EVE General Discussion

that's actually a pretty damned neat idea
NPC supply disruptions that effect SOV owners would give the small gang a definite boost
not sure though if it would just degrade into blob blockades operating in relative safety, since its always too easy to just blob the hell out of something

I am looking around for that old thread if I do find it ill post the summary here. We had like 120 items listed.

Related to making the NPCs more important, I've been poking this idea around last week while on a long drive through the Idaho deserts...

One of the problems with trying to add "richness through NPCs" is that there's no damned difference between them. Even with shooty NPCs you check before starting the mission that your hardeners are okay, but once you're in space with them not a f*ck was given. Caravans even more so.

Idea: Part 1, The icons for NPC ships need to reflect the nature of that ship. The old new icons that failed to make it to TQ because they sucked, failed to do this in a big way. What I'm thinking is something that looks fast and sleek for frigs (like a > kind of shape) something solid but sleek for cruisers (like maybe a flat oval, outline for cruisers, and a more solid filled for battlecruisers) and something bulky and solid for battleships (the current cross might actually be appropriate.) I hadn't thought of a hauler icon since it's mostly a non-issue in missions, but with the caravans and hauler spawns it would add a lot of value to the game.

Idea; Part the second: The colors of the NPCs should reflect their faction. Empire factions already have a color, so other factions would need to be squeezed in between. For example, while Minmatar is red, Angel would be dark red, blood would be bright red.

What this accomplishes: The added texture to your encounters makes it feel like it actually matters what NPCs you confront. When you enter WC, and see two clearly different NPC factions in the first room, it would make it feel like you've stepped into an epic confrontation (yeah, I know, there's nothing epic about WC, but changing NPC behavior sounds like a whole lot more work.) It ties what you see in space to what you read in the fiction. It has the potential (with your regional caravans feeding nullbears) to be used as intelligence to figure out where the supply lines can be cut.

Perhaps these caravans (and their interdiction) could affect the time it takes to upgrade a system somehow. Make them useful to destroy or protect but not over the top.

Well, we could even go a step farther. Let the NPC's be more agressive than they are. In null the NPC's are always stationary. You will always find them in a belt or the gate.

Have NPC's attack the stations in high and low also ships comming out of stations and into certain areas. If these are battle areas let them be battle areas.

Make our friends in high worry a little. Gives them more reality and even a small taste of Null.

I proposed this once, Liking this!

i used to do it too, but i got tired of having several thousand tobacco drop and having to sell it 33units at a time on the market. Now I only do it if im just uber bored. But since I'm usually dual clienting nowadays i dont get that bored anymore.

Thanks for the support guys! Great to know I'm not the only one.

If you want to help put this on the CSMs radar you can support the proposal HERE.

Short URL for tweets: http://t.co/ZCVzJB0Z

Increase sov cost, add an equivalent amount of steady income from NPCs. Force people to protect their space to keep cost down.

At the same time, you will need to introduce some other things. It's currently the case that sov itself is not quite as interesting to some parties as moons, resulting in them not caring about sov but just about high-end moons. Maybe make it so that you need blue standings to anchor moon miners in sov space?

If you want to make things more lively, have the belt rats periodically warp, buzz the stations, and take potshots at anyone and anything around there. They don't even really need to kill anyone, just scare the crap out of them.