Forums » Suggestions
Hiring NPC Escorts
So I got this idea from the game "Escape Velocity" by Ambrosia Software, (www.ambrosiaSW.com) but it would be cool if you could hire NPC escorts from the stations. The escorts could be a variety of different ships, each costing an initial amount to hire and then a regular salary per wormhole jump. They could carry extra cargo for you, or serve as escorts on a trading run, or even assist you in attacking a target. You could order them to fly in close formation with you or to hold position or to split up and sweep the sector. Just imagine hiring 10 atlases and loading them up with 120 rare metals to bring to sector 15! Of course you'd need a few centurions to keep any pirates busy long enough for your massive fleet to escape. Or imagine leading a task force of 4 ragnaroks and 8 vultures against the frigate. Space battles would go from 2-3 ship skirmishes to 20-30 ship awe inspiring fire-fights. Possibilities are endless.
Of course there are many problems with this idea. What about the griefers with cash to spare that would hunt you down with a dozen ships? What about keeping the gameplay focused on actual players rather than AI? I guess once vendetta's player base gets large enough maybe there WILL be coordinated space battles involving 20-30 ships. And maybe there will be players that choose to be mercenaries that hire themselves to escort trading runs or whatever. Still I think it would be neat to command your own wing of NPC ships.
Of course there are many problems with this idea. What about the griefers with cash to spare that would hunt you down with a dozen ships? What about keeping the gameplay focused on actual players rather than AI? I guess once vendetta's player base gets large enough maybe there WILL be coordinated space battles involving 20-30 ships. And maybe there will be players that choose to be mercenaries that hire themselves to escort trading runs or whatever. Still I think it would be neat to command your own wing of NPC ships.
Sounds like a great idea.
i think it is a good idea but there should be a limit on how many escorts u could have depending on how powerful the escort is. Like u could maybe have 5 centurions or 6 maybe, but if u wanted to have all rags or all maruaders etc. u could only have 2 or 3 and they would also be very expensive. This could eliminate the problem of a rich person hiring hundreds of powerful AI.
I don't like the idea of NPC escorts. Since this is a MMORPG the game play should be tweeked to allow for player escorts. At the moment there is almost no room for player escorts. (I made a post on this earlier under "liberty class ships"). Assuming the game does well there will be plenty of large scale fights. The devs say something about it here "http://www.guildsoftware.com/vendetta.html"
NPCs escorts won't be about to do much against skilled pirates, but will make noobs lives horrible when in the hands of griefers.
NPCs escorts won't be about to do much against skilled pirates, but will make noobs lives horrible when in the hands of griefers.
I think this a great idea, but it should be limited to the role of wingman for the NPC Escort, to avoid 1 player flying 999 ships across each sector.
I think you should be able to buy off the AI in a sector like s8...so that they don't bug you at all. You'd get a message from the highest-bounty AI with a price list (depending on how much protection you wanted) and the command would be something like "/bribeAI (amount)."
Also, you ought to be able to hire AI to help you in every sector (e.g. pay "[NPC] Branja" in s8 and all the "[NPC] Branja"s in every other sector help you - they could defend you against other AI or at least report on who's in the sector). But this should be limited to one or two bot families at most.
/me has visions of the bot Mafia evolving from these ideas =P
Just think...you could have epic AI fights every so often as mob wars.
Also, you ought to be able to hire AI to help you in every sector (e.g. pay "[NPC] Branja" in s8 and all the "[NPC] Branja"s in every other sector help you - they could defend you against other AI or at least report on who's in the sector). But this should be limited to one or two bot families at most.
/me has visions of the bot Mafia evolving from these ideas =P
Just think...you could have epic AI fights every so often as mob wars.
another thread bump.
This is one of EV Nova's great ideas, yeah. I totally think it should go in-game. It would work well with NPC characters also. I think that the number of hires should be limited to no more than 3 or 4 though, regardless of the type of ship hired, because more than that would start to become unbalancing. Even that many may have an awkward effect on PVP, but I do think that the potential benefits in gameplay complexity outweigh the problems.
+1
+1