NPC "Players"

[Native7]

Lets face it, the Npc's in the game are... well to put it lightly, not very interesting. having what seems like a hard time doing simple things, yet alone things we actually want them to do. What I propose is a complete Overhaul of the Npc AI. Make them smart(er) then what we have now. why stop there? make Npc "players" Npcs that will make ships, factions (maybe recruit other npcs into their faction, ect), stations. In doing this, this will cause the player to not feel so alone in a game. This also leaves room for an almost limitless potential of Npcs and the game its self. in my option would indeed make starmade feel like a new game, and without a doubt cause people to play more. Thank you for your time (Ps. Please forgive the poor writing style of this, I am very tired.)

 

[NeonSturm]

we need a character editor like EVE Online

There you can select different hair, clothing, skin, eye color, ...


I especially like some clothes from eve, but also the background for their avatars.
If this gets displayed next to messages, players will get the feeling to be represented ingame

Just imagine the chat displays the avatar of the latest speaker...


Even if we don't have NPCs, just give the bord computer an image (the floating ghost is Carabatcho):
Click images for more details



A crew:
Click image for more details


Talk to the engineer to get more information about the use of logic or which system is damaged since you last left build mode or last saved a blueprint.
Your engineers may also have repair beams for RP purposes (middle and middle-right)

The guy to left really likes eating. Especially while talking over com.
He may give you some bounty hunter quest or tells you somebody has a claim on your ship :p


It would be somewhat fun if you can talk to your crew and somebody else has a counter-part which repeats your stuff. Then the other player answers and your NPC repeats him.
You talk to a human, but you also talk to your NPC (can crate a nice RP feeling if used right with little programming effort)

 

[Krazykat]

how about, to expand on this, we create an entire new game/universe mode. Story mode, where the universe will generate a vibrant and living space with tons of npcs, more pirates, questlines, crews etc. but still leave it open enough so many people could RP it.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

And then have a single player option in which you are the only one who is going to join, so there would be more npc's. You could become a trader, miner, pirate, soldier, fighter pilot. or just a jack of all trades.

 

[NeonSturm]

Can you imagine how difficult it is to decide which NPC has which experience, link every possible experience you want to include together (likelihood of experiencing a more specific B after experiencing A)?


Continuing a more detailed discussions about AIs in a different thread: http://starmadedock.net/threads/how-intelligent-and-unique-should-npcs-get.2869/

 

[WaffulMann]

So on the subject of character development, what about skills? Increased efficiency in turning, acceleration, ship handling, damage, reload, running, mining...... etc.

 

[NeonSturm]

A good point. Experiences may have a chance of increasing your skills.


The problem will not be no skill =0 or to have diminishing returns to never reach a full skill=1 (maybe you can reach 95% and 99% with a lot of effort), but to know how much you have to boost a skill on each experience level to have all characters with this skill have an average of 50% (ignore character which don't have this skill at all)
Else it might get difficult to balance requirements <- they should not depend on what or how many things give this skill.

 

[whooplaah]

we need a character editor like EVE Online

There you can select different hair, clothing, skin, eye color, ...
View attachment 4091

I especially like some clothes from eve, but also the background for their avatars.
If this gets displayed next to messages, players will get the feeling to be represented ingame

Just imagine the chat displays the avatar of the latest speaker...

I've never played EVE, but I've got a suggestion along these lines. It's one I made back when Google Moderator was the suggestion funnel.

Player Built Armor. Player Built Body-parts.

Basicaly, think of it like building a ship and saving a blueprint. The difference is that the blocks are scaled down so that the piece of armor fits along one of the 'bones' of the astronaut. You can save a blueprint for helmet, chest, upper leg, lower leg, foot, etc., then purchase them and equip. This results in something that look like Trove or Cube World, though they don't have angle blocks. Depending on how advanced you want to get, you may opt to replace bodyparts instead of, or in addition to, adding armor so that everyone look cyborg-ish, or alien. It could be like Ghost In The Shell or Surrogates, where the player is a brain in a jar and the avatar is a literal Avatar. Suddenly death/reincarnation makes sense canonically.

Point being, it would allow huge customizability to character creation because the look and feel of the PC character is player defined. Within certain limits, of course. A head, foot, and femur can only be so big. This also adds the possibility of character stats defined by armor, faction only suits, and a plethora of blocks designed for certain atmospheric conditions. Then you could add more blocks, like meat, bone, skin, scale, etc. which can be harvested from other players or NPC's or creatures (when they are implemented).

It also allows the developers to make new creatures based solely on a skeleton. Then the parts themselves can be designed by players.

 

[NeonSturm]

As much as I like that, I think players which want to remain natural should not have a huge disadvantage.

As long as it is not exploited with boarding parties or players which carry armour can carry less items (makes some sense if you think of old iron armour) ... it will be fine.

 

[Native7]

See, anything like this, we just need to spice up the game

 

[WaffulMann]

What about custom armor? The game gives you a certain area to build in, and you build the armor like building a ship only with smaller pixels, complete with logic, power, shields and all that?
Then you can have a "armor blueprint" that you can use and sell.

 

[jayman38]

Maybe provide custom clothing recipes to the server: if you supply the right factory resources, out pops a new generic clothing "block" (maybe textured like a suitcase) that when used, disappears and your skin texture is changed. (Or, if you are wearing a custom skin already, your texture changes, and the suitcase block remains, now containing your old texture, for reuse.) That would allow skins to use the existing factory system.

Also, from a RP perspective, you could set up entire clothing "closets" where all your outfits are hanging, ready to wear.

 

[NeonSturm]

Maybe provide custom clothing recipes to the server: if you supply the right factory resources, out pops a new generic clothing "block" (maybe textured like a suitcase) that when used, disappears and your skin texture is changed. (Or, if you are wearing a custom skin already, your texture changes, and the suitcase block remains, now containing your old texture, for reuse.) That would allow skins to use the existing factory system.

Also, from a RP perspective, you could set up entire clothing "closets" where all your outfits are hanging, ready to wear.

And bigger factions (aka 1000 players) would set up a dedicated clothing factory.

*WARNING: another of Neon's jokes ahead:*
Imagine Chinese members producing school and busyness uniforms for themselves and their Japanese faction members