I have noticed something about the EVE Universe. Outside of Police, the occasional Trader and Pirates flying around in Paper thin Ships dying by the trillion(They are terrible), there is very little life in space.

CCP has created a ton of great ships that we never see in Non-Capsuleer hands running around. Outside of Security Forces and Pirates 99% of the Ships I see are Capsuleer owned. For the amount of ships you have in one large Lvl 4 Mission you can make any Solar System a wash with life.

* NPC Shuttles moving between gates and stations.
* Opux Luxury Yachts touring systems. (Would make for good Low Sec Pirate PvE)
* NPC Freighters Flying Between Gates.
* NPC Primae's hanging around Planets.
* NPC Mining Barges and maybe Orca's doing Mining OP's.
* Noctus's in those Battle Site Wreck Fields.
* Generally increase the amount of Haulers currently and make them fly between gates.
* Sailboats touring around. Like a Zephyr with a new civilian paint scheme.

EVE feels so empty like we are the only ones out there. It would be cool to see it bustling with life.

Imagine warping towards a Station seeing Shuttle, Solar Sailing Ship and Yachts coming and going from all sorts different NPC Corps taking people to the Stars and back. To see massive Freighters flowing like the life blood of the Galaxy bringing food, fuel, construction materials and wares from every corner of the Galaxy to the people below. Primae's bring goods from Planets to the stations. Mining Ships tearing away in Belts to build the massive Empires.

I am playing in a world of Navies and Pirates, Cops and Robbers. CCP wants a Sci Fi Simulator. A little background would go a long way to this. They have the ships, I say add them in.

Bring Life into the Orbit of Planets, to the City Sized Stations, to the Sprawling Asteroid Belts, to the Stargate Highways that connect us together and to EVE.

So... you're flying in "the arse end of nowhere", and expect traffic.
Go find a player hub. Or do you just want NPCs for more easy isk with no work.

So... you're flying in "the arse end of nowhere", and expect traffic.
Go find a player hub. Or do you just want NPCs for more easy isk with no work.

Yes in player hubs there are other ships.

Player Hubs and Empire Capitols more then anything. Commerce from Capsuleers and Empires should explode traffic. For the amount of NPC's in a moderately sized LvL 4 Mission we make the scenery of EVE come alive with life.

2: NPC convoys that are pirateable, but have armed escorts. Currently NPC convoys can be destroyed if you know how to do it, although the payout is minimal. The only protection they have are station guns, which are sufficient because when they only warp from station to station in one system (and their carried good make no impact on the market).

I would think the best real gameplay value you could get out of this is in Lo Sec. Have Yachts and Transports flying around system with a Convoy of a few NPC Defenders with Sansha type AI who run interference. The Target Ship drop valuable loot at the cost of a Sec Status Hit and provide a bit of a challenge.

Perhaps the number of Defenders that spawn is unknown till you attack but the more valuable the drop chance the harder the Spawn. Say a Yacht with 3 Million ISK payday and a couple of Tackler Frigs and a Bomber Frigate Spawn. Same type of Yacht but it's value is closer to 50 million ISK and 3 Cruisers show up and Warp Disrupt and Web you. The more Value the rarer it is so buddy in a T2 Frigate takes out 5 of the Cheap ones hits a hard spawn and really wishes he was in a Battlecruiser.

Maybe some of them will not even have defenders and are unescorted making it a Craps Roll for what you are fighting against. Perhaps you can have extremely High Value Low Sec Targets that are identifiable as such like a NPC Jump Frieghter carrying 200mil but attack it and it is like fighting a 5-10 Man Incursion when the defense fleet arrive and the ship has 500k EHP so you will have to take out the Defenders first. Bring 20 people and the loot split is not worth it so you are encouraged to bring around 4-7 guys to get a good cut.

Real Pirate PvE Sec Status Hit and all for the folks who don't mind being Flashy Red.

So yeah to sum up they all would be shootable but some would have too high a consequence to make it profitable while others would take a team effort for a gamble of a reward.

Heh, I could even see this being a new type of combat mission... an actual escort mission.

Your mission is simply to escort a convoy (and it's armed escort) from high sec to a destination in low sec.

You receive your reward even if the entire trip is uneventful, as long as at least "some" of the transport vessels arrive at their destination.

In this type of mission, your only opponents would (potentially) be player characters... the only NPC's invovled would be on your side.

More rats, basically. Just ones that don't start shooting at you, till you shoot them (and get Concorded in high sec They're law abiding citizens after all)

Might help a little with inflation actually. No bounty on them, but (not particularly good) loot drops

The luxury yachts would drop rich, good looking women who you could hold to ransom from the NPC corps or just stash away in your CQ as your personal exotic dancer.

When your flying in the arse end of nowhere you really notice how empty space is. A few haulers undocking from stations really doesn't cut it anymore. I'd like to see more npc traffic flying and jumping around, and if we could find a way to profit from it as well that would be great.

Stumbling across an NPC battle and intervening for one side or neither would also be pretty sweet.

if nobody else hangs out there why would the NPCs want to?

if nobody else hangs out there why would the NPCs want to?

When your flying in the arse end of nowhere you really notice how empty space is. A few haulers undocking from stations really doesn't cut it anymore. I'd like to see more npc traffic flying and jumping around, and if we could find a way to profit from it as well that would be great.

