Discovery Gaming Community

It is foolish to think that in today's server day and age, there's just always a relevant ally standing by to save/help your ass whenever you meet a red. Because there isn't. Player count is too damn low anytime that is not peak hours.
So I'm thinking, and this mostly applies to zoners ("u are supposed to rely on diplomacy instead of big gunz lol") but also other factions with allies as well - a nice catalogue of npc sos calls you can make for a fee.

How this would work:

1. Select target

2. Call it in with
/SOS [npc type]
possible npc types: LF to GBs, perhaps cruisers if you pay a premium?

3. Wait for the cavalry

4. Designate new targets for existing cavalry by selecting and
/tsos
(can also target subsystems)

"but how will you make this balanced?" you ask constructively.

Several possible restrictions:

1. Price - The main limitation so that you won't call in an sos rescue/backup force unless absolutely necessary because you value your non-refundable space bucks. Which like ship price, cost exponentially more the more powerful the npc is.

2. System Message - So that everybody will know you called for backup at a location so that they could either send in more forces to overpower it or disengage before they get raped.

3. Delay - Depending on npc's you're summoning, there will be a delay from 10 seconds to 2 minutes, plenty of time for you to get killed or resolve the situation some other way.

4. RP - you can't call in outcasts out of their zoi, you can't call in LN in Ile-De-France, you can't call ships near their enemy's pobs and bases etc.

5. Time limit - If your NPC buddies survive the fight, they won't stay with you forever, and instead warp out (ie. jump/disappear) after say 15 minutes so you'll have to call them in again if you want continued protection

6. NPC mining - The loot on the NPCs will always be less costly than it is to warp them in, so you can't shoot them profitably

7. Server pop - SOS feature is disabled when server pop>100. Solves lagging.

8. Server Rules - if your SOS is oorp, you will be reported.

9. Will not attack npc transports for you (It probably won't be profitable anyway)

10. IFF - With obvious exceptions, the cavalry will attack neutral and hostile IDs, but not friendlies.

11. Rep effects - Since the npcs are proxy being commanded by you, you will lose/gain rep at half the rate of if you did the direty work yourself

12. Missions - you could call npcs in, but again it probably wouldn't be profitable

13. Rep with the npc - to call in a faction's sos you must be at least positive-neutral with them, or just neutral with them depending on the faction

14. You can't order an npc to stand down if the player in the region is of a hostile ID to the npc.

Aside from SOS calls, I would also like it if ships with carrier bays could carry an npc ship (maximum bomber/vhf) in each of their carrier bays that they can hire/buy for 20% of the normal ship + equipment price (customizable loadout unlike sos ships but priced accordingly and non lootable ofc. Also you can only hire an osprey at a base that sells ospreys, you can only arm it with debs in a base that sells debs etc), deploy when there's enemies, command by designating targets (designating yourself = enter formation) and dock again and automatically repair if the npc somehow survives.

These would probably have slacker rules restrictions as the ships are yours, so probably they will be deployable until the server reaches a pop of 150 or something, whereas you will either have to dock them or give them up.

And since they're your dudes, they won't have the time limit. but since they're freighter or fighters/bombers they probably won't last very long in combat anyways

And of course there is the argument that this server is not PvE and somehow having npc summoning would diminish the rp? I dunno, because I guess a ship who supposedly has diplomacy sending out an sos and not getting answered just because allies are not online is a bit oorp as well.

Thoughts?

edit: also I think npc spawning was mentioned somewhere else, not sure how well the feature could be developed if it were to be.

This is a really cool idea.

I don't own a carrier, but think it would be neat if carriers had the ability to "launch fighters" even if they don't have a docking collar/player escort with them.

not sure which server it was, but there was a commodity you could have in the cargo hold that made npcs spawn around you, and they attacked what you attacked. having it as a commodity means that a player can then type '/launch escorts' and they spawn around you, and attack stuff until they die. it would mean that it couldnt be abused by someone with a billion credits to throw at a problem. NPC BS's may not be as strong as player ones, but they cause just the same amount of lag; having it as a command would mean that a player with a hegemon could solo a base.

Having it as a commodity means a Zoner Whale can kill almost anything that stands in his way.

only if it has a docking module

Considering a billion credits ain't all that easy to obtain, (if you really want to siege a base using this function and assuming the enemy base is in the correct zoi that allows you to summon battleships, it would probably take *much* more than a billion under the right balance) - I mean, if a player hates a base enough that he would throw perhaps 20 billion just to hire npcs to take down a class 4 base, then by all means as long as he got the rp to back it up it's his credits to spend.

(03-03-2014, 08:39 AM)Sheaim Wrote: [ -> ]Having it as a commodity means a Zoner Whale can kill almost anything that stands in his way.

If the zoner whale calls for back up and you don't kill him/ run away in time, then it's just your problem. If he would throw 50 mil at a problem (you) and you don't bother to throw in the same amount of space bucks, then you either beat him using either skill, or player numbers (since fl npcs can be outsmarted easily and beaten especally if you have a group). It's just that since server population is a thing, so while strength in player numbers should be an advantage it shouldn't be a win-all thing.

As for having escorts as a commodity, that's probably a good way to implement as long as you also have the cargo space and the docking modules for the escort.

A possible way for buying npc escorts to work:

1. Buying the ship
/buyescort [shipclass] [shipname]
And a commodity of the same amount of cargo hold as the escort takes up will be created. an error message will be returned if 1) you don't have a free docking module or 2) insufficient cargo space or 3)Wrong ship type or 4) ship not available at the base

As for naming the ship, it'd obviously be pretty cool to give your "cronies" names. And it would also help when you're commanding them eg. if you want ship A to dock but want ship B to engage.

2. Arming the ship with guns and shields and armor - there has to be that type of equipment at the base you're currently docked in. You can arm these npcs for 20% the equipment price, or you could convert equipment you currently possess into your escort's equipment for no refund. So if you're ballsy or feel like wasting credits you could arm your SHF with codes.
/armequipment [equipment] [quantity] [shipname]
Error messages will be returned for - 1) unmountable equipment, 2) lacking funds, 3) lacking cargo space, 4) confirm messages for converting your equipment, or expensive equipment such as codes and armor and bs scanners and cloaks and jds (npcs obviously can't use pob equipment) , or 5) equipment not available at base or your ship

3) Deployment
/deployescort [All/shipname]
Escorts can be transferred and sold (perhaps even a bit like slavery), however if the ship you traded it to doesn't have a docking module then it won't undock.

4) Commanding

The most basic command would be designate, or the short form of it.
/designate [shipname] + a selected target = engage, even if the target is a base
/designate [shipname] + no target = formation with self
if no shipname is supplied then it is assumed to be a general command for all ships.

Then there is the escort command which essentially transfers ownership of the escort to your target.
/escort [shipname]
If you don't want to give your target full control you could
/escort [shipname] revert
or something, in which you could revert control of the escort any time with
/revert [shipname]
[shipname] is the name of your escort, not to be confused with the target's ship.

While the idea is nice, I can tell you outright it won't be implanted. At least not in the way you have suggested, since it would simply cause too much of a HORRIFIC lag, since it will have to check lots and lots of values.

The restrictions I suggested are merely possible restrictions - some of which might be able to be negated if ppl just follow the rules
Also, I recently found out how to switch off 3 cores on my computer so a single core can run at its full 3.8ghz glory for old software. I wonder if the server does that? Probably.

I mean, I know fl is a single thread process and I know fl itself can't be altered due to lack of source code/a non pricky m$, but can't flhook be loaded onto say a second linked computer or something and share the datastuffs with the existing fl process?