Thanks Flatfingers, that looks like real expertise! It also looks like it'll make one hell of a game.

How about somehow infiltrating competitors' research and production for spying/sabotaging?
And constructing static defenses in a star system?

Flatfingers wrote: [...]

Well, I was hoping to have a productive day today, but I guess that's not likely to happen. It's already 4:30 PM and I haven't eaten or drunk anything save for a banana. The articles you wrote about tactical/operational/strategic level gameplay should be of immense help for me, since I've been trying to classify my thoughts for an upcoming suggestion on business management into tactical, operational and strategic levels of play, but without having an entirely clear idea of what these three things mean.

There are some nice and very useful ideas here. Really enjoyed reading, but I have somewhat different look at this issue, so let me add to this my 2 cents how I view the whole procedural NPC behavior. Maybe someone find it interesting.

I would like to propose an idea that all complex NPC actions (including, but not limited to fleet operation, tactic and strategy) are emergent properties, based on core NPC behaviors, preset in some procedural or “hard-coded” fashion.

Single Non Playing Character is a core entity with the set of rules of behavior, defined procedurally, but based on some social theories we have so far.

NPC behaviors and resulted causes are based on core set of rules associated to that race/entity/group. All stem from this.

NPC feet tactics is a subset of general NPC behavior. When certain complexity is achieved, some already mentioned additional rules could be applied (mainly to cut cost and ease on CPU time).

NPC complex emergent behavior could be influenced and radically changed by broad and all-pervasive “behaviors” of “higher entities” such as: Corporations, Empires, Religious/Ideological organizations, Guilds, Race's innate inclinations or “Deep Secret, beyond players understanding”.

As you see, it's a "low-level" stuff and the main theme here is “emergent property or new quality of the system”. There is a lot more about this, but I don't want to be boring.

Just something to think about:)

I think you might see some unexpected emergent fleet types,
Like merchant marines paired with large cargo vessels,
bands of pirates outifited with ship captureing weapons,
fleets of refuges fleeing from beseged plannets/stations.

Linking this, as it's relevant. combat gameplay discussion thread