Increase NPC spawn rate, decrease fleets

[Holm Hansen 74]

As far i have seen it was better on the test server with the bot distribution. Eeven though, i could only evaluate it there in a small area.

The question is, when we get it on the live server. Because unfortunately, the tests have now been summarized with the new damage model, which seems to be a larger project. 

... and mixed fleets I miss anyway ...

[Barbancourt 798]

1 hour ago, Hethwill said:

There are a few, but not too many, agreed, albeit a 1:2 odds doesn't need a group. Kill missions are okay'ish for solo fast sail and battle.

But yeah, 100% agree, not every player sees the game the same way.

AI fleets could scale with the size of the player group the same way they do with missions, and perhaps whether it scales with player count or not could be attacker's choice after the tag? The same AI fleets could serve both small and large groups in that way. 

Edited February 11 by Barbancourt

[Jan van Santen 191]

We get hints where to find ai of the needed type in the mission text.

I have 4 missions telling me I find Pavel, Bellona, 3rd rank and Wasa at Hispaniola.

I have an OP there and yesterday I sailed cargo all the way from Spanish Town to Port Paix, thus along the Northern coast of Hispaniola (PvE)

Not a single of the mentioned ships other than in fleets of 5 to 12, thus counting for the ai total, but de facto not available for attack under the conditions of PvE server. Particularly now that we dont have mixed fleets anymore.

 

I have played on PvE server when there were 500 players online and cant remember a single post or chat  about lack of ai....

[Holm Hansen 74]

24 minutes ago, Jan van Santen said:

... and cant remember a single post or chat  about lack of ai....

Right.

 

Now in various threads and in chat almost every day.

 ... but there are people who think that's rumors.

Even if there are "secret tips" where AI still shows up, the the ai distribution should not be like this. ... and was not, until recently

 

 

[Nelson Hornblower 63]

I noticed this playing on the PvP server, I left my OP and didn't see any NPCs for about 5 minutes, finally came across a Surprise +1 and since I have the sink 9 Surprises mission, I thought I might as well go for it, plus no other ships were around. We battle, I sink both ships and when I come out, the world is alive with NPCs. Which got me thinking, do the AI bots react to the world environment; whereas if I just sail from coast to coast, there will be a minimal number of bots, but if I engage one NPCs, more AI then appear? 

[Hethwill 11,129]

They have their own sailing routines. Devs even posted a example screenshot a while ago.