TL;DR: PlanetSide 2 should have aliens that aren't allied with anyone! Brace yourselves, because this is either a huge idea or a small one, something that could completely alter the nature of the gameplay or just add a touch of atmosphere. Condensed, the idea is this: introduce NPCs into the world of Auraxis, namely in the form of biological lifeforms that are not allied with any of the factions. This is a very broad statement, and could mean almost anything. The primary reason I'm starting a thread on this is to just get a conversation started on the idea and what it could mean; I don't mean to say only this certain thing has to happen in this way for this reason. But, I am not so humble that I will not present my own ideas, so without further delay... Option 1: Harmless crittersIn a nutshell; populate the continents of Auraxia with harmless wildlife. Something like gazelles or antelope, or perhaps the occasional rabbit. Think of them like the role played by Elk in Skyrim: they don't attack the player, but they do graze on the grass and prance about in the wilderness.The primary role these creatures would serve is to provide the continents with a sense of atmosphere. At the back of my mind, I was always bugged by the fact that the only living things in the game outside of trees and grass are the players. This would help make the planet not feel so lifeless and sterile.Of course, since these creatures are just here for show, they shouldn't be given high priority as gameplay elements, so their AI shouldn't be very sophisticated, they don't need to have a great variety of character models, and their animations need not be especially elaborate. They could even be completely removed from regions of the game when large battles take place, to improve performance. But when they are present, players could watch critters bound around the open fields, or turn them into roadkill.Option 2: Hostile SquattersEver wonder what happens to the bases right outside your warpgate? The bases that see the least amount of action because battles are often being waged elsewhere on a continent? Well, what if slowly over time, nasty, bug-eyed monsters came to infest a base while nobody is home?When I say "infest" I don't mean slimy muck covers the walls like in the movie Aliens or Natural Selection 2, I just mean some hostile enemies wander into a base and just sit there. Maybe some of them lay down and sleep, maybe others patrol around a location hunting for prey like other players or the creatures mentioned in Option 1. These should not be intelligent creatures with tools and guns, just carnivorous beasts that are wolf-like in nature but not in shape.But unlike the critters in Option 1, these creatures would have a more gameplay-oriented focus. Namely, they would combat against the zerging around many players and outfits often engage in. Sneaking into a base on a sparsely-populated continent or region, and capturing the territory while meeting no resistance is a problem many on this forum have talked about, and these neutral squatters would help address that issue.Sneaky attackers would have to stay on their toes when marching into a base they know has been dormant for a long time, and defenders gain the benefit of not so easily loosing a huge swath of territory just because a few sneaky players broke off from their empire's main forces and captured a bunch of empty bases.Granted, the primary idea here is that the neutral aliens should not be very powerful. They shouldn't be complete pushovers, but they should be enough of a threat that 3-4 can easily overwhelm a single lonely soldier... although it's possible some could be stronger and tougher than others. Option 3: A 4th Faction... Kind OfIn addition to fighting against the forces of two opposing empires, each empire must defend themselves against an army of vicious but primitive monsters that patrol the landscape randomly in groups large and small. Essentially, this is taking the idea of the creatures from Option 2 and making them free-ranging critters. Ideally, these creatures would NOT pose a threat to captured territory or be able to take territory of their own, nor would they appear in huge numbers around the entire landscape, but they would pose a threat to troops deployed in the field.Imagine this: The TR decide they don't want the VS to have an Amp Station on Esamir anymore, so they load up into a bunch of tanks and drive out to retake the base. Suddenly, the TR forces are apprehended by a giant enemy crab (pat yourself on the back if you get the reference) that stomps over to the armor column and promptly crushes a Prowler with a smash of its mighty claw. The TR retaliate against the biolab-spawnbuilding-sized armored crustacean with a volley of cannon fire and liberator bombardments. After a few minutes, the great beast is slain, and the TR armor column carries on to their destination, slightly