I have to second this. I've only played a few hour so far but have already had hostiles spawning literally in the same space as me. Hostiles should spawn out of player view or at least a minimum distance away. That would have a fair bit of entertainment value as well.
What do you think about the current NPC (creatures and drones)? In short, I think it's a great addition to the game and the variety of critters that we have in this stage of the game is spectacular! The drones add an exciting twist and I look forward to seeing their AI improve as well. As it is now, it's not too hard to fool them by running away or turning them against one another (line of sight, targeting.) The AI can be slowly improved in stages to make creatures more intelligent in regards to offensive, defensive and passive pathing. I also think creatures should be aggressive towards other creatures in their immediate area if one is a predator and the others are prey. Seeing a clear food chain also immerses the player and helps them to recognize what is friend/foe and tougher to kill. The same can be applied to drones/turrets and alien factions. - Should there be more / less? Depends on the planet and the biome they are in. I feel that creatures should have a few rules that apply to their spawn points without getting carried away that help to keep the population balanced. For instance... a particular species may prefer water sources or valleys. One species prefers higher terrain or another preys on a particular creature as their food source. I also think roaming "pack animals" would be a cool concept. Maybe they path from water source to water source and are constantly traveling the surface of the planet. Time/Day time specific creatures are always a good idea and perhaps creatures that burrow and travel under the ground and suddenly pop up to eat or attack for a few seconds. In short, adding some rules to each "creature class" may help distribute them evenly and keep exploration fun. - More / less powerful? Currently, the only thing I'm worried about when attacked is getting poisoned or having an open wound. These are good mechanics to incorporate for the player but the creatures don't seem very challenging. I do think it's important to create classifications for creatures like you might see in an MMO. Such as weak, strong and legendary classes to help shape the difficulty. Obviously the tougher the critter, the less they will spawn unless you want to offer "hell worlds" (1 per solar system or so) that are just nasty, nasty planets filled with danger of all kinds. We kind of have that now with the lava planet as there is a good mixture of deadly terrain/drones and aliens. Essentially the higher the risk, the greater the reward. I'd expect to find more legendary creatures on a legendary planet rather than a barren moon. - NPCs on each planet? I like the fact that the moon is barren and devoid of life (from what I can tell so far). A game filled with alien life and yet some eerily desolate places seems a bit more realistic and appealing. - General importance of NPCs? I find them incredibly important in the long term. It adds depth and enjoyment to the game. Especially in multiplayer when you can group up into hunting parties and go after tough creatures. Without creatures, turrets, drones, aliens, etc... the universe seems mighty boring. I think we have a good start but I'd like to see classes of creatures, with the ability to scan the map and add "zones" where certain known types may spawn. Think of it like the resource discovery notification. It could populate on the map and you'd have a general "zone" based on type/density to go hunt. - Other feedback? I'd like to see a champion (world boss), maybe not on every planet in the solar system but perhaps 1 planet has a massive "top of the food chain" legendary beast that roams the world. Like the fabled Star Wars Krayt Dragons on Tatooine, massive, deadly beasts. Maybe they don't move so quickly but they are really tough to take down and they roam a zone or range on the planet where you don't want to build anything permanent for fear of losing it to the champion as it prowls. There's so much potential with this and it would be one of those things that makes multiplayer a serious team effort. Imagine having a 3-5 man team in small vessels descending onto the aforementioned "hell planet" and carving out a small cleared area to make camp. As they begin to build a small base, repair their vessels and rearm for a raid on a nearby alien outpost an echoing howl is heard through the valley. Startled, the players run towards the sound and peer over the ridgeline just in time to see this massive bipedal creature ripping an alien outpost apart. With a single swipe the creature plows through the tower and destroys the turrets! Suddenly, it stops and turns to face the weary players as their vessels and base camp lights draw it's attention. It's massive size shakes the ground as it slowly moves toward the players... howling and roaring as it prepares to attack! The players run for their vessels just as the creature crests the ridgeline and lets out a thundering shriek of rage! Fight or flight? It could be the last choice your team makes.
