[Suggestion] Fleshing out NPC's

Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
This suggestion comes courtesy of the discussion about being able to chat with NPC's-even if in a limited fashion. It occurred to me that it might be nice to have a more comprehensive list of ways in which NPC's could get further fleshed out.

1. Semi-Persistent Tier 2 NPC's: When he was once asked about tier 2 NPC's, Dave Braben said that he was concerned that players would just seek them out & kill them-not an unreasonable concern given the number of griefers & gankers in the game :p. However, what if all the tier 2 NPC's in the game were specific to each Commander.....and anyone in their same instance, & would only be persistent during those times the Commander was on-line. There would be 2 categories of these kinds of NPC's-Allies & Nemeses-& there would be 2 ways to create both. If you meet a regular NPC & help them in some way.....or if you try to kill them, but fail, then they'll potentially be flagged to become a Tier 2 Nemesis or Ally for your Commander. You will encounter them regularly, especially when you're on their "home turf", & they will either routinely help you (when asked) or prove to be a thorn in your side.

The other way to create these Tier 2 NPC's would be to either greatly please-or greatly anger-a specific faction. In the former case, this will lead to a certain number of NPC's from that faction becoming regular faces on your Contact tab, offering you help & advice....though maybe in exchange for something. In the latter case, you'll end up with a posse & regular faction members who will taunt & hinder you whenever they can....especially when you're in their territory.

2. Limited NPC Dialogue: In some ways, we already have this in limited form-with our ability to give commands to our NPC Crew. However, this idea would go a step further, with a handful of "canned text" you can utter to an NPC-from Pleasant to Threatening-that vary according to NPC type & Situation (a random encounter vs a Rescue, for instance). How you treat the NPC's of a faction, Verbally, could well impact your standing with said faction.....even outside of Missions etc. The NPC's would also have their own "canned responses" that should coincide with whatever you've just said....& how you said it. Done right, this could also provide a means for obtaining clues about a mission you're currently on, or even getting a mission from the NPC you're chatting to.

Anyway, just a few ideas to start with. I'll have more later.
 
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Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
3. Favours, Rumours & Further Information: This one relates more the the NPC's we deal with inside the Station. The one thing that I think would help to flesh out these Faction NPC's is if we had the ability to "Call in Favours" for a range of Station/Outpost/Starport services. Haggling over mission parameters & payouts (with associated flavour text), haggling over payments for Combat Bonds, Bounties & Exploration Data (again, with appropriate text), asking for discount ships or modules-or "off the shelf" module upgrades, access to higher level black markets.....that kind of thing. Favours could also be used to ask various factions about in-game rumours. Rumours would usually be derived from reading Galnet or local news articles, & asking would be similar to the system used in games like Morrowind or Skyrim. The thing is, though, that though asking for basic information might not cost you anything, useful details will almost certainly require "calling in a favour". Last of all, as with Frontier & First Encounters, it'd be nice to ask for extra info about a mission you're thinking of taking-even if the mechanic is only very simple. Obviously much of what I've just described could also be applied to interactions with Engineers, Power Contacts & Super-Power contacts.

4. Favours & NPC's in Space: Another use for favours could also tie in partly with Suggestion #2. You could "call in a favour" to ask members of a faction you're Allied with to come to your aid, or you could use it to ask a Security Vessel not to scan you, or to ask them to overlook a fine or bounty this time around......stuff like that.
 

Ayo

Ayo
It's the obvious solution to the 'depth' problem the game has. It's not just a 'depth' problem, it's a 'character' and 'story' problem that the game has.

My commander just does whatever the hell she likes because nobody in the galaxy cares, and this leads to a lack of a coherent story. Even in a game that isn't story driven, with no script, there is always a story that you as a player experience, and it is the most important thing in every game. The mechanics of the game don't interact with each other in interesting enough ways to create an interesting story (like they can in a lot of sim/sandbox games), so we need 'proper' NPCs to fix the problem. (Or do both, give us complexly interacting mechanics and NPCs that interact complexly with the background sim)

See my suggestion for NPC contacts list.
 
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Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
Ayo said:
It's the obvious solution to the 'depth' problem the game has. It's not just a 'depth' problem, it's a 'character' and 'story' problem that the game has.

My commander just does whatever the hell she likes because nobody in the galaxy cares, and this leads to a lack of a coherent story. Even in a game that isn't story driven, with no script, there is always a story that you as a player experience, and it is the most important thing in every game. The mechanics of the game don't interact with each other in interesting enough ways to create an interesting story (like they can in a lot of sim/sandbox games), so we need 'proper' NPCs to fix the problem. (Or do both, give us complexly interacting mechanics and NPCs that interact complexly with the background sim)

See my suggestion for NPC contacts list.
Click to expand...

Already have. Your thread was part of my inspiration. Tier 2 NPC's, even if restricted to individual players/groups, could do a lot for the game.
 
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