Custom AI Factions

[Sven_The_Slayer]

At first I just wanted to set my trade guild and pirates to use different ships but then I got to thinking that's still way to rigid for a game as flexible as Starmade. There are limitless options when it comes to the ships that we build and pilot but few options when it comes to the AI that populates our star systems.

Custom AI Factions:

Server admins should be able to set up custom AI factions with several options to make them unique. First of course is all the regular options, the name, if it's a public faction, declare war on hostile action, and consider neutral enemy.

Now of course if a faction is public it would also need an option to avoid plunging and entire faction in a war so you can set if actions of individual players reflect the faction, or a kick player on hostile action.

Custom Ship Selection: Check ships for this faction to use from the catalog as well as set their spawn weights so you can make larger ships more rare. If the faction is public other players gain access to these ships while in the faction.

Combat Rules: Set up each factions combat rules so they act differently in battle. Runs from combat, Engages only if provoked, and Always Engages.

Alliances: Pick and choose who a faction likes does not like. Factions can also be assigned as an "escort" type faction so they have a chance to spawn among their allies. This way you can have trade ships wandering around with separate AI for their escorts so if attacked the escorts defend while the freighters flee.

Default Faction: Assigns new players automatically to this faction. Multiple defaults would give you a random chance or possibly a choice.

Hangouts: This faction likes or avoids shops, and I don't know if the game keeps track or not but the ability to assign factions as spawning more often near cities or existing stations. This would be a great way to find cities on planets, "oh hey there are a lot of civilian ships over by that planet I wonder if there is a city"

If we get a catalog option for space stations an option to assign them custom stations.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Is there nobody else who would like to see a fully customizable NPC AI system to create depth to any PVE or roleplay servers. I\'ve seen a lot of NPC customization suggestions but none of them expand on the idea of creating more factions then just giving more ships to the current NPCs

 

[Trollerbobman]

+1

would love to see this in the game.

 

[Koloss_Meshuggah]

I so want this to be posible. I spent a whole day trying to find a way to do this, but unfortunatly found it is imposible as of how the game is now. The isanth doesn\'t go with my style and it is too hard of a ship to fight. I wanted to make custom friendly ships, custom pirate ships, and a nutral faction of peaceful ships to go find and hunt. Now all I can do is make ship blueprints that will spawn both friendly and pirate ships.

 

[z1967]

The isanth doesn\'t go with my style and it is too hard of a ship to fight.




wat... HOW IS IT HARD? IT HAS 10 SHIELD BLOCKS... AND AN EASY TO SHOOT CORE... HOW???

I can understand the style though, it looks kinda fierce, but is about as powerful as a brick. It does work as a swarm figher however with the cheap production cost and size. But still, even VF works tremlo fighter, not a powerful fighter by any regards, is capable of taking down one or more isanths...

Also, to contribute to the thread (do not reply to this post as it would create a reply chain, which I hate) I also have a need for more AI factions, and having a rare to spawn but kinda OP warrior clan would be kinda cool. And the ability to make AI factions joinable by players would be nice for a faction war server, as action would be almost constant.

Just me agreeing with you

 

[mindlord0013]

... Is brilliant! I want this SOOOOOOO much for a roleplay server or even just making a more coherent storyline for a singleplayer run through. If I could give this more than a +1, I would.

 

[War Dog]

I really like this idea, but may I add a few more?

1. Each faction has a set number of \"Ships remaining\" which regenerates with time (And can be set by the admin). Perhaps make it possible for players to help them (Donating credits, etc.)

2. Players can \"invite\" that faction into an area by setting faction blocks to in areas (Maximum amount can be set by admin). Allowing \"Allied\" NPC factions to help them defend an area.

 

[Zutai]

i was already looking into forcing myself into the traders guild faction, to change a few of the specs, on who they fight. but this would give far more options beyond that. if you could admin command an ai faction in with the name you want, and the types of ships, the types of relations, then you would be able to have alot more fun with this kind of game. though for now, i think i am going to see about putting humans into the ai factions that are already in the game, to get a taste of your goals.

 

[mindlord0013]

I\'m gonna go ahead and bump this.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

@ War Dog

1) That\'s an interesting idea, the ability of having faction wars on a server, war is won when one faction runs out of available ships. It would probably have to be mass based though so you can\'t just have a ton of huge ships, and it might be advantageous to have waves of fast attack craft.

2) I do want to be able to assign factions specific sectors to control and perhaps entire star systems. Faction ships could just naturally spawn near and occupy faction owned planets and stations

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I\'m not sure of the rules regarding the \"bump\" but I wanted to bring this topic closer to the surface

 

[MarshalPicturesProductions]

START A REPLY CHAIN!

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I keep seeing threads asking for more ships to the default catalog but not many actually go into depth in something that will improve the game by expanding the PVE elements it lacks.

 

[Stuvlordi]

This does sound like something that should definately be in the game, but looking through the consle commands it looks like it is already possible to a limited aspect which I will try

So far my plan is to convert some of the starbases into trading faction shops and add a few turrets, then make a couple of factions and spawn in small fleets of ships randomly around.

They wouldn\'t do much other than sit around in the sectors, but I think it would give a much bigger incentive to explore.

Also i have to agree that if you play single player, the isanth can well be a massive pain, untill you build turret batteries or a big ship.

 

[aceface]

reply chain!

 

[Reilly Reese]

I was recently wanting to make A.I facs more my private server. To make it so there is an a.I war going on that will be fun to watch and interact in. I really want this and hope Schema sees this because this is a brilliant Idea for RP servers, single player and private servers. Cause useally these are really really dull and bland scenarios.

P.S. How do I change name of pirate and trading guild fac? I\'ve seen it in the French stargate server so it IS possible

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

From Omni, the new guy working on the Starmade player character model

\"When I say I believe in options, I mean that passionately. As such, you can expect me to try to make sure as many things can be toggled, changed or customized as possible.)\"

I\'m not sure how much pull he has with Starmade beyond the new model but something along these lines does follow his beliefs of customization so I have a lot of hope for the expansion of the NPCs in the game.

 

[Imperial_Gold]

With the new NPC update, I expect there to be much coming in terms of factions.

 

[Ultraviolet Dugong]

And Then You Step To The Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

 

[Comr4de]

While I suspect that the new NPCs will lead into a revamp of the AI system, both the AI and faction system need some serious reworking before features like this are going to be added (this feature IS on schema\'s to-do list. check the wiki\'s \"upcoming features\")