Actually, after LeberMac's idea for space Jawas...

How about being able to BUY NPC bots? Only 1 will ever follow you around at once. They act exactly like the current NPC escorts in the convoys; however, you can personal-message it commands:
engage (attack the target you currently have selected)
disengage (cease-fire and resume default escort behavior)
retreat (return to nearest friendly station)
jettison (jettison all cargo)
If told to engage cargo, your bot will attempt to pick it up. If told to engage an asteroid and it is a collector bot, your bot will attempt to mine the targeted asteroid until it's cargo is full.
[Edit: Idea from ThinkHen] One more command:
goto {Nav Route} (give the bot a navroute to follow; if ended with "dock [stationName]", it will dock in the station in that sector; it will not count against any control limit while in this mode, but will not engage in combat either other than self defense in the terminal sector)

I realize the PLEASE READ PRIOR TO POSTING A SUGGESTION thread points here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/8943#103926 but I do NOT specifically want repair bots, just the standard bots that ALREADY exist and therefore (hopefully) would be much easier to add as content. Also, I do not care to consider the complexities of hiring NPCs for anything other than a mission, so I have given up trying to change this [ http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/14027 ] thread.

*Bump* I want at least one comment...

Henchmen Bots! Like Mercenaries, they can offer their services in stations and then proceed to follow you around. JUST like EV-Nova.
Even better if you could disable ships, dock with 'em, and capture them. I want a Pirate Starbridge!

Anyway, yeah It's been discussed before but it's still a great idea. I'm sure that with the new "Momerath-Era" code, that this could be a reality sooner than we think.

I was really thinking more of the Hive bots instead of mercenaries; that is also why you could buy them permanently instead of rent them. It would also give a better reason to have things like Valent faction standing...

Screw the "only one at once"! I want a fleet!!!11111ELEVEN!!!!

Could bring a little backup to nation wars... tell my bots to attack other racers....

But seriously, I think it's aleady been suggested that traders should be able to rent escorts. Perhaps instead Valent should make purchasable bots that are fairly cheap and engage anything hostile within say 1000m of you. This bot would also share your transponder signal! Aha! So this would give traders on the run in their moths a sort of electronic warfare chaff type thingy. Send this guy off to fight and run the other way, while one of the pirates chases.

Maybe these could be sold through Xang Xi, they deal a lot with the hive.

I wonder if we could perhaps purchase a "fleet" for guilds. When a guild launches an attack, 3-5 players usually doesnt cut it. Add 30 Helmans- good fun.

-Nautargos

Either way, it would be cool. However, to control more than 1 bot, I would suggest requiring equipment:

Small Bot Controller
150 kg; level; allows the equipped ship to command an additional bot.

Small Bot Controller Mk II
250 kg; level; allows the equipped ship to command up to 2 additional bots.

Large Bot Controller
420 kg; level; allows the equipped ship to command up to 3 additional bots.

Large Bot Controller Mk II
550 kg; level; allows the equipped ship to command up to 5 additional bots.

Speak for yourself, LostCommander. I can't coordinate my OWN damn ship in a firefight. The idea of trying to order about five additional ones while I'm getting my ass shot off doesn't appeal, you know? :)

~D.
"Nigel"

well he's on to something.

a bot-controller weapon. you *must* equip into a s-port. select a target, his fire, and the bot it on it's way. bot gets killed? *click click*! you must ammo up on the bot carrots.

this would let you use as many bots as you can equip your ships with s-ports (hornet: 4, maud & valk: 3 etc).

this way, you could opt to have, say, 2 neuts and a henchbot. on a maud.

...er...

thank you mgl_mouser for having posted this for me. those are my thoughts exactly.

Um, just curious, why would you only have it as S-port equipment and why would you want to set it up so that one of the fire control buttons gives orders? I suppose, as far the as firing controls go, "firing" at a target could be the same as an engage order and "firing" without a target selected could be the same as a disengage order...

Bots are cool, and I always loved to have pets in MMORPGs. So maybe we cant hire them, but you need "Taming gear", first you must disable the bot, then reprogram it... no really that could work no?

Could be a new licence too "Hijacking" at different licence levels you would get different hijacking gear. So while a lvl 0 Hijacker could try and get himself say an Arklan Guardian, he would have very low chances of succes, since the emp bombs (or missiles) he could use would be too weak (say 15% chance of disabling or whatever) and the reprogramming console would be basic (requires say 1 minute or reprogramming). The tweaking of this is not important right now. What you think of the idea?

