SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies - Page 3

Sledgecrushr · 2012-08-11, 02:28 PM

I think this scenario would be cool, its midafternoon game time one month after the release of ps2. You have been holding on to the crater for hours and getting close to time to quit for the day when you notice that there is an oddly expanding shadow growing over the base. Looking uP you see a black cloud descending from the edge of space. As it grows you start picking up individual shapes and your voice catches in the back of your throat. The daytime sky has blackened with the arrival of billions of hungry bugs.

Notsononymous · 2012-08-11, 02:35 PM

Alien invasions? I don't know, have you ever seen the Homer Simpson beer bottle opener? It comes with a speaker that, when you open the beer says in his voice "Mmm Beeeer. YES OH YES WOOHOO!". I feel like that but with bad ass aliens that want to gut you instead of beer.

infinite loop · 2012-08-11, 02:37 PM

I pray to god that the devs tell Smed to keep his dumb ideas to himself. If he has his way, it will be the Core Combat for PS2. This is just awful.

Zulthus · 2012-08-11, 02:42 PM

I'm starting to get really nervous about where this game might be headed...

p0intman · 2012-08-11, 02:46 PM

If I WANT an NPC army, I play CnC or supreme commander. Not a good idea.

Kriegson · 2012-08-11, 02:53 PM

Hrm...sending units from a base to attack another base in real time...I like the idea. A good way to supplement an assault, and possibly to defend an important point from all but the most dedicated 3Am raider groups.

Mr Underbeard · 2012-08-11, 03:06 PM

Rare alien invasion yes. Regular NPC's not at all. That would be stupid. It would take away from the importance of outfits, platoons, squads. When one guy can just spawn in some NPC's to come take a base, then it gets stupid.

I think the resource gathers would be cool though. It gives a way to interrupt enemy resources without fully taking the hex.

Tzitzimitl · 2012-08-11, 03:35 PM

Originally Posted by Mr Underbeard

Rare alien invasion yes. Regular NPC's not at all. That would be stupid. It would take away from the importance of outfits, platoons, squads. When one guy can just spawn in some NPC's to come take a base, then it gets stupid.

I think the resource gathers would be cool though. It gives a way to interrupt enemy resources without fully taking the hex.

Basically this. Also i would prefer that the resources spent on how to implement npcs be allocated to allowing more players on a continent.

RSphil · 2012-08-11, 03:45 PM

i think this is a no for the npc army thing.

but a maybe for the odd npc invasion. sounds good to me. keep as is with the odd mass invasion. once every couple of months randomly .

Khaan · 2012-08-11, 04:03 PM

pliz dont, i spend all my time on the forums reading i almost never give my input but i cant sit back and let this one happen.

if it does go though put it on a content FAR FAR away from me. i dont want NPCs messing with my game play.

even with it on another content it still messes with the game play. it means there will be 2000 less noobs to kill on all the others.

so pliz pliz dont do this.

Rat · 2012-08-11, 04:04 PM

I dont like the idea of a 4th faction or being able to direct npcs, but alien invasion event on a single continent would be cool as long as there was a kick ass reward for involvement, and being on a single content would allow peeps that dont want to participate to fight as usual on the other continents.

Neurotoxin · 2012-08-11, 04:37 PM

It creates extra tension.

On one hand, above-player-level leadership of all 3 factions would likely agree to put war on hold while using all resources to eliminate any invading threat that would reduce humanity's chances on Auraxis.

On the other hand, it could easily become a thing that either draws players from where they are needed, or forces them to commit a force to an area that is otherwise meaningless in the current battle.

But the problem is AI. The time it would take to put in reasonable AI that is balanced and has variation seems like a long project, and unless it is already in-progress, it'll be a long time before the AI enemy will be ready. It may be less of an issue if they are mindless creatures that see in the dark, come out of the ground, and attack the closest thing they see.... but they should pop up one per hex, or an equal amount per empire, so that it doesn't kill the flow of gameplay too much.

Then again, I could see this as a way to start introducing Ancient Tech or a new equivalent... Flails and maelstroms would not be fun to fight against.

super pretendo · 2012-08-11, 05:01 PM

I don't think this is an inherently bad idea. I just think it would need to be done right, which would be hard.

Kerafyrm · 2012-08-11, 05:41 PM

I am all for alien invasions as events. I don't know if anyone here played Aion but i'm thinking it will be something like the Dredgion Battle ship that showed up randomly anytime anywhere in the abyss and doesn't always attack people sometimes it would just patrol around check stuff out then warp out. Like i said it was completely random when it showed up and it was not a every day thing neither was it attacking people or taking castles back over. I highly doubt they would permanently put NPC into the game as it would kill the game due to everyone here is pretty much a hardcore pvper.

Blackwolf · 2012-08-11, 05:46 PM

Problem with NPC armies is that Planetside was designed around Players controlling every aspect.

If the game was designed around NPCs forming the front lines and the players participating in an attempt to create truely massive battles, then yay. But it wasn't. The idea behind Planetside was pure PvP and NPC armies would seriously detract from that idea.