Why we don't need powerful NPCs

[Dab]

I'll share some of my perspectives from the viewpoint of the one working on the NPC aspect of the mod, and to give a vague idea of what kind of setup I'm trying to create.

Let's say that you are RPing with another player. If you are in a low level NPC area, you will be forced to make circles around yourself like a psycho in order for your shield to not drop. If you are in a high level NPC area, you are actually required to eventually dodge while you are talking.

Personally I don't feel very comfortable when I have to talk and dodge at the same time. And a logical question that somebody would make is;[/color]

I have had to deal with this as well, however, I disagree with you in that it is a problem. Obviously, you're in a location in which your faction has enemies. You shouldn't be able to just fly around without a care in the world. In these locations, you are the enemy and to be eliminated. The NPCs play out that aspect, but are much weaker than a player going after you, giving you some leeway. Operating in these hostile areas shouldn't be easy. As for impeding your RP, lets face it, NPCs affect it little enough as is. Flying circles while talking isn't difficult, and having your pirate sitting above Planet New Berlin with nothing to threaten you is far from realistic, or contributing to roleplay. As Aeternus said already; Being at enemy bases should be dangerous. Base turrets probably won't be getting a buff, but I will be using stronger NPCs around stations, and there will be increased patrols there as well.

Current setup;
Major planets = Battleship patrols. (ie; Planet Manhatten, Planet Los Angeles, Stuttgart)
War areas = Battleship patrols. (ie; Stokes Mining Station, Battleship Westfalen)
Major stations = Cruiser patrols. (ie; West Point, Ft. Bush, Shinjuku Station)
Minor stations = Ordinary template-level NPCs. (Riverside Station, Border Stations)
Pirate stations = Ordinary template-level NPCs. (Buffalo Base, Rochester Base)

I will be reorganizing this, not only to make capital ship patrols more sensible to their location, but also to add more variety now that there are more ships and shipclasses in use by the NPCs.

New setup;
Capital Planets = Stationary, undockable Battleship (works as a weapons platform), plus destroyer patrols. Possibly more stationary ships such as destroyers.
Major Planets = Destroyer patrols.
Minor Planes = Gunboat patrols.
War Areas = Capital ship patrols based on location. Front lines will have destroyer and gunboat patrols, strategic locations will have battleship patrols. Border areas will have gunboat and higher level fighter patrols. (See note)
Major Stations = Destroyer patrols.
Minor Stations = Gunboat and combat freighter patrols.
Pirate Stations = Gunboat patrols for factions whom have them, higher-level fighter patrols and combat freighters/transports otherwise.

Note; War area NPCs will not be so high level as to be a detriment to PvP fights. Capital ships will be roughly the same power and difficulty as now, but their escorts will be lowered in damage ability (made up for with armor buffs, so they will be difficult to kill, but have less ability to ruin pvp fights), and the 6-12 fighter spawns of .85 in war areas will still exist in places, but have drastically reduced difficulty. Capship patrol escorts will react more aggressively than in .85, where fighters won't keep returning to their formation, but instead target enemy ships as soon as within scanner range, and will continue until their patrol's main ship is outside of scanner range, at which point they will retreat. Gunboats will also do this, but their return range from the main ship will be at less distance, so they will return to formation at a shorter range than fighters, keeping to their role of being anti-fighter defense for the main ship.

Why do I have to dodge the NPCs, in order to have a proper discussion with another player?
Why should an oorp force of the server (NPCs) disturb my RP?

I (and I think Aeternus as well) disagree with your labelling NPCs as an OORP force. I see them as a fundamental part of mod and server roleplay. While they may be considered minor compared to other players, they still have a role and perform it. Military NPCs attack pirate characters and vice versa, this is integral to those factions' roleplays. NPCs embody the "traditional" roleplay of a faction, that many people base themselves on. While they do not conduct unique or original RP, like players often do, they still serve as a baseline of the faction. If they are shooting you, it's likely because you are an enemy to their faction, and it is their duty (and the duty of players of that faction) to destroy you.

[font=Arial]2. Secondly and less importantly, the lawful NPCs demand your cargo and the unlawful NPCs pirate you.

Why is that happening?
Why should the NPCs get involved in the RP side of the server?

Again; NPCs ARE part of roleplay, so of course they should be involved in the RP side of the server. I really don't see how you could claim NPCs are OORP. They are about as RP as you can get. Even more RP than players. They don't have any OORP bias, they perform their duties and roleplay to their utmost capability and do not deviate from the faction's RP norms. I daresay some players could learn a thing or two from their non-human partners. Police organizations stop crime and catch smugglers. If they are demanding your cargo, it's because you are breaking a law, and a player of that faction would do the same thing. I hardly see how them doing that is an impediment to roleplay?

But if you read that thread, you will also notice that the NPCs will have the turrets of real ships. Imagine how difficult will be to do basic things in the server, such as RPing. We should not let that happen.

I need to clarify on this.

Transport NPCs will be using the same turrets as players, but only the Solaris transport and the normal transport turrets, not the pulse or heavy turrets. The way NPCs use these turrets, they will be far less lethal than any player transport, which is already notoriously bad against player fighters. Transports are getting this, and transport shields, in order to make them more durable. Currently, a light fighter can demolish an NPC transport in well under a minute with no threat to himself. Attacking a transport and its escorts should be a harder ordeal. As transports do not chase targets, but rather run away (this is a coded part of their behavior), they have very little chance and no inclination to ruin pvp fights. As such, the only times their buffs will come into effect is if players are attacking them. And in such a position, their buff won't save them, just make it slightly more time consuming, instead of a VHF killing it in 10 seconds, or a bomber killing it in 3.

So, transports have no capacity to ruin or even make difficult "basic things such as RPing." They will, instead, add to the roleplay atmosphere, rather than being paper thin bullzeyes floating in space for an opportunistic pirate player to blow up just to see an explosion.

[font=Times New Roman][size=13][color=#FFFFFF]The purpose of this thread is to go against the notion that the NPCs should be powerful. Strong NPCs are only needed in Guard systems and in a few other selected systems. Nowhere else. Gallia included.

What I want to know is what you consider too powerful, and what you consider an appropriate difficulty level? Do you think NPCs should be at the level of Liberty's, Bretonia's, Kusari's, Rheinland's, etc?


I'd just like to reiterate, here at the bottom of the post where it's easy to spot, that NPCs are not being designed to be capable of ruining the average PvP fight. That is far from what I am hoping to accomplish. The only NPCs that will be truly dangerous in a PvP fight will be capital ships, and base patrols. The former can be avoided, and the latter occur only at locations that should be very dangerous for you, but are also small locations that you can avoid (and often should avoid).

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