Interaction between NPC's and You!

[kyokei]

So, this is completely half stolen from Windward.

Would it be possible to get NPC's to communicate with you when they pass by you.
My idea would be either with sound files or chat messages.

So in Windward what happens is that when you pass an ally ship they greet you and sometimes give you hints (trading hints). This is achieved by small chat bubbles.
This gives the game a feeling that the game universe is also active with you.

In VE I would think that sound files would work the best but this would be quite difficult. Chat bubbles would be easier but in my eyes wouldn't do the game any good (although it would add some visual things to the game).

My suggestion is to make like a graphical icon shown at the ship (like frequency wave, a communication icon) and then display the text of the NPC in the chat window.
As for tips going, this could be looked at if the trading gets overhauled/improved. Having traders or miners give you tips with for example at which station food sells the most would be cool.
Looking even further, if you think of smuggling, then possibly Faction guard ships could hail you and question you. If they discover you have contraband then they could arrest/fine you or if you resist attack you.

Adding interaction between NPC's and the players would add flair to the game.

[jjs026]

I like this alot. Sometimes just for the immersion in the game, I would help out a fellow merchant in distress and kill his pirate attackers. But they just drive off like nothing happened...

This would be a good show of appreciation, like "Hey I can't give you anything, but I know food is super cheap on Ganges VII in the Torpal system right now" or "Thanks for the help, here's a tip! Polymer is selling hot on Unity III right now!"

I like it! Good idea!

[RedPill]

This seems cool, would definitely add more life to the star systems.

[TinFoilMkIV]

You wouldn't even need to use the chat function for npcs in my opinion. We have built in functionality for communicating with other npc ships, it's just that they don't really do anything for you at the moment besides emergency refueling. I'd say go with the radio signal icon/symbol over a ship trying to communicate with you and use 'f' to talk to them and just add an extra dialogue option at the top for npcs when they have something special to say.

It would be nice to also add some kind of ping on the radar when an npc wants to contact you and have the option to have them do the same to call for help when being attacked. Would also potentially open the option to have random wandering npcs offer side quests and such more easily.