EVE Crews: A lore-accurate* API-linked crew simulator

[Seismic_Stan]

Hi all,

EVE’s lore has always supported the concept of ship crews, but they’ve never been a gameplay feature. It’s certainly something I’ve wished for and written about over the years and a quick search of the forums shows I’m not alone.

The rise of AI ‘vibe coding’ has opened the door of opportunity to allow me to realise this particular pipedream, so I’m proud to present the (very alpha) EVE Crews.

EVE Crews is an ESI-driven browser mini-game designed to work alongside your EVE gameplay, with in-game activity triggering narrative events that take place aboard your ship.

It was designed using Google NotebookLM and ClaudeAI and tested on a desktop PC using Chrome, but also works well on my Samsung Galaxy tablet. It’s now reached a development stage where I think it offers an immersive option to complement EVE. But it needs rigorous playtesting.

*largely based on my lore knowledge from EVE’s first decade. If CCP has changed much of it, we can tweak as we go.

https://eve-crews.com/

New Player Quick Start Guide

Welcome to EVE Crews, your starship command and crew management interface. The following steps will establish your command structure and integrate your active EVE Online telemetry.

1. Authentication: Log in securely using EVE SSO. EVE Crews uses a read-only PKCE flow to pull your capsuleer’s location, active ship, wallet journal, fittings, and cargo.

2. Command Commissioning: First-time commanders will face the Command Commissioning screen, which dynamically recommends a start-up grant based on your currently active hull class. You may select from Academy Graduate (CR-1, 5M ISK), Line Commander (CR-4, 75M ISK), or Fleet Asset (CR-6, 500M ISK).

3. Hire Your Officers: Your commissioning grant assigns you an Executive Officer (XO), but your line officer slots will be vacant. Visit the Recruitment Academy while docked to hire a Chief Engineer, Security Chief, and Medical Officer.

4. Conduct an Operational Session: A “session” is recorded when you undock, spend a minimum of 10 minutes in space performing activities (like combat, traveling, or hauling), and then redock.

5. Review the After-Action Report: Upon docking, the application analyses your ESI telemetry and generates a Casualty Report and operational summary on the Bridge tab. Acknowledge these reports and respond to any pending narrative events.

There’s a more comprehensive manual in-game.

I hope you enjoy the experience. I’d love to get some feedback.

[g0uda]

This is really cool thanks for sharing, I’ll check it out!

[Asveron_Durr]

does it follow this guide line posted originally by a dev years ago?

[g0uda]

Lore wise how does a crew play into a neural link guy in a capsule piloting the ship? The capsuleer even manages all the things a crew would like weapons, propulsion, power, defense, etc.

[Seismic_Stan]

does it follow this guide line posted originally by a dev years ago?

Yes, it follows that table with some licence. Those figures, originally shared by CCP t0nyG (author of EVE novels The Empyrean Age and Templar One) at Fanfest 2011, and other official sources were used as the starting point to determine crew numbers.

Other ship types have been extrapolated from the official numbers and, for variety, modifiers have been applied to those numbers to account for different racial crew doctrines (Gallente reliance on drone tech, Amarr enslavement etc).

I did quite a lot of research on it years ago on my blog.

The Ships Crew Debate: The Official Line

[Seismic_Stan]

@g0uda

Lore wise how does a crew play into a neural link guy in a capsule piloting the ship? The capsuleer even manages all the things a crew would like weapons, propulsion, power, defense, etc.

There is extensive reference in the lore to crew aboard capsuleer ships. Essentially, the capsuleer can take over command functions (ie. everything that would be undertaken by bridge officers), but they still couldn’t fix a broken power conduit or put out a fire on the lower decks.

The AI answer:

The crew numbers in EVE Crews are derived from a blend of official CCP lore, historical game data, and community research. The specific sources used to determine these headcounts include:

• CCP’s Official Fanfest 2011 Crew Chart: This presentation is treated as the primary canon for the application, locking in the baseline crew numbers and officially confirming that capsuleers operate with significantly smaller “skeleton” crews compared to standard naval vessels.

• The New Eden Crew Guidelines: Formerly hosted on the official Evelopedia, this document established the foundational “rules” for ship crewing, including the capsuleer-to-baseline crew ratios and the specific racial philosophies that dictate how the four empires man their ships.

• EVE Source & Official Novels: The definitive lore encyclopedia EVE Source, alongside official novels like The Empyrean Age and The Burning Life, provide the narrative scale of the vessels. These texts confirm operational details, such as crews spending most of their journeys in escape pods performing maintenance, and establish that thousands of baseline humans live inside capital-class ships.

• Official Chronicles: Short lore stories, such as Hands of a Killer, are referenced to establish the human cost of capsuleer combat and confirm the presence of hundreds of crew members even on nominally “solo-piloted” ships.

