SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies

[RoninOni]

I could see some starship troopers-esque metoer bug alien attacks that happen a couple times a year, and lasts for 24-48 hours (3-8 in game days).

They'd happen on different continents at different times, if you think about the earth rotating under a meteor shower it makes sense as to why it'd be 1 continent at a time through the duration of the invasion... with spikes and lulls in the activity as well..

^THAT could be fun and an occasional and rare distraction from the greater war effort as all factions lock down on defensive mode... and maybe some armies exploit a faction being swarmed with an attack at the same time.... could be interesting.

I'm particularly reserved about NPC armies however...... Only use I could really see for it is Feint attacks where the real players are lining up for an attack somewhere else and the NPC's are used as Bait. Honestly though, I'm not particularly confident in this idea.

[Envenom]

LOVE this idea. I'd really like to see this in game.

[Boone]

If they want RTS elements I'd rather be able to deploy structures (walls, turrets, AA,) and things like that. They would have to cap how much you could spawn/drop or just make it super expensive otherwise people would just clutter shit up ala Starhawk.

After thinking about it for a second it might be pretty cool to be able to drop some kind of giant bug army on top of people and watch them scatter.

The servers wont be full all the time so we definetely need some other elements outside of it just being "a giant shooter" more or less.

[VikingKong]

Originally Posted by Kriegson

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.

We already can. With players.

Originally Posted by Envenom

LOVE this idea. I'd really like to see this in game.

Then clearly PS2 isn't the game for you, because this sounds like the complete opposite.

[Electrofreak]

Not diggin' the idea of npcs in PS2. Aliens... maybe.

[Smed]

I didn't go into much detail in my blog post. There are 2 separate ideas here. One is simple - Alien NPCs (the original Planetside design called them Shifters). They are superpowerful aliens that come in and attack everyone. There are a lot of special things about them I don't want to reveal right now but the idea is more the Alien Queen and not Zergs. So there wouldn't be thousands of them. But they would be nasty as hell.

The second idea is this. What if we had certain captureable buildings that when combined with a steady flow of resources the players had to pour in would result in waves of "creeps" ala LoL or DOTA that would go towards premade points in the world. So to attack a particular base one tactic would be to capture a nearby base.. capture the spawning facility and that would result in the NPC wave (again not thousands) moving towards a specific targeted base to attack.

One other key point about them I didn't mention - they would have buildable AI that players could actually make through a scripting language. (forgot this part too) - Also you would be able to sell that AI to other players if you were an AI designer. Think Robot Wars or cRobots.

These are just ideas. I enjoy the feedback.

Thanks

Smed

[Boone]

Originally Posted by Smed

I didn't go into much detail in my blog post. There are 2 separate ideas here. One is simple - Alien NPCs (the original Planetside design called them Shifters). They are superpowerful aliens that come in and attack everyone. There are a lot of special things about them I don't want to reveal right now but the idea is more the Alien Queen and not Zergs. So there wouldn't be thousands of them. But they would be nasty as hell.

The second idea is this. What if we had certain captureable buildings that when combined with a steady flow of resources the players had to pour in would result in waves of "creeps" ala LoL or DOTA that would go towards premade points in the world. So to attack a particular base one tactic would be to capture a nearby base.. capture the spawning facility and that would result in the NPC wave (again not thousands) moving towards a specific targeted base to attack.

One other key point about them I didn't mention - they would have buildable AI that players could actually make through a scripting language. (forgot this part too) - Also you would be able to sell that AI to other players if you were an AI designer. Think Robot Wars or cRobots.

These are just ideas. I enjoy the feedback.

Thanks

Smed

Yes

No

No

[NewSith]

Originally Posted by Boone

Yes

No

No

Pretty much this.

[TheDAWinz]

Originally Posted by Smed

I didn't go into much detail in my blog post. There are 2 separate ideas here. One is simple - Alien NPCs (the original Planetside design called them Shifters). They are superpowerful aliens that come in and attack everyone. There are a lot of special things about them I don't want to reveal right now but the idea is more the Alien Queen and not Zergs. So there wouldn't be thousands of them. But they would be nasty as hell.

The second idea is this. What if we had certain captureable buildings that when combined with a steady flow of resources the players had to pour in would result in waves of "creeps" ala LoL or DOTA that would go towards premade points in the world. So to attack a particular base one tactic would be to capture a nearby base.. capture the spawning facility and that would result in the NPC wave (again not thousands) moving towards a specific targeted base to attack.

One other key point about them I didn't mention - they would have buildable AI that players could actually make through a scripting language. (forgot this part too) - Also you would be able to sell that AI to other players if you were an AI designer. Think Robot Wars or cRobots.

These are just ideas. I enjoy the feedback.

Thanks

Smed

If you do implement this, then the first one would be preferable

[super pretendo]

I think the scripting thing is the most inspired idea of the three.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by DjEclipse

A holiday event (that doesn't last all fucking day) sure. An every day thing.. fuck no.

hell no not every day... annually or biannually for a day or 2... that's different.

If you personally really really end up hating it, it wouldn't be overly difficult to avoid.

It could also sew all KINDS of chaos. I think preferably it would be best as a random unexpected, but really REALLY rare event.

[AnamNantom]

I like shifters and I like the scripting language AI idea ALOT. Reminds me of scripting in Linden Language (Secondlife) or that old Playstation 1 game, Carnage Heart.

Will we see our beloved Vanu Aliens?

[VikingKong]

All great ideas for your new MMORPG, I'm sure, but what's it got to do with Planetside?
The day I'm in a tense firefight with a fellow player and I get killed from behind by a bot... well that's the day I stop playing. All Higby's talk about the game being one enormous, entirely player driven battle is what got me interested in PS2 in the first place. This... this is not that.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by super pretendo

I think the scripting thing is the most inspired idea of the three.

scripting is most certainly an interesting concept...

I'm still VERY weary of combat AI units beyond basic drones, but maybe they can be enhanced with scripting as well.

However I could see use in AI for non-combat tasks.

Implemented with harvesters for example, and resource transports to bring the resources from the facilities to the supply bases.

So I could see some scripting to enhance base defenses, and to add new tactical options around resource control, without making actual players manually do mining, or drive supply routes all day.

Originally Posted by AnamNantom

Will we see our beloved Vanu Aliens?

I'll laugh my bum off when the Vanu do return to kill all humans, no matter if you're Vanu Sovereignty.

[Hamma]

Thanks for the additional details Smed!

Let's post constructively in here guys if you intend to respond. Thanks