Crews for ships…

[Das_Rohanis]

Has there ever been any consideration to the concept of developing/skilling up crew members for ships depending on size or fits? Seems like an avenue worth exlploring. Seems odd that there is no concept of a captain (you) and crew (basically hired help that your train and lose when you lose the ship) for larger ships, specialized ships, etc.

[Aiko_Danuja]

I just ignore the crew.

[Alice_Saki]

Exotic Dancers, Male - EVE Online Reference

[Geo_Eclipse_Oksaras]

There are crew members on board

[Destiny_Corrupted]

@Aiko_Danuja

I just ignore the crew.

It’s Jerry’s birthday today.

[Rail_J_kar]

Hey! I made a post about this. Well, it was embedded in the discussion about a space based rts (which I suggested for the purposes of making pve style gameplay more dynamic) … but the section about crew applies to the thread.

Continuing the discussion from Space Commander:

@Rail_J_kar

3. … the player will receive a handful of officers, basic crew with no stats (think of those marine or militant items we have in game currently,) …
4. New officers could be created from basic crew when enough experience has been accrued.

5. The mechanics surrounding the handling of officers will be something like this screen shot I’ve stolen out of a BattleTech gameplay video. These officers have traits which will provide different effects to the ships they are stationed on, and those ships will have requirements for the officers which are commanding those ships. (A rookie ship wouldn’t have any requirements, while a battlecruiser would be much more demanding.)
6. A minimum of a 1 month contract will be signed for an officers employment, (that payment will be paid by the tutorial npc during the npe for the first batch of officers the player receives.)
7. … an officer market place would be required to sort through the available candidates from a local and global pool of applicants. (I imagine this as a mix of the EVE market with the filters of contracts.)
8. If the player does not keep up with the contract when payment is due, the officer will remove itself from the player’s employment and list itself in the officer market. Player’s could also voluntarily allow other players to buy out their officer’s contracts ( … set price … plus the additional minimum 1 month contract price.)
9. XP will be gained on a per ship basis, based on the events that that ship partakes in. While the officers crewing the ship will gain traits based on the events they partake in, the experience the ship earns may additionally be spent on the officers to level them up even faster. This experience can be also be spent on upgrading basic crew to officers, as I mentioned earlier. (I suggest creating a template which will automatically level up the crew as it happens, so the player doesn’t have to mess with it mid battle.)

[Rail_J_kar]

Here’s some official lore from CCP.

[Dreg_Apc]

Seems like a controversial direction to take the game. You could take it really far as well. For example “Crew” could just be a simple fuel. The ship wont be usable unless it has enough “Crew”. But there could also different types of crews with different bonuses. And maybe the Crew could level up the more you used it. And the Crew would also die if the ship blows up But then you can fit Escape Pods and they might survive. But here is the best part. The Crew needs food and water and so on. So you are basically going to become simcity or something like that in space, especially on a Titan, where you have to design living quarters, medical facilities, and run them effeciently. Yea it gets out of hand quick when you introduce Crew to the game?

[Rail_J_kar]

There’s a game called Star Sector that has a generic “supplies” item that deals with internal logistics concerns. So CCP wouldn’t have to get crazy in-depth with that, but they certainly could if they wanted to. We’ve already got a bunch of trade items that would work for it.

as for this part…

@Dreg_Apc

The ship wont be usable unless it has enough “Crew”.

I would balance it, so the ship would still run, just with a debuff, if the minimum crew requirements weren’t met. And those minimum requirements would put the ship balance where it is currently.

Furthermore… CCP could give us ai crew… drones. They wouldn’t be as good as a leveled officer, but they also wouldn’t leave after the month contract, and you wouldn’t have to pay for their upkeep.

[Dreg_Apc]

Drones and AI would perform worse in emergencies tho. To balance things out. JK

[Rail_J_kar]

That’s what I was saying with them being worse than leveled up crew.

