Selectable comms would have been more useful than hand signals

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
WayLongWay said:
Simple implementation, yes. Real impact, only with a lot of thought on the concept. You can very quickly end up in a scenario, where most commanders fail the Turing test. An o7 spam fest.
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Yes, no, surrender, defy, no-quarter, request help/Escort/info. Half a dozen signals or so, the point would be to be rapidly transmitted and understood.
 

MartinG

M
Zac Cocken said:
Whilst I think the on-foot emotes have a lot of value, I do agree a similar system for ships would be beneficial. Tying that into NPC behaviour is a different kettle of fish though and would be a relatively more significant undertaking. The ship 'emotes' - how do you envision them working? Translated text into one of the game's supported languages?
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I, too, think a set of predefined quick comms texts would be nice to have.
I’d like to note that FE2 & FFE did have something of that kind, for communicating with both NPC ships and stations, although AFAIR it had no real use other than requesting the docking clearance.
 

DULL DAVE

DULL DAVE
Zac Cocken said:
Whilst I think the on-foot emotes have a lot of value, I do agree a similar system for ships would be beneficial. Tying that into NPC behaviour is a different kettle of fish though and would be a relatively more significant undertaking. The ship 'emotes' - how do you envision them working? Translated text into one of the game's supported languages?
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Yes pretty much. Something that couldn't be mistaken for NPC comms. Here is how a piracy encounter tends to go for me

1. "THIS IS PLAYER PIRACY. STOP FOR SCAN. YOU WON'T LOSE MUCH IF YOU COMPLY." (caps is attempt to distinguish from npc nonsense)
2. "Stop pls, last chance"
3 (scan cargo, either when they stopped or I've taken out their drives)
4. "Abandon Xt of <commodity> pls, then you may go"
5. They jettison cargo
6. "sheesh, that was jettison, nevermind"
7 "Thanks, you're free to go. Have a great day, I won't bother you again today"
8. "Ship menu. Reboot/repair" (in case they don't know how to get going again

But really it's just the stop requests and the amount of cargo (can be determined from manifest scan) I'm after. The chatter afterwards is part of the enjoyment .

A request/accept mechanism could automatically abandon the agreed cargo if the commodity was determined by a scan and used in the conversation logic.
 
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CaptainPugwash

CaptainPugwash
Phoenix_Dfire said:
'Stand and Deliver!' threat to a ship, might make a NPC pilot drop their cargo and run if the difference between the combat ranks are high enough
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Agree completely, and have asked this before. @Zac Cocken there have been discussions on improving the piracy gameplay. I see having to hatch break as a very time consuming last resort. If a NPC has been successfuly disabled i.e. no thrusters, it should then surrender, and I think it would be reasonable to either
1) allow a straight xfer of its cargo to my ship, just like transferring from station to ship currently.
2) the NPC offers a credit xfer to my account as long as I leave it alone. If I then blow it up the credit would be lost.
3) EDIT: another option could be to get the NPC to drop just the valuable cargo, which I would select via a menu after doing the cargo scan. I just robbed a ship with 120t, of which 90t was water and 30t was LTDs, and I had to hatch break all of it to get the LTDs.

The 'tether' feature would help with the bump stop (which I enjoy doing anyway), but the main reason piracy gives little reward is the time required to hatch break and collect.
 
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Fizzatron

Fizzatron
Zac Cocken said:
Whilst I think the on-foot emotes have a lot of value, I do agree a similar system for ships would be beneficial. Tying that into NPC behaviour is a different kettle of fish though and would be a relatively more significant undertaking. The ship 'emotes' - how do you envision them working? Translated text into one of the game's supported languages?
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They could be emote symbols displayed above the ship like the holographic landing markers. Not sure on the idea though, maybe for CQC?
 

-VR- Max Factor

-VR- Max Factor
Phoenix_Dfire said:
Normally "ship emotes" are kind of like predefined phrases that could effect the targetted ship.

The old wing commander game had a comms panel with pre-defined messages which could be sent to other ships in the wing. i.e Attack my target, help me out, form on my wing, status report? Each of those could just appear as messages in the wing as one player requests help from another.

It gets interesting where effecting opposing ships. Sending opposing pilots insults could make NPCs act more aggressively or sending a 'Stand and Deliver!' threat to a ship, might make a NPC pilot drop their cargo and run if the difference between the combat ranks are high enough. e.g. an Elite Commander threatens a Harmless NPC commander, the the NPC decides to drop his cargo and run but if the same elite commander threatens a Dangerous NPC, chances are that NPC will fight. (Although the commander still gets flagged as a pirate).

Might be nice for this to be considered when Crime and Punishment is reviewed.
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I like this. Its a rudimentary NPC ship to ship comms, which I think is much needed.
 

sandkid

S
Bottom Hat said:
And the random delay with pirates - you have ten seconds to drop me cargo, but I'm already shooting - bad luck hoooman!

I think you're suggesting human to human, but it would help new players if npc pirates weren't complete nutters that have no concept of time or irony!
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I always thought it odd pirate AI wasn't setup to monitor speed / distance of victim ship.

As in they don't attack until:
  • The victim moves at X speed or faster
  • The victim moves X metres away or more
  • The victim aggresses the pirate or pirate allies

Then, I'd also add that the pirate stop attacking when victim ship is at 10% hull if the following conditions are met:
  • Victim's combat rank is lower than pirate
  • Pirate's hull is above 50%

This would follow a ten second timer, ignoring the first rules, while pirate says the classic This can all stop. <Repeat Demand>. So long as player stops shooting inside the ten seconds and drops cargo, encounter concludes.

I mean, honestly, most pirates aren't too dangerous / hard to escape anyways...but I often think these encounters should be more logical for the sake of rookie pilots. Stuff like this is why the game's learning curve is higher than it should be. It should be high, I don't disagree with that that (common) opinion. I just think it's higher than necessary, and often in places most likely to hurt player retention.
 

Chorda

Chorda
Zac Cocken said:
Whilst I think the on-foot emotes have a lot of value, I do agree a similar system for ships would be beneficial. Tying that into NPC behaviour is a different kettle of fish though and would be a relatively more significant undertaking. The ship 'emotes' - how do you envision them working? Translated text into one of the game's supported languages?
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Perhaps the contacts panel options could be expanded. Currently we can 'emote' to a station with a docking request. Other possible interactions could be added for vessels: o7, wing up request, refuel needed, parlez, drop cargo, vacate pad, etc. etc.
 
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