• The Original Ship Blueprints (2003–2004): Pre-beta and launch-era ship model data provided some of the earliest concrete, static attributes for crew and passenger capacities.

• The Freebooted Blog: Over a decade of community research and debate compiled on the developer’s Freebooted blog was used to gather and synthesise these disparate official sources into the working estimates used in the application.

• Technical Logic and Volume Scaling: For ships introduced later in EVE’s history (such as the Orca), numbers are extrapolated by comparing the ship’s volume, mass, and mechanical functions against established baselines. For example, applying a rule that 10% to 15% of a large ship’s crew must be dedicated to maintaining large drone and fighter bays

[DeMichael_Crimson]

Cool idea, a ‘behind the scene’ app tied in with actual game data…

Downloaded and installed…

Only downside I see right from the start is no option to view and select ‘Faction specific’ crew members… Meaning the available crew recruitment list is mixed Factions…

[Seismic_Stan]

Thanks for trying it out.

@DeMichael_Crimson

Only downside I see right from the start is no option to view and select ‘Faction specific’ crew members… Meaning the available crew recruitment list is mixed Factions…

Great idea! That’s certainly something I’d like to expand upon.

Currently, the recruitment algorithm is influenced mostly by location, with other factors like the racial affiliation of the station, ship, and recruiting officer race and traits (‘patriot’ and ‘racist’) also playing a part.

But it is all automatic at the moment. I agree it would be great to introduce some player agency to directly influence the crew recruitment process.

[DeMichael_Crimson]

@Seismic_Stan

Currently, the recruitment algorithm is influenced mostly by location,

Yeah, I noticed that very quickly after docking at various stations, went through 3 XO’s and 2 CE’s just to get a halfway decent crew…

Would docking at a FW Corp station present an entire Faction specific crew recruitment list?

Anyway, just had my first ‘Official’ Eve Crews narrative event happen with 3 choices to resolve it…

XO report crew complaining of strange smell from cargohold…

SESSION 0 · THE SMELL OF IT

Resolved: Seal hold and post a guard

Hold sealed. Guard posted. Engineering mutters. Security approves. The ship runs cleaner for it.

That spawned another event with 3 choices to resolve it - XO report crew complaints due to Quafe in cargohold…

SESSION 0 · THE QUAFE+ INCIDENT

Resolved: Medical intervention. Document everything.

Full medical screening ordered for all crew who had access to the cargo. Quafe supply destroyed under hazardous materials protocol. Two hundred thousand ISK in medical costs. Your Medical Officer filed a commendation request on your behalf. Medical Officer Loyalty +10, ISK -200k.

So yeah, pretty cool ‘behind the scene’ mini game app…

[Seismic_Stan]

Would docking at a FW Corp station present an entire Faction specific crew recruitment list?

I like this idea. In conjunction with your thoughts on demographic selection above, it’s feeling like some work around crew quality and variety is in order.

[Seismic_Stan]

Hey DeMichael, based on your input, I’ve implemented update v1.31.27, which introduces Enhanced Crew Lineages and Recruitment Directives.

Players can now select specific recruitment modes (Standard, Targeted, or Specialist), which are constrained by location, scarcity, and faction standings.

The update adds diverse crew lineages - such as Empire Conscripts, Faction Warfare Veterans, major pirate cartels, Mordu’s Legion, and Deep Space Enclaves - each featuring unique mechanical effects and officer trait synergies.

Departments now track lineage composition with proportional attrition.

Finally, it adds a “Department Culture” UI and a “Fractured” morale penalty for overly mixed crews.

Let me know how you get on with it, and thanks again for the input.

[Thomaas_Daeron]

Hi there!

I was playing this yesterday on my alt and I’m really really liking this the whole idea of being able to get even deeper into the lore and how the crew impacts the game is fascinating, I’ve always been interested in the behind the scenes of what happens through those tiny windows in the ship.

I made a bit of a mess setting up my crew and then struggled to understand how to get more money, so I’d really welcome the ability to hit a reset button that clears my crew and resets my funds so I can start again.

The biggest thing for me though is my eyesight. I have poor vision so have to have the browser full screen and zoomed in and squint close at the screen and it’s purely because I can’t see the text very well - it’s too feint on the screen and the contrast is bad. Any change you could change that so the text is brighter?

I’ll keep playing over the weekend but great work. Thanks

[DeMichael_Crimson]

@Thomaas_Daeron

The biggest thing for me though is my eyesight. I have poor vision so have to have the browser full screen and zoomed in and squint close at the screen and it’s purely because I can’t see the text very well - it’s too feint on the screen and the contrast is bad. Any change you could change that so the text is brighter?

I agree on the text, it’s definitely hard to read, larger and brighter text would help a lot..

@Thomaas_Daeron

how to get more money

Very good question…

Also how does the Sessions count actually work? Is it based on Eve Crews app log-in or Eve Online client log-in?

