Slithereen
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Posted - 2004.02.26 07:52:00 -
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This request for a lively NPC environment sounds like Freelancer, but other games have this, including Priaveteer 2, Independence War Edge of Chaos, Tachyon the Fringe and XBTOF.
To come to think of it, its EVE more of an lonely exception---because every other space game seems to have very lively NPCs.
I kind of miss coming out of a base in Freelancer only to have just right outside of the station, the police and the pirates duking it out en masse.
But, but, I think while this can easily be done in a single player or smaller multiplayer environments like Freelancer in multiplayer, it will probably kill the bandwidth of a server for a massive MMO.
Still it does not hurt for once in a while, in a gate, some lone NPC will try to gate gank you, and Concord, the sentry guns or the Navy ships try to blow it up.
Indeed, my feeling is that the EVE universe feels 'mechanical'. I like you people to pick up Freelancer from a sales dustbin and try it out to see what I mean.
As for Synex's dynamic story scripting and dynamic mission assignment, I'm all for it, but sorry to say, its been done and for quite some years now.
Ever heard of Taldren's Starfleet Command series?
Ever heard of the Dynaverse?
Of course this is based on the Star Trek universe. You got different factions going at it, Klingon, Romulan, Federation, among others. The NPCs in the background actually dynamically create events that cause borders to shift and events to happen, and these events alter the context of the missions in that system. The players can ultimately affect the fate of the empires by tilting the balance of power.
In fact it is the SFC Dynaverse model that should be studied closely if you want a true empire vs. empire type faction war and how players can intercede and interact with it.
An example if applied to EVE.
Amarr player with Apoc enters a system in the Amarr borders. Immediately as he enters, an agent within the station would contact him, requesting urgent help. Note that the player does not need to enter a station and talk to an agent, but the agent reaching out to him.
Refusal of the agent's request may cost him factional prestige, so the player answers. The agent informs the player that an Amarrian convoy (NPC) is being attacked by Minmatar terrorists (NPC) and gives the coordinates to the location. Amarrian player responds, and saves the day. He gets additional faction points and maybe some money from the bounties.
This is how Dynaverse works, and immedietely there is a mission, though random. In EVE, we don't need to have a mission thrown in our face as we enter a system, so this missions should be random or happen with gradient increasing frequency as a player approaches certain hotspots.
There must be things like convoys shouting out in need of help, or stations shouting for help because slavers just kidnapped some people.
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"Is it me or the bad guys just getting totally pathetic?"---Clover, Totally Spies,
"Hope is wasted on the Hopeless."---Mandy, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.
"Stars are holes in the sky from which the light of the Infinite shine through."---Confucius.
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