I absolutely love EGS, and I've been hoping for player or script directed NPC control of ships since the beginning. Maybe we'll get something like this in EGS some day, and meanwhile I eagerly await (and greatly appreciate) each new update. Over the past couple days, I read up on the current state of similar games (via recent "this game vs that game" threads on reddit and steam, etc), and eventually honed in on what I was specifically most interested to find. (Note - I posted in the "Other Discussion" section here, and thinking this is likely a great place to ask, because surely many of you guys are following the development of similar games. If this thread is somehow out of bounds here that's cool, please delete.) Ok, here goes... Do any space games exist which have both of these two features? : 1. Ability for player to leave own ship and walk around in 1st and (/or) 3rd person 2. Ability for player to command a (potentially friendly) AI to fly a different (potentially player owned) ship. Or better yet many such commanded ships! Regarding #2, let's get a bit more specific. This could entail something like AI wingmen, could be in space or in atmosphere above planet (or restricted to only one or the other, etc). This could be commanded by the player in-game, or scripted into a scenerio. Ideally the AI controlled ship would fly dynamically (selecting its own waypoint etc on-the-fly), but doesn't strictly need to in order to be mentioned. The pilot could be a flesh & blood AI humanoid, or the ship's AI flying could be performed via autopilot. (Also, as much as I love EGS's AI controlled planetary & space vessels, they don't count here because afaik they can't be controlled by player or script.) Ok, which games are you guys aware if that fit that bill? Btw- I suppose (in this case) I'm more interested in games that actually have this feature currently -or- where devs have specifically mentioned it as an upcoming feature. Meanwhile, here is what I uncovered so far: Space Engineers seems to have a vanilla Remote Control block that allows player to auto fly ship through a series of exactly defined WPs. And then at least a couple of SE mods (PAM & SAM?) seem to have capitalized on that block. And I've seen it working in atmosphere in youtube videos...Very cool! However, drawbacks include needing thrusters in all 6 directions (even though that definitely shouldn't be necessary especially in gravity). And not dynamic at all, as it's only flying a predetermined route. Plus it appears to need a significant amount of setup (tagging different components, obtaining and pasting in all the WPs, etc). Anyhow super cool, but seems extremely rudimentary at this stage. I've seen at several mentions that StarMade has flagship and fleet AI, where each player can command something like 20 AI ships apiece. That of course sounds like the real (dynamic AI auto-piloting) deal! But apparently StarMade's development has slowed way down and I see people complaining about turrets not working, etc. Curious though... Have any of you guys tried StarMade's flagship / fleet mechanics? And if so, is it worth checking out? Also, given the current state of the game, do the flagship / fleet mechanics still work? Avorion apparently has superior flagship / fleet mechanics and voxel building, and looks amazing btw, but... But unfortunately does not satisfy criteria #1 above (as you can't actually leave your ship and walk around on foot.) Finally, perhaps the most interesting question of all... Will Empyrion ever get player directed AI piloted ships? Or scripts to control AI autopilot of other (friendly or enemy) ships?
I honestly think this is a great idea. I am hoping to see something like this in the future. Thank you for bringing this up I always wondered if anyone would.
Curious how this plays out in Avorion... Will your AI ships normally line up on you (in formation) as flagship? And when enemy ships appear will your own AI ships break formation, peel off and go after the enemy, line up on them to take shots, etc? Or is it more rudimentary than that?
