Freyya
GeoCorp.
Paxton Federation
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Posted - 2009.01.28 12:16:00 -
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Edited by: Freyya on 28/01/2009 13:04:06
Seeing as CCP is already going ahead on revamping the AI routines with the new NPC's i'll contribute the thoughts that strayed my mind while i was reading most of the thread so excuse me if some of this has been posted already. Some of my numbers might be pulled from the big hat of guesses and idiocy but please excuse my limited knowledge on some areas.
Different NPC AI routines and setups:
Currently in missions you have x number of NPC ships that all do the same thing; Shoot, perhaps scram, perhaps jam, perhaps damp, always die. All in all the general damage that is coming in can be folded into the damage a single player PVP vessel of equal size will do when confronted with one. In some cases a bit more and in some cases a bit less. I'll be referring to lvl 4 BS mission runners.
I generally run missions in a PVP resistance setup but instead of scram,web,capbooster,ecm,whaterver mods, you fit caprechargers since the damage will be coming in for a longer period of time from a multitude of ships and you want a stable cap to last this long.
In PVP you have the general fit of scram,web,capbooster,mwd/ab since going into a 1vs1 with another BS will not take as long as a missions versus 10-20 ships at a time does (exceptions being exceptions).
This gives you the ability to fit accordingly to maximise your ability to hold down said player and still maintain enough cap to finish the work or get finished.
This is in my oppinion the biggest difference in PVP and PVE.
A change i envision which would be a win win situation would be to drop the numbers of NPC's considderably but make them use 4 or 5 of their hardpoints instead of one (or whatever the number is) This will make the NPC's equally damaging but less numerous thus giving a better view on the NPC's "smartness". Ofcourse survivability of said NPC's should go up accordingly.
Current situation:
Generic mediocre lvl 4 mission; 15 frigs, 8 cruisers, 7 battlecruisers and 5 BS in a first wave/room. If agroed all at once it might give you the damage of 2 PVP fitted, well piloted BS's but usually agros are in groups so divide by 2 or 3 perhaps. Most of them use only one or 2 guns to shoot at you thus limiting their damage in comparison to a player ship. Damage is usually less than an actual player controlled gun would do aswell i think, not sure on that one though.
New situation;
generic mediocre lvl 4 mission; 3 frigs (tacklers) 2 cruisers (each has a different setup for perhaps E-war) 2 battlecruisers (each has a different setup again for whatever the respective race uses) and 2 battleships.
Or perhaps make it 6 frigs and 2 cruisers and 1 battleship or 3 cruisers and 2 battleships. This gives less lag, they are harder to kill, use different setups, do equal damage compared to the old situation (or perhaps a bit more  ) and give out the same rewards.
The situations is pretty much like how it is ratting in .0 only with the mission ships being a bit better/numerous in comparisson. Ofcourse loot tables would have to be adjusted but i'd say they've been scewed for a long time now. Wrecks should only drop their comparing size mods when destroyed. Nothing shows stupidity more than a battleship dropping a cruiser sized module. Appearances can go a good way into making the NPC's seem smart aswell  .
I have more but i have to get back to work 
Lasty this though;
People seem to forget a simple truth if i am correct...
We, the players, are the elite of the elite podpilots.
NPC's are , as far as i know, footsoldiers by all accounts. Regular captains working on bridges manned by people instead of being a podpilot. A right reserved to officers and such i would suspect. It's not a completely bad thing most NPC's wouldn't be as good in handling certain things as podpilots can....
Edit: And please for the love of god make NPC's follow the same rules as Player ships and mods have to! Dumb as hell but better with stats..
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It'll be worth something someday. -Rauth
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