I'm not a dev sadly, this is just a community poll to see where the community sits on this subject. I am hoping it shows the level of support the community has on this subject though. Hopefully we do see some content added in the upcoming updates. There have been a couple hints at it being implemented at some point and it shows in the upcoming features polling which seems to be the road map the Devs are following. Overall I share your excitement for new Economic development and Npc content, so I'll will be reading all the updates anxiously awaiting news on these subjects!
As a modder, add conversations. Its what we need for fully customized quest lines, and would increase the amount of time players can play dramatically.
Scripting is paramount. LUA scripts that could be created to control AI. - Animals, NPCs, Drones, etc. We won't have a real game here until everything AI stops being hard coded.
Scripting & Pathfinding, Escalation, and taming beasts were my three votes (I was big into creature tamimg when SWG was in it's first year). I'd also like to see personal/ship combat drones - not so much from a "deploy my drones and sit back while they fight" perspective, but more from the tactical standpoint of deploying them to get permanent targets on the radar/hud, using them as possible defensive distractions, using them for scouting in a radius, etc. A bit like "whiskers" were used in seaQuest DSV. They could even be deployed while we were in SVs or CVs, to operate much the same way.
Well as far as I know Eleon have one specialist in AI and I imagine it takes a very long time for 1 person to code such things into the game, his effort so far has been awesome though, eventually RMHaney I recon we will get all of what you talk about, then we will be getting hunted by AI troops as smart as the ones in Farcry 4 or the like, pretty awesome. The reason I guess they added so many different types of AI, like Planet patrol vessels, drones, troops in POIs is to give the game variety. Originally the AI was so basic it couldn't even look up, if you were not on the same level of voxel it could not target you and they got stuck on EVERYTHING ! LOL ! Come along way from there first iteration and I have seen small AI improvements at almost every update in between so I recon its just a matter of time until we get the AI up to a level of really horrifying !
I almost **** my pants the first time a Zirax shot at me standing on top of a block. "Oh no! They're becoming intelligent!" lol I used to just farm the bastards for unlimited ammo, food and health packs. What version was that? 3.0? I remember that was a big update with animals herds, motorbike, etc.
They still get stuck on everything but now they face 30° left, if they can't move forward they face 30° right, if they can't move forward if it's 30° left, if they can't move forward, 30° right ... and you watch them glitching back and forth like that stuck on objects still. Very primitive if then statements.
I retract all previous statements and support this one. Space Engineers did this over a year ago and the amount of player-created content since then has far outstripped anything the developers have done. AI fleet scripting, automatic systems, quests, storylines, et al.
Unfortunately, scripted AI is heavy on systems, so the more they can code directly, the better performance we will have overall. I also read that SE is unplayable for many who bought the game early, I think it's important to keep this in mind when referring to SE as "an example to follow".
Oh, don't get me wrong, SE is a symphony of disaster. I just jump back and forth between this and that so I refer to each often. What's worth noting, in all of it's macabre irony, is that each of them has managed to focus on elements the other has eschewed. I think mashing the best bits of both games would create very close to what people in each camp have been clamoring for. Personally I find it equal parts frustrating and amusing that whenever one of the two games irritates me while playing, I find the issue rectified in the other, at the cost of everything else.
This is highly subjective, as in both games there are already multiple "camps" pulling the blanket in opposite directions (just think PvP vs PvE). I still hold to what I thought at first when coming on these forums : by trying to please everyone, a game risks pleasing no one in the end. I have the growing intuition, with time passing by, that the devs knew from the start they were facing unrealistic deadlines, and that not a lot of players would follow them knowing they would have to wait for years to see important features implemented. The reasoning behind this intuition is very straightforward : any critic regarding the slow progression of development is countered by this "very small team" argument. If I take act of this, then I don't see why this small team spends any time on cosmetic changes and balancing they know will need to fix again and again, instead of putting all efforts on what they promised at the beginning. Who cares if the rocket launcher is bugged and fuel consumption is unbalanced knowing they are working hard to make poles accessible or bigger planets, a working economy, etc? And notice that we are also regularly told that "features have to get in the game before we fix this and that", where "features" is a general category into which "main game features" don't seem to belong, for mysterious reasons... and we see lots of fixes. Am I having a comprehension problem here, or is someone playing with words?
I don't see the point of voting. OP isn't a dev and We have no say about what the devs choose to add to Their game.
Well, while I am not a Dev, only a concerned gamer that loves the game and wanted to see community opinion on the topic at hand, since it may be a very big part of future updates. All I can say is that this is here and pinned for all to to see and read and may or may not be pinned for certain "reasons" beyond our personal opinions on the subject at hand.
From my experience, sometimes it's a company being purposely evasive, lazy or opportunistic (Imminent Uprising, Konami, EA) and sometimes it's a company that is genuinely in too deep and either beyond fucked despite best efforts or oblivious to their eventual implosion (Sony Entertainment, Hello Games, Deep Silver). On rare occasions it's an odd combination of both (pretty much anything Peter Molyneux touches). In this case? Unsure. Nobody can point me to anything resembling a decent roadmap so my eyebrow is permanently cocked here.
+1 The least they will say, the more players will bee free to "fantasize" about the "final game". Speculation is half the fun, I believe...
I hope you are not going to limit us to only hiring NPCs to crew our ships. It would help make the game so much more immersive, especially for single-player, to be able to hire some NPCs to assist us in many other ways. The most obvious, of course, is to act as bodyguards or companions as we explore planets. In single-player, it would be very nice to have a bit of extra firepower when we, say, invade a POI. But I can think of other possible uses: Bodyguard Miner (order to go mine X ore, possibly giving them a location) Lumberjack (order to go harvest wood) Herbalist (order to go harvest local plants) Farmer (order to tend grow plots at a building or within a certain area, picking produce & placing in fridge, assuming free space) Also, I really hope that you eventually add the ability for us to build our own companions. I'd love to be able to create my own attack drone or even humanoid robot. Even better would be if we had a rudimentary "programming" menu where we could program certain behavior, such as how aggressively or proactively they defend us or if it should only guard a fixed area. I could also imagine us, eventually, to be able to build drones or robots to help mine, cut trees, or tend our growing plots. Perhaps, eventually, we could have special "AI" blocks that we could install into, say, a hovercraft in place of a cockpit, turning the hovercraft into an autonomous drone? That would be a relatively simple way of adding drones as the creation part is already there. And if it had, say, a harvester, it would have the option to go harvest trees. Even if such modules were high-tier and late game (Zascosium or whatever), this would be great! If nothing else, please give us the ability to launch drones that can automatically gather resources from downed drones and other enemies. As things are, our automated turrets will shoot enemies that are within range. But, these disappear in a matter of seconds. It would be so nice if we had a way to collect those resources even if we are not in the vicinity of our base to do so. Perhaps, eventually, a special "Resource Gatherer" module could be added to our bases and/or vehicles? Again, even if such modules were high-tier and late game, this would be great! Edit: Perhaps what I'm suggesting about drones and robots is too ambitious for early access. If so, perhaps you'd consider something like this after 1.0? If nothing else, maybe as a DLC?
Mount and blade: Warband is a great example of what you are suggesting, from a fighting perspective. The X - Series has the Economy and Market. StarMade has good NPC controls. Put it all together and it would be the ultimate RPG experience!
The X-Series - at least parts of it - also had some of the other features mentioned. Players could control entire fleets of ships. And, at least with mods, players could have AI-controlled ships perform certain tasks for the player, such as automatically sell excess station goods to NPC stations, keep your stations stocked with resources (either from your own stations or buying from nearby stations), defend the player, and guard certain stations or areas.
