NPCs

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Dr. Mackeroth
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NPCs

Post by Dr. Mackeroth » Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:32 am

We all agree that there should be NPC robots/people in Futurecraft, but nothing has been officially decided yet.

Post your ideas/comments, then argue and discuss. Any things that prove useful towards the understanding/creation of NPCs will be put in the idea summary section:



Summary of NPCs:

-There will be battle robots
-There will be NPC crews/civilians to provide ambiance.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:37 am

To man ships the NPCs require some basic stuff. The amount of crew beds you have decide how many can be on board the ship. They drain food like fuel. In order not to burden the players with too much stuff to take care about the food can be replenished easily at stations and planets and doesn’t cost allot
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Re: NPCs

Post by Dr. Mackeroth » Sun Mar 31, 2013 5:47 am

This is stuff I'm not too sure I agree on. Good ideas, but I think a simple NPC crew is best, considering that all control will either be automated or by humans. No need to give crew complex behaviors, as that requires more effort than I believe is necessary. Phase 3 stuff, my friend.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 6:17 am

NPCs are there to give the ship ambience and to explain why turrets begin to randomly move in your ship. They allow boarding to be possible because what is the point if there is no one to fight, you can't do stuff like enter the gunnery, kill the people and in this way neutralize the guns etc. In fact they are not complicated but rather stats.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Professor Fenway » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:09 am

There are three basic types of NPCs, Officers (High ranked), Gunners, Crew. Officers have an AI algorithm that allows them to function higher ranked devices such as the helm. They make decisions based on what you tell them and the situation.

Gunners, or soldiers, are the fighters. They man the guns in a fight and defend against boarding parties. Based on training, they may organize into squads and scour the ship for intruders and use cover when necessary.

Crew are the workhouses. They automatically complete menial tasks on the ship.


Crew is initially set in the ship builder. It detects which components are present, the minimum amount of crew to operate them, and then tells you the requirements.

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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:14 am

I would rather take the path FTL took and give the liberty to the player. The crew gains knowledge in what it does and you can also train them specifically to get something closer to what Fenway described.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun Mar 31, 2013 9:47 am

Iv121 wrote:I would rather take the path FTL took and give the liberty to the player. The crew gains knowledge in what it does and you can also train them specifically to get something closer to what Fenway described.
I agree with this idea, it sounds kosher.

However, where will we obtain these crewmembers? Are testificates going to be removed and in their place, MinecraftComesAlive-esque villages from which you can recruit cadets?

I think it'd be cool if the villages were like Millenaire in that they develop in parallel to the player; this would make finding cities and spaceports that much more feasible as the NPCs will constantly be adding on and developing their own, perhaps all the way up to the space elevator stage, at which point they stop upon building a station. That means as your ships begin to require larger amounts of crew, it becomes easier and more convenient to get it.

This also ties in pretty well with the Freelancer concept Iv championed on the old board - NPC cities and spaceports will offer avenues for trade and may occasionally go to war with one another, perhaps even form alliances, and your actions affect the range of goods you can purchase and how many NPCs would be willing to serve under you.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 11:36 am

I've told you - premade cities serve all your needs, you hire them. You are again trying to make a sim-city aren't you ?

The categorization into phases in my opinion wasn't exactly correct as I found in phase 2 for example different things that are both priorities and NOT priorities. You have limited resources and you can't get it all. Instead of that collect the ideas and build a list of priorities. Simply put each idea by it's importance, it will also be the order in which they will be executed. Make sure you DO NOT mix ideas with different priorities in the same place. For example putting fighters, tanks and mechs in the same thread is a mistake. Fighters are a priority, the rest will be made only if there are enough people playing futurecraft AND we have enough coders free for this.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:00 pm

It doesn't make sense to start a new futurecraft game and suddenly stumble upon a full-on space city. That would mean the player is Amish.

If not something like Millenaire, at least have it so there are four or more 'states' of a village - hamlet, town, city, megacity (with space stuff and such) that each one progresses through based on time and/or player interaction, and then have the amount of viable recruits increased with each.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:11 pm

Well that is exactly what you get in Skyrim, in ME, in pretty much ANY game. As I said either you build a simcity, either space combat or planetary combat. You can't do all especially now or they are all going to end up crap (Im not eve talking about the fact you don't have enough coders for that). How may times should I say it for you to get it ? Probably you will only get it when you finally figure out how much you took on yourself by planning to make something bigger than tekkit all alone ...

Don't ask, just o it, build a list with priorities. SPACE is the focus so SPACE is on the top of the list, nothing more nothing less. You will need to make it anyway because the modders need a list of stuff to do so just DO IT.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:17 pm

Iv121 wrote:Well that is exactly what you get in Skyrim, in ME, in pretty much ANY game. As I said either you build a simcity, either space combat or planetary combat. You can't do all especially now or they are all going to end up crap (Im not eve talking about the fact you don't have enough coders for that). How may times should I say it for you to get it ? Probably you will only get it when you finally figure out how much you took on yourself by planning to make something bigger than tekkit all alone ...
You're confusing me here. Like, a lot.

Okay, I'm not sure how helping an NPC village advance in order to get recruits from it constitutes Sim City. Have you even played it? It's about making buildings and expanding tourism, taxes, that kind of thing. As you said, that's way outside the scope of Futurecraft. What I'm saying is start villages off as hamlets, their current size now, and then players may barter with them until it grows to a town, then a city, etc, or they would grow on the passage of time. Bigger cities give you more stuff, and your relations with the city affects what they'll give you, ala Freelancer. This provides an exploration element to the game instead of laughing at the backwards testificates looking up with their squidward heads at your spaceship.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:23 pm

Well what you describe is simply another way to make simcity, like millenarie. You have relations etc. with cities (or the factions they belong to to be exact) but you cannot effect them in any way. Take the ME model as a base, put FTL combat on it and get futurecraft. I know what simcity is no need to teach me about it. Again simply put it into the priorities - it doesn't serve space it's out of the top priorities, may be done later. For now we only want cities as trading hubs and what provides you with work, equipment and resources. Take the ME model as a proof it works.
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Re: NPCs

Post by Chairman_Tiel » Sun Mar 31, 2013 12:45 pm

Iv121 wrote: For now we only want cities as trading hubs and what provides you with work, equipment and resources.
You're saying this isn't what I'm suggesting?
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Re: NPCs

Post by Iv121 » Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:26 pm

Well you suggest to interact with it which is problematic again couse city is not your property in my model.
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Re: NPCs

Post by joykler » Sun Mar 31, 2013 1:34 pm

i had made a list in order of priority

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