SmedBlog (last year): NPC Enemies and Armies

[Duskguy]

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

Originally Posted by Boone

Yes

No

No

as was said, pretty much this ^^

sending swarms of creeps...? why? we are all interested in a pvp game, if we wanted to fight creeps, we could play the games that gave you that idea.
selling AI robots? please no. there is no need for deplyable ai...at all.
the big bad alien idea however i could deal with. as i said in a previous post, having them auto neutralize some random placed, x amount of territory, and having to fight to claim/reclaim the territory.

[RoninOni]

@Smedley:

If you do add the alien attack thing.... do it without warning players

Would be the most amazing and memorable game event ever if you were in a massive assault the first time the sky blackens.

Should always be random (and incredibly rare), just don't warn anyone that it's incomming

[Oryon22]

Alien invasion would be interesting. I'm not a fan of the other ideas.

[scufmark]

Yeah, first one, is a good to go idea. Maybe once a month/week on a random day or something. But no to the second and third. Just... No. The entire reason I wanted to play PS2 was because it was all based on PvP

[OpolE]

NO TO ALL

IF THE ALIENS WERE CONTROLLED BY DEVS OR PLAYERS then yes. Like a one off event like black ops that people are summoned to!

[Harasus]

Sounds like it could be fun once/month, on some servers.

[Toppopia]

Originally Posted by RoninOni

@Smedley:

If you do add the alien attack thing.... do it without warning players

Would be the most amazing and memorable game event ever if you were in a massive assault the first time the sky blackens.

Should always be random, just don't warn anyone that it's incomming

This ^ Random events that are actually random, no warning what so ever. Could imagine some faction being beaten, then next minute the winning faction(s) retreat and you are wondering why, until you get reports of an alien invasion.

[Blackwolf]

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.

I'd rather see Zerg type aliens then super powerful ones personally. If it isn't something that a player could take down one on one then it's going to kill the game. RPGs are built around the concept of super powerful baddies that require entire groups to kill. FPSes are built around very fast kill times and are a lot more "gritty". Alien invasion involving swarms of critters that you have to gun down as much as possible just to stay alive? Sure. Super powerful aliens that entire squads might have trouble killing, no way.

Originally Posted by Smed

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

Like I said before, substituting a player for an NPC when engaging the enemy is just a bad idea. Planetside wasn't built around this kind of system and it would ruin the game.

[Electrofreak]

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

It's an interesting idea, Smed. Since I know you play EVE Online too (I've been playing since shortly after launch myself) I would compare it to Incursions. But a lot of us vets are pretty wary about the idea of fighting npcs, even if we can control the friendly npcs after a fashion.

Sorry if I'm a little bit gun shy, but I remember the excellent mechanics of PS1 set into a downward spiral by the introduction of BFRs, which seemed like a great idea at the time. And, not to bring up a sore subject, but many of us also remember a similar gameplay-wrenching change in SWG that basically destroyed the game for many players.

I would suggest that players, as excited as we are to hear about many of these changes, would also be comforted to hear that the development of PS2 will remain cautious, particularly to the more... innovative development avenues.

In EVE-Online, the introduction of heavily-priced microtransactions and Walking in Stations (launched in a half-baked form without any player-to-player interaction) almost spelled the death of a game that has gone for a decade while only increasing its subscriber base and community loyalty. EVE's developers made a rapid change in development direction when its players made it clear what they wanted from the game, and I still believe it's what saved the game.

We all need to know that SOE will lend us the same ear. The problem is that we, as players, often are just as excited as you, the developers, when it comes to a cool new concept.

I could link a video of myself back in 2004 excitedly asking questions of T-Ray, CriticalMass, and Fisa about upcoming PS1 features (during PSUMA in Orlando, FL). Some of the ideas seemed so great at the time, but ultimately sent PS1 into a tailspin. Hopefully we can avoid that this time around.

TL;DR - Be gentle with us Smed... we gamers are delicate and fickle creatures.

[RoninOni]

Originally Posted by Harasus

Sounds like it could be fun once/month, on some servers.

I could definitely see having some servers be "Alien free" for those who want a 'purer' experience.

Personally I don't see 2-4 days a year overtly affecting the game play, and if someone really really didn't like it, then for those rare events they can either just stay off, or better if the attacks went through 1 continent at a time, simulating the planets rotation towards the direction of the attack, then you could just avoid whatever continent it is for that short duration during the rare event.

[Archonzero]

Originally Posted by Blackwolf

Uncertain about NPC armies. I think the players shouldn't be substituted for NPCs when going against other players.

NPC enemy invasion might be a cool treat or event at some points, but not on a regular basis.

+1. NPC invasion could/should have a dev staffed control interface to allow the devs the ability to direct NPC invasion forces. An I hope these NPCs are the aliens the VS got the tech from, or perhaps another race seeking to steal the tech themselves. Mayhaps BOTH! A little variation, scavenger alien mercs, progenitor aliens of the VS re-engineered tech, etcetera.

Why limit the idea to simply one type of NPC invader.

[Duskguy]

again, random super alien invasion would be interesting, and not being able to handle one on one would make the idea even more interesting. makes me think of starship troopers, and that could be interesting so long as its not a daily continuous thing.

if you do this, make it something like once a month and lasting until some special unit dies at which point no new aliens would spawn and all that would be left would be the clean up and securing of the territories.

[SniperSteve]

No, but perhaps if it is super infrequent.

No

No

[VikingKong]

Originally Posted by Toppopia

This ^ Random events that are actually random, no warning what so ever. Could imagine some faction being beaten, then next minute the winning faction(s) retreat and you are wondering why, until you get reports of an alien invasion.

Yep, that's just what people will want after spending possibly months of their lives, slowly working their way across a continent through a sea of TR blood and whatever it is that a vanu spurts out... Herpa derp im a alion and this iz all miyn naow LOLZ! Great fun.

That was sarcasm, btw. D:

[Baneblade]

I think it is a recipe for massive lag cookies.