Human NPCs
Every Ship and station is SE1 is like an abandoned ghost town, with everything in autopilot. You invade a capital class vessel, which should be teeming with soldiers defending it, and all you really need to worry about is turrets and maybe a few traps if the ship designer was clever.
SE2 needs actual NPCs, not ghost ships.
OK, lets envision a play through. You don't have a ship, but you are hitching a ride on a neutral or friendly ship, You see a ship you want in the distance. As the ship you are on passes peacefully by the other ship, you jump out the airlock right into a blind spot behind the ship, and carefully make your way to an airlock, while avoiding autoturrets and cameras. The door is locked. You can either cut your way into the airlock, which will alert everyone on the ship, or, you plug a portable terminal into the control panel of the door, and play a little minigame that represents bypassing the door circuit to open it covertly. As you make your way through the ship, you not only have to avoid interior turrets and cameras, you have to avoid being seen by the NPCs working/living on the ship. You can crawl through the willis ducts to avoid being seen, or hide behind objects, and dart for cover. Manage to sneak up behind an NPC without being noticed, and you can dispatch them quietly, and drag the body into the willis duct to hide the evidence. You manage to find the main computer room, and plug into that, and start hacking the doors and systems of the ship remotely. When you hack something in person, the block defaults to anyone can use. But if you hack it remotely, it defaults to only my faction can use. If one of the NPCs then tries to access the item, and it refuses to let them use it, The NPC will attempt to alert the other NPCs about a security breach, and start searching for you. But if you switch the blocks to anyone can use quick enough, no one will notice the breach. Ofcourse, hacking a block that is actively in use, like the pilots seat, will immediately alert the NPC using it. So you hack everything except the pilot seat. Then make your way to the bridge, covertly dispatching NPCs along the way. The bridge is small, only a pilot seat and an engineers workstation. The engineer's station is empty, so you sneak up quietly behind the pilot, and end his life, before hacking the pilots seat. The ship is now yours, you give it a new name, and no one else knows what happened to the ship. It vanished without a trace, no faction lost.
Basically, loud noises like gun shots, explosions, or grinders, alert the NPCs to your presence. Being seen, alerts the NPCs to your presence. The NPC attempting to use a block on their ship that belongs to another faction and isn't set to anyone can use, alerts the NPCs. Any hostile actions taken once they are alerted to your presence lowers your reputation with their faction. If you can manage to hide from them long enough to give up looking for you, which can be quite long, or all known enemies are dead, it'll reset their alerted state. Just because your friend got spotted, doesn't mean they know about you too. If you were attempting to take over a friendly or neutral ship, even though the alert ends, doesn't mean they forgot about you, if you are spotted again on that ship, even if you are still friendly or neutral with the faction, you will be attacked on sight.
If you manage to dispatch all the NPCs without alerting them, and not be seen by the cameras, and then hack the entire ship. No one will know what happened to that ship, and you won't lose reputation. It adds a new and challenging way to play the game, as well as adding more atmosphere and content to the game.
NPC would basically be assigned shifts to use a work station, a bed, patrol the ship randomly. When patrolling, they stop to talk to friendly/neutral NPCs and players, or use the various decoration blocks like the kitchen, vending machines, or the shower. NPCs assigned to an engineering workstation as well as off duty NPCs, will get up and head to blocks that need repairs to repair them. That may require them to even take a space walk. NPCs don't like space walks, so will head back inside once repairs are complete, or their O2, H2, or energy is running low. Enemy factions, or anyone hacking or intentionally damaging the ship regardless of faction, are enemies for them to attack.
Not every workstation has an NPC assigned. Not every NPC has a unique workstation. Multiple NPCs can use the same workstation by being on different shifts. A ship without someone in the pilots seat and without a remote control block, does not fly itself. If it's already moving, and inertial dameners are off, it'll keep drifting in that direction, and can't avoid obstacles. So a ship with insufficient pilots to cover all ships, and doesn't have a remotecontol block to autopilot it, will eventually crash into something if inertial dampeners are off :P
I like this feedback
I love the story you told with this, and also love the idea of console/block hacking and NPCs. NPCs have been confirmed for a later update, but the scenario you have here makes it sound like some excellent game play.
I love the story you told with this, and also love the idea of console/block hacking and NPCs. NPCs have been confirmed for a later update, but the scenario you have here makes it sound like some excellent game play.
