So you will not see the individual player/players doing it, but by just observing the NPCs you will see what is going on. and if you can't hunt the players you can hunt the NPCs.


And if we apply the same the same stuff regarding Power Play activities, then there is no hidden actions, so even if players are not shooting at each others, they can now react to other players actions by targeting the NPC ships that is generated as a results of the other players action.


So regardless of where lots of players are present, there will be more NPC ships there aswell. To show that the location is popular location among players.


Of course this system will lagging behind in generating the NPCs, but it would be better than what we have today. And we could actually react to players doing stuff in different game modes that have effect on you, giving you some options to react to this.




But as mentioned, this will most likely require that we have more persistent NPCs, and this for this to work, would also require that when a instance is created, it gets preloaded with more NPCs than what we have today, and also if jumping into a signal source, and then going back into super cruise, you should see the same NPC ships, and not have to regenerate new NPC ships.

 

[danielfriesen]

+1

It may also take a degree of tuning. To make sure solo players / and open players that rarely encounter PvPers do not feel like all of a sudden they are being attacked during deliveries far more than ever. And definitely need to make sure it's tuned so that someone starting out and wanting to dive in first their first delivery with the Hauler they recently got, does not get suddenly attacked by NPCs that are way to strong for them, resulting in them swearing off the mode and feeling like they absolutely cannot play it until they get a Type-6 or higher.

But yes, I love the overall idea of using NPCs to give solo and open players similar and equally enjoyable experiences.

 

[Misty_Dark]

NPC already scales today, and among the tuning of things, I would not expect see to FDL, Anacondas, etc to interdict Haulers, we should see sidewinders, adders doing that. So based on what you fly, the NPC targetting you should fly i similiar ships. This should also avoid other bad versions where a much smaller ships interdicts a big ship...




I also would like to see that ships have different stats, in regard to damage and health based on the players hidden combat stat, meaning a new player would have a combat stat, that is 1 (lowest), and as you successfully fight your way against NPC and players, you combat stat increases. And with this, the NPCs get s stronger, more aggressive, etc. And if you die, you loose some of the hidden combat stat, making enemies a bit weaker again.
Correctly tuned, this could mean that 3 friends could introduce a new friend and while they have a hiddet combat stat of 25-30 their new friend have a combat stat 1, and this means enemies shoots less at the new player, and does less damage, and when new player shoots, at them, he does more damage. And his experienced friends need to take care, even with their G5 engineered killing machines, they are facing tough NPCs that create some challenges to them, while at the same their new friend can have a blast and basically just fooling around, learning the art of space fight, without having to spend to much time at the rebuy screen.


Now, raising combat stat should be based on how how good you are at fighting, and there are certainly better and worse strategies for fighting.... but I would like to think about how many hits (damage) do you do to the target, compared to how many hits (damage) the target does on you... I you keep taking more damage compared to dealt damage, no combat stat raise. But if you do the opposite, avoid much more incoming damage and thus deal more damage, than taken, then your combat stat is increased. So the idea here is that as you get better in flying around, avoiding getting hit, then you show piloting skills, and thus we can give you tougher NPCs. But if you not that into combat, you will still take alot of damage, while killing NPCs, so you will not see an increase to your combat stat, and you are more likely to returning to the station more often to repair, etc, etc,


And if you are facing a wing, it is the total damage dealt/taken regarding the wing that counts.
There should be no need to kill ships for the stats to change. It is perfectly fine to escape an encounter by boosting away, and have long range turret shooting at the chasing target. and then stove the weapons and engage the FSD. And thsu giving the player a positive ratio between damage received and damage dealt.




For PvP this cannot be straight up, we can still modify your combat stat based on how you do in those battles, but we cannot adjust damage,etc,etc. So if you are a good PvPer, you will get an increased combat stat, so that NPCs are better, even if their "combat rank" is only novice or so...


This combat stat is a totally hidden stat form the player.


So this kind of change should in theory, avoid making solo players to much of a target, and there is no getting around, that taking part of community goals, that are popular, means more ship and more crowded space. And said earlier, NPC ship should target NPC ships aswell, giving the solo player the option to choose to help by definding against the NPC pirates, and thus could help to increase the number of NPC defenders in other modes, well mostly Open is the important here, making more Prate hunting NPCs available in open to help defend the traders.... and based on the players combat rank, these can now be pretty tough NPCs to deal with....do alot of "newbie" bashing, you will definitely deal more damage compared to received damage, so you will gain combat stat alot faster, that way...