It would appear to me that an NPC faction has need of at least three different ship designs, a cargo transport ship which may or may not be capable of self defense, an asteroid miner which also may or may not be capable of self defense, and some sort of warship. Am I missing any? Will there be a granularity to their ship deployments such that it would be useful to have for instance a small warship/fighter and a larger 'cruiser'? Will we be able to specify that unarmed freighters and traders be escorted by warships, or if they are armed themselves, that they need not be?
Will we be able to specify the behavior of specific classes of ships, so as to have unarmed traders and miners flee while warships engage?
Will the ability of a faction to deploy ships depend on the materials that go into those ships? So for instance, if a faction had ships that were very heavy on advanced armor, would their ability to field ships be constrained by their ability to mine or otherwise purchase fertikeen? (I believe this will be the case, but I want confirmation.) If this is the case, it behooves a faction if it's ships are designed to be economical, to require minimal resources, especially ships like traders and miners. It would also make sense if the weaponry/systems of it's warships be a well rounded mixed bag that would make relatively even use of all resources.
I want to create an NPC faction that will be a serious threat to veteran players (or at least I will try). I'll want not just it's warships built so as to be able to put the hurt on well built PvP ships, but also to be economically capable of fielding those ships in adequate numbers.
I'll see if I can get mine up there as well later.