battered from the attack but standing victorious and grinning with the reward of some extra XP.The scenario doesn't have to play out exactly like that. It doesn't have to be a single giant enemy crab. It could be two or three giant crabs, or dozens of little ones, or a blend of the two sizes, or a completely different kind of creature altogether... perhaps something that the huge ribcages littered on Indar's northern region belong to?The point of these big (or small) nasty creatures is to ensure that nowhere is completely safe from attack, outside of a Warpgate, and to make it so that players have more to worry about than just other players. Ideally, these creatures should spawn randomly to avoid players hunting them for XP and like the creatures in Option 2 they should not be quite so powerful that they can easily overpower a squad of 12 using even some degree of communication.Admittedly, this last option introduces a lot more chaos into the game's sandbox, which would make commanding even more difficult. It's also probably a lot more game elements than PlanetSide 2 is capable of providing, and it may not be until the release of PlanetSide 3 that such a thing can be realized. Ultimately, all these options aretrying to address the an (admittedly minor) issue of PlanetSide 2's environment: it is very stale and lifeless. Battlefield has destructible environments, Halo's maps are filled with movable crates and rocks and opening and closing doors, and Call of Duty's environments are littered with trash cans and boxes of paper and electric vents that all pop and explode in lovely particle effects when shot at and walls you can shoot through... but PlanetSide 2's environments are essentially static geometry with different textures and not so much as a bird in the air. Auraxia is a beautiful planet with great sunsets, lovely night skies complete with occasional "northern lights", and it all serves as a great pallet for epic battles... but on its own, the environment is very lifeless and very uninteresting to explore. I understand the primary focus of this game should be on PvP large-scale combat, and PlanetSide 2 excels in delivering that, but I feel this game has the potential for so much more. Let me know what you think.
Yes, please add NPCs to a game that is not yet fully optimized and has render problems. I can't imagine anything more fun than having my performance drop even more, or better yet being killed by bots that have not even rendered for me. I can understand NPCs/monsters in online RPGs, but the reason why I play online FPS games is so I don't face bots.
lol ok, ok, point taken. I totally agree that right now, PlanetSide 2 has some much bigger issues that need to be resolved before anything like this gets implemented, and even then maybe PlanetSide 2 simply isn't the best place for it. I don't believe my ideas are perfect, or maybe even practical, but I do want to know what people think of them.
I like the sounds of this. Different creatures encountered based on the planet. Maybe it would be too much of a strain for systems and hog a lot of bandwidth when there are a lot of people online.
AFAIK NPCs were planned but scrapped due to some issues Ill do some digging and will edit it in, or post later depending how long it takes. As good of an idea as it may be (the ability to draw in the players who aren't PvP centric and want some PvE) its a big tax on a system like this... EDIT: - http://www.pcgamesn.com/planetside/...inents-and-npc-armies-all-under-consideration Hows that for info?
*see a random animal and shoots it and cuts it open and hides inside the carcass and waits for a tank to pass by*
no to "permanent" npc systems i wouldnt mind one day a month (or even better one day every 3 months) where aliens come and attack or something but thats about it i dont like the idea of NPC's getting in the way of my daily planetary war
Very interesting information in that link there! And yes, I totally agree that any of these implementations would be a pretty big tax on computer performance as well as the ability of players to control their playstyle. But according to your link, SOE has plans to continue supporting and improving and changing this game for several years, which is a lot more than I can say for many online shooters which are more often than not abandoned after little more than one year has passed. That gives me hope not just for this game but for the idea that maybe one day we'll see something like aliens in PlanetSide 2!
@op and no,if that ever happened,90% of the player base would quit,there is no need for that,thats a stupid idea.
SOE already did that in PS1, and on a scale of FUs, adding aliens ranked higher them the addition of BFRs
Colossus earth worms that can swallow vehicles!!! Super fast bipedal alien with razor claws, giant flying bugs to put down some libs.... I think it's hilarious get swarmed by aliens, fun.
