Whats the word on npcs and their roles? Merely hub points for trade etc.?
- There are several NPC races (we don't know how many). Every one has a different standing with each other. Some will be at full-on war with each other. If you kill loads of a certain race, that race will dislike you and aggro you - while the races they're at war with will like you and help you out. You can play politics and the 'war economy'
- You can trade with NPCs on space stations and on planet-side settlements. You can trade for resources, materials, weapons, upgrades and schematics.
- To speak with NPCs successfully, you need to learn their language. This comes from reading 'Monoliths' on planets where they live - that is, reading their cultural writings. You might learn a word or two from each one, and these words will crop up in the NPC's dialogue. You can work out other words from context and keep notice
- If you say the wrong thing or try to speak a language you don't know, you can damage your standing with that race
- It's not officially confirmed, but we're 90% sure that you can 'hire' members of friendly NPC races as wing men. We don't know if there's an upper limit. You might be able to assemble a fleet of NPCs as wingmen and assault larger space stations.
- You can kill and rob NPCs of money/resources/schematics. You can blow up their ships like a pirate, or assault their on-planet bases. You can also hack into on-planet bases, like using stealth. Obviously these activities will aggro the race and lower your standing with them
- Certain resources/items will be more valuable with particular races. From recent trailers we saw items which are mainly valuable for electronic lifeforms. Could be items like this would be worth a lot more to a sentient robot, for example.