This week’s update is going to further discuss changes to the Nexus. It’s also going to detail a few new features for auto-started missions and a new type of AI!
One of the big things I’ve done this past week is adding a new AI type known as ‘Ally’. An Ally has a few unique features that make it extremely different to any other AI types we currently have. First, Allies will never attack a player or player owned property. This means even if you shoot them, they’ll not fire back. Secondly, Allies will prioritize attacking other AI that have been attacking players. Finally, Allies can be set as non-attackable by players. All three of these features make this new AI type extremely friendly for low level players and it’s seeing a fair bit of use in the new Nexus changes.
For examples, consider Whiskey Outpost. I’ve changed the spawners there so the AI that help the player fight the opposing faction are now Allies. This means you no longer have an accidental shooting of the players ‘team’ leading to all the AI turning on them. It also means the the AI that help the player better prioritize attacking the enemy instead of docking or being otherwise useless. For a second example, I’ve added an ally spawner to Ur Ziq Bana. I know many players have complained about the difficulty of the missions in that galaxy. Now, when you enter, if you have the mission Zobitan himself spawns to assist you! Not only does it greatly reduce the difficulty but it feels appropriately epic! This new AI type is extremely useful and will definitely be seen in other mission content or boss fights.
Since I am talking about Ur Ziq Bana, it might be obvious that I have completed streamlining the Cadet side of the Nexus. Less than half the mission require docking to complete them now, and the ones that do are mainly focused on training skills or receiving and equipping items. Overall, the entire Cadet side of the Nexus flows a lot more smoothly and guides players galaxy to galaxy instead of always forcing them to go back to base between missions. I think when we have it available for play testing everyone will agree it’s a much quicker and overall more friendly experience.
Other than that, I’ve put a bit of work on making the pop-up dialogs for missions a bit more exciting. Missions that automatically start now have a customized dialog with a few new features! The mission agent portrait will ‘flick on’ similar to an old television. The text for the mission will ‘type out’ as if you are receiving a text transmission and we now display the mission agent’s name! These new additions might not seem like that big a deal, but the help with the immersion quite a bit.
In addition to this change, I’ve pared down a lot of the mission text in the Nexus so it’s more succinct and readable. As much as I love the story aspect of doing missions, having to read a daunting wall of text every few minutes is kind of annoying and definitely detracts from the new-player experience. Instead we’ve placed an increased emphasis on the summary text to make sure new players know what they need to be doing and how to do it!
So that’s it for this week’s update. Expect to see me again next week with another update detailing some more Nexus changes as I’m ready to start work on the Pirate side! As always, questions, comments and suggestions can be directed to the forums!
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