how?

How does a npc eagle or viper follow you when your on a smuggling mission from jump to jump? My Cobra jumps over 20ly loaded, and obviously neither of those two can jump that far, but they are able to and drop in and say "follow me I might have something your interested in" or "drop down and we can talk", etc. this went on for 14 jumps. And yes they kept their same names during this. Not a complaint just a question how they can. I've only got @ 2000 hours in the game and it's been eating at me for a while.
 
"It's a video game"


The scripted NPC's spawn when you come into a system. That's about all there is to it. They don't actively follow you. They don't follow our rules.



Don't over think it.
 
I've been making the run from Fehu (otherwise known as the Imperial Robigo), and from what I have been able to tell, and contrary to what these NPCs tell me, I am apparently very easy to track down. With stacked missions, I end up going the full-Adama and leading a rag tag fleet back to the bubble.
 
That's the FSD tether drive, something the NCPs have and we'll get around season 8. They have limpets with grappling hooks; you get the picture.
 
Anwser is: Space magic.

Yup, I did once used 100% boost on my way back from Robigo, because I was curious to see if these npc eagles what where following me could jump over 50 ly too... Guess what... they did followed. That confirmed for me that npcs aint have jumps limits at all, wich is silly imo. What is wondering me in this, Npc leave wakes that can be scanned... Wondering if that can be tested, like Cmdr A makes very large jump, and Cmdr B scans wakes of npcs that where following cmdr A with ship that got small jump range... Results might be intresting.

But from other side of coin, if they would have limited jump range tied to ship/FSD class like we have, it would be easy to leave'em behind, maybe too easy.
 
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Anwser is: Space magic.

Yup, I did once used 100% boost on my way back from Robigo, because I was curious to see if these npc eagles what where following me could jump over 50 ly too... Guess what... they did followed. That confirmed for me that npcs aint have jumps limits at all, wich is silly imo. What is wondering me in this, Npc leave wakes that can be scanned... Wondering if that can be tested, like Cmdr A makes very large jump, and Cmdr B scans wakes of npcs that where following cmdr A with ship that got small jump range... Results might be intresting.

But from other side of coin, if they would have limited jump range tied to ship/FSD class like we have, it would be easy to leave'em behind, maybe too easy.

They do have jump limits because they don't jump at all :p they despawn and respawn where you are if they are mission related.
 
They do have jump limits because they don't jump at all :p they despawn and respawn where you are if they are mission related.

True but... they cannot despawn just like that... as long IF someone else see them as well and going to follow them. Thats the whole point ;)

When I saw other Cmdrs being followed by thier npcs stalkers, noticed as these npcs leaved shortly after them with high wakes too, not just begone like that. If they high waked out, it means wakes can be scanned and these npc can be followed by Cmdr B, right?

Thats why I wondering... where they do jump in that case? They pick random system within thier range and another same duplicate npc is spawned where cmdr A did jumped 50 ly away? That is most likely what is happening, me thinks considering how spawns works and thinkin about it.
 
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When I saw other Cmdrs being followed by thier npcs stalkers, noticed as these npcs leaved shortly after them with high wakes too, not just begone like that. If they high waked out, it means wakes can be scanned and these npc can be followed by Cmdr B, right?

Logically yes, but in practice, no. NPCs are not persistent from system to system. It looks like they high-waked out, but they actually de-spawned; any damage done to them is wasted and will not still be present in the unlikely event you ever encounter them again. As any wannabe bounty-hunter who's ever tried to follow a high-waking damaged NPC target will tell you.
 
There is a certain sect of space pirates that have figured out how to use quantum physics. They are here, yet not here.
 
How does a npc eagle or viper follow you when your on a smuggling mission from jump to jump? My Cobra jumps over 20ly loaded, and obviously neither of those two can jump that far, but they are able to and drop in and say "follow me I might have something your interested in" or "drop down and we can talk", etc. this went on for 14 jumps. And yes they kept their same names during this. Not a complaint just a question how they can. I've only got @ 2000 hours in the game and it's been eating at me for a while.

It doesn't follow you. Ships are spawned in based on sequencing (particularly based on mission events) and as a consequence these can sometimes cause the same ship names to appear. I've had 'Drop Bear' appear to follow me through five systems, once. They managed to change ships 3 times, as well. Yes it's a little silly because clearly it's not the same AI; it's just the way the system is injecting AI as part of the overall missions mechanics. Checks such as name or ship duplication and so forth is the sort of thing a second pass would address. Given both AI and Missions are being overhauled to some degree, my expectation is this slightly 'placeholder' behaviour will diminish over time.

Making AI and getting them to do the things they are supposed to, and making a governing system that can manage multiple commanders in multiple systems with potentially multiple events firing in parallel, or succession, is not a five minute job.

I still find it hilarious when an eagle driver screams they want it all, but a quick check of their loadout belies they have no module bays left for cargo, for example. This is all as a consequence of a system that's grown over time and just hasn't had a proper rework into a better behaved and regulating system.

AI needs work. Frontier are well aware of this and it's going to come down to responding to the shouty voices who want all the features on the roadmap delivered tomorrow, and balancing that with actually making those things robust.
 
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There is a certain sect of space pirates that have figured out how to use quantum physics. They are here, yet not here.

Kinda sounds like you might be talking about the Schrodinger gang.... or maybe you aren't.

No, it's the Heisenberg gang. They are hard to shoot because your targeting systems can only see their position or their velocity, not both, but if you do get a solid hit on them they break really bad...
 
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