[Tahiro]

while i would like to get more depth to the fitting and or piloting, i have some concerns though.

a passive stat boost without any combat related tradeoffs could potentially trivialize pve (powercreep).

adding an active effect with cd sounds a lot more appealing to me, because there is more decision making involved. ppl have to anticipate the best moment to use it instead of just adding the best stat to a certain fit depending on the task. sadly i cant see how a crew could act as an on use effect.

@Rail_J_kar

• The mechanics surrounding the handling of officers will be something like this screen shot I’ve stolen out of a BattleTech gameplay video. These officers have traits which will provide different effects to the ships they are stationed on, and those ships will have requirements for the officers which are commanding those ships. (A rookie ship wouldn’t have any requirements, while a battlecruiser would be much more demanding.)
• A minimum of a 1 month contract will be signed for an officers employment, (that payment will be paid by the tutorial npc during the npe for the first batch of officers the player receives.)
• … an officer market place would be required to sort through the available candidates from a local and global pool of applicants. (I imagine this as a mix of the EVE market with the filters of contracts.)
• If the player does not keep up with the contract when payment is due, the officer will remove itself from the player’s employment and list itself in the officer market. Player’s could also voluntarily allow other players to buy out their officer’s contracts ( … set price … plus the additional minimum 1 month contract price.)
• XP will be gained on a per ship basis, based on the events that that ship partakes in. While the officers crewing the ship will gain traits based on the events they partake in, the experience the ship earns may additionally be spent on the officers to level them up even faster. This experience can be also be spent on upgrading basic crew to officers, as I mentioned earlier. (I suggest creating a template which will automatically level up the crew as it happens, so the player doesn’t have to mess with it mid battle.)

to be honest, to me it just doesnt sound like an exciting gameplay loop, but annoying af to maintain. i dont want a ton of meaningless boring clickery everytime before i undock, or switch the ship. hence no to space tamagotchi

[Rail_J_kar]

@Tahiro

to be honest, to me it just doesnt sound like an exciting gameplay loop, but annoying af to maintain. i dont want a ton of meaningless boring clickery everytime before i undock, or switch the ship. hence no to space tamagotchi

I empathize with that. If crew were implemented, it would certainly be something that needed to be beta tested and balanced.

I do think it would be useful for some people to feel a connection to their ship a bit more. CCP said new player retention fell off a cliff when they did the character creator after the tutorial rather than it being the first thing a player does… so adding more characters players could feel connected to I think would be useful from that angle.

So it wouldn’t be meaningless regardless, but there are certainly ways to make it more useful.

[Dreg_Apc]

In my experience when people set out to nerf something they over do it. I would argue that in the history of gaming, nerfing has done more harm than “buffing”. Thats all im going to say. No thats not all.

My point is that introducing crews and if they give bonuses it would not be imbalanced per say since they would be available to all pilots per say. Do you know what i mean? The risk is introducing crews but then nerfing it so much so that players wont find it interesting/useful or even cumbersome. Thats what i dont want imo.

[Dreg_Apc]

RE: Crew sustenance. The attached video might be relevant. We get to see the various facilities on board required to sustain a crew. (Note how near the end she explains how having both genders on board was a challenge and they had to change their submarines)

Boarding a US NAVY NUCLEAR SUBMARINE in the Arctic - Smarter Every Day 240

[Yarda_Black]

You lot can have all the extra modules… I mean “crew” you like. That includes the golden NES “officers”.

I’ll still be ejecting them on the undock and going solo.

[Dreg_Apc]

When this mechanic is introduced and after having tried it you will never go back. You will love it.

Btw. CCP did a great job with the rigs imo. They may just be able to pull off crews as well. (Rigs werent always part of the game, it was part of an expansion) thats all.

[Dreg_Apc]

I wonder why they chose rigs instead of crews for the expansion back then tho. Probably because of the industrial aspect to it and being able to introduce salvaging with it as well. Its actually a very cool thing that was accomplished and added to the game.

[Amon_Tobin]

No one remembers the industry teams and what happened to them?

[Mii_Lady]

no we are good thanks