I really dig the new NPC convoys. They are really sweet. But I find I'm missing the lone Atlas flying through space risking his life and losing it to me and my n2s. Could you add some individual traders to the mix? Lone traders plying their way through the galaxy? Right now the only individuals are real players. It'd be nice to see actual individual NPCs again as well.

-tm

Agreed.

I could be dead wrong, but my hunch is they were taken out since they weren't programmed to have any real or dynamic impact on the economy, just to fly from point A to point B with X widget. If the convoy code (which we've heard will tie in with the economy redux) could be extended to include the lone freelance trader, that would be truly awesome.

The number of traders is derived from the amount of cargo space required for a particular pre-computed cargo. There are several routes that only require one trader. The number of escorts is determined by the danger of the route. At the moment, danger can only go up, so there will always be at least one escort (unless it's been killed). Anyway, you will run across a lone trader once in a while as it is. Soon(tm), when the economy is tied in, I think it will be not-uncommon for a station to require a small amount of something at a time when it doesn't need anything else. Where it can get it via a safe enough route, there will often be single transports around.

Slight OT, but as good a place to mention as any...

Yesterday I ran into a storm, along with 2 convoys, each about 15-20 moths strong. The Hive bots went after the convoys, of course, and the effect was quite beautiful... all those moths looked like a school of fish under attack from predators. There was so many you got that same shimmer effect you get with fish as they changed direction.