[Injustice]

According to Istvan's interview and the Live Blog from the open house, Jumpgate Evolution will feature some sort of NPC economy. The specifics are unknown, but if NPC's will be in some way responsible for controlling the games economy, what level of autonomy do we as the future players feel is appropriate? Should NPC "haulers" be able to keep the economy stable even in the complete absence of any player input (i.e. stocks get depleted due to RRR, but nobody bothers to restock stations)? Should it be a limited safety net, where player's intentions will still play a big impact? Or should it be a variable controlled by the GM's to account for server population?

I personally would lean towards the "safety net" level myself, since haulers have always been a large portion of the player base, and I think it would enable econ wars without allowing any one faction to break the game (if Octs that needed to RRR had to sit at GPS for 10 minutes waiting for a load of duelies to get delivered, it might motivate them to take action, but not frustrate them to the point of leaving).

[Jump]

I'm sure they will just be a visual indication of activity maintaining the minimums the game has always had. I've always thought that the game seemed kind of weird with it's emptiness. At least the space lanes will always appear busy even at 3:00 AM.

[Sephiroth]

I'm hoping that players will still be the big impact on the economy. I'm also hoping that economic warfare becomes more viable than it currently is. Sure it's possible, but it's a massive pita and generally not worth the trouble.

[vorlon31]

from scorch - elsewhere in the forum ........space felt empty which is why we completely changed the way AI works and now even when there are just a few of us in space there are thousands of AI at work all over space at any given time.

Oh so sweet.

[Eraser55]

Im really happy to hear of the new NPC. I who came directly from finishing playing Freelancer. And looking to expand the great experience I had in that game, came across Jumpgate somehow on some german website. I didnt even knew it was online when I was downloading it.

I didn't notice this emptiness on EU at that time with around 150-200 players online . But became aware of it after seeing online numbers dropping.

[Smegit]

Will this new NPC economy finally give pilots the chance for real escort missions? This is what happens in certain other games I know of.

Big payout for dangerous runs which would need escorting by multiple pilots, smaller payouts for noobs escorting relatively safe runs.

Hope so. Another career to pursue.

Smeg

[TexMurphy]

I hate NPC´s but there are ways to make them really cool.

Basicly NPC´s should be scripted players. By scripted players we ment that the NPC has all assets and constraints of a player, cash, rank, pr, insurance, ect ect.

Instead of beeing targets or sources from the players point of view the NPC´s should be helpers, competitors, friends, enemies just like real players.

So a NPC could be a trader, it would run trade missions, it would make or loose money just like a player. The number of active hauler NPC´s at a given stage would depend on how much commdities there where in need of hauling.

In the same way a miner NPC would mine if there is a unsatisfied demand in ore.

In short NPCs would do the duties players didnt want to do.

Economical examples are easy to find but there can be combat examples as well.

For example say that players can post escorts mission then NPC´s could accept them if PCs wherent intrested in helping out.

NPC´s could also conduct RvR offensive missions such as beaconflipping if no PCs where taking on beacon flipping missions.

I think you get the idea, have the NPC´s do what the players dont want to do and have them be important to the state of the game inorder for players to care about them. Ofcourse it would be important to ballance things so that NPC´s didnt take over and made PC jobs unnecessariy. Effort of the PCs is what should separate the factions from each other in a RvR context but the NPCs should fill the void inorder to make the players able to focus on what they find interesting in the game.

Expand on this and think of PvE. You have spawning or quest spawned NPC´s as standard enemy in PvE in most mmpogs today. I cant care about that as it really doesnt change or affect anything in the game world.

Though what would interest me is if PvE enemy NPC activity was based on the same factors as PC activity. A economy and production that generates what equipment the PvE NPC uses. If me and my squad would hit conflux miners and transports we could criple the entire conflux fighting force as we would lower their production ability.

Now this would be interesting to me. If there is a war on the NPC faction and I can affect their ability to attack my fellow faction memebers then Im definatly in for the ride.

[biteme]

I find the idea of NPC's in Jumpgate just plain allful. How about if ND does such a good game there is no need form them. Flying by a Tow and knowing its a bot disturbs me to no end. This is suposed to be an mmo isn't it. If I wanted to play a game with bots i's break out privater.

Then again there is such a devide in the community on how the game should be, mabe ND should'n listen to any of us

[Injustice]

Originally Posted by biteme

I find the idea of NPC's in Jumpgate just plain allful. How about if ND does such a good game there is no need form them. Flying by a Tow and knowing its a bot disturbs me to no end. This is suposed to be an mmo isn't it. If I wanted to play a game with bots i's break out privater.

Then again there is such a devide in the community on how the game should be, mabe ND should'n listen to any of us

BITE! How ya feelin'?

I think Scorch wanted the NPC's in the game to make it feel more massive. If it turns out that sectors get crowded enough with just players, the amount of NPC's can be turned down or even eliminated if the game gets that busy.

[biteme]

Im feeling good thank for asking

Ya I know there supose to be ajustable belive me Ive been though all the avaible info, I still don't like it.