When two groups of ships encounter each other, will you be able to tell which are NPC-controlled and which are real players?asked by Sixron
TL;DRChris Roberts says the default is that players can tell NPC from player ships, but he favors immersion and might make it non-obvious, without committing until it is tried and works with the handle system.
That's a good question. I mean, the default is always that you can tell what a player ship is and what an NPC ship is. I think generally, because of the sort of handle situation, you probably will be able to, but we haven't really made a choice yet. I'm actually kind of in favor of immersion, so I think it would be kind of cool if you didn't know whether a ship was an NPC ship or a player ship, but I don't really want to commit one way or the other just yet until we sort of see it and play with it and see kind of how it works, and it also has to work with our handle system. But my goal would be that you would see the universe getting simulated and people going about their business, doing trading runs, police actions, piracy, and potentially it's not obvious, it's not night and day that one's an NPC and one's a player. But like I said, I don't really want to commit one way or the other until I've had a chance to see what it feels like. The default is obviously you would know, but if we could make it more immersive, it would be cool.