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Hello again! After much reading and thinking, I have come up with an idea on how to make infection-type npcs, like the ones suggested here or here, viable in the game, whether as a mod or in vanilla.
With the upcoming NPC Faction update on the brink of release, I have decided to incorporate several ideas from it into here. To start, I think appropriate spawn environments would be on either a planet or an abandoned station, and may not be closer than 5-10 systems away from the nearest other infected block. As opposed to the regular growth of other factions, the infected start with a single block and slowly but steadily spread to other blocks on the home entity. The spread would be noticeable by changes in texture; infected blocks closer to the starting block have more "growth" on it, while further out ones have less. Overtime, the further out blocks will look similar to the closer blocks.
Once every block on the initial entity has some degree of infection, then it enters stage 2, whereas it will begin to act like any other npc faction. It can mine, it has demands, and it can trade, though is more likely to have war and attempt to infect them. Though, as the infection is able to heal itself in this example, it doesn't require the need to repair damaged ships by replacing the resources directly, but rather slowly fills up missing spots (compared to blueprints) and damaged block overtime, though at the cost of some armor points.
Before I get into their ships, let me discuss how these factions get their first ship. For a faction to get their first ship, they must have a ship be in direct contact with the base long enough for it to spread to at least one block. This could be done through having npc research vessels dock onto certain stations for a time, as that would encourage faction interaction and enable the spread. Although a single block does not mean control, infecting the faction module and ship core does, meaning that when a faction module is infected the ship and connected entities become a part of that faction and when a ship core is infected they become online and able to perform tasks. The first ships initial goal, however, is to get to the nearest non-home base station of either the trading guild or that faction and attempt to dock to them.
When a ship is infected, that faction "learns" from data aboard it. It unlocks the ability to produce and reproduce ships, it becomes aware how any modules on board work, even though it may not be able to use some such as the transporter, and it knows everything about any systems that the ship has gone through, fog of war included. (It cannot see through fog of war) I will leave how it spreads ship to ship to you guys, as I can't quite figure a good way to do this.
When a station is infected, it again learns, but this time it rather learns of everything that the faction that previously owned it does, and will begin to produce ships based on demands and requirements.
In order to combat infection, one could pay the Guild a large sum of money to clean their ship, or a simple laser gun can get rid of a small infection. NPC ships, one the other hand, are likely to attack the infection if it knows or is allied with a faction that knows what it is. (This is a Boolean, determined in the initial growth but not requiring proximity. It is also more likely that it is false, since infection types would be considered rare)
I would like to hear your guys' comments and any new ideas you could come up with, see you next time.
With the upcoming NPC Faction update on the brink of release, I have decided to incorporate several ideas from it into here. To start, I think appropriate spawn environments would be on either a planet or an abandoned station, and may not be closer than 5-10 systems away from the nearest other infected block. As opposed to the regular growth of other factions, the infected start with a single block and slowly but steadily spread to other blocks on the home entity. The spread would be noticeable by changes in texture; infected blocks closer to the starting block have more "growth" on it, while further out ones have less. Overtime, the further out blocks will look similar to the closer blocks.
Once every block on the initial entity has some degree of infection, then it enters stage 2, whereas it will begin to act like any other npc faction. It can mine, it has demands, and it can trade, though is more likely to have war and attempt to infect them. Though, as the infection is able to heal itself in this example, it doesn't require the need to repair damaged ships by replacing the resources directly, but rather slowly fills up missing spots (compared to blueprints) and damaged block overtime, though at the cost of some armor points.
Before I get into their ships, let me discuss how these factions get their first ship. For a faction to get their first ship, they must have a ship be in direct contact with the base long enough for it to spread to at least one block. This could be done through having npc research vessels dock onto certain stations for a time, as that would encourage faction interaction and enable the spread. Although a single block does not mean control, infecting the faction module and ship core does, meaning that when a faction module is infected the ship and connected entities become a part of that faction and when a ship core is infected they become online and able to perform tasks. The first ships initial goal, however, is to get to the nearest non-home base station of either the trading guild or that faction and attempt to dock to them.
When a ship is infected, that faction "learns" from data aboard it. It unlocks the ability to produce and reproduce ships, it becomes aware how any modules on board work, even though it may not be able to use some such as the transporter, and it knows everything about any systems that the ship has gone through, fog of war included. (It cannot see through fog of war) I will leave how it spreads ship to ship to you guys, as I can't quite figure a good way to do this.
When a station is infected, it again learns, but this time it rather learns of everything that the faction that previously owned it does, and will begin to produce ships based on demands and requirements.
In order to combat infection, one could pay the Guild a large sum of money to clean their ship, or a simple laser gun can get rid of a small infection. NPC ships, one the other hand, are likely to attack the infection if it knows or is allied with a faction that knows what it is. (This is a Boolean, determined in the initial growth but not requiring proximity. It is also more likely that it is false, since infection types would be considered rare)
I would like to hear your guys' comments and any new ideas you could come up with, see you next time.
