Legacy Crew problems and suggestion for overhaul.

[[VR] Goooost]

I have 3 crew, 2 of which fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch during the last update. One of them looks way different, but all right.
It isn't just that I've ranked some of them up, one to Elite. I've also spent hundreds of millions on them (250mil total). Imagine if frontier replaced your corvette with a hauler. That's how I feel.

There's a fix. Not just for this problem, but for NPC crew in general.

How do we accomplish this? Personally, I think that when you first buy crew, you should be limited to purchases up to expert as it is now, but once you've ranked one up, those additional tiers become unlocked, at the percentages we've unlocked them for. So if you've gotten to elite, from expert, you can purchase Elite pilots- but they'll take like 15% or whatever. But if you've ranked one from harmless, then they'll take 10. The initial purchase would still be millions, of course. This would be fair, promote cycling out pilots, and it would let me get the crew I want back. Currently, having crew is a deterrent to fighting and going down with the ship, and playing in open in general.

Lore-wise, you could just say it's a pilot's federation thing. Unionized in some way to prevent inexperienced pilots from killing veteran crew recklessly. Say, pilots always take 1% per rank, but the pilots federation takes up to 5% based on your working conditions.

Another balance will be that the unlocks apply on a per-crewslot basis. A crew slot starts at class 5, grade E and goes up to Class 9, grade A.
Class being rank, grade being payout. So if you begin with an expert pilot, you can increase the Class of the compartment, but the grade will always be E.

Finally, before hiring crew, there should be an option to have them play a greeting so we know what voice we're getting. Makena was a fine looking pilot, but she spoke like nails on chalkboard. Similarly, just because I have a full compliment of crew shouldn't mean that I cant look at others from the applications. How will I know if I want a new one or not?

PS- sorry for the quality of the after shots, I am 12000ly from home. They are only worse at the station, trust me.

 

[NO_FEAR]

I have 3 crew, 2 of which fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch during the last update. One of them looks way different, but all right.
It isn't just that I've ranked some of them up, one to Elite. I've also spent hundreds of millions on them (250mil total). Imagine if frontier replaced your corvette with a hauler. That's how I feel.

http://i.imgur.com/4D0WIwz.jpg

There's a fix. Not just for this problem, but for NPC crew in general.

How do we accomplish this? Personally, I think that when you first buy crew, you should be limited to purchases up to expert as it is now, but once you've ranked one up, those additional tiers become unlocked, at the percentages we've unlocked them for. So if you've gotten to elite, from expert, you can purchase Elite pilots- but they'll take like 15% or whatever. But if you've ranked one from harmless, then they'll take 10. The initial purchase would still be millions, of course. This would be fair, promote cycling out pilots, and it would let me get the crew I want back. Currently, having crew is a deterrent to fighting and going down with the ship, and playing in open in general.

Lore-wise, you could just say it's a pilot's federation thing. Unionized in some way to prevent inexperienced pilots from killing veteran crew recklessly. Say, pilots always take 1% per rank, but the pilots federation takes up to 5% based on your working conditions.

Another balance will be that the unlocks apply on a per-crewslot basis. A crew slot starts at class 5, grade E and goes up to Class 9, grade A.
Class being rank, grade being payout. So if you begin with an expert pilot, you can increase the Class of the compartment, but the grade will always be E.

Finally, before hiring crew, there should be an option to have them play a greeting so we know what voice we're getting. Makena was a fine looking pilot, but she spoke like nails on chalkboard. Similarly, just because I have a full compliment of crew shouldn't mean that I cant look at others from the applications. How will I know if I want a new one or not?

PS- sorry for the quality of the after shots, I am 12000ly from home. They are only worse at the station, trust me.

You may want to change the unlock critiria for unlocking higher level pilots , but otherwise good idea. I personally would change it from a compartment to a rank , an over arching combination of all your ranks. This would keep low tier players having the best pilots , and at elite in all catigories the crew will work for less money

 

[[VR] Goooost]

You may want to change the unlock critiria for unlocking higher level pilots , but otherwise good idea. I personally would change it from a compartment to a rank , an over arching combination of all your ranks. This would keep low tier players having the best pilots , and at elite in all catigories the crew will work for less money

Well, I suppose there's something to that, since the pilot backstories aren't all strictly combat. Some are trade and exploration related. However, I was thinking that people have already put work into their pilots, and I wanted a way that would keep that effort meaningful. Perhaps it would be worth considering different types of SLFs that can be ranked in different ways to fill that gap. Because I want there to be a direct reward for using the fighters, not have them tied to something that people earn all the time anyway.
So how about an exploration fighter and a trade fighter that will just rank up through related actions? Exploration fighter could augment the horrible SRV wave scanner, fly into hazardous anomalies (in star trek they always send the shuttle before risking the ship). Stuff like that.
A trade fighter could ferry cargo to and from outposts, mine materials from asteroids, and broker illicit trades silently- without docking permission.

