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More NPC traffic needed.

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lior narkis
Massive Dynamic weapons
#41 - 2012-01-11 09:53:09 UTC
More interactable random npcs and npc groups would be nice, true. Sounds like a well thought through thing for a major update. But I guess CCP already has lots of plans for the future.
Tallianna Avenkarde
Pyre of Gods
#42 - 2012-01-11 10:11:21 UTC
Alara IonStorm wrote:
Alara IonStorm wrote:
I have noticed something about the EVE Universe. Outside of Police, the occasional Trader and Pirates flying around in Paper thin Ships dying by the trillion(They are terrible), there is very little life in space.

CCP has created a ton of great ships that we never see in Non-Capsuleer hands running around. Outside of Security Forces and Pirates 99% of the Ships I see are Capsuleer owned. For the amount of ships you have in one large Lvl 4 Mission you can make any Solar System a wash with life.

* NPC Shuttles moving between gates and stations.
* Opux Luxury Yachts touring systems. (Would make for good Low Sec Pirate PvE)
* NPC Freighters Flying Between Gates.
* NPC Primae's hanging around Planets.
* NPC Mining Barges and maybe Orca's doing Mining OP's.
* Noctus's in those Battle Site Wreck Fields.
* Generally increase the amount of Haulers currently and make them fly between gates.
* Sailboats touring around. Like a Zephyr with a new civilian paint scheme.

EVE feels so empty like we are the only ones out there. It would be cool to see it bustling with life.

Imagine warping towards a Station seeing Shuttle, Solar Sailing Ship and Yachts coming and going from all sorts different NPC Corps taking people to the Stars and back. To see massive Freighters flowing like the life blood of the Galaxy bringing food, fuel, construction materials and wares from every corner of the Galaxy to the people below. Primae's bring goods from Planets to the stations. Mining Ships tearing away in Belts to build the massive Empires.

I am playing in a world of Navies and Pirates, Cops and Robbers. CCP wants a Sci Fi Simulator. A little background would go a long way to this. They have the ships, I say add them in.

Bring Life into the Orbit of Planets, to the City Sized Stations, to the Sprawling Asteroid Belts, to the Stargate Highways that connect us together and to EVE.

From another Thread.


<3

And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell. Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell.
Benilopax
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#43 - 2012-01-11 13:29:46 UTC
Seeing as we have hit page 3 i'm going to push this idea around a bit. Start a thread on Assembly Hall (don't laugh) tweet a few devs about it and maybe cross post this to the Features & Ideas graveyard.

Keep your likes coming if you want to see a richer environment in EVE.

And thanks for the support everyone!

...
My Neutral Toon
Doomheim
#44 - 2012-01-11 15:27:26 UTC
Mors Sanctitatis wrote:
Benilopax wrote:
When your flying in the arse end of nowhere you really notice how empty space is. A few haulers undocking from stations really doesn't cut it anymore. I'd like to see more npc traffic flying and jumping around, and if we could find a way to profit from it as well that would be great.

Stumbling across an NPC battle and intervening for one side or neither would also be pretty sweet.



Or, CCP could undo one of the biggest mistakes of ALL TIME and REMOVE WARP TO ZERO.

Before WTZ, there was TONS of gate traffic. Flying around empire along the "highways" between Jita and Rens or Duripant (now Dodixi) used to be amazing: all sorts of ships autopiloting past or hitting their MWD/AB to cruise to the gate a little faster. Big freighters lumbering to the gates. Now all you see is some ship warping in (backwards!) and then a little bubble as they wink out of existence. It's total crap.

What you're wanting to have, we did have, and then some. CCP ruined it.




So, Quit EVE if you hate it so much

...Can't. Tell. If ...Troll? Or Serious....

Butt Hurt about Harrasment? Read first GM post: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=88362&find=unread
CCP Manifest
CCP Retirement Home
#45 - 2012-01-11 15:36:40 UTC
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

======== o7 _CCP Manifest | Public Relations and Social Media | @ccp_manifest_
Alara IonStorm
#46 - 2012-01-11 15:49:16 UTC
CCP Manifest wrote:
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...


