Ai factions, a giant ball of ideas.

[CaptainTaz]

So, we all know how unimportant Ai factions are right now. Sure, every so often you battle a pirate group, or watch trading guild ships fly by, but honestly, you never get to see any inter-faction action. (It even rhymes!)

So, this is a thread of some ideas that will hopefully spice up life a little bit in the vast, lonely expanse of Single player.

The first Idea is based off of THIS POST from Crimson-Artist
Basically, we need population in the vast emptiness of space. The universe shouldn't be filled with only a trading guild and pirates after all!

I suggest that we should add an extra settings menu on the creation of a new universe, which would be a separate window accessible from the tools drop-down. It would Include the ability of adding however many AI factions you want, create their allegiances amongst themselves, assign specific blueprints from your catalog for ships and stations, etc. There could possibly even be an option to generate claimed faction territory in small clumps in each galaxy per faction. (Which would be procedurally generated as the player expands into other galaxies to hopefully increase performance)

The AI factions would be able to be hostile to each other, neutral, sided with certain factions, etc. The menu would also give you the ability to start out as a permanent member of one of the factions, even a pirate or a trading guild merchant (Allowing you to modify their respective stations, but not shops. This part is optional, and It should be single player only stuff if it is implemented because it could cause mega abuse.)

Obviously, with the whole blueprint selection per-faction, it could encourage more contests for default factions and such, as well as community created AI factions.

With the idea of custom NPC factions implemented, it can open up a lot of new possibilities. Here are a few I was thinking of, but I'm sure many more could be brought up.

Missions: Any allied or neutral factions to you could have missions. Some missions could include:

• Group battles; Go to a specified sector and help your allies defeat an enemy fleet attacking X or Destroying Y station.
• Delivery runs; A cube of resources (Hull, systems, etc) will spawn that you must dock to your ship and deliver to a certain sector. Enemy faction spawning could be increased during the extent of the mission. (I dont know how the rail system would handle this one when it's implemented, but something like this would be cool) (EDIT 9/6/15; It would be for the magnetic rail system when it's released)
• Ship building commissions; Build a ship with the required specs for the faction, which will become a faction-usable blueprint permanantly. (Admins can Edit of course if needed)
• (The all dreaded) Short-ranged Escort missions. Yes. I said it. Escort missions. You could escort a fleet of transport ships to a planet up to 5 sectors away. (Not systems, also dependant on sector size setting) Or you could accompany a battle fleet to a war-zone as re-reinforcements and join in on the battle. those are just a few ideas, but there could be more under this category.
• Planetary defense, defend a planet from an invading fleet for X amount of time. If a certain structure on the planet (which could be spawned for the event, or use existing cities) is destroyed, the defenders lose.

On the subject of war-zones, factions that are hostile to one another, and only have 1-3 systems between each other's claimed territory, should have a high chance of spawning small groups of ships from their respective factions that are fighting each other (when the sectors of said systems are loaded of course, and they despawn entirely when you leave the system to avoid too much entity spam), giving you the option to join your allies, loot the spoils after the battle, or kill everyone, depending on your allegiance.

Now, to make things for factions even more interesting, there could be some sort of value that determines how much or how little a faction likes you. Completing missions for them or their allies, or assisting in a battle against their enemies, would make this value rise (Up to a cap). Doing missions for their enemies, attacking allied ships, failing or turning down important missions (like defending), or raiding allied bases, would lower this value. Things then could become more dynamic, as you might be allies with two factions who are warring against one another, and have to choose which allies you like to be with more.

Faction territories could also spawn different things. For instance, their faction aligned stations will replace natural pirate spawned ones (pirates would only spawn in unclaimed systems, and factions with claimed space nearby will systematically "raid" them if you approach one), planets can have defense systems or more complex cities on them, or even mining operations in asteroid fields. You will more likely see their ships flying around their territory as well. (also subject to the "out of sight" despawn mentioned earlier to keep entity count/bloat down)

This is probably just a taste of what could make single player more dynamic, and I hope to see any critique or ideas you guys have too!

EDIT 2/26/15 11:45PM EST - Made a few clarity edits so it's easier to read
EDIT 9/16/15 12:46 PM EST - Made a few more updates to ideas and cleaned up things that were out of date.

 

[ccPlush]

this sounds cool as hell

 

[CaptainTaz]

this sounds cool as hell

You win a cookie for being the first person to actually reply to this thread in the 12 hours since it was posted.

 

[Blakpik]

You get one support.

 

[CaptainTaz]

I'm going to bump this in hopes others may come up with critique or ideas to add on....

 

[Lecic]

I would love for factions like this to be in the game. I don't see why they couldn't be in multiplayer, too, but you probably shouldn't be able to join NPC factions in MP.

This could be combined with the upcoming procedural creatures to make alien races, too.

 

[CaptainTaz]

This could be combined with the upcoming procedural creatures to make alien races, too.

Yes. All of the yes.

 

[Etsija]

Lecic mentioned multiplayer. I fully agree - AI factions should be a part of multiplayer as well - at least as an option. Not all multiplayer servers have hundreds of active players and tens of real-player factions. Our server just started and we have some 10 active players, all in the same faction. The space seems empty and hollow, with only some random encounters with pirates and trade guild. Adding more AI factions to multiplayer servers like this would add FAR MORE value and content to the game!

