Outcats in Towel-23

[Beagle23]

Would it be at all possible to reduce either the spawn rate, or less ideally, at least the spawn group size of Outcast NPC wings in the Taus?



I want to tell you what's wrong sir, but OH DEEZ OUTCASTS


I'll use my powers of tact and diplomacy to negotiate a peaceful end to this misunderstandi- OH GOD DEEZ OUTCASTS


I need to simultaneously negotiate a peaceful release of the people in this Slaver's hold as well as watch him to make sure he doesn't cruise away, and respond to the angry Freela- OHHHHHHH DEEEEEEZ OUTCAAAAAASTSSSSSS


Well, I'm sure I can at least relax at Java considering a four man wing of rookies would have to be suicidal to launch an atta- oh wait, they're Veterans, that's okay then.


Staying in one spot for more than twenty seconds pretty much guarantees a four man wing armed with lazers and CDs will show up; and to clarify, that isn't an exaggeration. Another four will often show up anywhere within thirty seconds to a minute, and so far the most I've gathered at once has been around sixteen. As you can imagine, this kind of roots any ongoing attempts of talking, inspecting, reasoning, negotiating, pursuing, detaining, or pretty much any kind of action that doesn't involve constant dodging.

As far as I can tell, it's all negatives and no positives, and finally, hell, it doesn't make a lick of sense in fluff or out of it.

I'm not sure if this is a problem that affects a lot of areas but the majority of my experience is in the Taus and this is where the problem glares at me most prominently, hence the localization of my request. If anyone else has any thoughts on all this, please feel free to voice 'em right here!

[Agmen of Eladesor]

I feel your pain. Try doing something diplomatically down in Omicron Delta when the Corsairs are spawning. There's a reason WHY most of my ships down there tend to be caps - so I can actually role-play with people. But npc spawn anywhere can get fun and interesting - and you know, it does fit into the game.
After all, the npc's are doing their OWN rp - it just doesn't fit in with ours. As my poor pirate found out last night in Omega-7. I think I could have easily done my pirating - if first 4 and then 8 npc IMG eagles hadn't come along to defend the miner.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Beagle23]

and you know, it does fit into the game.
After all, the npc's are doing their OWN rp - it just doesn't fit in with ours. As my poor pirate found out last night in Omega-7. I think I could have easily done my pirating - if first 4 and then 8 npc IMG eagles hadn't come along to defend the miner.

Well, that's the thing, I wouldn't bring it up if it fit in perfectly and was just something that annoyed me, but its something that annoys me AND seems to not make any sense.

For there to be THAT many combat ships all operating in four man wings constantly appearing and attacking you, launching suicide attacks on space stations for no reason - in fluff, isn't that a giant and unmissable waste of ships and pilots?

Outside of fluff, it just seems like a giant deterrent to anything but PvP, which I'd imagine doesn't help the mod's intentions!

I've also been told that more NPCs spawn when the server has less players - as I play during Australian hours which means an average of 100 or so players, it could be much more pronounced than your experiences, though I don't assume that. Keep in mind that I'm not exaggerating when I say that these Outcasts are practically guaranteed to show up inside of thirty seconds. It's not a feeling of tension, operating in a war zone hoping the enemy doesn't chance upon you - it's inevitable that they're about to crap all over you in about twenty seconds.


So again, what is the purpose of all these NPCs? Are there really positives that outweigh the negatives? I can't think of any, and in my mind we'd be better off with a lower amount of NPCs, but if you have anything to refute that, I'm keeping an open mind!

[Jihadjoe]

Omicron Eta. As an outcast, you jump into the system and wonder where your shield went, then look to see the 98263427864082542 Corsair NPC titans with tizzis/salamancas, which really -really- hurt.

As a corsair you have exactly the same problem with the OC NPCs.

Makes doing anything there really tricky at low server load.

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[Zelot]

Omicron Eta. As an outcast, you jump into the system and wonder where your shield went, then look to see the 98263427864082542 Corsair NPC titans with tizzis/salamancas, which really -really- hurt.

As a corsair you have exactly the same problem with the OC NPCs.

Makes doing anything there really tricky at low server load.

Amen

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[Agmen of Eladesor]

I've also been told that more NPCs spawn when the server has less players - as I play during Australian hours which means an average of 100 or so players, it could be much more pronounced than your experiences, though I don't assume that. Keep in mind that I'm not exaggerating when I say that these Outcasts are practically guaranteed to show up inside of thirty seconds. It's not a feeling of tension, operating in a war zone hoping the enemy doesn't chance upon you - it's inevitable that they're about to crap all over you in about twenty seconds.

You'll notice one thing that has changed here that I've noticed over the last year or so. I'm on GMT -5, so what we used to see around 9 pm or so (locally) is that the server load would drop down to about 80 or so players. Then normally about the time I'd go to bed (11 pm), the load would be down to 60 or so, and that's pretty much where it would hang until morning, when Europe got up.

Now take a look at what A&L guy is showing - our player average is up such that we're barely dropping below 100 players at night, and frequently I'm seeing 150 players even at 8 pm locally. It's nice to have people on here to play and interact with.

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Oh god... The end of days... Agmen agreed with me.

[Beagle23]

we're barely dropping below 100 players at night, and frequently I'm seeing 150 players even at 8 pm locally. It's nice to have people on here to play and interact with.

True that, on GMT +10 here and it's nice to have the low-water point being around 100 even during my playtime.

[Panzer]

* Panzer postulates that all NPCs should be banned because they aren't players, attack without warning, don't RP whentold to, reengage, cheat with regens and defensive statistics.

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[stahu456]

/Signed.
/Noted.
/Aprroved.

Yeah. Can we roleplay with NPCs (i mean hostiles too) ? No, cause they shooting immediatly.

[Varok]

A menu that let you answer every question they ask you would be nice like:

Corsair NPC: "Hola amigo! You have cargo that I want!Drop it or pay the fine!"
Trader: "I'll choose to pay you, <NPC name>
Corsair NPC: "Smart move, amigo!"
Trader: "*sigh*...yeaa..."
Corsair NPC: "Move along now!"

Or we could ban them all ..:happy: