EVE General Discussion

1. Don't NPCs guard the FW plexes?
2. Don't FW missions involve shooting opponent faction NPCs?

Aside from that, keep NPCs out of PvP activity. They just screw up opportunities for fights.

Is FW so dead that we have to bring in NPC's?

I don't miss the point at all. I understood what you were getting at, as there is a lot of NPC activity that goes on across New Eden as part of the Lore, news, simply activity that happens with such a large population, etc.

We never see any of it in the game because it isn't important to capsuleers.

For us NPC serve mainly to generate ISK, tags or LP. Anything else is of little value to include in the game, even if theoretically we know it occurs.

So the only reason to add that type of content is for it to be farmed as PvE, yet the OP implies those NPCs would also interfere with PvP opportunities. That would be a bad thing.

OP I agree 100% with what you're saying. Surely if the servers are able to generate NPC pirate content like mining fleets and pirate rats in belts and on gates, etc., then having a few squadrons of faction navy ships roaming the system would not be too much to ask.

I was going to go further and suggest that the size of those ships should be dictated by the upgrade level and frequency be dictated by contest level. Killing those enemy NPC ships should award some small amount of VP for the system. It would make an interesting change from the complex mechanics and get FW players out into the system at large. Making faction wardare look much more like fleet roams and belt ratting activities.

NPC navy fleet should auto-agress enemy FW targets, and be heavily biased toward HP with low DPS (but with enough DPS to make them scary). Giving them scram/disrupt might be too powerful, but, other forms of EWAR might be acceptable. These fleets should be detectable on D-scan.

You will no doubt get some argument from PvP purists saying that it would be an unwelcome intrusion into their PvP. But I think those people are idiots. War is a messy business, and being able to adapt to a random and changing environment are essential skills for combatant. There is no such thing as pure PvP.

Exactly this. CONCORD was created by the Yulai Convention to prevent exactly that kind of escalation to prevent another 100 year + war.

I agree there should be more NPC dynamics and interaction with players.

Requirements:
-Not so that they can be farmed (unless that creates PvP driver)
-Not so they unduly interfere with PVP.

Those are pretty difficult requirements to work with, but Im sure there is some way to do so,

Much of EVE is player driven, and this is good.
But much of EVE NPC environment is also largely inert, that is bad.

Though we are players in a sandbox, it would be good if the sandbox itself acts/reacts to players.

Not so sure I agree.

The NPC Navy fleets could respond to standings, thus incentivizing joining Militias and the FW effort, rather than the current ambiguous player randoms interfering in FW PVP without warning.

If FW missions and complexes do not sufficiently drive PvP, then random NPC patrols won't do it either. People who are there mainly for the rewards will try to avoid fights when possible. What exactly it is they are grinding does not matter there.

The problem with NPCs is - you can make them weak, at which point they are useless, or you can make them strong, at which point a potential attacker would have to bring additional force just to deal with the NPCs, when they actually want to shoot players, not stupid bots.

The means by which those activities encourage PvP is by creating some predicable arena and a certain level of vulnerability in exchange for some personal and territorial rewards. The reason why those activities fail is because they are too predictable - and that the tangible outcomes of those activities are not linked to the destruction of enemy piloted ships. Plexes essentially suffer from a lack of tactical depth. Fights do not take place most of the time because players engage in meta-gaming, and only fight when it's to their own advantage... Which is why fights don't happen.


While having NPC roaming fleets may not fully alleviate the lack of PvP or non-engagement as such. It does make the battlefield more dynamic, and less susceptible to meta-gaming. It would take players outside of plexes and allow system control to be exerted by jumping around the system in open space. making them vulnerable to scans, probes, cloaked ambushes.