Missions into buildings like in Half life to rescue an important person. A world that's already at war two sides with ground troops you get chucked in the middle as a soldier or to do missions. A tropical world like far cry with missions to do. A special forces humanoid force that lands on Omicron 2 hours after you start a game and hunts you down and attacks you and your base/ships. Underground worm AI, though Im not sure how you would do that with a voxel based terrain. AI troops on space stations that can move around the station and defend it. AI troops on the station that can man a small shuttle and do an attack mission on the player after an hour or two in orbit. Drone defensive weapon, EM cannon. Stuns the drone for 30 seconds. Targeting system for player in ships. Auto turrets/weapons. Conveyor system. Automated TANKS, and planes in the atmosphere on some planets controlled by the AI to come murder you ! Cameras and remote drones we can build to fly !
Maybe this is the best place to say this: I think NPC distribution is far too uniform. Some planets should not be able to support life at all, drones should only be on certain planets where there is a reason for them to be (a mining base or military outpost, not every single planet), and when life does exist it should make a little sense for why it's there. (ie. "Garden" planets have lots of different and various sized life, hazardous planets have smaller more robust life in much smaller quantities) I think that more thought should be put into other interesting challenges other than killing things, like dealing with the elements or equipment malfunctions etc. Of course killing things will still be a big part of the game, but that shouldn't be the only thing there is to do.
I concur wholeheartedly with this. Depending on the planet environment could be just as dangerous as animal life. Turboxide brings up some good points too. Not every planet should have npc's. A shipwreck on a desolate moon could have bleached corpses instead of npc's. A barren planet might have a few herbivore types and only 1-2 predators. A terrestrial planet could have a good selection of herbivores and predators with a few big alpha predators. Animal/npc difficulty could be more than just big health pools too. A venomous predator may be simple to swat with a few good sniper rounds. But give it the ability to hide from the player, flank and poison him from behind and suddenly your paralyzed and being gobbled alive. Special attacks and behaviors would make them alot of fun. Not being a coder I have no idea if AI like this if feasible for a small team but it would be slick to have even if its later in the dev cycle when more important stuff is done. And it would be cool if animals had a chance to drop a trophy item. For space safari's. Oh, and desert planets should have graboids!!
I don't really like the creatures in Empyrion. The seem so generic and arbitrary and don't really fit in. I don't know what exactly makes me feel this way, but everytime I encounter an NPC, I've got that notion. Maybe I'm just spoiled by ARK, where NPCs play a far larger part and thus the devs have focussed more on them, but, well.. dunno. I'm sorry that I can't give you any constructive critic on the issue, but I can't really put my finger on what's actually bothering me. Also, maybe it's just me..
-What do you think about the current NPC (creatures and drones)? in their currently state : good , but you should script better them(after working on the core), better movement set ...better attack movement etc. About drones they should have a bit more fire power for their actual drop. - Should there be more / less? We are in a survival game..for me honestly you should put more mob and fix the spawn of the aggressive mob(they spawn often a lot of near the character), and more types of mob (i would like to see some boss mob for a better challenge like this boss protect a ultra rare deposit or with a legendary drop, and as said before by others..big dangerous mob that patrol certain areas. this can make the survival more better and challenging). - More / less powerful? The actual damage of mob, including their attack effect like bite, wound etc. is good - NPCs on each planet? why not - General importance of NPCs? For make factions etc. they are important - Other feedback? As said before this game if will be focused more in the pve, can be nice..with better scripted mob- boss-legendary mob on every planets and something for make the survival amazing and challenging. Sorry for my english.
Yes I agree! The more hazardous the planet the less life there should be on it. Planets that do not provide danger through mobs can then do it through radiation/atmosphere/terrain. Also love the mobs so far, although when you are hovering around on a GV monsters don't attack you. They should at least run away from the price of metal barreling through the terrain.
Enemies in the game deal next to no damage to the player. There's a spawn issue by the lake. Every night the aliens make a party by the lake.
