Hello!
First off, I do like that NPC's chat randomly, however, some are plain weird, like wedding barges, and cruise ships.
They also spam quite a lot. But you know me, I wouldn't just recommend reducing the amount of chatter, no, I have to make things far more interesting!
So, I had an idea. Currently we have two kinds of messages, a broadcast, like the cruise liners, wedding barges, ships complaining about the state of the system, etc. And direct, like piracy, or security.
So I propose a third option, Internal.
Internal Comms would handle all comms from within a ship, such as cruise ship announcements, and wedding barges. Basically anything that isn't really meant for us to hear.
Now the fun bit is, these messages now only appear, when you target that ship, as if you're tuning in to their internal frequency.
Other ships can then have a load of internal chat dialogue to give you hints and tips as to what they're upto, which could then lead to more interesting gameplay.
For example, an Assassination Mission for an illegal to murder target, will spawn the NPC in a clean ship, in a high security system. But, by stalking them, targeting them, and listening in, they may reveal something like "we'll be passing through system X, in Y minutes, it's an anarchy, so keep and eye out!", at which point, you know exactly where and when they are going to be most vulnerable.
Security at certain mission objectives may say things like "My shifts coming to an end soon... why hasn't NPC X showed up yet?", at which point, you know the objectives will be unguarded for a short time.
NPC smuggles (which can be a pain in the bum to find for massacre missions), could simply say things to give away they are indeed smuggling.
Traders could give away infornation on their cargo, by saying things like "these low temperature diamonds will fetch a great price!" which solves the supercruise cargo scanning issue.
And all these will only be revealed when targeting that ship, not broadcast openly.
Of course, they may just say utter useless garbage you don't want to hear aswell, like "where the hell is my other shoe?", or "why am I talking to myself?", so you need to be patient and wait for a clue.
Thoughts?
CMDR Cosmic Spacehead
First off, I do like that NPC's chat randomly, however, some are plain weird, like wedding barges, and cruise ships.
They also spam quite a lot. But you know me, I wouldn't just recommend reducing the amount of chatter, no, I have to make things far more interesting!
So, I had an idea. Currently we have two kinds of messages, a broadcast, like the cruise liners, wedding barges, ships complaining about the state of the system, etc. And direct, like piracy, or security.
So I propose a third option, Internal.
Internal Comms would handle all comms from within a ship, such as cruise ship announcements, and wedding barges. Basically anything that isn't really meant for us to hear.
Now the fun bit is, these messages now only appear, when you target that ship, as if you're tuning in to their internal frequency.
Other ships can then have a load of internal chat dialogue to give you hints and tips as to what they're upto, which could then lead to more interesting gameplay.
For example, an Assassination Mission for an illegal to murder target, will spawn the NPC in a clean ship, in a high security system. But, by stalking them, targeting them, and listening in, they may reveal something like "we'll be passing through system X, in Y minutes, it's an anarchy, so keep and eye out!", at which point, you know exactly where and when they are going to be most vulnerable.
Security at certain mission objectives may say things like "My shifts coming to an end soon... why hasn't NPC X showed up yet?", at which point, you know the objectives will be unguarded for a short time.
NPC smuggles (which can be a pain in the bum to find for massacre missions), could simply say things to give away they are indeed smuggling.
Traders could give away infornation on their cargo, by saying things like "these low temperature diamonds will fetch a great price!" which solves the supercruise cargo scanning issue.
And all these will only be revealed when targeting that ship, not broadcast openly.
Of course, they may just say utter useless garbage you don't want to hear aswell, like "where the hell is my other shoe?", or "why am I talking to myself?", so you need to be patient and wait for a clue.
Thoughts?
CMDR Cosmic Spacehead