Ecunopolis/NPCFactories/Scary hive idea without a proper name

[HadrasVorshoth]

So, I've been athinking of how NPC stations could be made more terrifyingly bedwettingly scary.

And also, how can they seem like active stations with a purpose to them.

So... I thought about it, and decided to go back to one of the earliest games I ever played for inspiration. Conway's Game of Life.

So, the idea is that stations have components, be they corridors, lifts, observation rooms, etc.

Okay, now, imagine that each particular component has its own data value, or colour.

Now, what if the game has rules for what happens into open space when any one component is surrounded by components of certain combinations?

If a corridor is connected to a corridor, there is a chance that another corridor or any 'functional' room will be placed. If an observation room is placed, there will be no more observation rooms in the spaces surrounding it.

As time goes on, the structures start from their initially generated small scale 'seed' stations, and ultimately grow into sprawling ecunopolis-worlds which are guarded by the NPCs at whatever stage the game is in by the time this would be implemented.

This means that they seem dynamic, and the player doesn't know what to expect.

Of course, there needs to be a limit to how far this can go, and how quickly, otherwise players will simply 'harvest' the growing station's useful stuff, whilst maintaining the growth, which might be OP.

Perhaps it's something to consider when there are NPCs with actual bodies in the game, and thus the 'seed stations' have a limiting factor of how many sentients are working in it and how many resources they have from mining activities.

 

[AlpheanBoolean]

I support,cause the game\'s a bit empty right now.. The only NPC\'s are those pesky pirates and trading guild ships. And a station that keeps growing?Awe.some.

 

[Mariona]

I also support this idea, we need better pirate stations and having them dynamic would be cool

 

[omelet]

I like the idea, because it would make the game more dynamic and increase its difficulty as the server has been up for longer. Perhaps if the AI competed with everyone else for the same resources for expansion of thier metropolis with salvaging, it would not make destroying and salvaging thier metropolis too over powered.

Also, to expand on the AI being an actual enemy, there could be maybe only one or a few enemy bases placed randomly at first with little resources, and as time went on it could build up, build ships, get more resources, and build its base and pirate fleet based on some stock ship designs you could choose in server settings. As the AI gathers more resources, it could build bigger stock ships Then say, if you destroyed their base faction module, they could respawn in another random area and start again, possibly stronger than before by increase in development rate. Or possibly they could create new bases at some frequency so it constantly grows and becomes more powerful and must be knocked back.

 

[Ultraviolet Dugong]

It would be kind of cool if the growing stations were actually some weird alien organism that keeps growing. This would fit into the idea of having an alien race as another NPC threat. Perhaps their technology could be organic, and they engineered a space station organism?

The only trouble is, how would the growth of the stations be managed from a programming perspective? If you want them to appear to grow even when they\'re not loaded, they would have to play \"catch up\" whenever a player moves into the area, based on how long the server has been active. This could cause some (likely negligible) lag on slower computers in single player, but more importantly would mean that, after a while, any new stations people encounter would probably be fully grown. Meaning the NPCs would suddenly have near-galactic dominance outside of the immediate play area. In addition, players that log out near/in one might find themselves, and their ships, stuck in the stuff. The game does have some collision handling that should be able to deal with this, I think.



Overall, really cool idea, though!

 

[xino]

what if the stations could only \"catch up\" grow by a few moduals at a time so a massive station does not just generate all at once. this also helps lag. maybe even random explosions accidents or battles that controll the growth so not all stations grow indeffinatly