Yeah! Extreme conditions in planets. Like temperature. But make it dangerous or hazardous for the player to stand in Ningues at - 57C° Make it count!
i hope that you will consider the meaning of "threats". I feel not in danger in this game coz no1 can attack me, like enemy SV.. It will be good if we can have some enemy characters that drive some ships and land next to our base with guns to attack us
A man with a handgun should be no match for a drone, but drones should not be aggressive towards the player on foot until he gets within...oh...100 meters, or opens fire. Howabout a flashing red warning light and an audible signal before the drone commits to combat with a player on foot?
I think the game definitely needs more and diverse wild life. Stronger ones as well as weaker ones, youngsters elders, flying and see monsters. It would be amazin to see planets where strong species made every other lifeform extinct. IE it would be awesome to see a jungle planet what seems deserted, you start to explore the whole place,wonder into the woods and realize all the wildlife is gone all whats left are some bones. And then when youre looking for resources , you hear a huuuge ROAR from the distance ,and then you see it, an enormous dinosaur like creature that smells you from thousands of meters away and straight headed for you! You start running as fast as you can. Back to the ship! Lets get outta here!- you think.But another creature already started chewing the wings of your SV. I think experiences like this could make a game rly unforgettable. Also it would be nice to see a clever a.i. . herbivorous creatures living where its natural food and habitat is e.g. among plants. and they are not wondering close to carnivores to get eaten, rather hide and get scared when you or something gets closer .And to see that carnivores attacks and eat their preys. They don't have to have complicated daily routines, but give them some animal instincts. Aaand of course I cant wait to see intelligent lifeforms, aliens like we saw in the trailer! Its gona be amazing to see that some are hostile and some you can even trade with! I know the game has to go a long way but these changes are mandatory I think to have a feeling you are really living on uncharted planets! ps. sry for my german
played about 20 hours last days and nobody attacked my base. that normal with the current version? would like to have more challenge.
Depends on where you put your base. I usually had arachnids attack my base nightly, but drones never bothered me.
What do you think about the current NPC (creatures and drones)? - Should there be more / less? I think the balance is just right, but I did noticed instances were there would be no creatures, or you would find a whole horde in one spot. - More / less powerful? I would suggest maybe having some random raids on your base to make things more interesting. Maybe a surprise drone attack of sorts. - NPCs on each planet? The way NPCs are implemented is just very cool. - General importance of NPCs? NPCs give life to the worlds, so it is imperative that NPCs are around to make the world more alive. - Other feedback? What do you guys think of a neutral space station where players can meet up and that cannot be attacked? Maybe it has some shops of sorts and maybe get some extra parts you need to get going with your ships. land your ship, a nice bar maybe ... ie a general social place. This would mean that you would have to introduce currency. It would also be cool if I could build a shop or something myself.... maybe build a robot NPC that would take care of the shop and sell the stuff I put in it's inventory... just an idea....but would be cool I think.
Neutral space stations would be the solution to the ongoing debate of the pvp-pve balancing issues! Great idea! So traders and miners wont have to deal with ganks and offensive players. The introduction of currencies would be imminent indeed for trading, and I would love to see that for my hard day working in the mine it would actually pay of in a liquid currency. But then theres the question what would be the purpose of trading, and currency, because the resources could be easily obtained after a few minutes of grinding by anyone.What I mean is that the supply would easily overcome the demand what leads to freefalling of the commodity prices, and thats not what a miner or trader wants to see, and it would mean that even players who just started playing could easily stack tons of resources with just little cash on hand.(takes out a great part of the game,resource gathering) To balance that some resources must be hard to obtained or must be obtained through some serious challenge.IE hostile creatures defending mines, or asteroids defended by tons of enemies.Or crafting requirements should be higher. Either way it seems like one balancing solution leads to another issue.But I support the idea of a neutral space station at least to player interact with each other.
The Turret AI needs a small tweak so it doesn't blow holes in what they are protecting. I was raiding the science station and had a turret blast a hole through the section I was in. Very surprising to say the least. I feel Drones should be more of a threat. Not in the way of being harder to destroy. But under the idea of leftover alien tech, they could rebuild towers near deposits. Have the current towers will continually build more drones to send out over the planet until the tower is destroyed. Thus leaving even one tower standing on a planet could leave the planet to being over run if given enough time.
