NPC Fleets

[Blakpik]

-- Problem --
Factions are small, even the largest factions only have about 10 or so people, however they have several systems of territory to manage. There is NO way to actually defend your stuff, (Hell, defending one system would probably be hard with 10 people), not unless some of your players happen to be in the right place at the right time.
-- Solution --
I know this may sound dumb as shit but bear with me. NPC or BOBBY fleets that can be controlled remotely from a certain computer (with faction restrictions of course), of course you've heard this suggestion before, I think that my idea is unique (I couldn't find anyone else who said this).

-- Fleetmaking --
In the AI tab you select your crew, assign a captain and a few crewman to that ship, or simply give your ships over to BOBBY, You can then go and assign the ships to a fleet, and that fleet can be issued instructions with some computer (let's call it a 'Command Station')

-- Now what? --
Okay you go to your Command Station and select your fleet, it opens a map UI and you go and send a little fleet over to where you want it to go, the NPC/AI fleet will attack anything hostile to enter the sector and if the battle moves them out of the sector they are assigned to, then they return to their sector after the fight is over. That border with your enemy? Suddenly, defended and you are not having to waste precious humans to stand around doing nothing.

However there will also be the offencive uses, just send the 17th Cockwash Brigade or whatever into enemy territory and watch them all get horrifically destroyed by your enemies superior military.

-- Balancing --
I think that the only way to balance this is to make it that BOBBY can only control ships of certain sizes, and larger ships need bigger crews, therefore the faction needs a bigger budget.

Any questions? Ask me.
Any suggestions for my suggestion? Tell me and I might add them to the OP in an edit (crediting you of course).
Any insults for me? Say 'em, I always find getting flamed really funny.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

AI fleets are a planned feature I believe, which is why the AI section of the menus has a fleet tab. As far as I can tell there will be a similar restriction of how many you may directly command as there is for NPCs (5 I believe? I never really use AI crewmates), though with custom scriptable AI (also a planned feature) I don't see this being a huge limitation.

 

[CyberTao]

The problem with anything tactics like that is that servers don't load anything not near a planet, reduced Lag and RAM usage (Imagine the server lag griefing that could spread if they could).

Honestly, I'm more for building outpost and small AI fleets around them (programmed not to go too far) for defense, and players can do patrols/raids/sweeps when they are online. You don't need to patrol everything at any time, just the important parts.

 

[Lecic]

This is essentially what's planned.

even the largest factions only have about 10 or so people

I think there are quite a lot of factions who would like to have a word with you on this.

 

[Blakpik]

This is essentially what's planned.



I think there are quite a lot of factions who would like to have a word with you on this.

This is me just looking at the user list on faction threads. According to yours your faction has 12.

 

[CyberTao]

Faction threads are often outdated, and not everyone has theirs listed on the site. The player base is spread out over too many servers to really tell what the average player group size is. (Since a small server with 10 friends working together, even alone with PvE, counts as a 10 man faction technically).

 

[tno1]

Maybe add some kind of credit cost / hour or something, like as follows:
1 crewman AI ship = below 500 blocks
2 crewman AI ship = 501-2000 blocks
3 crewman AI ship = 2001-10000 blocks
4 crewman AI ship = 10001-50000 blocks
5 crewman AI ship = 50000+ blocks

and the cost per hour is also divided as:
1 crewman AI ship = 50.000 /hour
2 crewman AI ship = 100.000/hour
3 crewman AI ship = 200.000/hour
4 crewman AI ship = 400.000/hour
5 crewman AI ship = 1.000.000/hour

No limit to how many AI ships, but you need to get alot of cash, if you want to have a huge AI fleet :p also it will take the money from some kind of Faction Credit Bank

 

[Andem]

The big issue that i keep seeing with these fleet ideas is that they serve a single purpose, offence or defense. there should be mining fleets, support fleets (medical ships, repair ships, etc.), not just war fleets.