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[Kakroom]

Right now in the vanilla game you run into scavenger fleets on the frontier, I think. I don't think they actually salvage anything yet but it's a nice touch, nonetheless. It reminds you you're not the only one pursuing that course.

Unless this is already a thing and I'm simply unaware of it, right now, you are the only person interested in surveying the frontier and selling the data to the core worlds, even aesthetically. It'd be nice if you occasionally ran into expeditionary fleets full of Ventures in uncharted territory stealing your thunder. 

[Serenitis]

NPCs "stealing" loot is irritating.
Even if you indentify and destroy such an NPC you will have also have destroyed a significantly non-zero amount of any "stolen" loot simply due to how loot drops and salvage works.
I can't emphasise enough how immensly annoying such a feature is.

Having salvage fleets sometimes drop interesting things could work.
But having them actually remove things from the world is a hearty "No thanks".

If you want to see "loot theft" in action, look at Transcendence and it's Salvager Nomads. Brown spheres that provoke immense anger just for existing.

[Megas]

NPCs "stealing" loot is irritating.
...
If you want to see "loot theft" in action, look at Transcendence and it's Salvager Nomads. Brown spheres that provoke immense anger just for existing.

Yes.  Loot stealing is a special crime that compels me (and probably many others) to target the looters above everyone else for extermination as soon as they are found.  Does not matter if they are non-hostile.  If the Indies do that, I probably want to sat bomb their worlds and wipe them off the map.  Only I can loot stuff.

In Transcendence, Salvager Nomads are priority enemy number #1 in the system.  I stop what I do and exterminate them as soon as I see one.  Good thing they do not appear past level 5 systems (Sanctuary).

[Kakroom]

While I personally wouldn't mind such a feature, NPC's stealing your loot isn't really the point of this. Like I said, salvagers don't loot anything. They don't even have any home ports, I don't think. I'd think it equally neat with a surveyor equivalent that you simply ran into out in the wild. The point is that You are less of a special magical boy in the world, and making it feel like it's more of living space.

Plus it'd be fun to gank some innocent land speculators.

[Serenitis]

Okay. Our "thunder" in the context of salvaging is the loot.
If there's no stealing of loot going on, how are these fleets "stealing our thunder"?

I'd think it equally neat with a surveyor equivalent that you simply ran into out in the wild.

These already exist.
Salvage fleets are sometimes generated in a specific system as if they got there before you. And sometimes they get generated from a colony and head out toward some distant place.
They all hang around wrecks and debris fields as if they have some interest in them, and sometimes they will flip thier transponder and attack you if they think they can get away with it.

If all you're after is some window dressing to make things look like the player isn't the "only game in town", then that's already in the game.

[Kakroom]

Okay. Our "thunder" in the context of salvaging is the loot.
If there's no stealing of loot going on, how are these fleets "stealing our thunder"?

I'd think it equally neat with a surveyor equivalent that you simply ran into out in the wild.

These already exist.
Salvage fleets are sometimes generated in a specific system as if they got there before you. And sometimes they get generated from a colony and head out toward some distant place.
They all hang around wrecks and debris fields as if they have some interest in them, and sometimes they will flip thier transponder and attack you if they think they can get away with it.

If all you're after is some window dressing to make things look like the player isn't the "only game in town", then that's already in the game.

I... I explained this in the OP. Yes, random Salvage fleets are great, and yes I'm fine with them just being flavor. It'd be nice if there were a respective spawn for like, a group of Surveyors. People who go out to survey planets, like you do.

[intrinsic_parity]

If there were a system for loot to respawn, then I wouldn't be against AI interacting with said loot, but I agree that AI stealing finite loot is annoying.

[devurandom]

If there were a system for loot to respawn, then I wouldn't be against AI interacting with said loot, but I agree that AI stealing finite loot is annoying.

What if independents could loot the dynamic debris fields spawned by NPC battles? e.g. Hegemony and TT have a big fight, scavengers show up a day later.

[Megas]

If there were a system for loot to respawn, then I wouldn't be against AI interacting with said loot, but I agree that AI stealing finite loot is annoying.

What if independents could loot the dynamic debris fields spawned by NPC battles? e.g. Hegemony and TT have a big fight, scavengers show up a day later.

It is a timed drop as done in so many games.  If no one takes it quickly, it disappears soon enough.  No point getting angry at the game master.

[sector_terror]

What's the difference between a random fleet being called "salavagers" and also doing survey work, and having two different fleets with different names doing exactly the same thing with different choices in location? I fail to see the use here. this isn't some cheap nothing it's making an entirely new fleet spawn with unique AI behaviors just for the name. Pass

[Kakroom]

What's the difference between a random fleet being called "salavagers" and also doing survey work, and having two different fleets with different names doing exactly the same thing with different choices in location? I fail to see the use here. this isn't some cheap nothing it's making an entirely new fleet spawn with unique AI behaviors just for the name. Pass

Yeah, to be fair even the player generally isn't a pure surveyor. I guess you could always headcanon that the primary population responsible for conducting surveys happens to be independent scavengers.

If there were a system for loot to respawn, then I wouldn't be against AI interacting with said loot, but I agree that AI stealing finite loot is annoying.

What if independents could loot the dynamic debris fields spawned by NPC battles? e.g. Hegemony and TT have a big fight, scavengers show up a day later.

Nexerelin actually does this with "vulture" scavengers. It's great for that mod, but then again I think that's primarily because without it in Nexerelin entire fields of derelict capitals are lying about from one raid or invasion or another.