NPC Missions? Ye or Nei?

[Faclan]

While you can just vote and leave it I would appreciate feedback if you have it about this new type o mission;

Now with 9.5 out and chugging along I would like to ask the community how they feel about NPC missions? I'm personally a fan of them because it allows mission planners to try really off the wall stuff (like a deadly ship search) or other kinds of situations that are super dangerous and a lot of people probably wouldn't join because of the super high death rates. Where as for players it could let them try sides they haven't tried before or be able to just go for objectives without worrying about losing a character they have put a lot of thought into. Or, as I'll explain lower, to let people have a real power position in a thread.

The question is as follows, do you like this type of mission? Its ok if you don't I'm just curious. I ask because I believe this as a mission type could help with some things we have right now. Not in the way it is now where everyone is an NPC but where one side (Humans/Covies/Flood/Ducks) are NPCs. For example one of the missions I started on a different Halo RP site (*gasp*) was a mission where it WAS a battle between the UNSC and the Covenant but after a sneaky evacuation the UNSC fell back and the city was then heavily bombed. Supremely weakened the Covenant survivors are now trying to crawl out of the dirt before the UNSC crushes them under foot. This example would be a UNSC PC and Covie NPC mission. Where the Humans can just have fun with Humans being super powerful (ew) and a few alien players if they wanted trying to escape with NPCs that will probably die. Or for a Covie PC and Human NPC there would be another city fight but the Covies just blow up the last UNSC ship as the thread starts. So the Covies have all the time in the world to slowly waltz up to the fortified but fucked Humans and work on clearing them out so they can get to whatever thing they needed to get to. And then of course there are duo NPC missions where everyone can just try new stuff and silly stuff cause its rando NPCs (except Sheep and Mike but I mean...thats Sheep for you(<3)).

On the whole I'm not super a fan of how the two PC forces keep meeting up so this may help with that. And also with only one main side positing there will hopefully be less trouble with people getting stuck waiting for other people to post. Could also help to move the personal stories of people along without other players trying to stop it. And let people have their little character hero moments without others being all 'omg no PP' for example. It would also make the times the PC forces do meet up to be a lot more special instead of us trying to come up with someone every time. Perhaps the NPC missions can even lead up to a meet up as each side uncovers data that leads them to a really important prize.


Just my thoughts on it and I'm open and welcome to hear others thoughts on this as a mission idea!

[MrKill]

I've always been a fan of the idea, but it was declined in the past; in our history - long time ago - people didn't like the idea of controlling NPC characters during a mission because it didn't have any merits or development for a playable character they worked hard on. Controlling NPC Characters might seem boring to a few people (all though perhaps those people aren't here anymore) because there isn't any development for their primary character(s).

There's literally no risk to your playable character when you're controlling a NPC, and writing some random alien/human can open new avenues you'd otherwise be afraid or intimidated to explore - including killing off the playable character.






I've spaced this out because I think it's an important point.






As authors, content-creators, writers; whatever you'd like to call yourself, part of self-improvement is stepping beyond what you're comfortable with. We used to have writing exercises here where we assumed the identity of someone or something else. It forced us to step beyond a comfort zone and explore new avenues, new mentalities, new characters and new situations.

You'll be a better writer, or a better author, when you do step beyond what you're comfortable with and attempt something new.

[roachman34]

I personally agree with you. I like the idea of not having the fear of my character that I worked hard on to create die. And that I can have someone who was meant to die have a spectacular death. Also attributing to the point that you made with information ring found by these NPCs leading to the main fight with the PC forces. That these little high casualty skirmishes can be fun and bring about a story arc that would have had difficulty being explained for our PC armies to know about.

[Faclan]

O:

Thanks for the great responses so far people! I didn't expect to get a response as unanimous for this. But I'll get to work on hashing out some ideas before I put them up for community reading and discussion. But feel free to keep posting here with questions or concerns about the idea of NPC missions .

[BetaWülf]

I think with NPCs we're more likely to contribute a greater deal of realism, since if they die, who cares? It's not like killing off your SPARTAN character that you worked so gruelingly hard to make, it's an NPC that nine times out of ten won't be a recurring character. They're both replaceable and it makes the plot more interesting because you don't know what to expect from your fellow writers. Whereas with our constant characters, we're hardly likely to do any lasting damage to them that isn't workable in some way(A.K.A. we end up emotionally tormenting them).

So I personally like it a lot, because I feel I can give you all something better to read and play off of in turn.