If you were not a Forum Post I would hug you.
Baneken
Arctic Light Inc.
Arctic Light
#47 - 2012-01-11 15:51:39 UTC  |  Edited by: Baneken
CCP Manifest wrote:
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...



It has been posted many times that being able to ferry stuff from PI-planets (by NPC's) to stations, would make some interesting things for PI.
Roc Wieler
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#48 - 2012-01-11 15:53:35 UTC
Disclaimer: I didn't read all the responses before posting this answer so it may have already been posted.

The EVE Online lore explains this away as the fact that as capsuleers we don't actually "see" what is going on outside our ships, but instead rely on camera drones.

These drones are programmed to filter out items not of interest, such as mundane NPC traffic.

That's the lore explanation.

Then there's the technical side.

Many people talk about lag, but really I don't think that is the issue anymore, though it may have been when EVE Online started. I think a lot of it has to do with legacy code, content development resources, etc. I've been proposing an idea like this to CCP for years, even put it in my CSM campaign last year, and while I know many of them wanted to do this, it simply wasn't, and probably still isn't, a priority. ( See THIS for reference)

Also, having played freelancer, Wing Commander, Star Wars Galaxies, and other single player and online games that offer this type of NPC content, I have this to say.

To me, it doesn't fit in with EVE. We're Empyreans. Why would we care about what happens to the regular folks?

Never start a fight you can win.
Kenpachi Viktor
Perkone
Caldari State
#49 - 2012-01-11 15:58:11 UTC  |  Edited by: Kenpachi Viktor
Fleets of NPCs that roam their own space, and camp gates; with the sleeper/sansha AI Pirate
And Incursions everywhere
Everyone V Everyone shouldn't be limited to just players Twisted

Edit: What if Faction Warfare and Incursions were merged, allowing you to join any faction, and then support your chosen faction's incursions Shocked

A war that would’ve involved 20,000 players, 75% of nullsec space, and hundreds of supercapitals was halted not by diplomacy, but by a game mechanic so dreadful that those who have experienced it previously have no desire to do so again. - Fix POS & SOV
Alara IonStorm
#50 - 2012-01-11 16:00:47 UTC
Roc Wieler wrote:
Disclaimer: I didn't read all the responses before posting this answer so it may have already been posted.

The EVE Online lore explains this away as the fact that as capsuleers we don't actually "see" what is going on outside our ships, but instead rely on camera drones.

These drones are programmed to filter out items not of interest, such as mundane NPC traffic.

That's the lore explanation.

We already can turn off NPC's on the overview. Not having them on the Camera Drones would be silly and would cause collisions.

Also I want to turn mine off.
Roc Wieler wrote:

To me, it doesn't fit in with EVE. I'm an Empyrean. Why would I care about what happens to the regular folks?

Fixed. I care what is going on around me. Gotta keep your finger on the Pulse of the Empire or life will pass you by...

Or possibly Collide into the side of your Hull!
Hung TuLo
Running with Dogs
Out of the Blue.
#51 - 2012-01-11 16:02:48 UTC
I would love to sit back and watch an epic space battle between 2 different NPC navies. Watching the action with popcorn in hand.

Basically a version of the battles you see on You Tube. Now that would be awsome. Watch convoys as they are attacked by cloaked ships. (Version of WW 2 wolf packs.

:)

"In space all warriors are cold warriors" ---  General Chang  Star Trek VI
Selar Nox
#52 - 2012-01-11 16:13:46 UTC
CCP Manifest wrote:
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...


really like this idea
Jada Maroo
Native Freshfood
Minmatar Republic
#53 - 2012-01-11 16:19:37 UTC
It's important to point out that all ambient NPC life needn't be new objects tracked by the server. Flavor can also be added by just including little ships buzzing around stations, gates, and POSes that are animated parts of the station/gate models themselves.
Zleon Leigh
#54 - 2012-01-11 16:25:34 UTC
Jada Maroo wrote:
It's important to point out that all ambient NPC life needn't be new objects tracked by the server. Flavor can also be added by just including little ships buzzing around stations, gates, and POSes that are animated parts of the station/gate models themselves.


Even further - no reason client side can't implement visual traffic independently. This would make it scalable by the pilot for graphics capability and interest.

+1 to Op and +1 to other suggestions of PvE variations with/against NPC's!

