Slab Drinklots
   |
Posted - 2009.02.25 15:52:00 -
[1]
I know this might not be the right place for this, but having heard the old saying that NPCs take to much computing power to operate gave me an idea.
Why not have a couple of dedicated computers operating the NPCs and communicating with the nodes instead, just like the players communicate with the node via a client.
NPC load on a node would thus be about the same as any other player and you would be free to make the NPCs incredibly more complex.
Personally I think a system is possible where NPCs are persistent with names, ships, fittings and pods (if the backstory has them in pods) moving about EvE just like players and being bound by the same rules.
Just have them spawn in their space and get different missions and ships, guard a mining op in their NPC space, mine in their NPC space, roam about in their NPC space looking for easy kills etc. General missions should not be all to hard to do and it would be immensely cool to see Blood Raider raids on a player mining op, just roaming NPC wolfpacks or NPCs even coming to help their allies if under attack and they are nearby.
As for fighting and maneuvering, you would have to ensure that they have their races ships and the same limitations that apply to human players. It should not be impossible to ensure that they have a capacitor and manage it, that they actually have a MWD or AB and manage it. That they have an active or passive tank, proper guns, ammo etc..
The way I see it, managing a ships mods should be quite easy with an AI, just divide all mods into different categories and have the AIs use them the way they are to be used. Low on cap, fire the cap injector if you have one, turn off MWD if needed or maybe just warp out and come back in a minute. Getting shot at, check how much DPS is incoming, if to much just warp out, if it can tank it, stay and tank it etc. If it cannot get away, overload mods and try to do as much damage as possible, simple rules should dictate how likely an NPC is to do one or the other.
Actually maneuvering the ship in space is not hard, just like players they should behave according to what type of weapons and optimal range, e-war mods etc that they have, if they are a tackler they should behave like a tackler. As in, zigzag in to the target keeping the transversal up, put point/web/scram on target and try to stay alive while the DPS guys in the NPC gang try to kill it. If taking to much dmg, warp out and warp back in again.
Different AI fittings for ships are not that hard to make, you just need to make some basic fittings that suit that NPCs playstyle and faction then add some options to it and make sure they improve their fittings over time, provided it does not make them go out of character.
For example, the NPC faction can store what killed its tackler class frigates the last 50 or 100 times and then change the fit to something that helps counter that.
If they constantly get neuted, improve cap recharge or maybe even fit a cap injector etc.
Also add other points that might help improve their fittings, for example, if a NPC tackler tries to reach a target to tackle it and the target warps out or is to fast for him to catch, increase the chance for the NPC to want more speed in his next setup. If NPC tackler puts a point on a hostile ship and it still warps away, add chance for NPC to fit a scrambler or maybe even bring dual long range points etc.
I realize this might sound incredibly complex, but I am quite sure that its doable and it would give the EVE universe a huge boost to the immersion factor as well as make PVE fights much more PVP like.
Mayeb just start with the officers and faction spawns and then work your way from there... |