Multi-Crew - The Introduction of CMDR Teleportation?

[CMDR ColD_ZA]

Now that we have been told to expect ships and modules to be able to be summoned instantly to our current dock, what does the furthering of the "concession to convenience" philosophy have in store for the future?

We are also expecting Multi-Crew to be implemented at some point. Previously we might have expected to need to travel to the system / dock where the ship was so that we could embark as crew. Following the concession to convenience of insta-transfer of ships and modules in 2.2, I now expect that players will be able to join ships as crew in a similar manner - if we don't need to go to where a ship is currently docked to collect it and bring it to our current location, why would we want to take the time to travel to where the ship we want to crew is?

Using that logic I think it's not at all unreasonable to have our ships stored in pokeballs that we can summon at will to the place we choose to teleport to....

also I would like to be able to teleport to my friends that I am winged with... for instance if I have a buddy at beagle point that's feeling alone because there is no one to play with there, I would like to be able to warp to his position with a teleportation "friendship drive" allowing us to play together.

also I think trading could benefit, I would like to sit at a station and summon cargo I would like to sell to that station, because going to fetch the trade goods is a bit much to ask

perhaps we could also install a ammo teleportation system (I mean we had it in 2.1) where our ammo racks can be restocked via the transactions tab.


adding to that, I would like to be able to teleport cargo from my SRV to my ship in orbit, because recalling my ship to deposit just 2 tonnes in is too much to ask imho

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Why do we always have to talk in extremes or resort to hyperbole?

I think largely because of what was announced as ship transfer, all OP has done has taken it to the next logical step down the same path that FD already seem to have embarked on. Certainly what has been painted here is a worst case scenario, and i do not think it will happen (players disembarking) but there is no reason i can think why not.

IMO there are only 2 possible ways multicrew can be done right anything else is bull muck.

either
1) players must be docked at the same station to engage multicrew (that would allow them to disembark if they choose, and earn money for their account when playing)
2) players take control of an npc crew member that is on the captains ship. They are not playing themselves so no need to be in same dock, but cant earn money for their CMDR but could earn XP for the captains npc crew when they log off.

imo both of the above work.. anything else would be gamey rubbish - but then so is instant ship transport (even if you like it surely you must admit there is nothing plausible about it?)

 

[Mc80]

Synthesis magic, fighters in a tube, ship teleportation nonsense, healing lasers... great, another halfway believable game going down the "gamey" drain. As if the market isn´t oversaturated with games full of handwavium.

 

[Flavourless]

It doesn't seem to help to require traveling to the crews location, because the ships can teleport anyway.
One crew member summons the ship to his location, then another crew member summons it to theirs (with crew onboard).

The galaxy will become tiny and insignificant in 2.2

Elite lore has crossed the event horizon.

 

[Muetdhiver]

Why do we always have to talk in extremes or resort to hyperbole?

^^ would leave much way of politiking about it XDlets talk about this "teleportation" fear, what about telepresence ?

1) When the pilot dies, it would make more sense if some kind of memory implant / neural net imprint in a fresh clone than instant recovery from K lyrs away.
2) We can instantly transmit information across the galaxy (galnet and cie...), so why not transfer the memory implant / neural net imprint data ala Eclipse Phase egocasting/forking.
3) This will already be done for fighters/SRVs with the neural net thingy.
4) Maybe add an optional "Broadband Ansibe" module for ships => if you have it you can have friends remote control stuff in your ship.
5) When "egocasting" no way of recalling / transfering ships / modules since you are not really there, just a local copy or remote control.

 

[Cosmos]

They really do need to reconsider the insta summoning of ships.. At the very least it should be on a CD.

As for the white dwarf super charging our FSDs, I quite like that idea.

 

[Julio Montega]

I expect multi crew to be a dedicated log in.

Like going into a private group you go into a friends multi crew capable ship.

No teleportation of your commander involved.

A dedicated login however would be a waste of development time,
given common sense dictates, that the ability to walk around stations,
sooner or later will allow you to be invited to crew another player's ship
and board it for accomodation.

From what we have got so far ui wise, i think it will be all
served in the cluttered comms-panel.
A dedicated mode would require reversing the separation from the game,
after it has been introduced.
All the scenes we have in the game right now hint that the transition will be kept
simple and accessible through the main game, like SRV and Fighter boarding shows.

With the fictional technobabble of telepresencing...
We will be photonic copies of ourselves,
without the risk of dying and being penalized...
until we have space legs and can actually be a physical
part of the adventure.


Thinking further we have seen how to activate NPC pilots,
i guess multi-crew will allow you to simply fill an active duty slot with a player,
so either you or him can pilot the ship, while the other is in the fighter/SRV.
My speculations and thoughts.

 

[Vasious]

With Multi-Crew, will my Cmdr be a crew member on another Cmdrs ship, or will I as a player be controlling one of the other Cmdrs NPC crew members?

