What if rats and npc's were more interesting and cunning?

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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What if some rats had drones like us?
What if some rats could use combat probes?
What if some rats had a life outside of the grid and could warp around, follow and be followed?
What if rats actually respected the standing you have with them?
What if rats salvaged/looted? They like isk too don’t they?
What if local law enforcement sent out patrols, and engaged with the rats?
What if local pirates sent out gangs of 10-20 ships that would show up in belts and at gates and stations?
What if rats could jump gates?
What if NPC corporations that are almost never seen in space, actually had ships flying around in space?
What if NPC’s and Rats went out “PVPing”, with PVP fits and energy neut susceptibility?
What if rats could perform little hot-drops of their own?
What if belts spawned way, wayyyyy more stuff?
What if instead of appearing out of thin space, rats always warped in from somewhere or undocked from something?

Just thinking out loud here, please do not stab me in the eye.

Edit: I’m not talking about PVE so much as AI. All of this would serve as a better backdrop to what already takes place. I don’t know if it’s technologically feasible but I’ve always felt that their should be more going on. According to lore us capsuleers aren’t the only ones flying around although it often seems that way. NPCs are almost non-existent and most rats are so dumb they might as well be asteroids.

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What you want is called other players…

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Or rats & NPCs that behave more authentically.

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Elite: Dangerous is that way >>>>>>>> You missed the left at Albuquerque…

EDIT: NPC rats that would use a Machariel to bump you for hours on end would be quite hilarious though…

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Decent game. It’s no Eve though.

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You probably should pay more attention to the “diamond” rats using the new AI. They do quite a bit of what you list or are expected to as they are implemented in more and more systems.

I welcome our new NPC overlords.

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Diamond rats are still pretty dumb. The way I run NPC mining fleets, I ping them, scan them down, warp to 100 and then pew-pew them one by one as they approach. Fleet composition doesn’t matter much, just the order you kill them in. Tacklers go first, then ecm, then logi, can kill or tank the rest.

If they will start warping around like Guardian Gala rats did, I’ll quit running them though. Not because that would be too difficult. Time spent/reward will be too off, it almost is now.

Other diamond rats are FOB guards. I think people who ran FOBs just ignored them, didn’t they?

So it seems those advanced rats are quite unpopular. Smart rats are what people claim they want, but seems like no one actually runs them.

I like the idea of NPCs killing NPCs. And overall more NPC ships, not just haulers and miners, that would make universe seem more alive. But I guess would also stress servers more.

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already in game

already in game

already in game

you know what i’m just going to stop and ask this question

What if players looked into the game before posting

most of the rest is already something CCP wants to do. i mean they even want NPCs to develop and organically change systems needing to harvest resources and have wars with other factions that players can ignore or interfere with

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This is your mistake. NPCs are a resource to be farmed, they are not authentic. EVE’s content is provided by other players, trying to get NPCs to provide that content is against the intent of EVE.

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All in very small doses.

Salty.

Who says? It’s a social experience yes, but it’s also a game meant to simulate a space setting, and as far as I’m concerned what we currently have is entities behaving very unrealistically, and in many places a lack of entities that should be there.

Exactly how I feel! And as for the stressing the servers issue; technology is always moving forward, at one point citadels and mobile depots and MTUs and all the clutter we have now wouldn’t have been possible. Maybe more and more will be possible as the game moves forward and technology with it.

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Saddly the answer is that doing this would require the devs to actually care about the game, rather than just pvp within the game.

all of this sort of development ended years ago.

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Hmmm… interesting, I hope this is not the case

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Lots of what-ifs, some definitely interesting if not entertaining, but my biggest issue with all of this is that EVE is primarily a PvP and not a PvE game. Making PvE more interesting when there are only so many players will mean it’s going to take away some interest in PvP.

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I’m not talking about PVE so much as AI.

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You can’t do much about a player’s intelligence.

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Have you heard of drifters?
They can do much of what you mention already, its basically CCP’s testing ground for new AI.

Or maybe you have heard of the new FOB’s in highsec?
Its also an attempt to make what you describe and they also do alot of the stuff on your list.

New AI behavior has been tested in the game for the past year or two, starting with the drifter appearances.

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I think they would mess up the risk/reward basis of eve with players using destructible assets. A npc does not lose anything when they explode so there is no restraint to their aggression. They dont need logistics in the base material level. They don’t run out of ammo. So an army of immortal berserkers would sound like fun untill it isnt.

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You apparently haven’t fought Drifters or the ‘◆’ rats. Most of the things you mention are already in the game or CCP is currently working on it with their new NPC AI.

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They would still be super analyzed, all their limited choices extrapolated, and then farmed into oblivion.

Then the whiners who can’t, or won’t, do the above will come flood the forums with whine posts about how they need nerfed.

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Only if they have better payout. If they don’t, people will just ignore them.

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