Yes please !!!
Yes please !!!
Or simply hack the security turrets 😜
Or they surrender and leave the ship if you engage with a heavily weaponized ship
...
Or simply hack the security turrets 😜
Or they surrender and leave the ship if you engage with a heavily weaponized ship
...
Attacking and boarding and enemy ship with 100vs99+1 is the ultimate dream for myself in any space game. Especially in space engineers. They learnt a lot from the automation on SE1 so I hope they will be able to implement AI that will make ships and bases more alive.
Attacking and boarding and enemy ship with 100vs99+1 is the ultimate dream for myself in any space game. Especially in space engineers. They learnt a lot from the automation on SE1 so I hope they will be able to implement AI that will make ships and bases more alive.
I already make room for crew in my ships. Beds, toilets, kitchen, bar etc. :)
I already make room for crew in my ships. Beds, toilets, kitchen, bar etc. :)
Human NPCs was one of the main new features that was announced for SE2. So this is already something that's planned right now.
Human NPCs was one of the main new features that was announced for SE2. So this is already something that's planned right now.
I must say: yes, we need human (or even alien) NPCs, but I don't like that alert part in your text. It sounds in some aspects way too unrealistic. If a NPC sees you, you should have a moment to deal with that NPC before the NPC alarms the rest of the ship. Or if the NPC notice something strange the NPC is only in a attention mode and looking more around, searching the area, not directly alarm the complete ship. If everything directly alarm the whole ship this system would quickly be very annoying for players.
I would try at first to hack the communication system so the ship can't put a emergency call out or you risk that other ships came to help them. Then I would try to hack their engines, not that the ship reach a station or a other ship while you still try to overtake the ship. Also a "broken" engine can cause some distraction from you and more NPCs are busy with the engine to find out why it didn't work anymore, maybe same with the communication, if they notice that it didn't work anymore. And maybe I can also manage to put their alarm system down or even their life system?
But we don't need NPCs only for such things, we also need them for our own builds. Building larger ships and then you are the only person on it feels totally wrong as well. So we need in general much more NPCs to make the world a more living and believing one. SE1 failed on that part a lot.
I must say: yes, we need human (or even alien) NPCs, but I don't like that alert part in your text. It sounds in some aspects way too unrealistic. If a NPC sees you, you should have a moment to deal with that NPC before the NPC alarms the rest of the ship. Or if the NPC notice something strange the NPC is only in a attention mode and looking more around, searching the area, not directly alarm the complete ship. If everything directly alarm the whole ship this system would quickly be very annoying for players.
I would try at first to hack the communication system so the ship can't put a emergency call out or you risk that other ships came to help them. Then I would try to hack their engines, not that the ship reach a station or a other ship while you still try to overtake the ship. Also a "broken" engine can cause some distraction from you and more NPCs are busy with the engine to find out why it didn't work anymore, maybe same with the communication, if they notice that it didn't work anymore. And maybe I can also manage to put their alarm system down or even their life system?
But we don't need NPCs only for such things, we also need them for our own builds. Building larger ships and then you are the only person on it feels totally wrong as well. So we need in general much more NPCs to make the world a more living and believing one. SE1 failed on that part a lot.
Friendly NPCs to man my medbay. :)
Friendly NPCs to man my medbay. :)
This vote system fails new gameplay mechanics. Here's why: Most people that play this game are builder gamers. The people who like space adventure or factions/warfare/trading are dismissed because they don't buy the game or make it to these forums as often.
This vote system fails new gameplay mechanics. Here's why: Most people that play this game are builder gamers. The people who like space adventure or factions/warfare/trading are dismissed because they don't buy the game or make it to these forums as often.
This is a solid idea. Adding an entire new attribute to the game. This can maybe even be followed by stealth ship blocks, and new additions to make ships stealthy.
This is a solid idea. Adding an entire new attribute to the game. This can maybe even be followed by stealth ship blocks, and new additions to make ships stealthy.
This is a great mechanic, because it is well suited for those cases when the ship of pirates or another faction is too strong and there is no opportunity to take it by direct storm. In this case, one of the players sneaks onto such a powerful ship, turns off the systems, and the player's friends meanwhile go into a direct attack with their weak ship.
