NPC Faction Update Video

[JinM]

I feel pretty excited about this update and hope they will sooner and not later fulfill the promisse to improve the AI.
[doublepost=1478377776,1478377724][/doublepost]I feel pretty excited about this update and hope they will sooner and not later fulfill the promisse to improve the AI and the weapons.

 

[Dr. Whammy]

I believe Dave is sitting on a chair in the video... Nobody noticed ?

Macet ingot wedge.

Awesome update. One little tweak I'd be interested in seeing would be to allow the capture of faction stations without them becoming decayed.

 

[schema]

I noticed the NPCs were stocking Turret Docking Enhancers...

Can we finally get rid of those stupid things?

Haha yeah, they had that because I used the current pirate stations for testing, so it's what they demanded

 

[Shaker]

Hopefully we get this update before my server runs out of players, the game population is pretty much waiting on this update.

Also is it possible to limit the game file to 1 galaxy?

 

[taisong]

So, faction loses a territory when you destroy enough ships and take enough resources from them? Can we have a progress bar to how much damage needed to done for territory takeovers?

Right now NPCs have a big territory and a lot of stations. I think it is pretty hard to wreck them all. (wrecking 20 well made station is HARD)
Is it possible to lessen the amount of stations we have in a sector? (I think 5-10 stations/solar system is balanced)
What is the size of the fleet?
When do we have updated stations which works without docking modules?

 

[StormWing0]

There going to be a BP Roll for a turret? Since that'd be handy for the AI and players for that matter when trying to locate turrets in the catalog for use. Also it'd help in other ways, say a station spawns without turrets the AI would look up turrets it has use of in the catalog and ID what ones can be fit into the various rail turret spots. Maybe we could go further and mark areas for AMS, Normal, and AP turret types as well so the AI knows what to hunt for.

 

[therimmer96]

Haha yeah, they had that because I used the current pirate stations for testing, so it's what they demanded

How did they build it? Surely all ability to access that block has been removed?

 

[Thexare]

Will players be able to join the NPC factions or, down the road, do missions for them? When the talk of trade routes and freighters to raid came up, I was immediately reminded of Mount & Blade. I'm not expecting to juggle relations with various NPC warlords, but playing around with the faction warfare through NPCs instead of players could be interesting - and would add some more options for solo play.

 

[jontyfreack]

I guess now would be the time for me to say the usual "this gets me harder than spaced armour" or "im harder than adv armour right now"

so I shall instead say this gives me a sudden urge to grab an iMSAD and go on a rampage killing all that is left of the current pirates while screaming "pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows"

 

[Criss]

Will it be possible to completely purge an NPC faction from a galaxy?

Yes

Is this going to come with all the procedural fleets

Only the pre-defined factions that we are creating will release with this. We can release the players fleets over time as we continue with updates.

what exactly clarifies the ship and Station roles?

You will be setting those roles in game with your blueprints. How exactly, I cannot say, as it isn't in yet.

What is the difference between an ATTACK and a DEFENCE marked ship?

The difference is one will patrol space, the other will leave and fight. You determine what ships are used for either role.

Is the Scavenger basically a Miner-type

They will show up after battles and mine away wrecks.

And what does a "Mining" tagged station have/doesnt have in relation to an "Outpost" station?

Honestly, no idea. I imagine it will spawn in richer space, and have the cargo capacity to store the materials. An outpost might exist as a cheap way to claim space.

can we assign multiple roles to a single blueprint

Yes.

how a NPC faction will manage to get ressources if it haven't a salvager?

Through trading and manufacturing. It's not ideal for the faction, but at least they can try to accomplish their goals this way.

Will fleets be updated if fleet builders have new ships to add?

Well, looking at this system now, it would be nice. We aren't planning on releasing those fleets yet, as we have to test them a bit, modify minor things, and none of them have stations. We were thinking of giving them generic ships/stations and replacing them over time with more suitable ones. This needs further discussion.

Will NPC factions require a 'manufacturing station'/shipyard-equipped station to create new ships?

I don't believe so, since you can create ships with just the blueprint. This might change, and I could already be wrong, in which case, they will need shipyards. Perhaps without a shipyard, it could take much longer to get their ships.

When do we have updated stations which works without docking modules?

We can try to get this release out without those docking modules in. In fact, all the old pirate stations will temporarily be removed when this update hits most likely. We are working on two small stations for the Outcasts and Scavengers to ensure they have something to spawn.

What is the size of the fleet?

I can't imagine the game needs to spawn more than 10 ships in a single place. Right now it seems ships spawn alone or in a pair in their territory.

Will players be able to join the NPC factions or, down the road, do missions for them?

To a degree. Not sure if you will be able to truly join a faction but you will be able to become friends or allies with them. There will be benefits. And I imagine so long as you aren't enemies they would give you quests.

 

[Thexare]

Not sure if you will be able to truly join a faction but you will be able to become friends or allies with them.[/QUOTE]

Neat. Can this also be done on a player faction level? That is, could a player-run faction be friendly or allied with an NPC faction, or is it just on a person-by-person basis?

 

[Shaker]

Criss any chance that we can change the number of galaxies or even the size of galaxies in the future?

We at craftau have tried to suggest all our players to stay in the main galaxy but we cant really stop players from flying into the abyss

 

[Spindizzy]

Looks like the factions might be fun the couple of days or so before everyone else on my server decides to dedicate their time to wiping them out to see if its doable.

I'm hoping we could have standings with the factions.

e.g

Highly positive - Can request aid and they send ships to help you
Somewhat positive - better trade deals
Neutral - Typical behavior
Somewhat negative - Refused docking
Highly negative - Harassed and shot at on sight anywhere in their space, will make incursions into your space if nearby.

 

[Xskyth]

wait.... will this allow, now or in the future, player factions to use some of these AI controlled features to defend their territory?

 

[Criss]

stop players from flying into the abyss

Not sure if we will change the number of galaxies that show up ever. We will be changing how they form eventually so there is diversity. No reason not to do that. As for the void, there will be difficulties getting to another galaxy in the future. We want that to be a bit of an achievement for players.
[doublepost=1478401951,1478401933][/doublepost]

wait.... will this allow, now or in the future, player factions to use some of these AI controlled features to defend their territory?

In short, yes.

 

[Shaker]

Criss
So no way of limiting it to the 1 galaxy for the less powerful servers?

 

[Criss]

Criss
So no way of limiting it to the 1 galaxy for the less powerful servers?

For now, no. You won't be generating factions in other galaxies until you visit them anyways.

 

[Shaker]

Thanks for the info

 

[Madman198237]

Why not make such a limit? Surely it must be relatively easy to allow server owners to impose individual X-Y-Z limits on the number of sectors away from the origin point. That'd even bypass the potential issues with defining a "galaxy" (Assuming that, somehow, such a shape is not already defined for the generation algorithms).

 

[AtraUnam]

I'd just like to say (again) that I'd be more than happy to create ships/stations to fill every single required role for my fleet submissions.