Frontier, Please Don't Kill Our Crew!

[insanephoton]

While the current state still exists, the only sensible way to use SLF pilots is to hire and fire experts. It works out cheaper and you can laugh in the face of anyone demanding consequences. If you do unfortunately lose your ship, who cares about losing some NPC you picked up at the last port and would have fired the next time you docked.

Of course you don't necessarily fire the m every time you dock as it's not the most cash efficient way of doing things. The basic rule of thumb is that if the transactions (sale of cargo, mission rewards, bounties , etc) bring in more than 1.25 million credits , it's cheaper to fire the pilot before completing them. Once you've finished business you can them pick up a new pilot if you want to.

 

[Punished Mobius]

This thread was started in 2016.

I believe it is the year 2018 now.

It has been 2 years since I lost my Elite crew...I still hear their voices you know...

 

[Trekari]

And still no response from FDev.

Yet they'll comment on a screenshot.

"We listen to our customers." Yeah...not really.

 

[V'larr]

It's startling to think back that we've had NPC crewmembers for this long now...and just as startling that many voices have been raised *all saying the same thing* about NPC crew, in this thread, in other threads, on Reddit and Stream, and yet...nothing's changed?

I can only expect/hope that sooner rather than later they will listen.

 

[Trekari]

200+ participants...it's not like this is one of the more active and vocal threads in the entire forum.

 

[valbarr]

i finally broke and got another crewmember because i Really like playing with one, sending them out giving orders etc. but i only use crew in solo, that way if they die, it will be my fault not the fact i got ganked by a load of people i have zero chance against. when im in open, if i want an npc, i get a hire and fire. which i think is pathetic, but its what frontier has left us with, shrug and sigh etc.

 

[valbarr]

Come to think of it, i guess its very realistic, i live in the UK and most employers think of there employees as expendable a hire abuse, then get rid of when not needed. at least zero hour pay has been stopped in elite, they get payed quite a bit compared to the work they do.

 

[Truesilver]

Come to think of it, i guess its very realistic, i live in the UK and most employers think of there employees as expendable a hire abuse, then get rid of when not needed. at least zero hour pay has been stopped in elite, they get payed quite a bit compared to the work they do.

Yes, my NPC tells me that his excellent payment conditions and my abject poverty as his employer all go back to a remarkably progressive political development that apparently happened way back in 2020 when this guy called Zeremy Corbyn or something became President of one of the countries that now make up the Federation. (I didn't take much of it in as I was begging for food at Cleve Hub at the time.)

 

[Miko]

I've asked for this to be looked at also. It bothers me that you can lose your crew, especially when there are glitches. One time, despite my crew member being active, I quickly deployed my fighter and it only showed me as an option for this. This took a few moments to load me into the fighter, which left my ship with the npc. I had to switch back to my mothership, which again took a moment. Now had I been under attack from a wing of gankers, that might have been long enough for my shields to be taken with torps. To lose my crew member this way would bother me bitterly.. Lol. I actually lost my NPC once to a station because my wing shot the thing. I was innocent but I was quickly killed becoming wanted for nothing more than being affiliated with the other members.

Oh and after switching to the fighter my crew member reactivated as an option for deployment in the fighter. I'd like to see 3.0 fix this glitch.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

Frontier does not care about your computer girlfriend.

But a mission that appears at a later date to rescue them would be good. You have to solo a Cyclops. You need to earn them back.

 

[Trekari]

Hey Fdev,

Your customers are still here, and still waiting for a response.

 

[Bryan K]

Hey Fdev,

Your customers are still here, and still waiting for a response.

After nearly 1.5 years, I doubt they ever will. They only care about player feedback when it suits them to do so.

 

[insanephoton]

As far as I recall, the last dev post on any aspect of SLF pilots was something to do with combat experience or the credits paid to them. If I remember correctly it was one of the community team relaying a message from the devs suggesting that players put non active npcs on 'shore leave'. Perhaps that option exists on some dev's 'hot build' but it isn't currently in the game and I don't remember seeing it in the beta for 3.0 either.

 

[Heavenly-Hammer]

It's startling to think back that we've had NPC crewmembers for this long now...and just as startling that many voices have been raised *all saying the same thing* about NPC crew, in this thread, in other threads, on Reddit and Stream, and yet...nothing's changed?

I can only expect/hope that sooner rather than later they will listen.

alternately, we should all take the hint that FDev clearly doesn't care what we want here. If 2 YEARS of being ignored doesn't send you a very loud an clear message, I don't know what will.

 

[V'larr]

I've asked for this to be looked at also. It bothers me that you can lose your crew, especially when there are glitches.

This is an especially pertinent point. There's so many ways to accidentally lose a ship and thus the crewmember aboard.

 

[ArkCovenant]

Apologies if this thought exists elsewhere in this thread, I admittedly haven't read all the pages.

What if the rules governing your relationship with the NPC pilots was a function of your allegiance to a Superpower?

For example:
Imperial
- Your NPC pilot is a slave - You pay a nominal fee to acquire one, but never pay them.
- They can't reach above Master or something because they're not motivated.
- They perma-die.

Federal
- Same acquisition fees as today.
- Same payroll costs.
- No level cap.
- Pilots are rescued automatically by the Federation after a short time, during which they are not available.

Alliance
- Same as Federation on purchase cost.
- No level caps.
- Lower payroll cost.
- Rescue mission possible, but you need to carry it out. It will be dangerous.

Just some musing.

 

[V'larr]

Apologies if this thought exists elsewhere in this thread, I admittedly haven't read all the pages.

What if the rules governing your relationship with the NPC pilots was a function of your allegiance to a Superpower?

For example:
Imperial
- Your NPC pilot is a slave - You pay a nominal fee to acquire one, but never pay them.
- They can't reach above Master or something because they're not motivated.
- They perma-die.

Federal
- Same acquisition fees as today.
- Same payroll costs.
- No level cap.
- Pilots are rescued automatically by the Federation after a short time, during which they are not available.

Alliance
- Same as Federation on purchase cost.
- No level caps.
- Lower payroll cost.
- Rescue mission possible, but you need to carry it out. It will be dangerous.

Just some musing.

I'm just not a fan of this.

> Still has perma-death involved
> Potentially short-changes Imperial players out of having crews above Master rank
> Doesn't fix currently exorbitant payroll

Having to perform a sort of special rescue mission to retrieve your crewmember might be O.K. but I don't see why it'd have to be dangerous. It'd be enough of a pain travelling back and locating them to begin with.

 

[Winterwalker]

Clearly there are more interesting things that could happen when your crew member gets killed (put into a life or death situation) but until such time as an extra escape pod is fitted to ships, they should continue to die imo.

Default survival means you can't add escape pods later (or, why did our NPC's survive before but now they can die, 50/50 depending on the rescue mission or etc). FDev can't, logically do it that way round.

Immortal NPC's is a really lame idea though, I think. RIP.

 

[Truesilver]

In retrospect it's a shame there was nothing about this in the recent Livestream Q+A. I don't know if there were any questions about it in the thread, but definitely none made it into the Q+A if so.

Well, at least this thread is providing a lot of visibility.

 

[Snowymonk]

Can this please be added to the list of Quality-of-Life improvements going into the Q2 or Q3 smaller drops.

I think that it is a kick in the teeth to hire an NPC and investing time in raising their skill level, (growing attached to them - yes, I know it is only Pixels) only for them to be perma-killed.

Nb. not this thread but NPC quality-of-life improvements could be combined with the ability to Holo-me in the NPCs into spare seats in a cockpit.