I think we should stay away from making up any new license levels, unless we added 1 final one (like alternative tactics) which would cover all of the wierd and different equipment that has been suggested but might not fit directly into combat. I would like to start with simply being able to buy the bots. However, I LOVE the idea of being able to steal them back from the Hive. Make the disabling weaponry also do damage, but it would be EMP damage, displayed on the hit bar as a scrambled color bit covering the end of the hit bar. If the hit bar ever becomes completely scrambled, the vessel is disabled. New regular damage is taken away half from undamaged HP and half from scrambled HP (scrambled parts were destroyed too). Any repairs affect BOTH damage and scrambling (so 100 repair points fix 100 damage AND unscramble 100 HP). Then making the reprogramming beam be like the mining beam, so you have to keep the same target while it is working and you have to stay within 50m!

Yeah something like that :)
But I wanted scrambling missiles, as to have limited ammo to make it a bit harder, but what ever

How did I miss this post?

LostCommander, that's a GREAT idea! Remember the disabling and boarding missions from X-wing, where you had to fly that stupid Y-Wing and disble some shuttle or cap ship so a boarding team could capture it?

Something like an EMP pulse cannon or ion cannon would be fantastic and add an entirely new dynamic to the game. Even missions could be constructed that require a group to not just destroy a hive queen, but disable and capture one.

I'm not sure how this would work in PvP, though. Have you got an idea on that? The weapon should work on player craft, but as for exactly what it would do, I dunno. Disable you so you sit there and sweat for a predetermined amount of time?

There's even an RP aspect of this. I can see the press release now:

"After years of studying the effects of ion storms on navigational and computer equipment, TPG has unfortunately not been able to develop a craft that is shielded from ion storm activity. This extensive research, however, has lead to groundbreaking achievements in the field of weapons research, resulting in a disabling weapon that makes use of pulsed ion beam transmission. This ion cannon, for the first time, offers pilots a way to disable a craft without destroying it, and offers a unique chance for the eventual recapture and deprogramming of the Hive. Such a conversion of Hive queens could eventually re-open large areas of the galaxy for mining and colonization."

I like this idea a lot.

~D.
"Nigel"

Harder does not equate to more fun. Also, I wanted to take most of the luck out of it. If you only had a % chance with each hit to disable something: 1) you could disable an undamaged vessel on the first hit, which would be VERY not fun on the receiving end and 2) balancing the percentage would be rather obtusely difficult.

Example: at 15% disabling percentage, you would have to hit with 7 missiles on average to disable a ship, but you would still have a 20% chance of disabling no ships with 10 missile hits. Given that it is hard to hit with even 1/3 of one's gemini missiles, a vessel would have to carry at least 30 disabling missiles to make disabling a ship an almost viable tactic at 15% disabling percentage. However, at 20% disabling percentage, you would have a 46% percent chance to disable another vessel with 2 missile hits; can you say "hit-and-run" tactics by irritating people?

IMO, it would be too hard to strike a balance between a disabling percentage and missile statistics. Also, I would imagine the "surprise, you're disabled!" effect would mostly be not-fun. As such, I was thinking any disabling weaponry would do about 1/2 the damage of a comparable normal weapon so that IF someone gets disabled, they KNOW they would have already died under normal circumstances. It would also make disabling something more difficult than just blowing it apart, which makes sense to me.

Yeah but I was viewing it as a purely bot hunting feature, not applicable to players, but I can see why your idea could be good too. Imagine what it would take to disable a frigate... of course you cant reprogram a frig since there is a crew in it...

I could see this as a purely bot hunting feature, but it has been asked for by pirates, I mean players, for quite a while and it doesn't make sense to prepare to have 2 different disabling procedures/systems - it just wouldn't make sense and would be inefficient. Definitely though, there would be NO reprogramming of anything other than a bot.

/me wants to Hijack bots NOW!!!

*ahem*

Yeah no reprogramming, though a queen is a bot... It would be the ultimate test of a Hijacker/reprogrammer. Or the Levi... ah the possibilities...

I would say the Leviathon is too big, but have the queen reprogramming take like 20-30 minutes... :)