Non-Player Characters (NPCs) represent the masses of the galaxy. These are the soldiers that support our heroes in battle and the workers that build our homes.

Tutorial NPCs exist to help you. They provide different kinds of explanations about your environment in the combine. They can also be hired to provide help around your faction's starting location.

A military NPC is the fighting force of any army. They are much stronger than Civil NPCs.

Static NPCs are there to bring more life to the universe and to assist new players. They may be created anywhere a player can go. All Static NPCs have the ability to converse with players using a short pre-defined script. The supervisor of the NPC may add them to their party and move them about at will. Custom NPCs can represent anyone you wish, such as:

• Guards, bridge officers, deck officers, etc
• Barman in your tavern, secretary in your office, anyone working for you or your group
• Your wife, husband, brother, sister, mistress, friend, or enemy
• Any Joe Bloggs you want to see or want other players to see

Static NPCs come in three types:

• Tutorial: An NPC that teaches new players about the universe
• Conversation: NPCs that exist to add colour to the universe. They could be a shuttle pilot, local politician, drunken bum and so on
• Custom: NPCs whose name, race, scripts, and images can be defined by their owner

Custom NPCs can be created on the Exchange CPs page, at a cost of 500 CPs each. You must be in a Workers Compound to create a Custom NPC. Custom NPCs will not spawn until approved by the NPC Team. See Exchange CPs Page for full requirements.

NPCs present various characteristics, here are the main ones:

• A race, randomly generated upon hiring (see section about hiring)
• A name, defined by the creator or randomly generated (Handle rules for NPCs are the same as for PCs - located on the Character Creation rules)
• A gender, defined by the creator
• A description, defined by the owner/manager
• A script that it uses to converse with players (only custom NPCs may have their script edited by the owner/manager)
• An image of size 100x100, defined by the owner/manager (only custom NPCs may have their picture edited by the owner/manager)
• Health Points (HP), using the same system as characters (see Life and Death)
• Experience Points (XP)

Additionally, like characters, all NPCs have skills. The skills they have upon creation depend on 2 factors: the class of NPC and its race. NPCs start with 10 skillpoints (SP), all allocated appropriately over skills useful to each NPC type where possible. e.g. Melee Combat Troopers, Riflemen, and Heavy Weapon Specialists receive skills useful for combat, Pilots receive skills useful for piloting, repairmen receive skills useful for repairing, etc. The starting skills for each NPC are created from the combination of the NPC class skills and the race bonus skills, with any overlap in skills returned as unused skill points that may be freely assigned. NPCs that have no implemented roles or skills receive a default allocation suitable for civilian non-combat NPCs.

NPCs gain 1 skill point per level and are capped at level 10.

There is a random chance that the NPC hired will be of level 1, level 2, or level 3. NPCs hired at level 2 will have 1 unallocated skill point and 1,000 XP, and NPCs hired at level 3 will have 2 unallocated skill points and 3,000 XP. These unallocated skill points count towards the 9 skill points they can gain from XP leveling to 10.

Any NPC supervisor, commander, or owner can upgrade the skills of his NPCs by assigning the unallocated skill points from the Inventory screen.

To purchase an NPC of a certain type (E.G. Pilot), the character must be inside a facility or space station that generates NPCs of that type. The character only needs to have access to the facility or station. Once inside, the character can access the NPC Hiring Menu through the Room Travel->Action page. The character is then given a list of NPC types that he can hire at that location. He may input the number of each type he desires to hire, the gender, and whether it's for him or his faction. A character must have NPC level 4 privileges to purchase NPCs for his faction.

Upon clicking purchase a confirmation page will display listing all the NPC types the character selected to purchase along with amounts, costs, discount based on the character's diplomatic skill, and the overall number and cost. The player then clicks the submit button and completes the transaction. NPCs will automatically be added to the player's party as long as the party is not full, once the party is full the NPCs will just be created normally in the same room.

The race of each NPC is based on the planet where hiring and on the restrictions linked to the race. When hiring on a homeworld, there is 90% chance to get a NPC from the native race. In all other cases, the race will be randomly selected. Stormtroopers are human by default.

Like characters, NPCs have one information text field that their manager, supervisor, or owner can edit. This text field can be used to display a job title, military rank, or other honorific distinction.

Similarly, NPC pictures can be changed. A range of possibilities, based on the NPC race is proposed. Additionally, each faction can propose custom pictures to be uploaded on the server. These pictures are then added to the available selection for the concerned faction. Each submitted picture must correspond to a given race, be 100x100 pixel in size, and under 7KB. Submissions are accepted in the Art Team Public forum. Note that when a NPC with a custom faction specific picture is made over to a third party, then the picture is automatically reset to a standard generic image.