Player Features and Ideas Discussion

You probably have seen the NPC hucksters, peddlers, traders and the such floating outside stations every once in awhile and noticed that they don't really do anything useful. The idea here is that at every station in high security space will have a station service to hire an NPC courier.

Similar to creating a contract, options will be presented to choose from a ship, pick up, drop off, and items to transport. Ships would include shuttles and the high cargo capacity versions of frigate and crusier classes. Only available in high security systems. The total ISK cost would be calculated on an initial pickup cost + the ship class * the number of jumps. This would introduce new skills or be integrated into the existing contract skills. Skills that would modify the number of active couriers a player can have, lower the initial cost, cost per jump, and max range of hiring a courier.

Once a courier is hired, an NPC of the specified ship is spawned with the goods outside the pickup station and will travel to the specified destination using autopilot. Using the standard autopilot (warp within 15km rather than warping to 0) gives players a few options. If goods are needed faster then the player transports them themself or finds another solution. If players choose to attack these NPC couriers for the goods they transport then they still can and Concord will respond accordingly. NPCs would be marked the same as the player/corporation that hired them for the purpose of wardec and other situations.

Why? Players already do this. Courier contracts, or, more reliably, services like Red Frog. Why would we need NPCs to take their jobs? (derp de derp!)

Then do it yourself. CCP are not going to replace a player run industry with NPCs, that defeats the purpose of EVE.

Because maybe all you see are the contracts that no one wants to take. Most "good" courier contracts are snapped up in a matter of minutes and/or are given to those that people that consider "trustworthy." Just because you don't see it on the public market, doesn't mean that it isn't happening behind the scenes.

TBH... I don't really see much a problem here. It just seems that you're a bit too paranoid/greedy/lazy to...

1. Get a nubbin that doesn't know any better to take care of things (actually, it's a nice "trust building exercise" for those you have recently brought into the corp) .
2. Raise your reward so someone actually accepts the hassle of doing such a mundane job (oh wait... that would require you to cut into your wallet, right?).
3. You spend an extra 5 to 15 minutes doing it yourself (God forbid, you actually expend a little bit of effort on moving something "short range, small volume and low value").

Honestly _as long as NPC couriers dont interfere with player hauling_ its a good idea.

And they wouldnt if the prices are pretty high. But you'll know hauling will be done in a day or two. That would require careful planning not to mess with player hauling services (Push, Red Frog etc).

Not only that it makes sense to see much more NPCs in this game, because we pod pilots arent the only one in space. But that's an immersion issue, and many don't even care about it.

+1. a nice new idea. more intelligent and dynamic sandbox is always good. could/would probably only be used for low-value transports which are just waisted time on your side anyways. would not replace any player-based professional hauling.

please no this removes a role in the game. The Hauler!

No. Learn to pay a fair isk/jump rate that makes it worth another player's time to do what you're too lazy to do yourself.

Next idea: NPC mercenaries you can hire to go out and rat and run complexes for you, and bring you back the shiny loot, while you spend your time doing PvP or flapping your gums in local.

Another good one: NPC miners you can hire to go find rocks, mine them, and bring you back the ore, so you can make stuff.

If everyone only gets one of each, I don't see how this could be a problem.