Has MultiCrew gone the way of the Dodo too?

[NeilF]

As all you can do in Multicrew is shoot turrets and fly SLFs, with nothing to do during lulls, MC is basically limited to RES farming and Combat zones.
As I don't acknowledge the existence of RES and CZs because of their horribly contrived and immersion breaking endless respawn mechanic, and because Frontier didn't want to spend the effort developping an Engineer/Science officer role (and the mechanics and content that would justify their existence) I have no interest in the feature.

Multicrew mining options:
Scan operator: Able to scan other rocks for their contents while the ship is mining a different one, and tag "interesting" ones on the scanner for later attention.
Mining operator: Introduces turreted mining lasers that can be independently controlled - allowing multiple "gunners" to mine multiple rocks.
Pilotable collectors: Like SLFs and use a similar bay but they can collect 4-6 fragments before having to dock and offload. They use grapples not scoops, so no scooping involved - they are essentially pilotable collector limpets with a >1 capacity

So helm runs the ship and manages the refinery. Scan queues up good rocks to mine. Gunner(s) blast them and collector pilot gathers in the goodies faster than limpets can (and without cluttering the entire cargo bay with single-use limpets)

Alas, because more involved mechanics haven't been put in over the past two years, what is there for multi-crew to leverage for its purpose? - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...o-bite-ED-in-the-boosters!?highlight=boosters

 

[CMDR Carbo]

It's the new CQC.

 

[verminstar]

It's the new CQC.

CQC is still vaguely useful...mc isnt and never was and unless we all start using it en masse, never will be ^

 

[bitstorm]

Aye.

I mean I can only speak for myself, as much as I like the idea of multicrew, as a mainly solo pilot (as I think many are) I just don't really see myself using it beyond the initial curiosity of trying it out.

My feeling is Frontier believe that they need to encourage multiplayer activities for the longevity of the game. Maybe they are right, I dunno, but atm I just like doing my own thing.

 

[Maro-Val]

They said that they will develop further if we the players like it and use it. Funny, they never mentioned that multicrew, even in its current pathetic form, is completely broken. It blew my mind once when a friend hopped in my ship and while in a private group, he faced countless bugs, from finding himself in helm position, to not able to switch to gunner, to fsd problem messages, to constant disconnects and me struggling in the mc menu to try and call him back and both of us relogging and restarting clients just to show him a nice site. When we finally got there i had to wait kindly for him to decide and leave the ship, for me to be able and deploy my srv because nooo.. together no srv's.
And i dont want to mention multicrew for pvp in a cg system. It is just impossible honestly.

And the worst thing will ofc be the guy at some point after me, that will post something like: but i use mc every day and works fine.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Well I think most people pointed out that MC in it's current form was never going to work but the devs have said if nobody uses it then it won't get developed any further....

So what was the point of developing it then? They make it completely awful, knowing nobody will use it and then won't work on it anymore so why bother in the first place?

 

[obliterator]

Zero interest before it was launched...zero interest after it launched. Its a pvp and combat orientated affair so I glance over it but dont dwell on it because neither pvp or combat interest me very much. As a non combat player, mc is about as big a fail as it gets Im afraid because it offers absolutely zero options ^

To be fair, as a combat focused player multi-crew doesn't interest me either. It doesn't provide any advantage over simply being in a wing. I was looking forward to boost some of my newbie friends with it, but Frontier made sure that even that isn't a profitable option.

 

[JS Cosmic Malfunction]

I've used it a couple times with a companion and, the main problem is that the feature is heavily limited and bugged.

Dropping in from supercruise usually screws it up for us. Last time we dropped in an Engineers base and, I got stuck and I didn't even see my friend's ship going down, for me it was standing still. We mostly get disconnected though.
And when we are not getting disconnected, there's little to do to earn money. Bounty hunting in res zones or conflict zones, and that's pretty much it. He's a trader and I'm an explorer so, it's not something we usually do. Mission rewards should be somewhat shared with multicrew, with limits like having to be present from start to finish (I wouldn't mind a 50% for each player, you are the one who opens your ship to multicrew after all).

Options are limited as it is now. You can't deploy your friend in a scarab and remain on your ship or deploy your own scarab, a shame since that feature would be great. Gunners in supercruise are hopeless. They could be usefull scanning ships and planets in 360 degrees, having their own waypoint to guide the pilot, helping with interdictions, checking the galaxy map to buy the commodities you need... Right now they just sit arround and wait. Multicrew can grow and be a great thing but, it isn't right now.

