Bearing in mind that so far we only have a single paragraph of facts about multi-crew; yes, I do hope Frontier will work towards improving multi-crew because by the sound of things it is going to be a very early bare bones place holder type of addition.
Two things I really want from Frontier:
● Expand upon the groundwork of the NPC SLF crew feature and give us the ability to obtain (by hiring or rescuing from escape pods) our very own NPC copilots that we can use aboard every two-seater ship in the game. Complete with physical bodies that occupy the chair next to us for that ultimate Han Solo and Chewbacca wish fulfillment/fun.
● Do not let the current need for the existence/placeholder of telepresence (because Frontier are giving us multi-crew before legs) be an excuse to turn space legs into a cheap gimmick - a lot of people are looking forward to the substance of walking around.
Frontier decided to put multicrew in first before allowing our CMDRs to walk so therefore we have a bit of a jarring moment at this point in time where the cart has been placed before the horse - kind of like putting in Engineers that require commodity storage before commodity storage even exists. With a little planning and forethought it is possible to have both walking and the telepresence shortcut without disenfranchising anyone.
Multi-crew already gives us a hint as to how this can be done. For example, if you board a ship by actually walking into it you get to sit in chairs and get up and walk around while it travels, visit the kitchen with the pilot, have them show you their living quarters (ooh saucy!
). If you warp into a ship via telepresence you can only sit in the chair and look around. Functions/ability to fiddle with pips, etc should remain the same whether you physically walk in or jack in via the Matrix.
I want Frontier to eventually insert walking around (when they are ready with it) as the fundamental foundation stone of our CMDRs' ability to move around our own ships in first person view and to move outside of our ships/SRV. I want to have the
choice to feel as though it is a seamless transition as apposed to a jarring shortcut, i.e. loading screen via cut to black. For this to happen telepresence will not have to be removed, ever. But Frontier must acknowledge that telepresence is merely a placeholder until they can give us legs rather than going forth treating telepresence warping as being the main focus and legs being something that gets slapped in half-heartedly with the mentality of "it's just an eccentric gimmick now."
I of course have no idea how Frontier regards the telepresence shortcut in the grand scheme of things because they don't communicate these things with us so I can only offer you my thoughts on how I think it should be as a player.
The existence of telepresence will not gel as well as it should until we get the update that lets us first start walking around inside ships - our own and others. Then players can rationalise the telepresence placeholder as what it truly is: an optional shortcut placed for the sake of gameplay convenience but also possible within the lore, i.e. we can physically walk but we can also project a stationary solid hologram. And then we can get actual gameplay purposes out of telepresence vs physically boarding a ship. For example, physically walking aboard means you can walk around the ship and occupy control stations at your whim. Projecting your telepresence over there will only allow you to look around but not get up and walk around.
This is how I think it should go in any case in order to allow everyone a choice and to make everybody happy without treating either legs or telepresence like a cheap gimmick.