ZachZent
commented
4 years ago Just my two cents on NPCs and such since that last convo got a bit too heated.
One of the biggest thing to consider in my opinion with NPCs is how they would work without a player. For example if I wanted to go into empire gameplay (fleet gameplay, faction gameplay) I wouldn't want to literally assign crew in every single ship that comes out of my shipyard. A player should only need to do this once on a ship/station/ground facility where they can spawn in blueprint copies and assign a crew to the ship. They need to be easy to place and "manage" or else the game does turn into a management sim. Which to be fair would be interesting, but not for this game (not including mods). When deciding how to implement NPCs, think of them as a resource over substitutes/compliments for the player. Just as there shouldn't be an ultra complicated building system, NPCs should be the same.
I don't know who was on what side for the necessity vs optional argument, but I am leaning on the side of the latter. Funny enough it is how FTL does it. You don't need someone literally in the engine room or weapons room to fly/shoot, but having a crew manning the station makes the system stronger or more accurate respectively. This directly feeds into the crew leveling up part of FTL. This style should be the same for all systems with the exception of the pilot. Someone must be actually flying for the ship to fly (not including the ship moving in a straight line.) Maybe there are a few other exceptions that I'm not thinking of, but these necessary roles should be few in number.
Example: Turret base inaccuracy - 98% inaccuracy Level 5 gunner - 98% inaccuracy Level 1 gunner - 92% inaccuracy No gunner/AI - 90% inaccuracy Player wouldn't have levels, just the base inaccuracy of the gun. And the players monkey brain. So level 2, 3 on a good day :D
Ill leave my opinion for a more detailed NPC leveling and skills and such for a later day
tsunamayo
After a day of thinking I've worked out some the technical details concerning NPC crewed turrets vs uncrewed AI turrets. My assumption is that the two most complex behaviors that goes into a working turret is it's aiming behavior and the collision detection that goes into it's firing angles. An NPC gunner on the other hand has the aiming behavior and also path finding. The reality is these two functions are mutually exclusive. As soon as a gunner sits down they no longer have the path finding behavior. It would be disabled. And, while the NPC is walking around they wouldn't be using their aiming behavior.
So from a computer resources stand point, having functioning uncrewed turrets puts a lot of stress on the system. Because once the gunner stops operating the turret, the turret's default aiming behaviors goes into effect. While, the NPC's path finding behavior also goes into effect. Where as with a system requiring NPC gunners only one of these functions is active at a time. Saving computing power.
Since, NPC crew should at least be attempted as I do believe it's an important feature. What needs to be discussed is how to keep crew management simple so as not to lean too heavily into management/sim game play in a game that's being advertised as arcade in feel. I also think it's worth trying to think of some of the ramifications of having crew for both building and tactics.
There's a big focus of thinking about the game in terms of ships. But, lets consider mechs. Mechs have complex construction and very little internal space compared to tanks. Does that mean independently operating turrets just isn't viable on mechs?
I'll also bring up fleet gameplay again. Crews add quite a bit of complication to the decision making with regards to fleets. I already posited in another topic that the player in an effort to keep their crews alive might deploy only the largest class of ships available to them. Keeping the crews safe on the most durable ships types they can field and completely forgoing the use of smaller support ships that are likely to be destroyed completely.
Also, consider that after a battle the player might end up with a ship that is badly damaged with half the crew dead. Does the player repair the ship, but leave the crew as is? Do they try and move the existing crew around to man what the player deems to be the most vital systems? Do they transfer crew from another ship? Leaving both ships in a weakened, but in an equally functional state? Do they the write the ship off as a lose? If so what do they do with the surviving crew?
This illustrates my main point of of streamline game play vs management/sim game play. Without crew as a concern the player only needs decide if they are going to repair the ship or not. With crew as a concern they have to sift through a reasonable number of complex options.