My ship was already ok for Multicrew when the feature arrived because most of my fire power can be controlled by a gunner without rendering the pilot entirely harmless by himself, but most people ship's aren't. Turret weapons are the most expensive type, so poor commanders can't really afford multicrew in their ships; most people don't want turrets anyway.
They should allow gimballed to be shared between Pilot and gimballed (of course, with less freedom to aim than turrets), like, if the pilot is not using a firegroup with them, the Gunner could do it.
What I don't really understand is why this feature has matchmaking. It needs a particular set up to work and some coordination. Right now a gunner joins and he either has nothing to do or does not know what he's supposed to do.

 

[verminstar]

To be fair, as a combat focused player multi-crew doesn't interest me either. It doesn't provide any advantage over simply being in a wing. I was looking forward to boost some of my newbie friends with it, but Frontier made sure that even that isn't a profitable option.

At least ye have the possibility of options...non combat players dont even have that. But however...moving on nothing to see here ^

 

[UnhappyDev]

Wasn't multicrew a crowdfunding commitment that FDev had to honour? (sorry if my memory is playing tricks here). So they had to implement something?

What we have is a bare-bones, path of least resistance solution. I find it fun in small doses (like CQC) but a lot of work is needed to make it feel like an integral part of the game.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

Well I think most people pointed out that MC in it's current form was never going to work but the devs have said if nobody uses it then it won't get developed any further....

So what was the point of developing it then? They make it completely awful, knowing nobody will use it and then won't work on it anymore so why bother in the first place?

Developers are often a strange kind of people. In FDs case they seem somewhat combat centric and miss to see the wider more peacefull options of a feature. Maybe its also because combat has
a clear bordered line they know very well, Starting to discover the unknown purpose is a bug trap and avoided.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[obliterator]

It also puzzles me what they might have thought in the first place. Maybe it's just a youth dream of one of the devs? In this case I tend to respect it as such (and silently would let it die in dignity). Or it's just a grand misunderstanding? So while they've gathered multiple moanings about the lack of multiplayer tools they might have thought that's exactly what the multiplayer crowd desires? [where is it]
Not that I could say for sure how the majority of our community actually tics.. [alien]
Other then that I think the game is still great and can stomach quite a few brain farts!

Powerplay, cqc and now multicrew. They should've had used the development time to build on the core game instead of adding modules that barely anyone uses. The game would be in a very different state now.

But what is the most baffling about multicrew is just how predictable this was. They made it clear right from the start that multicrew was not supposed to provide any real gameplay advantage to the players, and had no purpose other than just being a fun little thing to do.

Developers are often a strange kind of people. In FDs case they seem somewhat combat centric and miss to see the wider more peacefull options of a feature. Maybe its also because combat has
a clear bordered line they know very well, Starting to discover the unknown purpose is a bug trap and avoided.

Regards,
Miklos

If the problem had anything to do with Frontier being too combat centric, then at least the combat focused players would be happy with multicrew, which isn't the case at all. It's more efficient to fight in a wing or to fight alone. To me it seems like frontier simply need to realize that players wont use a system if it isn't useful to their goals in the game.

 

[zarrazee]

Just done 1.5 hours with a CMDR in Open. We were bounty hunting in a haz res and had a good time. Only took 5 mins of waiting before he joined.

Haz res is more fun in mc.

 

[Muzz UK]

Developers are often a strange kind of people. In FDs case they seem somewhat combat centric and miss to see the wider more peacefull options of a feature. Maybe its also because combat has
a clear bordered line they know very well, Starting to discover the unknown purpose is a bug trap and avoided.

Regards,
Miklos

Hit the nail on the head even exploration and trading have a combat focus............. poor explorers have to dodge endless waves of NPC interdiction returing home.

I was really hoping Frontier would do something with multicrew to enable trading and mining to be a group thing aboard one ship.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

If there where good gameplay reasons to multicrew, I am sure it would be more popular. But there are none at the moment.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

Just reaffirms my belief that they should've started with NPC crew that everyone could benefit from, everyone could have fun with, everyone could feel like they could invest time in their crew.

It could've been so much more, now with FD and their "if no one uses it then we won't touch it" mentality it means it's never going to get looked into again.

In the previous elite games you needed many crew for a single ship. Even if I should had a couple of bodies on the ship that I could level up to Elite, even if they only increased my scan range by 1% I'd be happier than I am now.