Stumbling across an NPC battle and intervening for one side or neither would also be pretty sweet.

When your flying in the arse end of nowhere you really notice how empty space is. A few haulers undocking from stations really doesn't cut it anymore. I'd like to see more npc traffic flying and jumping around, and if we could find a way to profit from it as well that would be great.

Stumbling across an NPC battle and intervening for one side or neither would also be pretty sweet.

Or, CCP could undo one of the biggest mistakes of ALL TIME and REMOVE WARP TO ZERO.

Love the idea.

could also involve this with smuggling and bounty hunting mechanics (when added and fixed) could then have pirate factions drug smuggling in high sec, and bounty hunters out to annoy them players with bounties on them.

this would also add some extra competition in these areas and encourage people to take more opportunities (or they may loose them) such as killing that smuggler and taking his stuff and selling it for profit (or to the authorities for a reword) and killing them rival bounty hunters after your bounty, or even you.

how ever the npcs are implemented they are needed, especially in some high sec systems, its meant to be a thriving place of civilisations, why in some places does it not look like that?



Mors Sanctitatis has a point about WTZ (warp to zero) it did seem more lively when you had to stop at gates, but I also remember how long it took to get any where, and the amount of BM's you had to make if you wanted to survive. personally I think warping in about 5km- 2km would be an improvement.

I wouldn't have a problem with a 5km warp in, EVE needs to be bigger and travel more difficult than it is now... however a 5km warp in (with no option to place bookmarks closer) would drastcially change the face of combat in EVE.

As far as pvp goes, a 5km warp in would make life more interesting I think. However, my freighter alt would like to kick you in the jimmy.

A more "alive" game world would be great IMO. I wonder if it would affect lag though?

As far as pvp goes, a 5km warp in would make life more interesting I think. However, my freighter alt would like to kick you in the jimmy.

A more "alive" game world would be great IMO. I wonder if it would affect lag though?

Freelancer did this right, however it's a single player game so it was to be expected. Trade lanes were often crammed with ships, and you could hail each ship and the pilot would talk to you and tell you what hes doing and where he's going etc. Also luxury yachts could be seen orbiting planets slowly, and gates were often being used by NPC's too. Little things, but it definitely helped with immersion and made the game feel more alive. Occasionally you would see customs inspecting hauler cargoholds on gates in trade lanes as well.

+1 for Freelancer.

From another Thread.

Or, CCP could undo one of the biggest mistakes of ALL TIME and REMOVE WARP TO ZERO.

Before WTZ, there was TONS of gate traffic. Flying around empire along the "highways" between Jita and Rens or Duripant (now Dodixi) used to be amazing: all sorts of ships autopiloting past or hitting their MWD/AB to cruise to the gate a little faster. Big freighters lumbering to the gates. Now all you see is some ship warping in (backwards!) and then a little bubble as they wink out of existence. It's total crap.

What you're wanting to have, we did have, and then some. CCP ruined it.

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

Disclaimer: I didn't read all the responses before posting this answer so it may have already been posted.

The EVE Online lore explains this away as the fact that as capsuleers we don't actually "see" what is going on outside our ships, but instead rely on camera drones.

These drones are programmed to filter out items not of interest, such as mundane NPC traffic.

That's the lore explanation.

To me, it doesn't fit in with EVE. I'm an Empyrean. Why would I care about what happens to the regular folks?

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

It's important to point out that all ambient NPC life needn't be new objects tracked by the server. Flavor can also be added by just including little ships buzzing around stations, gates, and POSes that are animated parts of the station/gate models themselves.

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

+1 Supported

And BAH! forum at my post.

Since all those NPC ships we see all the time (and those we don't) have to be build with something there should logically be NPCs mining having ops in some non-crowded systems.

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

To me, it doesn't fit in with EVE. We're Empyreans. Why would we care about what happens to the regular folks?

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

I'm guessing no one in here has ever stalked the NPC convoys before?

granted it has little to no effect on game mechanics. It is possible to gank the convoys and make a profit, you just have to weary of which ones you shoot at. The HS station guns will tear you to pieces in no time.

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

that's actually a pretty damned neat idea
NPC supply disruptions that effect SOV owners would give the small gang a definite boost
not sure though if it would just degrade into blob blockades operating in relative safety, since its always too easy to just blob the hell out of something

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

Well, we could even go a step farther. Let the NPC's be more agressive than they are. In null the NPC's are always stationary. You will always find them in a belt or the gate.

Have NPC's attack the stations in high and low also ships comming out of stations and into certain areas. If these are battle areas let them be battle areas.

Make our friends in high worry a little. Gives them more reality and even a small taste of Null.

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

lol way back in 2003 Jericho Fraction discovered certain convoys dropped harvester mining drones and we made our first big isk selling those things on the trade channel

not rats
NPC convoys (the little white plus signs like concord boats that most people ignore)

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

I too agree with the OP and am fond of suggesting it during brainstorming sessions.

One thought would be to have NPC caravans going from sov space (representing trade from people on the planets), and have disrupting them in some way be involved in Sov Warfare--giving small gangs the ability to debuff the enemy in effect by making continuous intercepting strikes. Maybe reducing overall income in some way or something else...

not rats
NPC convoys (the little white plus signs like concord boats that most people ignore)