I like this idea of having companions

Council Of Stellar Management Assembly Hall
1

I think we need more NPC friends in Eve Online.
First you randomly approach NPCs in stations or someway to meet them and recruit up to three. They have roughly equal stats.

Then you can go on adventures with them. If you are flying a ship with your other 3 NPCs aboard you can get different bonuses.
If you assign them to planetary they can increase planetary.
If you assign them to Research, reactions, Manufacturing, they add a boost. And the 3 different NPCs you recruited level up however you want, with a completely different skill set.
You can assign them to mercenary dens, guard duty, all kinds of things.
Furthermore, if you ever need tutorials (like the ones you get from your first character), like how to fly a cap and how it works to cyno, or handson step by step instruction on how to take part in new content, just talk to the appropriate NPC companion and he will walk you through everything.

Where do you keep your companions? In your housing which is renting from an NPC station or having one room in your player structure that is your home away from home. Maybe just rent quarters for you and your npc companions in corp/alliances keepstar or astrahaus.

Anyways, what else can NPC companions do? They can be assigned tasks like find something on the market to buy, and if done, they get a lower price than the ones listed in market, at no loss to the seller to make it believable but through some explanation on how they got you a lower price on the bpo and the seller got what he asked for.
Send NPCs on other tasks, like intel monitoring with a whole new set of structures to augment alliance space that monitors up to 9 systems at one time, and your NPC just does it for you in a new easy intuitive way.
Or you can setup your NPCs to salvage and haul, or to spar with.
Or you can setup your NPCs to add bonuses, like 1/2 marauder siege timer when with you in your marauder, or whatever options they can add to a particular ship, and they can grow over time however you want them to turn out. A whole separate skill path designed to serve your character and not like player skills which are designed to be more primary.

If your NPC companions die, then 900k a pop for a clone or at the home station like a regular player.

What would this take? Maybe too much new code, but if done right, then it could revitalize eve, because new players would feel like they are starting anew with NPC companions that just begin their research over time, and you could trade them in the character bazaar.

Anybody like the barebones, skeleton of an idea that this is?

2

You are playing an MMO with 30k other players. They are your NPC companionsā€¦

3 Likes
3

Stop evolving Eve? Give me one decent idea you have for the game that you would approve of? Not just some simple rebalance but something worthy of a bunch of developers working a year on.

4

NPC companion: The Frostpacker

  • Constantly fills your chat channels with wordsalads
  • Consumes all the commodities containing alcohol no matter where you store them (even if they are stored inside a password protected container, even if the container is anchored in space)
  • Can be assigned to mine ore while you are signed off, producing 500 (five hundred) ISK worth of ore every hour
  • Has a 0.1% chance to gift you 1 bil ISK every month
  • Increases the chance of your ship being ganked in high-sec by 50%
  • Has a group of subordinates attached to it called Frostpacker Alts, whose numbers grow at an exponential rate, each producing their own wordsalads but having no other effect

:thinking: :smirking_face: :blush:

7 Likes
5

This is literally just ā€œbring back walking in stationsā€ with dressing

6

I too like single player games with NPC companions.

EVE is an MMO though and is about playing together with other players. Thereā€™s no need to undermine the social part of the MMO by replacing player interaction with scripted NPCs.

6 Likes
7

Princess just needs to say sorry for ignoring miners on the forum.

2 Likes
8

I think that since this game is a sandbox, it relies on players to do all the things youā€™ve mentioned, not NPCs. The core of EVE is player-driven interaction, and adding NPC companions to handle tasks like market trading, intel gathering, or even providing bonuses is bad idea.

2 Likes
9

It would already be enough for me (and even more realistic) if the rats in my own faction turned gray and stopped shooting at me.

1 Like
10

Diamond rats do that. They even remote repair you with high enough standings, or so Iā€™ve heard.

I know someone who would bait people into trying to kill his Orca only to be surprised by the help he got from a nasty diamond NPC rat fleet with his high standings.

1 Like
11

@Wachutu

I agree with your position.

12

I have all the companions I need. 2 other acctsā€¦ :smirking_face:

1 Like
13

What if you could have like 3 or 4 NPC companions and you could use them against other players? Already having npc companions in your own ships to add stats could make PvP even more random. But otherwise, you could send them out against other players or something and invent a whole new mechanic in the game where npc companions are PvP tools too. Just donā€™t know how.

And despite Eve being the ultimate sandbox, who doesnā€™t tolerate a bit of themepark in any game? I doubt having 4 loyal npc companions would bug any vets any time soon if done right, and it would add a whole new layer for other player types to get into the game.

14

Then people would make 12 alts just to constantly send 36 or 48 NPC companions on you to kill you.

2 Likes
15

You just donā€™t get it, do you? PAY for your alts. :face_with_rolling_eyes:

16

I wouldnā€™t allow NPC companions to fly ships. And I would make how many you get 2-3-4 per account.

It just seems refreshing if they added a sort of strategy RPG thing in space that kind of works the way great houses work in dune. The Atraedis have Duncan, Thufar, Gurney, etc, and you could build into the game something that adds new layers. Like having your own planetary parcel or business quarters rented from the Keepstar that you could manage your companions from that the corp or alliance owns and such.

Ok. I think my idea is good and could be made to work despite problems pointed out. Please at least try to come up with an idea for this game to work onā€¦

Could you come up with something that the devs would build? That would be nice. I want more people in the game.

17

If they canā€™t undock and help you in space, what are they good for?

I mean, on your ship you already have ā€˜companionsā€™ that help you against other players. My favourites are called ā€˜Heat Sinkā€™ and ā€˜Heavy Pulse Laserā€™.

What would your idea make different than just adding more ā€˜buffsā€™ to your ship just that you call them ā€˜companionsā€™ instead of ā€˜modulesā€™ or ā€˜rigsā€™?

18

In detail from original post (donā€™t know how to quote it):

ā€œThen you can go on adventures with them. If you are flying a ship with your other 3 NPCs aboard you can get different bonuses.
If you assign them to planetary they can increase planetary.
If you assign them to Research, reactions, Manufacturing, they add a boost. And the 3 different NPCs you recruited level up however you want, with a completely different skill set.
You can assign them to mercenary dens, guard duty, all kinds of things.
Furthermore, if you ever need tutorials (like the ones you get from your first character), like how to fly a cap and how it works to cyno, or handson step by step instruction on how to take part in new content, just talk to the appropriate NPC companion and he will walk you through everything.ā€

Just keep the style of the game intact and figure out things companions can do. They can access a black market, or certain NPC companions can hold as middlemen to pirate or other unique factions. Like serving as traders/assassins/thieves/or hagglers to any other faction you have in Eve. Just send them to a multi part scheme to steal titan bpcs from angels or such.

19

Also, the idea isnā€™t finished. Please with all respect, if you can add to this idea please do.

20

2.00 to not shoot, and 5.00 to repairā€¦ with skills.