New Enemy Captains

[Deleted]

Perosnally, Id really like to see some new enemy captains besides just bounty, military, pirate, smuggler, and merchant. Which enemy captain would you want to be added to star traders?

[Deleted]

Oh and if you think there are enough enemy types as it is, you can respond saying so as well.

[Cory Trese]

I would have to ask how they are different than today's enemies in terms of game balance.

We could easily label some of the Merchants Explorers if that is what you are asking.

[Deleted]

Well explorer would be much more likely to be carring weapons, artifacts and electronics and would be more commonly found in wild areas, especially those with rumors of things like discovery of dark age technoogy.

Spies would be simmilar to military officers just like bounter hunters are. Just like bounty hunters generally focus on hunting you more when your a criminal, spies would generally be doing more survalience, often in the process of spying on factions when you encounter them. They'd be especiilly abundant during spy battles, and like bounty hunters generaly are more warrior based on carry more weapons, spies are more stealth based and carry more electronics and possibly records from survalence.

[Deleted]

Just like bounty captains, spies would sometimes go after you when your a criminal as well, but it would be much much more rare for spies.

Civilians would be like an "other" catagory. They generally are not involved in conflicts and are generally lowly guarded. Killing civilians would decrease moral and would act as an emergency source of income/water-fuel. But sometimes smuglers prates and spies will discise themselves as civilians to trick enemies or catch them offguard!
These are just some of my ideas for new enemy captains.I'm sure you guys have other ideas as well.

[Cory Trese]

Interesting ideas!

[Deleted]

Thanks. I just feel the same 5 enemy types gets a little boring and it would be nice to get a little more variety in the game. I'm sure others will feel the game more enjoyable with a greater variety as well. The bounty hunters really should carry more weapons with the spies carry more electronics, as it wouldn't make sense for bounty hunters to have more electronics than weapons (which sometimes, confusingly, is the case).
There was also 1 more enemy type I was thining of, princes. They would be extreamly heavyily armed or have high security (kind of like how the persident and other nation leaders alwayes have high security). Destroying them would immedietly cause the "vicious assination attempt and prince has gone into hiding rumor", and a giant rep loss for the faction of the prince, and a giant rep gain for any faction that was having a solar war with them. Like aliens, you'd never get a contract hiring you to kill or capture a prince, as that would be to dangerous for the factiongiving such a contract.

[Deleted]

Oh, and they'd be rare to enconter (considering there's only 1 prince per planet). The only thing I don't know is whether they'd be more likely to attack like a military officer or flee like a merchant. Same thing for spies. What do u think cory?

[Cory Trese]

Well I think a lot of what you are talking about is already in the game and very carefully balanced.

I think one thing that becomes apparent as you play more is that the "types" of enemies that you encounter are very different than the labels they carry in terms of classification. The variety of bounty hunters is quiet large, for example, both in terms of hostility, tactics, skills, and crew composition.

If you find the cargo distribution system confusing it may help you to understand that it is modeled off of the results of ST play tracking data.

When I play a BH I find that if my primary focus is on Surveillance then my ratio of Electronics to Weapons will be different than if my primary focus is on Boarding. Using the BH special efficiently requires a specific Cargo configuration and the game's cargo system is aware of that and triggers it when the AI in question is built for BH special over BH boarding.

So I think a lot of the points you make a very well reasoned -- I feel that way because they were implemented into the game some time ago.

Your description of Civilians matches Independent Merchants mathematically and they're no different from a storyline standpoint so the suggestion I think is already well included.

[Deleted]

Ok I just thought that it would be better to get a greater variety of enemy captains but according to you there already is a great variety even though its only classified into 5 catagores. That's very interesting.

[Cory Trese]

Each of the categories identifies a group of AI and Cargo functions.

So there are BH that want to Board and carry more Weapons and there are BH that want to Gun at Medium and carry more Electronics.

There are Torp happy Merchants who fire torps at the first sign of hostility and there are ones that just run, run and then run.

And a Merchant might be a Crystals Trader, an atmosphere loader or a operating as a liner. So there are a set number of permutations for a Merchant -- about 100 combinations of AI / Cargo AI for them. That is further modified by the levels (1-52, and 53+) and the ships (68 merchant types.)

Based on the value of the ship and the level, different types of switches will be set in the two AIs. I think for Merchant there are about 80,000 "different types" if you include the levels and ship categories

[Deleted]

Alright, well it seems its a lot more advanced than meets the eye. Merchants can be explorers and bounties can be spies. The game is clearly more advanced than I thought it was.

[slayernz]

Woah ... there are types of enemy? As a true-blue Cadar captain, if it moves and can be shot at, then I feel it is my duty to do so. Only after I have subdued the ship do I pay attention to what type it is.

[BlastGT1]

TFAQL: Torp First, Ask Questions Later

Launched from Torpedo Bay 1 of my MetroFLASHed HTC Droid Incredible

[phantombudgie]

Jun 11, 2012 23:08:51 GMT -5 slayernz said:

Woah ... there are types of enemy? As a true-blue Cadar captain, if it moves and can be shot at, then I feel it is my duty to do so. Only after I have subdued the ship do I pay attention to what type it is.

When playing as a Cadar Zealot, should not the various advance/retreat/gun buttons all be replaced by a giant "torpedo" button in every radar contact scenario that involves meeting any ship which is not Cadar military?