With the soon to be implemented character models and the chance for your interactions to be with more 'important' NPC's for missions based upon reputation, it got me thinking - wouldn't it be great to develop a standing with individual NPCs in the game.
I was thinking of two potentially different NPC types:
Fixers - essesntially agents who look out for missions for players who employ them, taking a combination of weekly fee and percentage share of income from jobs they have sourced
Contacts - random chance for making a contact after a sucessful mission
(and you could be limited to x number at once to save on increased recording detail).
These people could have trust (read reputation) and power (read influence) like factions but would be personal to the player, with no influence based upon other players. As trust grows more dangerous, involved and potentially rewarding offers could be made. The NPC type could influence the type of mission generally given, so you could choose to work with specific types to have marginal impact on potential missions offered in one area of space e.g. if you pick a 'fence' type NPC they'd offer occassional salvage missions at their home base. They could even grow in power if you keep helping them (think you do a corporate delivery at the last moment saving someone's career, they get a promotion on the back of it and start using you for ever more secretive documentation transportation).
You could also have NPC's turn on you if you fail their missions - setting fake bulletin board missions to try to set you up in an ambush, if you annoy the wrong type of person.
Put this alltogether and it could lead to some multi-layered missions; you've got a month to integrate yourself with a high ranking director of Bellaung PLC win their confidence then get your hands on their latest patent and bring it to me (for a different faction's contact).
I think this would help to make the universe seem a little more personal and be something that is unique to them...they can build their reputation with an individual no matter what everone else does; it won't be something that another group of players can be pulling in the opposite direction (such as with faction influence). It would also do a tiny bit to support getting missions to play the game in they you want to, where you can slightly influence over time the mission types you are offered in an area, although not so much that it breaks other missions or is the main way to gain reputation with a minor faction (it could even be coded so that missions for individual contacts don't impact on faction influence).
Anyhow - could this work? Would people want to engage? What unintended consequences could it have?
I was thinking of two potentially different NPC types:
Fixers - essesntially agents who look out for missions for players who employ them, taking a combination of weekly fee and percentage share of income from jobs they have sourced
Contacts - random chance for making a contact after a sucessful mission
(and you could be limited to x number at once to save on increased recording detail).
These people could have trust (read reputation) and power (read influence) like factions but would be personal to the player, with no influence based upon other players. As trust grows more dangerous, involved and potentially rewarding offers could be made. The NPC type could influence the type of mission generally given, so you could choose to work with specific types to have marginal impact on potential missions offered in one area of space e.g. if you pick a 'fence' type NPC they'd offer occassional salvage missions at their home base. They could even grow in power if you keep helping them (think you do a corporate delivery at the last moment saving someone's career, they get a promotion on the back of it and start using you for ever more secretive documentation transportation).
You could also have NPC's turn on you if you fail their missions - setting fake bulletin board missions to try to set you up in an ambush, if you annoy the wrong type of person.
Put this alltogether and it could lead to some multi-layered missions; you've got a month to integrate yourself with a high ranking director of Bellaung PLC win their confidence then get your hands on their latest patent and bring it to me (for a different faction's contact).
I think this would help to make the universe seem a little more personal and be something that is unique to them...they can build their reputation with an individual no matter what everone else does; it won't be something that another group of players can be pulling in the opposite direction (such as with faction influence). It would also do a tiny bit to support getting missions to play the game in they you want to, where you can slightly influence over time the mission types you are offered in an area, although not so much that it breaks other missions or is the main way to gain reputation with a minor faction (it could even be coded so that missions for individual contacts don't impact on faction influence).
Anyhow - could this work? Would people want to engage? What unintended consequences could it have?
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