I'm pretty new to the game and I haven't seen much, but one of the things I have noticed is that the battles are usually small scale. There should be sectors where there are constant large scale battles going on. With big frigates (like the capital ship) on either side of the battles. There could be AI fighters on both sides to keep the battles going and players would be killed as normal. I don't know, just an idea I guess.

There should be something similar to this coming quite soon when the NPC cap ship appears and begins patrolling the Itani / Serco border.

this is definately a goal that the devs have been working towards, but large scale battles like that are harder on the server, and require a large participation by the players. (if it's all ai than why bother?) also as i understand it the cap ship still has some legisticle issues due to it's size that the devs havn't been able to completely eliminate yet.

What I meant by something like the capital ship...like a military freigther that launches AI ships and can heal members of that nation. The AI is just to keep the battles going if there is a limited number of players that are involved at times.

sounds to me like your looking for a battle already going on between npc's that you can jump into and get kills, which would be a lot of fun, unlike the player driven border skirmish, like the cap ship addition will be.

There needs to be large scale battles going on in all the borders sectors, with reenforcements flying in from the back sectors, which can be engaged in route to the actual battle. There need to be outposts and listening stations, and scouting parties, all npc's that are flying around.

As it is right now, you have to initiate a border mission to see anything like this at all, and it's very minute.

Grey space should be littered with pirate ships and serco trying to invade through the back entrance to itani space, and the Order of Akan should be actively trying to enter Serco space leaving the UIT to stop them like they did in the back story. (UIT border missions)

Way back a few years ago the bots fought each other. It was not terribly exciting, seeing as they were equally matched in terms of AI. It might be a little more interesting now that there are many more bot types.

the bots by themselves should never win the war, it's up to the player to turn the tide of battle. Having the bots fighting though would add variety to the scenery. All I ever see if a few atlas's and players, you just don't get the feeling flying ANYWHERE in the universe, that there is a war going on. Being hailed by npc bots on the offensive telling me they are going to destroy me, or disable me (depending on nation) would be a welcome change from the norm that is now. I just don't see a single or two or even three static cap ships roaming the boarders is going to give the feel of a full on war.

I absolutely agree with you John. Player driven battles are needed but can't be self sustaining at this point in the game. Currently the biggest battle I have been a part of was in Sedina B-8. There were probably 15 or less players there, but it was during ctc and the bots added effect. Of course there were only little guardian type bots so it wasn't as fun as Large Scale Battles WILL be in this game. Once we get the capitol ship though, there will then be support ships, smaller frigates, all those things we know of and love. I HOPE someday there will be variety like in HomeWorld 2.

Once we get some bigger ships and more variety between the ship classes.... Then the large scale battles will look cool. Currently though if we add bots fighting bots it's gonna look stupid. We need different Serco bots and Itani bots. Maybe just maybe, some svg/prom vs ibg/valk AI fighting each other.

Though for that to happen the Devs would probably have to create specific AI's for each ship or something. That's why someone will post something after me along the lines of "The Devs have more important things to do at this time.".

But still it would be cool.

/givemoney Devs 2c

No, this seems to be about the most important thing the devs can do at this point ;)

I definately vote for more NPC ship variety. Maybe the Itani strikeforce should be led by a Valk, and the serco a Prom? Any AI that accompanies the frigate should be in a variety of fighters, not just vultures.

Balance is still an issue but it's close enough that I think they can start adding more content and variety into the universe.

"I definately vote for more NPC ship variety. Maybe the Itani strikeforce should be led by a Valk, and the serco a Prom? Any AI that accompanies the frigate should be in a variety of fighters, not just vultures."

Yes => http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/8731#100556 :)

definately

how bout there's a constant battle going on with a certain number of AI players on each side who respawn, but when a player enters the sector, their side gets one less AI bot?

That way no matter how many AI players are on each side, the numbers will be even. Kind of like using bots to have a minumum number of players in counterstrike.

and yeah a variety of ships would be good.

For example, both nations get a frigate, two mini-capships (like a behemoth i spose) each, 5 proms/valks each, 10 SVG's/IBG's each, 7 hogs each, 3 rags (missileboats) each and a couple of ships with repair guns. Thats about 30 ships per side total.

Whenever any of these died, it would respawn after 30 seconds or so, except the frigates which would of course be the objective.

When a player joins the sector, one ship of the same class as them on their side will not respawn next time it dies, until the numbers go down again.

When frigate dies you win basically, which gives you something or other and a big fanfare...

How bout that?

YES!!! That is exactly what I meant. The battles along borders sounds pretty nice to me. We need faster ships and a more exciting piloting system for this to work.