Send Demands to NPCs?

[Furry Eskimo]

NPC pirates can send us a variety of demands, but we can't do that to them, right?

I know most NPCs tend to drop cargo before they die, and we have tools to scan their cargo and force them to drop cargo, but what if we could threaten them first?

Under contacts we could select a ship, and then we could select an option to send demand.
Would this make sense? I'm hesitant about it cluttering our interfaces.

The method to make this less cluttered would be a new option, like all the others we have grouped together. This new option would be whether or not we want to send demands.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

I like the idea a lot, id say for clutter maybe a new tab on the comms pannel (2) for sending the threat. Maybe a "message current target" tab or something :)

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, i wish it was possible. Hope FD have this in their plans.

Would make piracy a lot better.

"Stand and drop 20t of cargo or be blasted"

Responses:

Elite: "You'll never take me alive scum"

Harmless: "Here! Take everything i have! Just don't kill me!"

[Fix]

Yeah I do like that idea... right now the only alternative to opening fire are Hatch Breaker limpets.

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Responses:

Elite: "You'll never take me alive scum"

Harmless: "Here! Take everything i have! Just don't kill me!"

Or they could even compare the ships/weaponry, to adjust their responses.

Say, if I'm "bullying" a lone Elite T-7 NPC in my Corvette, it better be more accommodating to my demands. Unless I am Mostly Harmless.


It would require some AI work to understand our demands, unless we use specially formatted requests. But it would be nice for NPCs to respond somehow to our communications. :)

[Furry Eskimo]

Glad you think it'd be helpful :)

I'd expect options like the NPCs give. "Drop $X of goods." / "Drop X Tons of cargo."/ etc.

You may get a repuation for your trustwothiness. Do you Really let people go if they comply? If not people will be less likly to do what you ask.

This might mean you need to risk staying in an area and making yourself known within the system.

This might also require NPC's loot to be destroyed or take damage if still in their hold when they're killed. Telling them to drop their loot, then killing them regardless shouldn't be too practical.

The biggest issue would be looting ships for simple cargo and then moving on, making an EASY profit.
I suspect they should have a likliness of compliance. It goes us if you're feared, trustworthy, and aren't asking for much.
This liklihood goes down if you're not well known in the area, aren't trustworthy, or ask for too much.

Oh! And what if the NPCs have a chance to lie. You ask for 20 tons of cargo, but they give you 15. You'd be free to attack them, or leave with what you got, no harm to your stats either way.

Obviously they can't give you more than what they have, so requesting too much will just mean you asked for all their cargo, and they'd say they only have X tons.
The liklihood could be affected by how much you're asking for percent wise. Small ships wouldn't want to give you much, but a big ship doesn't mind dropping a lot, but they're harder to bully. This means the player gets to strategize. Who's worth threatening? Who Can you effectively threaten?

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Responses:

Elite: "You'll never take me alive scum"

Harmless: "Here! Take everything i have! Just don't kill me!"

Or they could even compare the ships/weaponry, to adjust their responses.

Say, if I'm "bullying" a lone Elite T-7 NPC in my Corvette, it better be more accommodating to my demands. Unless I am Mostly Harmless.


It would require some AI work to understand our demands, unless we use specially formatted requests. But it would be nice for NPCs to respond somehow to our communications. :)

Yes, relative ship strengths should be a factor as well, although it does complicate the coding.

[Karmaterrorᵁᴷ]

Maybe they could have an element of rng about it, so every now and then you get a low level pilot that decides hes not putting up with it anymore and shoots anyway.

Also maybe have a chance for them to just run for it and try to jumpout :)

[Furry Eskimo]

ohh, yeah, that's another factor. Do they think they can outrun you.

A formula for deciding this would actually be really simple. There're only a few basic factors to consider.

This AI imprevement might also help with the bounty-hunting AI.
They'd be less likely to attack you over small bounties.

Pirates that stay in a system to become infamous... They'll have larger bounties, so the NPC bounty hunters will be more insentivized to hunt them, instead of the ally bounty hunter that shot them accidentally.

Risk vs Reward.

[Herald_UK]

Very VERY early on before release, there was talk from Frontier that comms to NPCs (not the meme), was going to actually be "a thing". So far hasn't turned up, but I guess that there is time.