Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Having the ability to link multiple production and resource gathering location together via a NPC transport ship route. Is this something your guys think is useful ?

High Level what I'm thinking about
you can hire NPC transport agents to set up transport routes between any station/citadel
this Service can ONLY be used for items under the category Manufacture & Research (which inlcudes Fuel !!! )
you can select different service levels, something like

- Express: High Speed Haulers, small cargo space (10k m3) with 10AU
- Standard: Standard Speed Haulers with, normal cargo space (65k m3) 3.5 AU
- Oversize Cargo: Large Scale Hauler (1.2M m3) with 1.5 AU

Each service Level can be insured by paying some extra. Insured routes have two benefits:
1.) if case of loss you get compensated for the loss (payout depending on insurance level selected but wil never reach 100% of goods value)
2.) Insured transports have a rapid response escort fleet come to aid in case of attack. Something like the ones for the NPC mining fleets and in case of platinum insurance the response fleet will be heavy... means the attackers have to take a chance since they do not neccessarily know what type of response fleet will show up on grid.

you can also define "avoid systems" means to block certain system from being used for travel through by those haulers.

you can set the pick up time on the beginning station, the rest is dictated by the type of service level (respectively the ships used for the service level) and the distance to destination(s) you select.

The number of routes you can set by station/citadel are dependent on the size and type.
Means X-large Engineering complex can host max number while medium citadels can host lowest number.

obviously the normal HS/LS and Null Sec rules on engagement apply, means you can't blow up haulers in HS if you are not at war with the respective owner unless you want to get concorded. Also LS you would need to consider gate and station gun fire etc ...

With this you can actually build a NPC driven resouce and production exchange network which obviously can be espionaged by hostiles and they are able to set up blokades or simple camp and kill anything they can find.

No because hauling is part of eve and a big part of why it makes eve so challenging ,I'm all for new suggestions but not ideas that simplify what is already available

If these are npcs then concord should not respond.

Also absolutely no to automating something that many players already do in game to make their isk.

May as well let me hire npcs to mine for me, and run my missions while we are at it.

NPCs should never replace player interaction.

your NPCs would replace player interaction (IE, paying someone to haul your **** for you), so that's a no.

What Danika said.

NPCs should not replace players, which is exactly what this would do.

On top of that no one with an ounce of sense would ever use this, making it a massive waste of time to implement.

NPCs don't get CONCORD protection, so these would be giant gank targets. The NPC protection wouldn't help unless it's heavy enough to stomp a prepared player fleet, in which case it's imbalanced. It wouldn't even be particularly hard to determine what the response fleet size would be in advance, just shoot the ship with a noob ship or something similar and wait to see what shows up.

This right here. Player interaction: good. Removing player interaction: bad.

So what stops me from jacking up the value of something, buying a bunch, shipping it with NPCs insured, and ganking my own transport? A player wouldn't take that contract because the collateral would be super high, but it doesn't sound like NPCs have a choice. Free infinite money for me.