Too much NPCs

[Jayenbee]

I was actually thinking how cool would it be if the NPC groups / numbers / equipments spawning were less static...

Like if you had some kind of an automated system that would analyze the player statistics and ramp up or dial down the NPCs in different places depending on player activity. So players who prefer to interact with others would get less NPCs while those who fly solo would get many.

Shame that the engine is closed-source and old so no chance of ever getting something like that ...

Freeworlds has this. - When you approach a hostile base, NPCs are spawned after a brief inteval to respond to the hostile players within the base's detection sphere. There were different difficulty zones too which increased or decreased the difficulty of your foes, depending on the ship you have.
If I showed up to Coruscant in a XG-1 Starwing as the Empire for example, I would be countered by multiple X-Wings, B-Wings and the odd gunship. Hard zone.

Unfortunately, Freeworlds has very little Freelancer left in it and thus the vast majority of anything they've done, we cannot simply just plug and play into Disco.

Also yes, these mechanics meant if you got a bunch of players together in a fleet, the hostile base spawns a fleet of comparable class or better vessels to respond and usually more numerous than you.

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When contending with a monster, you'd be wise to give the devil his due.