Gratitude from NPCs

Last Thursday night a wing-mate rescued me after I clumsily ran out of fuel on the way to the Pleiades. When I thanked him he said "That's the first time I've been thanked for fuel limpets, NPCs always just jump away."

Later the same evening I dropped into a threat 4 non-human USS in my Challenger and rescued some tourists from a pack of thargoid marauders. Again, the NPC ships just jumped away without saying anything. More understandable, given the frightening situation they were in.

But I thought later, wouldn't it be great if in a couple of days time I got a thank you message and was told that my reputation with their faction had improved? A similar message could have been sent almost immediately for the fuel rescue. Maybe they could send you some materials or some credits. But even just a thank you, you've made some new friends in this galaxy would really add to the immersion. And if you follow up on it, and do some missions for them, it could have a subtle but meaningful effect on your gameplay.

Or maybe they look you up and find out how notorious you are, so decide not to bother.
 
Last Thursday night a wing-mate rescued me after I clumsily ran out of fuel on the way to the Pleiades. When I thanked him he said "That's the first time I've been thanked for fuel limpets, NPCs always just jump away."

Later the same evening I dropped into a threat 4 non-human USS in my Challenger and rescued some tourists from a pack of thargoid marauders. Again, the NPC ships just jumped away without saying anything. More understandable, given the frightening situation they were in.

But I thought later, wouldn't it be great if in a couple of days time I got a thank you message and was told that my reputation with their faction had improved? A similar message could have been sent almost immediately for the fuel rescue. Maybe they could send you some materials or some credits. But even just a thank you, you've made some new friends in this galaxy would really add to the immersion. And if you follow up on it, and do some missions for them, it could have a subtle but meaningful effect on your gameplay.

Or maybe they look you up and find out how notorious you are, so decide not to bother.

The lack of feedback here reinforces the perception the players in these scenarios are just placeholders. What you want are consequences. Good or bad. What we get is the sense we are on a Disney ride knocking over props that get reset as soon as we move out of sight around the bend.
 
You do get a thanks from the rescue ships in some Distress Calls after you have wiped out the pirates, though the NPC you rescued completely ignores you. So there is a tiny bit of code in the right direction.

But this could certainly be improved. It would really help if we could interact with NPCs in more ways than just shooting at them.
 
Not only do I want them to offer thanks, it would be nice if they sometimes offered you paid missions. Maybe something like "thank you for the assist, commander. I have this data that needs delivering, but my ship is in no fit state to finish the journey. Maybe you could deliver it for me?"
 
The word we're looking for here is reactivity. We want a galaxy that actually REACTS to our actions, rather than just as Krash put it "props that get reset as soon as we're around the bend." I agree there's very little real cause and effect happening when we interact with the galaxy; most of our actions serve no purpose other than to increase our rank, unlock some module, ship or system, or make us credits.
 
The word we're looking for here is reactivity. We want a galaxy that actually REACTS to our actions, rather than just as Krash put it "props that get reset as soon as we're around the bend." I agree there's very little real cause and effect happening when we interact with the galaxy; most of our actions serve no purpose other than to increase our rank, unlock some module, ship or system, or make us credits.

Yep, pretty much what I have been saying for a while now. A far less "static" Galaxy is what I most want-going forward. NPC's who will approach you in SC to offer you missions. Having salvage & scanning occasionally trigger "Mission Critical Updates"-whether it be directly triggering a mission, giving you tip off as to which faction to go to in order to obtain a mission, or providing a clue towards completing a mission in progress. This would help make the galaxy feel truly *alive*!!!!
 
But I thought later, wouldn't it be great if in a couple of days time I got a thank you message and was told that my reputation with their faction had improved?

This makes perfect sense. Besides responses from NPCs being something simple to add that would make the activity feel much better. If doing so had an effect on rep that might actually give players incentive to actively play this part of the game.
 
I wish that federation stations wouldn't simply restock my Imperial Clipper a full load of frag ammo when I spent the whole session killing their transport ships, in that specific system (or that I would at least need to go to an independent one). Its like ... you've been shooting at us and wish to buy more bullets from us to shot us with? Can't say no to good looking SPACE BUCKS

Wait nvm... Come to think of it... it makes a lot of sense considering that the federation is basically Space Murica.

But even so... Last time I checked the "FedBug" wasn't fixed for real ... just sweep under the rug. Better to just make it REALLY hard to be the enemy of a superpower rather than fix the bugs.

The lack of features we see in this game these days probably have to do with the fact that all the competent manpower that knows how to code properly (if they ever existed in that company to begin with) are probably busy making other games while Sandro plays with his Loach on Live streams in order to milk more money from us using the store with Ship kits and paint jobs for their third iteration of the Chieftain.

