Let's leave the NPCs to the Tyranids. They'll SUPPOSEDLY be on the world map and threaten stuff...maybe. I don't know how angry I'd be if my Imperial Guard were turned into fucking bots. OF COURSE that is a topic for another time. As for me, I would vote either Shield or Health damage. NPCs need to have a legitimate reason to be there and pose an actual threat. If I wanted NPCs to be reinforcements, I'd want them to actually do something rather than just be farmed for XP and taking up server load/resources by simply being there. Make them a threat.
This argument is for NON-NPC units to be in the game, and while I can understand that in order for armies like IG to be in the game this may also apply to them, but as in extra player controlled characters, NOT NPC controlled. Also the argument is from a Tau perspective. Better to see a IG squad roll over the hill in groups of 3-4 under one play control then to see 1 player per player controlled, either that or IG will have to out number the enemy nearly 5 to 1 in every game. Ok, well I know as a Tau player, I WILL demand Drones, they are the sacrificial fighting force for Tau, they also carry things onto the battle field that help augment units so they can be more multi-role. While they are "extras" they should NOT be I say again NOT be NPC's, they should fallow the character that bought them with points and shoot(if possible) at the SAME target as the controlling player, this would not only allow the more fine tuning for balance(weak pathfinder armor off set by Grav-drone for anti melee), BUT also for adding on more ability to the Tau poor weapon option lists. Just so we are clear, drones are not NPCs they are player controlled and while things like "gun drones" would effectively add 2 more pulse carbines to a single Firewarrior, it could be also that it takes ALL his requisition points to have the extra fire power(albe it at BS2 Twinlinked they cant really hit much of any thing at range) With out drones this is what units look like, from largest impact to little no impact. Sniper Drone team, no drones snipers, then no Tau snipers. (only Kroot with sniper upgrade) Pathfinders, no drones means no Grav-drone to slow assaults, no Pulse accelerator drone to help range(really 6" isn't much in a FPS) and Recon Drone or the "smallest" way to get a burst cannon in a ground unit(even though id have to say the recon drone should be a solo player controlled act not part of a squad with a pathfinder) Tanks, all can come with two drones as deployable options, these should act like guns that will rotate around the tank to provide fire were the controller is aiming, but at BS2 they suck and more like anti-assault units. Fire warriors/xv15-25 stealth suits, no Marker drones, no shield drones, no technical drones(taros campaign) while they only get two so not much loss here. Normaly XV8-9-104/7/9 get the option of two per player, there the least impacted by the loss of drones, they buy them self are still a capable fighting machine easily able to put out twice as much fire power as a Terminator, so the loss of Drones for suits is not that bad. I know there are a lot of people that will disagree, that they are still using up game resources and have no place, but at the same time, the same argument can be said about drop pods, tarantula turrets, servitors, and unmanned tanks, ect ect.. Short list of drones, to point just how many there really are. Basic drones, Gun drone- Carries two pulse carbines high rate of fire, crappy accuracy Shield drone- cappible of shrugging off the most powerfull shot 50% of the time Marker drone- can raise the BS of a unit by 1, or be used to launch Seeker missile strikes Missile drone- Anti light armor weapon, think Auto cannon with crappier BS Role specific drones, Technical drone- the DX-4 is the ONLY medic ability Tau have, but they can be fitted for any job. Grav drone-used to slow enemy assaults Pulse accelerator drone-used for enhancing pulse weapon range. Recon drone.- has a recon beacon and positional relay for drop troops along with a burst cannon Hover drone-used by Etherals to keep up with there faster troops Guardian drone(even thou its a "basic" its still class specific) used to enhance invul saves for breachers DS8 tactical support turret(not a "hovering" drone but still a drone)used to augment fire teams fire power Attack/defence Drones, Heavy marker drone- equipped with a marker light and burst cannnon Heavy gun drone- has twin linked burst cannon Drone sentry (like the DS8) can be used for base defence with heavier twinlinked weapon options DX-6 'Remora' Drone fighters, has long barreled burst cannons and two seeker missiles. There are more Drone options for any number of positions then there are core units, to not include them just cause they take up resources, that's like not letting people use XV8... OR riptides, OR Broadsides....its just not Tau with out them.