This is a great mechanic, because it is well suited for those cases when the ship of pirates or another faction is too strong and there is no opportunity to take it by direct storm. In this case, one of the players sneaks onto such a powerful ship, turns off the systems, and the player's friends meanwhile go into a direct attack with their weak ship.
I support the physical pilots, boarding and ship capture described here. One of the most interesting activities in Space Engineers 1 was boarding an enemy ship and capturing it instead of destroying it. In our experience, neutralizing the AI control block stopped enemy control, and mods could then enable time-consuming grid ownership hacking.
For Space Engineers 2, I would love enemy ships to have physical NPC pilots and potentially crew who actually operate their stations. Players could board, fight through defended compartments, reach the cockpit and neutralize or capture the pilot. Once no pilot or active control system remains, the ship would stop receiving enemy commands and drift or remain subject to physics rather than continuing as if controlled by an invisible AI.
Capturing the ship should still require taking ownership of its grid, perhaps by a hacking device or an interaction that takes time and is impossible while hostile control remains active. This would incentivize preserving equipment, protecting boarding teams and securing an intact prize instead of simply destroying targets at range.
This is a proposal for immersive physical crews alongside normal automated ships; it does not imply every autonomous vessel must contain a person.
I support the physical pilots, boarding and ship capture described here. One of the most interesting activities in Space Engineers 1 was boarding an enemy ship and capturing it instead of destroying it. In our experience, neutralizing the AI control block stopped enemy control, and mods could then enable time-consuming grid ownership hacking.
For Space Engineers 2, I would love enemy ships to have physical NPC pilots and potentially crew who actually operate their stations. Players could board, fight through defended compartments, reach the cockpit and neutralize or capture the pilot. Once no pilot or active control system remains, the ship would stop receiving enemy commands and drift or remain subject to physics rather than continuing as if controlled by an invisible AI.
Capturing the ship should still require taking ownership of its grid, perhaps by a hacking device or an interaction that takes time and is impossible while hostile control remains active. This would incentivize preserving equipment, protecting boarding teams and securing an intact prize instead of simply destroying targets at range.
This is a proposal for immersive physical crews alongside normal automated ships; it does not imply every autonomous vessel must contain a person.
I absolutely LOVE the idea of hacking a ship's computer systems in order to gain control of the ship. Perhaps individual blocks, such as doors and control stations could be hacked directly via the control panel, but in order to hack other blocks remotely, the player would need to gain access to a mainframe computer system (perhaps make the mainframe system a required block in order for other Ai blocks to be able to function, just to give it a purpose other than being a weak point for intruders to exploit). Then, instead of grinding down blocks to gain control, we can perform a series of "minigames" in order to hack the blocks one by one. Imagine hacking a remote turret, then taking control of it to shoot the NPCs on board a ship. They try to get to you, but unfortunately for them, you have already taken control of the only access door into the computer room. They cannot get in. They're trying to shoot the door, but as they are only equipped with basic rifles, it's taking a long time. One by one, the turrets on the ship turn on them and start to eliminate them. Once there's no one left to stop you, you make your way to the bridge. Then, take control of the ship and it's yours.
The whole "mainframe" idea sounds great, but might be difficult to implement-however any version of this hacking idea would be a welcome change. I just hate having to grind blocks down to gain control. It's fine for SE1, but I have much higher hopes for SE2.
I absolutely LOVE the idea of hacking a ship's computer systems in order to gain control of the ship. Perhaps individual blocks, such as doors and control stations could be hacked directly via the control panel, but in order to hack other blocks remotely, the player would need to gain access to a mainframe computer system (perhaps make the mainframe system a required block in order for other Ai blocks to be able to function, just to give it a purpose other than being a weak point for intruders to exploit). Then, instead of grinding down blocks to gain control, we can perform a series of "minigames" in order to hack the blocks one by one. Imagine hacking a remote turret, then taking control of it to shoot the NPCs on board a ship. They try to get to you, but unfortunately for them, you have already taken control of the only access door into the computer room. They cannot get in. They're trying to shoot the door, but as they are only equipped with basic rifles, it's taking a long time. One by one, the turrets on the ship turn on them and start to eliminate them. Once there's no one left to stop you, you make your way to the bridge. Then, take control of the ship and it's yours.
The whole "mainframe" idea sounds great, but might be difficult to implement-however any version of this hacking idea would be a welcome change. I just hate having to grind blocks down to gain control. It's fine for SE1, but I have much higher hopes for SE2.
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