Incarna - Newest business example of mismanaged capital. CCP - Continuing to gank independent PI producers every day

PvP's latest  incentive program ** Unified Inventory **  'Cause you gotta kill something after trying to use it
Valeo Galaem
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#55 - 2012-01-11 16:40:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Valeo Galaem
CCP Manifest wrote:
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...



This is the way to improve the sov game, imho.

Basically replace sov improvements with NPCs and the infrastructure to support them. Then enemies could raid the soft NPC ships for a temporary impact, or muster a fleet and take out the starbase/planetary facilities to shut them down permanently.

Let the NPCs provide sov bonuses for the areas they operate in:

  • Trade ships transport basic goods between planets/stations/starbases
  • Survey ships improve anomaly spawns
  • Mining ships increase asteroid yield
  • Surveillance ships tie into a new intel system / local replacement
  • Construction ships required for capital building


Add civilians as a planetary resource and expand PI to incorporate the new infrastructure.

Get a working framework in and the options will really open up.

Standalone Windows build of ccpgames/dae-to-red

https://github.com/Nu11u5/dae-to-red/releases
Max Von Sydow
24th Imperial Crusade
Amarr Empire
#56 - 2012-01-11 16:45:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Max Von Sydow
+1 Supported

And BAH! forum at my post.

Since all those NPC ships we see all the time (and those we don't) have to be build with something there should logically be NPCs having mining ops in some non-crowded systems.
And since I doubt every system have local production of all the different stuff needed for both production and the daily life of the local non-capsuleers there should be more NPCs hauling stuff between systems.
I also doubt that the empire factions rely this much on capsuleers to fight their wars so some caldari vs gallente and amarr vs minmatar NPC battles would probably make the border regions and FW areas more interesting

Another nice thing would be pirate NPCs doing pirate stuff to other NPCs, like attacking the convoys and mining ops, because hey, they're called pirates and have to finance their millions of ship losses one way or another.
Zleon Leigh
#57 - 2012-01-11 16:51:15 UTC
Max Von Sydow wrote:
+1 Supported

And BAH! forum at my post.

Since all those NPC ships we see all the time (and those we don't) have to be build with something there should logically be NPCs mining having ops in some non-crowded systems.


And give the NPC's pilot names from banned accounts. Let the Hulk gankers have some fun sorting it all out.

Twisted

Incarna - Newest business example of mismanaged capital. CCP - Continuing to gank independent PI producers every day

PvP's latest  incentive program ** Unified Inventory **  'Cause you gotta kill something after trying to use it
inexistin
Rubbish and Garbage Removal
#58 - 2012-01-11 17:25:58 UTC
CCP Manifest wrote:
I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...



EVE is already a second job for many null-sec people, so please remember not to make things too tiresome to defend. For example, if such caravans would go out every 6 hours from a constelation, have 3 industrial ships with 1k ehp each, and move at a mind numbling 2 jumps per 10 minutes, I'd rather shoot myself in the clavicle than have to organize a fleet to defend each one of them.

FAKE EDIT: However, an interesting idea would be to apply the mercenary contract system that will work for DUST 514 to these things. Someone (be it a player or an NPC) would put up an escort contract and alliances or single players or something will come and accept them. Still, this would take away from the sandboxy element, making nullsec more scripted, which isn't such a great thing. What?
Lors Dornick
Kallisti Industries
#59 - 2012-01-11 17:34:08 UTC
Roc Wieler wrote:


To me, it doesn't fit in with EVE. We're Empyreans. Why would we care about what happens to the regular folks?


I care about them!

As long as I can blow up their ships if I want. Twisted

CCP Greyscale: As to starbases, we agree it's pretty terrible, but we don't want to delay the entire release just for this one factor.
My Neutral Toon
Doomheim
#60 - 2012-01-11 18:05:19 UTC
I'm guessing no one in here has ever stalked the NPC convoys before?

granted it has little to no effect on game mechanics. It is possible to gank the convoys and make a profit, you just have to weary of which ones you shoot at. The HS station guns will tear you to pieces in no time.

...Can't. Tell. If ...Troll? Or Serious....

Butt Hurt about Harrasment? Read first GM post: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=88362&find=unread