This is the game of missed opportunities, I really hope they pull it together with the "Core Fixes" coming after 2.4

I agree, there are many missed opportunities. But there is no lack of potential. So those opportunities can still be manifested. Here I will list something that will make E.D a better game. This still doesnt take away that it is one of the best space sims out right now. I have tried Star Citizen once. Good graphics and potential but it was shallow and boring. But lets leave SC alone.

1. Bring in NPC wingmen: Which can level up with you and them selves improve their ship with rank, and make them into credit sinks. The more wingmen you have the more the cost. These can again barter to leave you or ask for a raise if they mean their skill level is worth it. They can also ask for you to give them a new ship and better gear. to add to the microtransactions. Let the NPC wingmen demand stuff from the Frontier store like. New clothes and skins for their ship. If they are worth hanging on to and you have a "relation ship" with them they are worth it, but make these demands very rare and not to expensive. and also add in NPC crew members so all can have multi crew moments. Just use the ideas from the fighter crews. Persistency pays of in the long run. Use ideas from the garrison followers in wow. That idea was worth its billions, then they scrapped it. Redicolus. then I stopped playing. After 10 years of wow. The garrison was that which kept me into the universe. some of these ideas can be implemented into E.DTo have NPCs work for you even do missions for you.

2. Space legs. It speaks for itself. And make a meeting place for commanders to check each other out and new clothes and skins which can be bought from the frontier store or won as prices. I cant emphasis how much space legs will mean for this game. It will bring back many of the veterans.

3. Landing on planets with atmospheres: Start with one type, then work yourself up. Maybe start with Earthlikes and water worlds. Introduce the Moray Star boat and modules which make your ship into a submarine. To explore the depths of unknown waters.

4. Introduce base building: Even prefabricated bases on the store will sell good. And use whatever you find in the universe to build your base or landing platforms. Give clans or groups the ability to create their own empire.

5. These things ill make E.D into a multi billion universe along side Star Trek and Star Wars and even a movie will come out or many movies. Frontier should set their standards among Blizzard, Activision and Disney. It is possible with time.

 

[Xious]

I gave up on Multi-Crew due to it crashing so much but haven't tried it since the new patch.

 

[Jukelo]

Hit the nail on the head even exploration and trading have a combat focus............. poor explorers have to dodge endless waves of NPC interdiction returing home.

I was really hoping Frontier would do something with multicrew to enable trading and mining to be a group thing aboard one ship.

Explorers have nothing to fear from interdictions since 2.2, pirates now scan their target and leave you alone if you have nothing they want.

 

[Watcher]

I've used multi-crew a few times but always with people I already know, more than a touch nervous about letting others jump in to my ship and not too interested in to jumping in to random other peoples ships (apart from anything I might have to exit at short notice and I'd hope my friends would be more understanding about that).

I've not really checked on this but it seems your multi-crew pool is restricted to your game mode, so if you are running PV then those are the only people available to you. Since I'm not keen on being in open my options are again limited even if I was happy to have people otherwise join. So there's that.

Finally, while doing a bit of gunnery is fun, the restriction on things like SRV use are a problem. It would be great to use a single ship to do SRV stuff with air cover and so on. Or something similar with exploration. But we can't, so if I'm not in a shoot stuff sort of mood (or at least not in a shoot stuff in space without SRV things happening), then there isn't much point.

Shame really because when I've used it it really has been lots of fun.
I'm sure FD are more than aware of all this, so we'll have to see if that translates in to upgrading and expanding multi-crew. I have a suspicion that sorting all this out is rather more tricky than we would think though..

 

[sollisb]

I use it with my 2nd account. But, it's buggy as hell (Nothing new there) and is so limited as to be useless for anyone else.

The problems are multiple;

It's basically only useful in combat, and even then, only to get the extra pips. My 2nd acct sits in her chair and does FA else.. I manage the ship and get the extra pip. Which leads onto the next problem..

FD have nerfed the HazRes sites to hell and back. It used to be you got bounties and rank and naval rank. Now you get bounties and combat rank (slowly) Added to that they added some pathetic AI that causes ships to boost off and then wake.. ? Really? Why? The only reason those AI NPCs are there is to let us gain credits and rank.. And what does FD do? Make it harder! Make us waste our MC ammo.. Why? It's pathetic.

Now add to that is the cheating.. NPC cheating.. Oh look a Python! where'd it go? Oh it's silent running... Well wait.. How can it do that and come back suddenly with full shields? How can it do that while firing?

Then add the spawn rates which have dropped considerably.. I entered a HazRes last night and had to wait near 5 minutes to get a wanted spawn.. FD?


Frontier killed multicrew before they launched it.