 

[Insane4un]

I have 3 crew, 2 of which fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch during the last update. One of them looks way different, but all right.
It isn't just that I've ranked some of them up, one to Elite. I've also spent hundreds of millions on them (250mil total). Imagine if frontier replaced your corvette with a hauler. That's how I feel.

http://i.imgur.com/4D0WIwz.jpg

There's a fix. Not just for this problem, but for NPC crew in general.

How do we accomplish this? Personally, I think that when you first buy crew, you should be limited to purchases up to expert as it is now, but once you've ranked one up, those additional tiers become unlocked, at the percentages we've unlocked them for. So if you've gotten to elite, from expert, you can purchase Elite pilots- but they'll take like 15% or whatever. But if you've ranked one from harmless, then they'll take 10. The initial purchase would still be millions, of course. This would be fair, promote cycling out pilots, and it would let me get the crew I want back. Currently, having crew is a deterrent to fighting and going down with the ship, and playing in open in general.

Lore-wise, you could just say it's a pilot's federation thing. Unionized in some way to prevent inexperienced pilots from killing veteran crew recklessly. Say, pilots always take 1% per rank, but the pilots federation takes up to 5% based on your working conditions.

Another balance will be that the unlocks apply on a per-crewslot basis. A crew slot starts at class 5, grade E and goes up to Class 9, grade A.
Class being rank, grade being payout. So if you begin with an expert pilot, you can increase the Class of the compartment, but the grade will always be E.

Finally, before hiring crew, there should be an option to have them play a greeting so we know what voice we're getting. Makena was a fine looking pilot, but she spoke like nails on chalkboard. Similarly, just because I have a full compliment of crew shouldn't mean that I cant look at others from the applications. How will I know if I want a new one or not?

PS- sorry for the quality of the after shots, I am 12000ly from home. They are only worse at the station, trust me.

It is noice idea all in all. But whatever you say, FD don't care. We even have this stupid mechanic with 10% payout for the lasyest (whatever you call them) in the galaxy (your pilot) that is not even on a ship with you. We still have it. They still don't care about it. And never will.

 

[[VR] Goooost]

It is noice idea all in all. But whatever you say, FD don't care. We even have this stupid mechanic with 10% payout for the lasyest (whatever you call them) in the galaxy (your pilot) that is not even on a ship with you. We still have it. They still don't care about it. And never will.

I tried to ask in the AMA if there was a secret or future purpose to having more than one pilot, but didn't get an answer. If they had a clue where they were going with it they could have said something. I feel like it's another feature that they've laid the groundwork for, but are holding off development until people really show an interest. So I don't think it hurts to try and suggest something. It's pretty clear that the mechanic isn't quite right but all people care about is Metas and payouts.

 

[CMDR _BigJay_]

First and foremost my crew Lilyann's looks got nerfed pretty bad in 2.3 as well. Very disappointing.



Now here's a few issues.... First, I kinda feel like a butt complaining about my NPC's looks. However, there are ZERO other stats for her. When I set out to hire her months ago I knew I wanted a Harmless crew that I could train up, and that was it. I had no other metrics to consider. So I flew from station to station checking the lounge until I found Lilyann, she was and still is the best looking NPC I had come across in 2.2.

I trained her up to Elite, which was great fun actually, and she's been flying the fighter ever since. She's currently worth around 920,000,000cr. I am quite fond of her, she does her job well. I've considered it, and I've made my decision, when I come across a new NPC that I want to hire, I'm going to send Lilyann on her way. With any luck she'll buy herself a Cutter and hire her own crew. Makes me proud.

If there was some other stat that made her, or any NPC, special, I would shop for that above looks. Since there isn't, then looks it is.

In 2.3 I've seen about 3 good looking NPCs, unfortunately they were all ranked Novice or better and I would prefer to hire another Harmless. Again since looks is the ONLY variable, I will continue to shop around until I find one I like.

Really I'm just disappointed that FD changed her so much. Exactly like you said, it's like changing my vette into a hauler.

I also agree with what you said about the voice. There should be a brief interview where you can hear what they sound like.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

Ugly crew live in the cargo hold.
Working as intended. Beatiful fighter pilots are coming in a future update but no ETA's, no Guarantees.

All the best Sandro 'No BOBFOCs' Sommarco

 

[Valethar]

Yup. Someone on a C-64 apparently had a difficult time downloading the graphics for the pilots, and they all took a nerf factory to the face.

I just dumped one of my pilots because after the change, it looked like I had a crack addict on board.

Not entirely sure what made dumbing down the graphics of the pilots such a high priority 'fix'. There are any number of real problems they could have spent that time on.

 

[Dirtbird]

Ugly crew live in the cargo hold.
Working as intended. Beatiful fighter pilots are coming in a future update but no ETA's, no Guarantees.

All the best Sandro 'No BOBFOCs' Sommarco

Perhaps they'll be a cosmetic upgrade to purchase from the Frontier store. 2 quid for a good looking crew member, 5 quid for a really good looking crew member.

 

[Bit.Slade]

Huh...Must've hired Bioware.