 

[Lecic]

Lecic mentioned multiplayer. I fully agree - AI factions should be a part of multiplayer as well - at least as an option. Not all multiplayer servers have hundreds of active players and tens of real-player factions. Our server just started and we have some 10 active players, all in the same faction. The space seems empty and hollow, with only some random encounters with pirates and trade guild. Adding more AI factions to multiplayer servers like this would add FAR MORE value and content to the game!

This is what I was thinking of. In a group of my 5 (plus me) friends on a private server, our factions split 50/50. We agreed to act at war with each other and play fair, but the universe is kind of dull without extra AIs running around.

As always, a server should allow things like faction density, usual faction hostility, and ease a alliances, or even if AI factions exist at all (Servers like EE probably wouldn't need them).

 

[CaptainTaz]

Lecic mentioned multiplayer. I fully agree - AI factions should be a part of multiplayer as well - at least as an option. Not all multiplayer servers have hundreds of active players and tens of real-player factions. Our server just started and we have some 10 active players, all in the same faction. The space seems empty and hollow, with only some random encounters with pirates and trade guild. Adding more AI factions to multiplayer servers like this would add FAR MORE value and content to the game!

The reason I said single player was more for the fear that there could be tons of exploits (Players taking apart generated stations for tons of parts and then super titain-ing everyone.) If, however, we could find a way to balance it for Multiplayer too, I dont see why not.

 

[CaptainTaz]

*1 month later bump* Let's see some more opinions!

 

[CaptainTaz]

*Another bump* Anyone? Anyone at all? Please don't leave me hinging T-T

 

[CaptainTaz]

I edited the OP again, due to seeing interest by Criss in AI factions.

 

[Trekkerjoe]

We need this. All of it. It would add a dynamic feel to the world, and actual objectives, both which are utterly lacking currently.

Along the idea of alien races, what if someone is a member of said race? I am obviously a robot(for RP purposes), but if the game thinks my character is human, then it could break immersion(depending on whether I can suffocate or not, among other things), besides, meeting another robot with my character, and being properly recognized as kin would be pretty amusing.

Besides that, it would just be cool to just explore, and challenge myself to discover all the permutations of races and factions if AI factions were implemented. Then I go to war, and the galaxy will burn...

 

[CaptainTaz]

Along the idea of alien races, what if someone is a member of said race? I am obviously a robot(for RP purposes), but if the game thinks my character is human, then it could break immersion(depending on whether I can suffocate or not, among other things), besides, meeting another robot with my character, and being properly recognized as kin would be pretty amusing.

That might be hard to balance, I'd suggest making a thread about it in suggestions if you haven't already

 

[Sha3es]

This is an incredible idea!!!!! I would love it

 

[CaptainTaz]

This is an incredible idea!!!!! I would love it

now just to get someone from the council to read it ;3;

 

[Blaza612]

I would recommend seeing this thread, Dynamic Galaxies, for a more complete version of what you've posted, as it provides the possibilities of procedurally generated factions, rather than pre-made factions in which the server owners make.

 

[CaptainTaz]

I would recommend seeing this thread, Dynamic Galaxies, for a more complete version of what you've posted, as it provides the possibilities of procedurally generated factions, rather than pre-made factions in which the server owners make.

I've read through your idea, and I believe it's much different than what I've proposed here, and most certainly doesn't "complete" it.

For yours, you have pre-determined factions and behaviors, while mine is about making factions and using the quest system to enhance gameplay and give them life. I'm not sure how you would expect Schine to be able to have NPCs create their own ships to be honest, seeing how complex that process is....

 

[Blaza612]

I've read through your idea, and I believe it's much different than what I've proposed here, and most certainly doesn't "complete" it.

For yours, you have pre-determined factions and behaviors, while mine is about making factions and using the quest system to enhance gameplay and give them life. I'm not sure how you would expect Schine to be able to have NPCs create their own ships to be honest, seeing how complex that process is....

It'd be a matter of having pre-built components put into the system, and make certain parts compatible with others. I'm also not sure how you got the idea that my suggestion is more about pre-determined factions, rather than dynamic factions (procedurally generated and can change significantly) and my system would easily be able to support having server owners create custom NPC factions since both the generating and AI of the factions would simply be based around a large amount of numbers, which could easily be changed via commands or configs, so it supports your idea as well. :P

I also hate the idea of getting missions from high up the chain of command, rather than immediately being basked in greatness by everyone, you could either be the ruler of your own faction, and control the NPCs in your way, or you can help out another. (these are ideas which I'm coming up with now :P) If you see some miners under attack, or some refuges being caught by police, then helping them out will give you recognition, until it gets to a point in which the faction your helping starts to ask for help, using a similar storyline mission system found in EVE, in which you'll perform little tasks every now and then which'll help the faction in it's current goal. At some point, if you gain enough recognition, you could get yourself onto their government, and eventually voted for by the population. This idea could be very nice to implement in both of our suggestions, as it will allow for more immersion, and make the world feel as if it's a proper universe, rather than a game world.