Why don't NPCs have CMDR names

Should NPCs have CMDR names?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 27.1%

  • No

    Votes: 35 72.9%
  • Total voters
    48

Fenris Wolf

Fenris Wolf
I've been through the Design Document and haven't found an answer, so opening it up to the forums...

I can understand that any NPCs we meet in the stations who are traders, officials, etc., don't have a 'Commander' title.

But why don't the ones we see whilst out flying have CMDR in front of their names?

Do we really need to know if they are NPCs or not?

I guess we'll learn to recognise some of the names, but other than that should there be any distinction between them and actual players?

I've also attached a poll to this thread, just to get an idea on people thinking that them having a CMDR name is good or bad.


Please Note: This isn't a thread about PvP, Griefing, Player Killing. It is just someone asking why they haven't got CMDR status.
 

Rhaedas

Rhaedas
I'll step it up a bit, and say that what we see with a scan should be the ship name or registry, not the commander name. Have the commander name pop up when/if they communicate with us.
 

BFNK

BFNK
It's already hard enough to distinguish players from NPCs. I vote 'No' with both hands and feet.
 
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Wrongway

Wrongway
Judging by the quality docking of most of the NPC's I have seen, I wouldn't call them commander. More like they should be called learners and be displaying 'L' Plates :D
 

Bruce Warren

B
If you were only going to observe them it wouldn't matter, but if you're a pirate it might make a big difference.

Beating up on an NPC sidewinder with your iron ass Anaconda is acceptable playstyle. Doing that to a noob player is tantamount to griefing. Before unloading both barrels I'd really want to know whether or not it was a legitimate target in my gun-sights.
 

Cdr. Setesh Jaeger

C
the-monk said:
They don't have commander names because they are not members of the Elite Pilots Federation?
Click to expand...

This is the official reasoning. Also, aside from them not having the CMDR prefix, they show up has solid blips on the radar, while players show up as hollow blips. Which makes identifying between NPC and player very easy.

And if you didn't know that you might not have known that the radar displays everybody as a rectangle, unless hard points are deployed, then the people or NPCs with their weapons out show up as a triangle.
 

jabokai

jabokai
This has been discussed endlessly and the upshot seems to be that Frontier favour giving the players the choice as to whether to display the fact they are a member of the Pilot's Federation or not via an ID transponder. This will have the effect of hiding some PCs in amongst the NPCs - it will be a mutual thing, so if you hide your status you cannot see other's status. If you show your status you will be able to see other's status.

Personally I think it sucks but hey ho - it seems they will give it a try and see what happens. :p
 

Cdr. Setesh Jaeger

C
Fenris Wolf said:
Yeah, but why not?

Commander Jameson would be a NPC... Wouldn't he?


Anyway... was just wondering :)
Click to expand...

Its just a a gameplay mechanic, if you need it to fit nicely into the narrative of the elite dangerous universe for immersion then at that point (for immersion sake) you'd have to forget the distinction between human ships and AI ships at which point the question you originally proposed wouldn't exist.

Remember Neo, "there is no spoon." :)

Also if we want to pretend, given how vast the game world is going to be, how can we really be sure that there aren't NPC CMDRs out there and we just haven't seen one yet?

As an alternate idea to the transponders, I'd rather there be a way to leave the pilots federation. You'd gain the "benefit" as not showing up as a PC on radar, but would lose the ability to reach the founders world, and maybe insurance would cost 2-5% more than for those pilots in the federation.

There wouldn't be a way to rejoin either unless you start a new save. This would help with the "problem" of people "gaming" the transponder system in grieving tactics.
 

Guy DudeBroMan

Guy DudeBroMan
Wrongway said:
Judging by the quality docking of most of the NPC's I have seen, I wouldn't call them commander. More like they should be called learners and be displaying 'L' Plates :D
Click to expand...

No joke. I'm so tempted to start blasting away at random-NPC-Cobra-sitting-in-the-mail-slot. Or the ones I see so often trying to bumble-bee their way inside the station by bouncing along the outer hull.
 
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