I saw that their state of the game today for Feb 16th said 100 player battles for big zones/fortresses or some nonsense. Did they actually say there would be ones BIGGER than that in any given instance? You're going to need a godly computer rig if that's the case... Only 1% of the 1st world population will be able to run the game. :|
No, there are games right now that pit 500 vs 500 just browse youtube for proof(im to lazy), now the quality of said games is vary limited in both depth, fun, map design, and graphics, the more you have to render the more its going to slow peoples computers down, which for some ungodly reason means other people have to suffer in FPS with a high pingers. I hope that it will be like PS2 in that reguard, crappy computer, lagging when things get messy, then your the only one that will suffer a high ping. rest of us will happly run around and nuke people. Also, my computer was only $1200 and I was running BF4 with 200-220 FPS and a 32ms, with ONLT a GTX 680, games now a days require people to have large everything, but most certainly not top shelf everything. BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/17/13 19:05:02 Ver: 10.07 Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.5GHz Memory: 16384MB RAM Available OS Memory: 16322MB RAM Page File: 2745MB used, 29898MB available DirectX Version: DirectX 11 ------- Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 Manufacturer: NVIDIA Chip type: GeForce GTX 680 DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1180&SUBSYS_0969196E&REV_A1 Display Memory: 4038 MB Dedicated Memory: 1990 MB Shared Memory: 2048 MB All off a 500gig Evo SSD With Xfinidty 100mps Busyness class internet Sure I have to swap games in and out, but really why have more then 10 games on my computer at a time, its not like im going to be playing them all. To tell you the truth, you can just about make a "xbox 1" with all the hardware but for cheaper if you down bog it down with all that junk media software BS, if you go custom job and ignore all the "off the self" premades.
I think that something like this could be a really good idea for the game, imagine lets say a 6v6 match space marines v choas match where there will be continuously spawning imperial guard vs cultist and the players fight with them to control points across a map
i think its not what dev want in scale... everyboudy will stay in those PVP instances ignoring main battlefield
PvP > Having to fight any form of an NPC. It's rewarding to know you defeated another player in whatever circumstance, getting the better of another living being in the game and some measure of each others skill being put against each other. An NPC is just hard-coded and reacts to specifics circumstances in a specific countermeasure. That's not very rewarding once you've learned how to handle them.
To give fair due, the only reason you have a chance against an npc is because is because they're programmed with handicaps to be beatable. But yes, with the current way we play games pvp is probably more rewarding, I'm agreeing with you.
Just some food for thought here, but 40k Space Marine had the Exterminatus gamemode where if you were on the Chaos one it confortably had 20-30 Guardsmen against 20-30 Orks, and even my friend with a pretty terrible computer could comfortably play on 50 frames. In regards to system resources, I understand the argument that it takes the effort to add these said NPC characters into the game, but surely it would be possible, as has been proven in Space Marine? Example - Current gameplay style is 20v20 standard as i've gathered (feel free to correct me), and on my computer (granted I have great specs) sees me with the usual 60 frames. After all optimizations have been implemented to add a potential reoccurring wave of guardsmen/ork boyz of say 10 each way attacking each other down the middle doesn't seem that far-fetched does it? Another potential application is using them as base guards and everyone has been saying how turrets makes more sense. However what if you had a system similar (bare with me) to minecraft spawners? (For those that don't know they work by not spawning entities until somebody gets within a certain area. The idea here being the bases cannot be capped by a lone crazyman unguarded whilst being cooler and certainly more realistic than turrets, whilst only draining resources when necessary? I mean every if you had NPCs everywhere all over the game world, so long as nobody is there to see them it wouldn't matter if they were there or not. I agree with the idea that you should keep NPC combat away from the frontlines as ultimately they'll serve no purpose other than irritants, as all the work will be done by players. Idk, just thinking aloud, as I would love to see some 40k Space Marine style guardsmen running about to protect your interests