The reason I ask is because mine still shows ‘Session 0’ after doing a couple of Eve Crews app log-in and multiple Eve Online client log-in’s…

Also is it ok to keep the app logged in?

[Seismic_Stan]

Hi Thomaas, thanks for the encouraging feedback.

I hear you on the issue with unbalanced ISK flow - plenty of ways to spend it, few ways to earn it.

The development roadmap is built around the idea that you’ll be able to transfer in-game ISK from EVE Online, but that’s something I need to look into further regarding CCP’s rules on this.

There is already a test suite menu where you can inject more ISK into the system to simulate this. Click the (almost invisible) star icon to the far right of the bottom button panel and scroll down to the ‘ISK Override’ section.

However, if your preference is to not cheat/stay within the wonky balance of EVE crews, there are a few ways you can generate ISK.

• Submitting your Tactical Data Recorder (TDR) log to enhance the after action reports now generates a ‘bounty’ from the local authority depending on the level of activity the session involved. [I’ll grab a screenshot of this panel when I can]
• Carrying around tourists generates a small passive income.
• Some events lead to significant ISK rewards.

Noted on the visibility issue. I’ll see if I can build in a brightness option.

[Seismic_Stan]

@DeMichael_Crimson

Also how does the Sessions count actually work? Is it based on Eve Crews app log-in or Eve Online client log-in?

A valid session in EVE Crews is measured by the Session Loop, which is strictly defined as an Undock → 10 Minute Minimum Time-in-Space → Redock cycle.

To successfully register a session, you must undock your vessel and maintain a presence in space for at least 10 minutes to establish the primary data set.

If you undock and redock before this 10-minute threshold (MIN_SESSION_MS) is reached, the application logs a “Short dock”. When a short dock occurs, a ship log entry is written noting that the minimum time requirement was not met, and neither the After-Action Report nor the Tactical Data Recorder (TDR) upload panel will trigger.

Once you successfully complete a valid session by redocking, all ESI-detected telemetry events and significant command decisions from your deployment are finalised and recorded in the ship’s Operational Log (the “Ticker Tape”) for your review.

@DeMichael_Crimson

Also is it ok to keep the app logged in?

I’m sure it’s fine, it just sits in your browser and stores information locally, occasionally polling CCP’s API output (which is entirely normal for 3rd-party apps and within CCP’s rules).

But let me ask my NotebookLM session for a more technical explanation.

"Yes, it is completely safe to keep the EVE Crews application logged in.

"The application operates using a secure, read-only ESI PKCE authentication flow. It only reads data such as your ship’s location, active hull, and cargo manifest. It will never write to your EVE Online account or access your wallet.

"Authentication tokens are stored safely within your browser’s local storage to maintain your session. Keeping the application logged in is actually required for its core mechanics, as it maintains live telemetry by polling the ESI every 30 seconds to track your undock and dock transitions, alongside a broader data synchronization every 5 minutes.

"If you ever wish to sever the connection, you can revoke the application’s access at any time directly via the official EVE Online website.

"The EVE Crews always-on connection stays completely within CCP’s rules. The application operates using a secure, read-only ESI PKCE authentication flow. This ensures it only requests permission to read data—such as your ship’s location, active hull, and cargo manifest—and cannot write to your EVE Online account or access your wallet.

"Furthermore, the application’s polling rates (checking location and ship endpoints every 30 seconds, and performing broader data synchronizations every 5 minutes) are standard for third-party companion tools utilizing the EVE Swagger Interface (ESI). Any advanced data parsing, such as the Tactical Data Recorder (TDR), is also entirely EULA-compliant because it processes your local gamelog files directly within your browser without ever uploading the data to a server.

“You maintain absolute control over your data and can sever the connection by revoking the application’s access at any time via the official EVE Online website.”

So there you have it. Verbose as that answer was, it’s definitely ok to stay logged in.

[Seismic_Stan]

As we’re discussing the ESI traffic, here’s a quick visual explainer of what the blinking ‘telemetry’ bars in the header mean - they’re more than just flavour and can help as a broad indicator of when the next packet is available for a particular EVE Crews game feature.

[DeMichael_Crimson]

Ahh, thanks for the explanation…

That helped a lot, I completed a session and received a TDR with AAR…

[Seismic_Stan]

@DeMichael_Crimson

I agree on the text, it’s definitely hard to read, larger and brighter text would help a lot..

High contrast text and UI scaling options now available in the settings found in the top bar.

[Thomaas_Daeron]

Wow that was quick! Back on it now. Will let you know

[Seismic_Stan]

@Thomaas_Daeron

Wow that was quick!

One of the advantages of vibe-coding.

Of course, now something else has broken (authentification), so there’s also a downside. Working on a fix though.