If I am just taking over the NPC Pilot for the SLF in my friends ship, then my Cmdr wont need to teleport anywhere.

Drop in and out of an NPC crew member means, if I have to leave early or join late, it doesn't effect the game flow

Once we have legs, then my Cmdr can embark another Cmdrs ship, and take a seat.

One iteration at a time

Drop in and drop out NPC control to begin with, my Cmdr embarking another Cmdrs ship later one

 

[Robert Maynard]

This is pure hyperbole. It's perfectly possible to enable players to join each other in their ships instantly but not let them disembark other than to teleport back to their ships.

They already said using other player's ships as taxis won't be a thing before in live streams, Sandro said it if I recall correctly.

From recent announcements we have learned that anything is possible in terms of lowering the barriers to gameplay.

Until Frontier say the words regarding the inability of players to disembark the ship that they are crewing at its current dock, it remains a potential.

If you've got a link to the post / stream where Sandro said this it would be very much appreciated.

 

[Vorxian]

It's an interesting conversation Robert... well, I don't really know what FDEV have in mind, but there this little mostly unknown gem of a game out there still in very early beta, and called 'Pulsar Lost Colony'. What they have managed to achieve with multi crew is extremely interesting.

IF FDEV had the same kind of ideas for ED, the way multicrew works in Pulsar, and their teleport mechanics (teleport pad on the ship, with logical realistic range (comparable to what we're familiar with in all the star trek series) would be fantastic in ED. ED has the graphics engine, and the capability to fly your ship to the surface and land as well. Having the option to 'beam down' on foot, or take the ship and rover around would 'almost' make Elite the perfect game.

Throw in interesting, and random missions.. help rescue xyz crashed pilot, or, deliver supplies to outpost xyz.. help repel insectoids from agriculture farm abc.. suddenly with multi crew, sandbox freedom to do missions, even just roaming around the galaxy 'seeing what comes up' would start to become fun.

Check out Pulsar Lost Colony, and look at how they split up a 5 man crew, and how each crewman fulfills his / her role, and quite possibly enchant ED with similar mechanics, and dang, Star Citizen may as well fold now

(ok little too excited for my own good, but i'm having a blast on Pulsar, even with almost no content, just having a bridge, and 4 other friends walking around with you (or godding it up in the captains chair) is fun as any other PC game I own, even if the graphics are WAY inferior to ED.

TLDR: Elite dangerous enchanted with co-op and multicrew mechanics and elements from Pulsar Lost Colony = epic win.

 

[YinYin]

Will there be an option to have multicrew open or multicrew private group separately?

My guess is multi crew will be an option besides training/start and inside that you get to offer your own ship for open/private and a list of friends to join (the helm selects the mode).

A dedicated login however would be a waste of development time,
given common sense dictates, that the ability to walk around stations,
sooner or later will allow you to be invited to crew another player's ship
and board it for accomodation.

From what we have got so far ui wise, i think it will be all
served in the cluttered comms-panel.
A dedicated mode would require reversing the separation from the game,
after it has been introduced.

Dedicated log in (next to normal start and training, etc), not mode.

And they've had several iterations of things that do not exist anymore to get features working ahead of other implementations.

Not to mention this could exist in parallel to later implemented in game solutions (like you can send friend requests from the game menu as well as the comms panel). It's a simple quick and easy solution to get the feature running in the first place and allows for the lowest possible entry barrier.

edit: and of course the comms and role panel will be used for multi crew features in game - but that was not the point here

 

[Martind Forlon]

Guys ... you are doing a bill without the waiter. We do not have yet ships transports and it's not even in beta yet. Multi-crew can for example use similar way like NPCs crew which you need to hire on station.

And there already exists players teleportation just now: every time when you die you are teleported and this in ship and also in SRV. Especially in SRV case it is "immerse" . For me personally "teleportation", or how you want name it, will change nothing from things which I like on ED and with many other great changes I will enjoy this game even more. Maybe we should trust FDevs little more that they will evaluate good enough, what solution is the best for the game globally. Try step little back from "immersion horse" and ask yourself if this is really something what will make issue for you personally (not looking on others).

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

They will go with teleportation as the most casual gamer friendly option, after all they already have taken the hard-core money. It's just business, sadly.

 

[The Chairmaker]

Surely the logical thing to do is take some elements of the wing mechanic the rebuy mechanic and then stir it up with instant teleport recipe.

Here is a scenario.

Friend invites you to be crew member on their ship called BOB. You instantly teleport into their ship. I doubt this will be dependent on being in station. It would just be like a wing request.
Your ship LAURA returns to its last visited station
Players on BOB are now treated in same way as if in a wing sharing benefits.
When one player decides to leave the ship/wing they revert back to their ship located in the last visited station. So I would end up docked in LAURA. [big grin]

This has the benefit of allowing group gameplay which encourages players to get together and have fun together, at the same time it stops what would be an exploit of one person making a journey while the rest just crew up then leave and insta teleport their fleet to the new location.