Don't forget the additional spoilers you can buy for your Type 10 that is already just a type 9 with a sports car's Spoiler kit at the back.

Yo dawg, I heard you like spoilers! Now you can put a spoiler on your spoiler so that you can ... (I can't even at this point). ;)
 
Another thing I have long wished for is limited dialogue options with NPC's. Maybe asking them if they've seen <$NPC_Name>, as part of a mission or bounty you're tracking(your rep with the NPC's faction will determine how likely they are to tell you anything), or demanding an NPC hand over x units of <$Commodity_Name> to avoid being destroyed (your notoriety will determine the chance of that succeeding). Or offering to escort a damaged NPC to the nearest port.......that kind of thing. It doesn't necessarily have to have Bethesda or Bioware levels of detail, but something along those lines would be nice.
 
Another thing I have long wished for is limited dialogue options with NPC's. Maybe asking them if they've seen <$NPC_Name>, as part of a mission or bounty you're tracking(your rep with the NPC's faction will determine how likely they are to tell you anything), or demanding an NPC hand over x units of <$Commodity_Name> to avoid being destroyed (your notoriety will determine the chance of that succeeding). Or offering to escort a damaged NPC to the nearest port.......that kind of thing. It doesn't necessarily have to have Bethesda or Bioware levels of detail, but something along those lines would be nice.

I have been suggesting something along these lines for a while now too..

I usually go the pirate route,

Interdict ship
Select dialogue option Pirate
Select greetings <starts Pirate Interaction>
Scan for cargo
If no cargo, select good bye options when no cargo
If cargo, select option drop x of Y
Now NPC can make assessment if you are dangerous enough to comply, or haggle, or just fight.

If accepting, then cargo will drop automatically, and they weill spin up their FSD, piirate drops cargo scoop


If haggling, send new suggestion,
Pirate can accept or send new suggestion.
*Suggestions should default to the current offering.


If decided to run/fight for it, select "up yours" dialogue options and go for it.


Now if we have this in place for Piracy, either as the Pirate or the victim, it should be easy to adapt to other kind of encounters, like bounty hunting, if a bounty hunter catches yo in a big combat ship, and can offer to pay them off, they might agree if they are "outgunned"...

And since these are dialogues of pre selected phrases, it will work across languages, I can select my options in English, and interact with a German speaking player, and he/she will get their dialogue in German!



It would also open up for new options in C&P where you could actually surrender to the authority ship for minor things right there, and get the careless flying, reckless firing etc, etc, taken care of right there....



So you are hunting pirates in a resource extraction site, and accidently hits a clean ship, you should now be able to contact an authority ship and offer to settle things right there, and pay a "premium" charge for doing it out here instead at the station.

Also if wanted and authority ship/Bounty Hunters find you, they can give you an offer to surrender peacefully, so you will still go to dentention center, pay what is owed, but you have no rebuy costs.


I would like to have more alive universe that actually responds to your actions, the C&P system have added some parts to of this, but are severely lacking in other areas, mostly due to there are no ingame optios to actually communicate between players and NPCs.... NPC can send messages to you, but they are totally ignoring anything you send back. The only way to communicate, is by firing weapons at eachother... and this reflects in other interactions we have n the game, the unknown probe, shoot it. Guardian pylons, shoot them, meta alloys, shoot them, so a bit surprised that the first guardian puzzle did not shooting things, oh crap, it does....


I like how factions you are hostile with, will not grant you landing permissions, and shoot you on sight....
 
Last Thursday night a wing-mate rescued me after I clumsily ran out of fuel on the way to the Pleiades. When I thanked him he said "That's the first time I've been thanked for fuel limpets, NPCs always just jump away."

Later the same evening I dropped into a threat 4 non-human USS in my Challenger and rescued some tourists from a pack of thargoid marauders. Again, the NPC ships just jumped away without saying anything. More understandable, given the frightening situation they were in.

But I thought later, wouldn't it be great if in a couple of days time I got a thank you message and was told that my reputation with their faction had improved? A similar message could have been sent almost immediately for the fuel rescue. Maybe they could send you some materials or some credits. But even just a thank you, you've made some new friends in this galaxy would really add to the immersion. And if you follow up on it, and do some missions for them, it could have a subtle but meaningful effect on your gameplay.

Or maybe they look you up and find out how notorious you are, so decide not to bother.



I have even rescued NPC from Pirates and they are still yelling about taking damage and all that on repeat, despite me having killed of all the pirates and they did not suffer a single hit!

And I like your addition to gain a little reputation for helping... it is a nice little shoulder tap, for you did good. And of course the thank you part is nice too.
 
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