Pirate NPC Faction

[Lone_Puppy]

Hi Schine/schema,

Can we please have a Pirate NPC Faction the same way we have Traders for the Trading Guild? I have so many ship ideas for Pirates, that I'd love to have flying around in my own server. Plus I would like to not have pirates everywhere in the galaxy.

Although, I would prefer the Traders be Trading guild faction ID -2 and the Pirate Faction retain their Faction ID -1 but to be like Traders in that they have different categories of ship for different purposes along with Pirate space.

To get around the issue of Pirates normally all over the galaxy, you could generate a number of different Pirate Clans. These Clans could be tied to the existing built in NPC Factions (Traders/Scavengers/Outcasts), where the blueprints borrow from the near by NPC Faction. This would be useful for simplifying faction blueprints and also handy for confusing scanners into thinking the Pirate is a friendly, when they're actually Pirates using local ships acquired by Piratey means or some dodgy alliance or trade deal with the near by NPC Faction. Example would be, Pirate Clan could be near Scavenger territory and have used Scav ships in their fleet. Either stolen or traded etc. Would also allow players to ally themselves with a local Pirate faction and supply blueprints or ships.

The Clan name feature could be procedurally generated by mixing words or Syllables or other word play like those silly pirate/superhero/whatever name generators you see in Facebook these days. Or for coding simplicity, number them.

Ideally, this would be a configurable option for server admins with associated command line options.

I hope this all makes sense. Typing late at night, I'm a bit tired and rambly.

 

[aimingpopy]

Good idea. I hope it gets more attention

 

[StormWing0]

Pretty sure we can add one ourselves but it'd be nice to have. Any ideas for the NPC Configs for them?

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Pretty sure we can add one ourselves but it'd be nice to have. Any ideas for the NPC Configs for them?

Yeah, we can add our own. Only issue is all the Pirate stations scattered everywhere and the pirate factio ID -1 being able to spawn anywhere and for station assistance.

As for config ideas, possibly something like the following.

Server.cfg

• PIRATE_NPC_CLAN_COUNT=999 (Where 999 is whatever number of clans are allowed to be randomly generated through the galaxy.
• PIRATE_NPC_CLAN_ALLY=TRUE/FALSE (Either nearby blueprints integrated/used or forced to only use specific pirate NPC blueprints.)
• PIRATE_NPC_CLAN=TRUE/FALSE (Turn off Pirate clans and only have existing pirates scattered throughout the galaxy as they are now)

Could also have initial size, maximum size, access to (all available/no) server blueprints, etc

Command Line

• /pirate_npc_clan_spawn [sector] (Spawn a clan Homebase at supplied sector coords. ID, name & initial size/limit in sectors auto created)
• /pirate_npc_clan_spawn [ID] [sector] (Spawn specifc ID with a clan Homebase at supplied sector coords. Name/size/limit auto created)
• /pirate_npc_clan_spawn [ID] [name] [sector] (Spawn specifc ID, name with a clan Homebase at supplied sector coords. Size/limit auto.)
• /pirate_npc_clan_spawn [ID] [name] [size] [sector] (Spawn specifc ID, name, size in sectors with a clan Homebase at supplied sector coords.)
• /pirate_npc_clan_spawn [ID] [name] [size] [limit] [sector] (Spawn specifc ID, name, size in sectors, limited growth of x-sectors or unlimited with a clan Homebase at supplied sector coords.)
• /pirate_npc_clan_name [ID] [name] (Customize new/existing name of a clan manually)
• /pirate_npc_clan_delete [ID]
• /pirate_npc_clan_delete [name]

I thought the following blueprint controls would be a nice to have in a live server for admins

• /npc_faction_blueprint_add [ID] [blueprintname] (Add a blueprint on the server to the faction blueprints for faction ID. If the blueprint has no category (Defender, Mining, etc) error out and do nothing.
• /npc_faction_blueprint_delete [ID] [blueprintname] (Delete the blueprint from the faction blueprints.

I hope these make sense and spark other ideas.

 

[StormWing0]

Honestly having things setup to where the NPC Factions send out scout and construction fleets for building outside their territory might actually be useful for this. So they'd build in areas without actually claiming them unless needed.

 

[EricBlank]

I agree using the faction system would be better than the ubiquitous unaffiliated pirates we have now. Way better.

I would say only that the unaffiliated pirates should probably still exist, but be much more rare like a ~50% chance per system that it will have one, as local gangsters at a lone station with only a few ships between them, no reinforcements.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

local gangsters at a lone station with only a few ships between them, no reinforcements.

Oh I like this.
[doublepost=1534201460,1534201385][/doublepost]You could build into the game a way of aligning with these lone factions to become a super mafia. ;-)