First off, I'd just like to say great job with the NPC traders... they make the universe feel much more alive and bustling, and I love how they respond to you differently when hailed depending on your standing with their particular faction.

That being said, I think the NPC traders are a good start to something that could be taken a lot further... here are just a few ideas.

*I could be missing something, but all NPC traders I have seen fly Atlases. It would be nice to see a variety of ships flying around... the Atlas could remain the predominant NPC trade ship but there could also be centaurs, busses, wraiths, even marauders.

*NPC traders of a particular faction could occasionally fly special trade ships of that faction... TPG corp traders could sometimes fly the TPG Atlas Type-X, etc. etc.

*When you attack (pirate) an NPC trader they will make a feeble attempt to dodge your shots but will otherwise ignore you. It would be nice to have a variety of possible responses from NPC traders when attacked including:
A) having them turn and fight you
B) continue to run with their cargo
C) drop their cargo and run
Traders should also cry for help in sector chat "This is <NPC>, I am under attack by <pirate>! Any ships in range please assist!"

*If you have high enough faction, NPC traders could sometimes give you information about prices on different stations when hailed: "The last time I was at Aroan Executive, the price of Phase Arrays was really low." ;)

*NPCs could also give you optional missions when hailed. "Hi, I'm making a cargo delivery to <destination>. I'll pay you <x credits> if you escort me there safely." Or what about "I was damaged in a <pirate attack/ion storm> and need to repair, can you take this delivery of <goods> to <destination> for me?"

Yes.

Wow, if the Devs have time, all I can say is do it.

What are the Devs working on anyway? There hasn't been a realease in two or so weeks... I hope it's good when it comes!

[moved to suggestions]

I just got some serious EV deja vu...
More detailed trader NPCs would rock...but finish the cap ship first, please? :|
-:sigma.SB

Great ideas phaserlight! I'd love to see those implemented; it would add a new way to interact with the universe. And I doubt that it would be that hard to implement, relative to things like cap ships.

Its a bit ridiculous that we can ask them where they're going, blow them up, deliver for them, steal the profit, and not get any sort of faction hit >.>

yes please. More intereactin with the npc traders.

"Person", please go have a look at the In Progress link on the left side of this screen. That'll tell you what they've been up to.

I too am thinking Phaser used to play EV...

But as much as I'd like to see this it seems like it would be hard to code (although I admit I know NOTHING about programming) and I would much rather see Capital Ships than this, at least for right now.

Since NPC traders seem to be getting tweaked I thought now would be a good time to bring this up again. ...and yes I played every single EV game that game out since the original in 96 or whenever ;).

It would also be nice to see a few NPC traders flying the 'moth.

i love it! yeah, seeing them fly the would be cool! them big ships flyin across the galaxy w00t!

Nice Phaserlight, this is large, very large.

Syberfly Out.

I live for the One, I die for the One.

I would love to see this, even if it was implimented in baby steps.

And very rarely, it would be nice if an NPC pirate showed up. Flyin
a Corvus Vulturious with gausses or somethin.

A small formation of itani IBG's (I've seen atlases fly in Formation, lets apply it to the military groups)

there's SO much that can be done.

This would be great. I do have to ask though why destroying NPC ships doesn't affect your standing with the NPCs nation? (or if it does, I haven't noticed) I really think it should, look at what happens to the reactions when a citizen gets killed on foriegn soil in real life.

yup
at the moment, you don't lose any faction for killing traders unless its in their own faction's monitored space (i think) though you do get positive faction if you kill a trader of your factions enemy within your faction's territory.

So yeah they need to make it so that killing traders = +factions that don't like them and -factions that do like them.

Sorry for the thread necromancy, but this is still something that seems like it could use some attention. We have the cap ships now, we got the behemoth, we are getting the leviathan soon, missions are on the way (wooo) but what about the NPC traders dammit! Even just making the NPCs fly a variety of ships as opposed to just the Atlas would be a big improvement. Perhaps there is a lot more involved than I realize, but this is one of those "woah, deja vu" things about the universe... everywhere I go I see atlases!

As vets this is prolly not a big deal to us, but I'm trying to think about a new player's first impressions here.

A lot of what we've been working on with the Hive will be applied to the other NPCs Soon(tm). They'll get smarter in general, fly a greater variety of ships, have much better escorts, and more. We'll also add more types of NPCs and some NPCs will have missions for you. Its all part of the plan- we've just been very busy working on the tools to make all this possible (or much easier than it would have been otherwise).

Will the hive's sector invasion/defense code also carry over to the Serco/Itani border wars?

I'd love to see attack wings intelligently managing sector incursions, and retreating back to their carrier groups if they lose control of a sector.