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Random NPCs
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Gully Alex Foyle
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#1 - 2016-02-19 17:00:49 UTC
Good afternoon PVE experts!

As a PVPer, and after reading the 1000th 'PVE is boring' post somewhere, a couple of questions popped in my mind.


Is there any PVE in EVE with highly random NPC spawns? I mean: not knowing if you'll get 10 cuisers or 20 battleships kind of random.

If not, why?

In your opinion, would it be an easy way to make specific missions more interesting?


Thanks for your opinion

-Gully

Make space glamorous! Is EVE dying or not? Ask the EVE-O Death-o-meter!
Forum Toon
Doomheim
#2 - 2016-02-19 17:04:04 UTC
the most you'll find is "would I get normal rat or LT rat with faction drop chance", or would I get "2 of this battleship or 2 different battleships".

PVE is pretty fixed spawn wise.
Mina Sebiestar
Minmatar Inner Space Conglomerate
#3 - 2016-02-19 17:07:18 UTC
Not that i know of exception being MAYBE scout sansha incursion sites i was tired as hell so i might just mixed 3 types of spawns for random spawns will have to go back and redo them.

Done right random / dynamic AI is superior by default.

It wouldn't be easy nor cheap to do it and it prob never gonna be done.

You choke behind a smile a fake behind the fear

Because >>I is too hard
Ginnie
Doomheim
#4 - 2016-02-19 18:23:24 UTC
There does appear to be a little bit more variety with combat sites; specifically, unrated DED sites. I ran two Blood Vigils over the past couple of days and once the station commander was in an Augoror, but last night he was in an Omen...

Every once in a great while, an officer will appear in addition to the standard NPCs.

They do mix up the quality of NPCs in missions, some what. For example, The Blockade. The BS can be different types like Corpus Cardinal/Monsignor. Each has a different bounty and are slightly harder to kill.

That's about the extent of randomness, I see in PVE.

It sounds plausible enough tonight, but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.
Fa Xian
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2016-02-19 20:43:18 UTC
I'd love to see "fleet doctrine" randomization. In each segment of a mission, you'd have consistent elements, but it would be random which pattern you'd get... maybe even strategy. One room is all dealing Thermal, weak Explosive with webs, the next dealing EM, weak Thermal with neuts. Move them around the pocket too... random offset of groups by 30 to 50km.

Same mission, different patterns run to run.
Sobaan Tali
Caldari Quick Reaction Force
#6 - 2016-02-19 20:49:27 UTC
Generally, no, not that random. PVE in Eve is notoriously overly scripted, especially in missions.

Early on, I suspect CCP did not expect PVE to be that big of a part of Eve, that the PVP would take center stage and PVE would be much more of a subordinate and passive role. So they likely decided to build PVE up to be script-heavy like it is so it would be more predictable and casual, thus making it simpler to make ISK when needed but also less interesting and exciting to give players more incentive to get back to PVP, while leaving it up to PVP to be the challenging and more interesting core element in Eve.

Thing is, there are likely just as many players focused on the PVE side of Eve as there are on the PVP side, possibly far more players concentrating on the PVE parts of Eve that CCP ever really meant for. Either that, or it's as simple as building the PVE to be so scripted means it's more easily managed on the coding side of things.

"Tomahawks?"

"----in' A, right?"

"Trouble is, those things cost like a million and a half each."

"----, you pay me half that and I'll hump in some c4 and blow the ---- out of it my own damn self."
Estella Osoka
Cranky Bitches Who PMS
#7 - 2016-02-19 21:25:46 UTC
I'd like to see more missions in the form of the Standard/Limited/Superior Sleeper Cache sites, but with rats. Basically, you have to solve a puzzle, and you get no hints, and you have to do it while under the gun.
Gully Alex Foyle
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#8 - 2016-02-20 12:55:55 UTC
Thanks for replies, guys/gals.

It just occurred to me that it would be a quick win for CCP to introduce random spawns to spice up PVE a little.

Not sure why they didn't already, doesn't seem too complicated from a non-dev point of view.

Should randomize NPC factions that spawn as well, so players wouldn't be stuck always min-maxing resists and dmg profiles.

Make space glamorous! Is EVE dying or not? Ask the EVE-O Death-o-meter!
Arthur Aihaken
CODE.d
#9 - 2016-02-20 14:53:39 UTC
Dread Scarlet is really the only mission where you get random types of NPCs.

I am currently away, traveling through time and will be returning last week.