Nihm wins VO's forums for the day. Recurring-named NPC smugglers should be introduced ASAP. They run one or a select few high value goods along the best trade routes, in ships like Atlas X, Tung Taur, Valent Maud, with each recurring-named NPC smuggler having their own preferred route, ship, and goods. They should run intermittently, maybe a half-dozen runs per day and not back to back, on random days such that there's only one or two recurring-named NPC smugglers operating on a given day.

Something to explore, a way to ID the best runs if you're smart enough to shadow them, and a new piracy target that's not as mindless or overly juicy as the moth heavy convoys. Don't make the named obviously different, like the independents in EVN -- make us notice from repeat encounters that, hey, there's something about that trader...

+1

someone already drafting the NPC tracking plugin?

+1 to same traders and smugglers do same routes.

+1 to any convoy fix also... ah, that is another topic...

dev-time to awesomeness ratio seems not very high... unless you're telling me that you are really going to write down what NPCs you run into / destroy in order to notice the pattern?

The idea is a solid one though.

+1

+1

I would say that as smugglers haul incredibly valuable cargos and face serious repercussions for failure, that there should be a chance that they would be willing to pay pirates. Maybe even hailing a player of shady repute and asking for an escort...

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/23429

+1

I want.

"dev-time to awesomeness ratio seems not very high... unless you're telling me that you are really going to write down what NPCs you run into / destroy in order to notice the pattern?"

Yes. Now shaddap and +1

Lecter took my small idea and made it even cooler. I like the idea of not making the names too obvious. Oh and Ryans idea is cool too.

+1

+1, good idea.

+1

Also, in EVN recurring name NPC style, we should allow people to login when they are not subscribed but a 400 m/s Teradon named "Incarnate" of the faction "Subscription Enforcer" should jump into the sector and wtf-pwn them while spewing verbal threats.

+1

hahaha, Captain Hector or whatever his damn name was.

some people atice, like myself, wouldn't need to write them down. That's the kind of thing that would just stick out like a sore thumb to me.