I once escaped a piracy interaction by forming on a non-docking NPC 5ker. That poor pirate crew had to waste about ten seconds shooting NPCs and by then I was gone. NPCs are a double-edged sword.
To be honest, I'd remove NPCs if we had bigger player population. I've been for a while in older Star Wars TC server (player population oscilated around 10-15 players back then), where NPCs do not spawn at all. Flying for around 30 minutes whereas no NPC spawns is something that can bore you to the point of utter madness.
This isn't EVE Online, I say. I like NPCs due to their role in enviroment and I'd like to point out the former issues (e.g. blocking the jumphole) are more rare than you think.
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Quote:You missed out that piracy is almost impossible in Gallia because NPCs shoot out the lanes and trigger the lane bug.
I did try to move the targeting reticle on the Gallic Lane's hitbox before so NPCs would shoot an empty part instead, but obj2sur generated solid shield boxes.
I think the solution would be to just give gallic lanes their own shield type and make it so npcs can't damage them. Would solve the problem entirely.
(07-08-2018, 12:19 AM)Karlotta Wrote: While you're at it, also make Sirius trade lanes be oriented horizontally instead of vertically with the right lane always pointing in the travel direction, like roads.
... except in Bretonia, where they still drive on the left.
(07-08-2018, 12:19 AM)Karlotta Wrote: (or even better, downscale all ship sizes, projectile velocities, camera distances, and non-cruise speeds 20 to 50 % to make things look a bit more realistic as well as easier to dock with)
If you want more realism, you'll want higher ship speeds and projectile velocities. And greater distances between solar objects. And bigger planets and stars.
(Actually, I would love to see this. But we're getting off-topic.)
(07-08-2018, 12:19 AM)Karlotta Wrote: (or even better, downscale all ship sizes, projectile velocities, camera distances, and non-cruise speeds 20 to 50 % to make things look a bit more realistic as well as easier to dock with)
If you want more realism, you'll want higher ship speeds and projectile velocities. And greater distances between solar objects. And bigger planets and stars.
Making planets bigger will make them look weird in the system, plus you'd have to move a lot of bases and lanes. Reducing ship+camera distance instead will have the visual effect of making planets (and stars) seem bigger without breaking the game.
The idea behind what I proposed (and behind reducing certain NPC spawns) is too improve gameplay as well as immersion by making things seem more realistic (planets/bases/gates/lanes relatively bigger to ships/bases and NPCs behave in less stupid ways such as kamikaze attacks on bases and getting stuck in gates) and improve gameplay at the same time (player ships get stuck less in gates and lanes). If you scale down ships and change projectile speeds and camera distances by the same factor, PvP will be uncaffect. If you leave cruise and lane speed the same, travel time and trade profits will remain unaffected. And by leaving radar ranges the same, the probability of seeing other players will be unaffected. Another good side effect of this is that NPC caps don't appear to spawn out of nowhere right next to way, but at larger distance (relative to their size and speeds). And yet another that by reducing thrust speed, it will be become harder to run from pirates and bounty hunters.
(07-08-2018, 11:38 AM)Karlotta Wrote: If you scale down ships and change projectile speeds and camera distances by the same factor, [everything else will look bigger, but] PvP will be unaffected.
Fair point. That might work.
Although in that case, I would prefer it if you'd only change the ship sizes and camera distances (and depth-of-field?), and let all speeds stay as-is.
If thrust speed and weapons speed arent scaled by the same factor as ship size, the existing PvP (and PvE) balance will be broken because smaller ships are harder to hit.(you'll have to scale down weapon visual effects to to keep the same look of them)
(07-08-2018, 07:36 AM)Xalrok Wrote: Can't really fix this without removing NPC scanning entirely, which is possible.
Yes, please. It pisses my engines off each time an NPC wants something and then turns everything around me hostile. Not a big deal in empty space, it begins to hurt when there's a battleship right next to you at the very best time possible
Actually to my knowledge you can remove NPC contraband lists, certain NPC s looks for certain items and you can remove said items to my knowledge. By removing all items NPC s want from their list, you wouldnt remove scanning but remove "contraband" list on NPC s. I dont remember the exact position of where the list is positioned but by digging in i should be able to find it. Unless i and xalrok speaks the same thing of course...
I vaguely remember seeing a plugin that forced AI to ignore certain IFFs, I'll look around the Starport to see if I can find it. (At least I hope my brain is not playing tricks on me)