"Abandoned" Bases

[Sprolf]

I actually came across this idea years ago when I was fiddling with modding...
I was making a simple expansion pack tentatively called the "Liberty Explorer" in which I added a robot-maintained station to the Pequena Negra, another to the supply depot near Willard, (all of these were useless stations, other than buying oxygen or H-Fuel for a modest price) Albany Base as a Liberty Rogue reconstruction of the depot you destroy in mission 2 or so in Single Player, and a few more stations around Liberty, along with more wrecks, more zones, updated infocards, new (and brilliant) rumours, all leading up to a massive treasure hunt that you could follow through various vague hints, etcetera...

(I was going to work around to doing this for every house and then every other system, but I didn't get past Liberty.)

(I actually recall that I attempted to flesh certain NPCs out, give them character - like an old Junker on Albany who had lost his hands [had robotic ones] who spun long-winded and marvelous yarns about the world and more often than not told you how he lost his hands.)

I digress.

On topic - YES, I think this would be a good idea, but it should be used with caution.

One could put them out of the way - not between jumpholes or near any bases or patrol routes, or one could place them in hazardous zones where they might naturally have been abandoned.

One could also nerf the docking sequence so that it takes about a minute to complete (due to very old and faulty machinery, you have to get it just right), and allow other players to shoot at those in docking sequence if they were chasing them. (I believe players can damage those in docking cinematic, correct? Advise me if I am wrong - the rules seem to point to that.)

Also. We have an AI ID, so why not an NPC AI faction?
(Or do we have that already?)
Since these bases are logically robot-controlled, it might make sense if a neutral AI faction controlled them all, or at least the ones the robots controlled. This would give them all neutrality to everyone, although it might also give The Harvesters an interesting RP option - to move amongst their less enlightened machine brothers in the systems of Sirius.

And in addition, these could work as a way to balance the economic situation.
Food rations(?), Water, H-Fuel, Oxygen, and the like are the very necessities of life, but they don't catch a good price! You can't make much money shipping them. These bases could actually buy them at moderate prices, generating an in-system (keep in mind that these bases would be in remote locations) traderoute that would make moderate amounts of money - nothing special, but nothing horrible either.



So, yes, I vote.
Affirmative, and yes again! This is a brilliant idea.

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