All,

I was wondering if the probability for certain NPCs is changing if mission npc's no longer appear or if this has no impact on it at all.
Specifically I still have the mission "Decrypting the Vault" open with the NPC "Rogue Data Analyzer" spawning regularly as a common. If I finish this mission, does that mean I have then a higher percentage change to find T-O Troop carriers (drop Terraformers) or does that stay the same?
If it changes then I would finish the mission, otherwise am happy to keep it for the good nrg/xp ratio of the Rogue Data Analyzers.

Does anyone know this detail of game mechanics?

Thx for help.

yes, it would help but that mission takes an enormous effort to finish and the npc is actually a good xp return later on when you get mostly flamehawks.
and the change wouldnt even be noticeable.
if theres X amount of npcs that CAN spawn ( lets say 20)
and your removing one, then its a tiny bit better chance.

Yeah, I'm thinking of getting rid of them soon too, to increase the chance of other NPCs.

Are we so sure it woud increase the chance? I could see two ways that NPC's get selected:

ALL NPC's have their own chance to occur, so like, a 12% chance of a Stryll Assassin. This seems unlikely to me, as every single time Dan added an NPC, he'd have to totally readjust all their percentages. On the other hand, this might be why new NPC's come out slower than molasses

My guess for how it's done though is that each *category* has its own percentage roll, so like, 70% chance of common, 20 % of uncommon, etc. (these numbers are TOTALLY MADE UP, by the way, don't quote me on them) Once the category's picked, the game selects a member of the class at random, and that's what you're fighting. There might still be weighting inside the class, to account for the fact that some seem rarer than others. In any case, if Dan added a new NPC, he'd only have to adjust the weights within the class, not the entire set.

In any case, if the selection method is the second one, getting rid of Data Analyzers wouldn't help find more troop carriers, just more Tech Collectors, Flamehawks, and Assassins.

err... it's probably more like this:
A: each NPC is assigned a weight
B1: the system picks a NPC at random with weighted probability (for each NPC, it's the weight of that NPC divided the total weight of all visible NPCs)
B2: the system determines a rareness category(common, rare etc) first, then select a NPC at random within that category using the weighted probability

There is no way that each NPC is given a static probability, cause ppl have different NPC pools due to scan power, rank and mission status.

You guys haven't thought it through; he'd have that same problem either way. Even if it selects a category first, what happens when he adds a common, he changes the rate of all the commons? And what about when you unlock a new NPC? Either way, he would probably assign each NPC a number, and the NPC that spawns is based on a random number and the range. Thus, Dan can simply set the relative rarity of each new NPC, rather than a static percentage. I believe something Binary Man posted a while back suggested that getting rid of commons would increase the chance of better NPCs; he certainly believed it did, and had the best sample sets.

Example:
You can see the Crimson Hawk, Fab Plant, and Silthion Queen
Crimson Hawk = 10
Fab Plant = 5
Silthion Queen = 2

The system generates a random number up to 17 (10 + 5 + 2) and let's say it comes up with 16. 16 is greater than 10, so the Hawk is skipped over and the number is reduced to 6. 6 is still greater than 5, so the Fab Plant is skipped over and the number is reduced to 1. 1 is less than 2, so the Silthion Queen is chosen. Doing this, you could easily give each NPC a relative weight.

Continue Example:
You unlock the Rogue Data Analyzer = 10

Now a number is chosen up to 27, and 18-27 yield the Data Analyzer. This gives the Data Analyzer the same probability as the Crimson Hawk while diluting the pool of the rarer Fab Plant and Silthion Queen. The NPCs get their rarity title based on their number, with each range representing a title (8-12 = Common, 2-5 = Extremely Rare, etc.).