Now, this has been brought up numerous times. And it seems we have a unanimous concensus amongst the player base.

Why doesn't the game have faction specific ships for the AI (Strike Forces, Station Guards, Convoys, Pirates, Border Patrol, Border Skirmish, etc. etc). Is it a matter of inherent game engine dynamics? A response on this would be cool, because I know this has been one of the bigger unaddressed issues with content/immersion over the past year and a half or so that I've been hanging around.

Edit: sorry, in hindsight this post sounds of grumpy, which its not supposed to. Just curious.

Hmmmm, Gavan, imagine 2 or more NPC SCPs with flares and agt combo ganking you in B8. Not a pretty sight.

Well, the way I hear it there's a list for all SF and guards, and one for all escorts, which is why you see the unbots flying TD hogs for one. It seems to me it's all a matter of making lists and telling the system which list to use; now how hard that is in reality, I have no idea.

I have to agree with Bojan, though: a serco escort made up of SCPs and vulturius or an Itani one full of IDF valks and IBGs would be a frustrating thing, to say the least.

Only when they happen, and only if you piss them off... How often to Serco voys come through B8 anyway? or Itani ones? MUCH less frequency than unnies... plus, they'd only attack when attacked.

I'm not trying to engage a discussion amongst the userbase as to why certain ships would suck in certain situations... granted getting ganked by a couple of SCP's would suck... but getting ganked by a couple of SVG's wouldn't... neither would getting ganked by a couple of Merc Mauds.

Basically I'm just curious as to why the devs haven't implemented this, considering it appears to be one of the easiest ways to fix immersion at the moment, with very low consequences concerning balance (long as you leave the valks and scps to the BP and BS wars).

Actually, Cunjo, that's not quite right. I was coming out of Latos N15 (where I'm TPG Adored) and was fired upon by a Itani Trident. First time, i just disintgrated leaving the dock. Next time I got out (no SF? wft?), fired back, and had the SF loosed upon me.

Bad Itanis.

But otherwise, I like Gavan's idea

It would have been pointless with the handful of ships available in the past. Now that Luis is pumping out the art it makes a lot more sense to do this pretty soon.

So according to the linked post about 2-3 months from now... then you can complain again! :P

I would like to see this too... wouldn't think it'd be that hard, but then I don't know how the code works.

WR:
They will attack if you're hated by them and come within a certian proximity, but it's a pretty close proximity, so when you're not docking/undocking, or 'cappie-warping' into them, it shouldn't be a problem.

That said, I do agree that the NPCs need to respect the NFZ or trigger the SF when they break it.... but that's kinda a thig for a different topic (or three... I think there are several out there already)

Ahh, thanks for the link Rogue.... I missed that one.

Yes, I'm working on this, when I have time. I don't have a lot of time right now (big UI/tutorial redux). But I'll get there.

Give them the first version of national ships, not the best... leave it for players =p

so no SCP, no IDF valks etc.

It'll depend on the utilization. The average civilian convoy will have the equipment you would expect of the average civilian. A military convoy escorting an abassador or some other important asset will have defenses scaled accordingly. That's where we're headed.

nice!

Along these lines... wouldn't it be more appropriate if certain factions used their own variants rather than other factions'?

For example, Valent and Axia are rivals--yet the Valent EC-101 Rev B is what is in the convoys, including those belonging to Axia. That doesn't make sense from a roleplay perspective. Shouldn't Axia's convoys use the Axia EC-101 MkIIs instead, rather than acquiesce and use their competitor's hulls?

Yes, of course. Right now we're using whatever I or Waylon or whomever randomly picked, back when we first made the old "convoys".