Apparently am I. HAL 9000? Yea, never heard of it before. I only know its name now because I searched it in association with AIs (since its what we're talking about). If you were to say Shodan on the other hand... although I don't know if I would want that particular kind of AI in my ship... she's not my cup of tea, ya know? Would be cool to actually meet a derelict mothership with a Shodan kind of AI on it though...
Whatever, the floran AI could be a piranha plant then growing out of the ship who cares? maybe them vines gets up into the wiring, who knows? Its space bro
Just because its a parallel universe doesn't mean everything just happens by random circumstances and / or from pure chaos. There's still rules and certain things are still derived and / or limited by our own concepts and laws. That being said, gravity still exists, mortality still exists, organic functions (breathing and the need for it, for example) still exists, even magic in games usually have a backstory for its origin (it doesn't just sprout out of nowhere) and I'm pretty sure there's dozens of other examples that I can't think of right now. So using the logic that "its magic" or "its space" on me doesn't work... "bro"
2001: A Space Odyssey, great movie, bit old, the start of the movie is hard to get through if you haven't seen it before. Don;t expect a lot of HD action, it's more of a cliffhanger, psychological thriller than anything else. See it this way, you stole/received/bought/found an old damaged ship, a special ship, it has an AI and thereby a personality of its own, it's up to you to find the materials/go questing so that you can help the AI repair/upgrade itself.
Check this out: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/ Many people are speculating that this movie will be a modern reboot of that classic: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0816692/
I think it would be really cool if you had to rescue ship workers. I feel that the generated dungeons are too unrewarding as of now(unless I am missing something, but I only go through them for gun drops). It also sucks when you get to the cell/jail parts and rescue the inhabitants only to be attacked by them. If you could make it have a small chance that the cells hold an AI who will beam to your ship and provide their servitude for rescuing them that would be great. I could go for having a doctor on my ship who heals me instantly so that I don't have to lay down in bed or A ship worker who can provide upgrades if you can provide resources. I think this could provide a great way of accessing the AI and help provide more content to the dungeons.
I totally dig on being able to rescue some of those poor souls but, the whole indentured servitude aspect has always rubbed me the wrong way. it's lazy design and a trope that we've leaned on as a crutch for too long. the same features you describe (good ones by the way) could be performed through various components of the ship automata as upgrades. This would avoid attempting to navigate the fine line between creating interesting, dynamic character who tell a story and Quiet Joe the Manservant, who in the oft chance finds the conviction to communicate with you can only think of three different lines to say.
However, some prisoners are behind the bars for a reason and I wouldn't say "no" in crossing paths with a more treacherous and / or backstabbing type. Definitely not something to be made the norm though. Plus I'm not really sure if all those we rescue have to fall into the "forever in your debt" kind of personality. Not all want to escape from the pan to the fire and serving you, depending on who you are, may be not that much different from serving in prison. Some may have families to return to and places to be - lives to go back to. Perhaps their usefulness may be more so in form of a contact or maybe even information that you may find useful but it doesn't have to be servitude unless we're talking about special NPCs that serve a purpose as part of our crew.
Looks/sounds awesome guys! It gets lonely out there in space. On a side note, you guys are doing a terrific job! While a lot of us are getting impatient with the slower updates, I think most of us know deep down that next time one hits, it's gonna be epic. Please don't be discouraged by all the negativity! It's just immature, entitled children who don't understand how a beta (or game/software development...or a growing, increasingly ambitious, rapidly changing, small company) works.
I like it, then you can pull an EDI and give the A.I. a body as a reward for fully upgrading, a sexy robot body
The Moya <> Pilot idea could be really interesting for progression. As it would encompass Knowledge for you to learn technology from them both and give the ability to have quests related to Organic/BioMechanical Bosses to upgrade your ship from their rare body parts.
I like the Pilot IDEA but, I'm not that attracted to the whole organic ship symbiosis thing. throw in the option to have a cold, dead, soulless machine to familiarize with and I'm sold!
Damn, Mr paperclip would be awesome, sell you ship parts before turning into a bike and riding off into a the sunset.
If you guys do add a special NPC to the ship please please please put some kind of protection on friendly NPCs inside our ships. I've lost to many chefs and doctors to friends who have a "look what this gun" does moment indoors.