 

[Julio Montega]

Dedicated log in (next to normal start and training, etc), not mode.

And they've had several iterations of things that do not exist anymore to get features working ahead of other implementations.

Not to mention this could exist in parallel to later implemented in game solutions (like you can send friend requests from the game menu as well as the comms panel). It's a simple quick and easy solution to get the feature running in the first place and allows for the lowest possible entry barrier.

edit: and of course the comms and role panel will be used for multi crew features in game - but that was not the point here

I wasn't talking about modes, i was talking about your suggestion.
If you have to click "multi-crew" as an option like start/training, then how do you let the game know
who is the host and who the guest?
It is double work to implement this stuff,
instead of simply having a comms-option of
"multicrew invite guest".

Quick transition sequence and go.

 

[YinYin]

Friend invites you to be crew member on their ship called BOB. You instantly teleport into their ship. I doubt this will be dependent on being in station. It would just be like a wing request.
Your ship LAURA returns to its last visited station
Players on BOB are now treated in same way as if in a wing sharing benefits.
When one player decides to leave the ship/wing they revert back to their ship located in the last visited station. So I would end up docked in LAURA. [big grin]

This has the benefit of allowing group gameplay which encourages players to get together and have fun together, at the same time it stops what would be an exploit of one person making a journey while the rest just crew up then leave and insta teleport their fleet to the new location.

Also the benefit of doing one way exploration trips and returning with all data as you don't need to self destruct to be docked again.

Unlikely.

If you have to click "multi-crew" as an option like start/training, then how do you let the game know
who is the host and who the guest?

Sub menu much like training missions or mode selection:

Open/private to host your own ship as well as a list of friends to join who are currently hosting their ship.

No double work here.

It is double work to implement this stuff,
instead of simply having a comms-option of
"multicrew invite guest".

Quick transition sequence and go.

This could work, but require a logout of your own ship to join another. Including the combat log timer and everything. So why not add the option straight to the main menu instead. (thus you won't have to first log into your ship, then log out again to log back into another)

 

[Muetdhiver]

Replace teleport by telepresence and we're fine here.

We already have telepresence for SRV and coming fighters. Why not for joining one's firend crew ?

pros are :

• Since you are not physically there, no option to move ships or modules (i.e. no shortcuts to jacques or other such destinations)
• If you go exploring with several SRV and find an amazing planet, you can share some crater racing joy in a very nice place with friends that are not into exploration gameplay. This is a huge boon in my books.
• Built on existing game logic (instant information transfer, e.g. galnet).

 

[Vasious]

I wasn't talking about modes, i was talking about your suggestion.
If you have to click "multi-crew" as an option like start/training, then how do you let the game know
who is the host and who the guest?
It is double work to implement this stuff,
instead of simply having a comms-option of
"multicrew invite guest".

Quick transition sequence and go.

Same way as the CQC invite works?

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Replace teleport by telepresence and we're fine here.

We already have telepresence for SRV and coming fighters. Why not for joining one's firend crew ?

pros are :

• Since you are not physically there, no option to move ships or modules (i.e. no shortcuts to jacques or other such destinations)
• If you go exploring with several SRV and find an amazing planet, you can share some crater racing joy in a very nice place with friends that are not into exploration gameplay. This is a huge boon in my books.
• Built on existing game logic (instant information transfer, e.g. galnet).

telepresence has a range of a few KM so it wont work how you think it will.... that is not to say FD wont try this reason... BUT it wont be consistent with what they told us about the fighters

 

[Martind Forlon]

Surely the logical thing to do is take some elements of the wing mechanic the rebuy mechanic and then stir it up with instant teleport recipe.

Here is a scenario.

Friend invites you to be crew member on their ship called BOB. You instantly teleport into their ship. I doubt this will be dependent on being in station. It would just be like a wing request.
Your ship LAURA returns to its last visited station
Players on BOB are now treated in same way as if in a wing sharing benefits.
When one player decides to leave the ship/wing they revert back to their ship located in the last visited station. So I would end up docked in LAURA. [big grin]

This has the benefit of allowing group gameplay which encourages players to get together and have fun together, at the same time it stops what would be an exploit of one person making a journey while the rest just crew up then leave and insta teleport their fleet to the new location.

or: Friend invite you to be crew member on their ship called BOB and you will be able board this ship only on station where BOB will be docked at this moment. .... but with this can be better question as teleporting: Will be first 1st person "walk around" mode or "Multi-crew"? ... with 1st option you can leave your friend ship on any base/planet and wait for another ship there and so on, no teleportation needed ... players rescue on planets? ... endless chances for great play. Or ship destroyed and player will appear on rescue ship board ... nice dreaming, it need more time for think more deeply about this.