How's about an GUI-creater[tm] where you can make a GUI for your bot (like sell this, buy this, give money etc.) Drag-and-drop, would be cool :)

But would be a lot of effort for almost nothing... -.-

When the new mission system is implemented, RPing will be more encouraged. But wouldnt it be possible to take this a step further?

Electing hardcore RPers (verdandi, archon etc) as RP mods, giving them the ability to initiate NPC actions such as a bot invasion into a sector, or a rare widget spawning in a random location, and then set rewards being allocated for all that participate in the on-the-fly missions. Basically, if the chat started slanting towards RPing, missions could be set by the mods relating to the topic of conversation and the state of the part of the community already online.

Great idea! I especially like the part where I order bots to enter and cause havoc in enemy home sectors. :P

What about something similar but controlled by a program? Random events who's size/frequency could be based on number of players on, current team balance, certain missions being accepted, amount of $ held by players ingame, etc.

Sheean I think you missed the topic complete.... Archon is refering to NPCs when he says bots, not player written programs like BountyBot.

oh and the bot invasion could have sector blockades where if you make it through you get to sell trade stuff for a TON of money, IF you make it through. also maybe something like "ship attacked in sector 9, valuable cargo dropped, return cargo to sector 15 for rewards" or something

I don't think we should give Arolte that much power...

/me backs slowly away from Arolte and doesn't make eye contact.

I like the idea though. What about just a Bot (like BountyBot or IRC) that triggers these itself rather than having some rather unstable by comparrison humans running the power.

If truth is knowledge, knowledge is power, and power corrupts, aren;t all the liars in the world really the good guys?

Where did Arolte come from? Celkan and Archon were mentioned just because they're the most obvious examples of role players.

A bot that did this wouldnt be able to accommodate for RPing in chat, and so wouldnt encourage RPing as much. Thats my point in suggesting human mods for it.

/me pictures a special cargo.. 1 piece, worth 20 million credits... only catch..

It lights you up even more noticably than the flag with repeated anouncements of who has it and where they are. And... you can be killed by anyone, team or not :-D Cargo has a lifespan too.. so it only appears now and then and you only have so many minutes to make it to a station or its gone till the next time.

Perhaps even name it something like..

"Unstable Uritythium Core" like its some advanced power generator core and it meltsdown...

give the player a timer so they know when it will blow if you want...

"Serco territories, s12. Suddenly in white text the following message appeares: A squad of Itani protectionate players are passing the route 2-4-8-5 in the way to the sector 5 outpost with a cargo of 8 Itaani Special Parts. Intercept and destroy, The cargo must not reach the sector 5 outpost at any cost. We will pay 35k/piece in a Serco controlled sector for the cargo."

Meanwhile, in Sector 4: A squad of 3 NPCbots are now leaving from Itaani home sector, reaching for the Sector 5 outpost. Guarantee the cargo's arrival and all Itaani players within 3 km of the sector 5 outpost will be rewarded 25k.

All for it. Thanks for suggesting me as a mod.