SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies

[Blackwolf]

I'd be happier with NPC wildlife personally. Have that wildlife steer clear of minor or major battles and it wouldn't impact the game mechanics or the fight.

[Revanmug]

If I was so much interest in killing npcs in a fps, I would play a single player/coop game since there is alot of them around.

[Rivenshield]

/groan

Yeah, just give us a good alien invasion every now and then. But nothing else. PLEASE.

[Mox]

Maybe some npcs defending an empty base. Everthing else would be too much i think.

Maybe some temporary live event (Alien race attacks Auraxis) . Something like that.

[Satyxis]

Not interested.

[ComerEste]

Originally Posted by AnamNantom

I'd love to see the Vanu aliens and see if my concepts are close :

http://anam.tilt180.com/vanu-alien-3d/

I thought they re-did the lore behind the game to say that Vanu was the name of the scientist who discovered the alien tech and not the actual name of the species?

On the topic: I am 100% against NPC combatants in any shape or form. NPC gatherers that don't fight even when attacked is OK with me though.

As stated above, the one thing that makes Planetside so great and unique is the fact that everything you fight is another player. Adding combat NPC's, even in rare event cases, would be boring after the first day. Please don't turn the game into Tabula Rasa, remember that game fell flat on its face.

Edit: Wanted to add that the reason it would be boring is because fighting NPC's is too easy. Sure it might be difficult the first time, but after you learn NPC-A does this and this and NPC-B does this and this, it becomes muscle memory. The challenge of fighting live opponents that you never know what tactic they will use will always be better than an programmed NPC.

[RSphil]

Invasion sounds good now and then but npc armies. I'm with you guys. No, don't spoil
It now after so much good work

[Duskguy]

wouldnt mind a random event sort of neutral invasion thing occuring, but not a regular basis or controllable event.

what i am thinking is at random, somewhere in the center of the map(3-10 areas) or all across the borders where there are less concentrated amounts of players, or no players, suddenly become neutral no matter who controls them. and all the turrets are automated, firing at any vehicle/soldier that comes near. inside the bases could either be MAX units that walk random patrols (no set routes) or a whole bunch of automated turrets that are much like the engineer's, but randomly placed, again, attacking anyone/thing that comes near.

this would make part of the map a sudden hotspot where factions could race towards to capture, or push forward their front while another faction goes after them. and again, this would not be a scheduled thing, it would happen randomly every other month, or once a month at the shortest. meaning at any time every 30-60 days a faction could sudenly find itself without a whole bunch of resources and land.

[Tapman]

I had a post a while back suggesting an NPC event in the form of a temporary invasion by space bugs a la Starship Troopers as part of an overarching story that later leads to discovering their homeworld, then to invading it and clearing them out as a segway for adding a new planet/moon into the mix for everyone to fight over with new resources and new tech from them. You could also play around with the weather/gravity to make a completely unique environment.

I would be OK with event-based NPC's that don't interfere with the vast majority of the battle if it meant more variety and larger server populations, plus you could always have areas available to play in that don't have the NPC's so that everyone wins.

[SturmovikDrakon]

Alien invasion, by the same race of Vanu?

Dunno', that would kind of detract from the mystery of the race

[XxAxMayxX]

some sort of alien life you have 2 deal with actually sounds fun. its basicly just another form of a weather fx it just has AI and does damage.

MAybe some little rat or bat like things if we ever see caves.

Originally Posted by SturmovikDrakon

Alien invasion, by the same race of Vanu?

Dunno', that would kind of detract from the mystery of the race

I don't think they will go for intelligent races but more like packs of wolf like creatures or something.

[SturmovikDrakon]

Originally Posted by ComerEste

I thought they re-did the lore behind the game to say that Vanu was the name of the scientist who discovered the alien tech and not the actual name of the species?

On the topic: I am 100% against NPC combatants in any shape or form. NPC gatherers that don't fight even when attacked is OK with me though.

As stated above, the one thing that makes Planetside so great and unique is the fact that everything you fight is another player. Adding combat NPC's, even in rare event cases, would be boring after the first day. Please don't turn the game into Tabula Rasa, remember that game fell flat on its face.

Edit: Wanted to add that the reason it would be boring is because fighting NPC's is too easy. Sure it might be difficult the first time, but after you learn NPC-A does this and this and NPC-B does this and this, it becomes muscle memory. The challenge of fighting live opponents that you never know what tactic they will use will always be better than an programmed NPC.

Nah, Vanu was the name that a scientist heard in his mind when he touched the first discovered artifact in Earth's system

[Sledgecrushr]

Easy to accomplish by taking assets from SOEs other big mmo eqnext.

[SpottyGekko]

Hmmm... I'm inclined to say flat-out NO.

Introducing credible NPC's will take a lot of man hours that could be spent in improving other areas of the game, and they would be inferior opponents.

Why would anyone fight NPC's anyway ? For "phat lootz" ?

[Comet]

Depends how it gets implemented. I would rather have only NPC wildlife. If they did do something like this, make it small, part of the command tree and maybe only once the player base starts to dwindle to the point where there are no great big fights anymore. Hopefully that doesn't happen though.