2.3 The Commanders

That prolly means that 2.3 should be able to allow a solo commander to jump from crew station to station while leaving the AI at least in charge of the helm. So that would be a start.
This is the only suggestion as to what multi-crew could offer that I find interesting. I could see this adding to my game play. Otherwise this will be an addition that has very little interest to me.
 
Being a soloist I badly want multicrew with NPC and winging up with NPC.
I believe we will get these features eventually.
It will probably take a lot of patience though.

Larger ships should get minimum crew requirements just like in Frontier Elite 2.
But acquiring crew should not be as difficult :).
I still remember that I got stuck for a while after I bought my Panther Clipper, because I could not find sufficient crew via the bulletin board.

Winging up with NPC should also make escort missions possible I believe. It would open up cool new gameplay.
Yes, and I would take it even further. Being able to hire crew for your spare ships, then fly in a wing with them or send them on seperate missions. But I'm asking too much, I know.
 
This is the only suggestion as to what multi-crew could offer that I find interesting. I could see this adding to my game play. Otherwise this will be an addition that has very little interest to me.
To me this is key

First populate those roles with NPCs who really do not give a monkies if they only have to press "on/off" occasionally throughout many hours play. Then the whole what benefits does more than 1 crewmember have thing can be balanced out with NPCs who don't complain about it being stupid at times. Then start fleshing out what those roles involve that makes gameplay - and leave it all NPC still - the challenge being to make players WANT to switch roles, then you know you've got something fun to do that might keep other humans willing to sit there for 20 minutes before you get to the fight rather than asking "why the frack are we here? this is clearly a space pilot game. look i'll go get my own ship"
 
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LOL I can see it now :)

Pilot " ok lets get going launching from station"
Gunner " hell yeah locked and loaded "
Pilot " ok set course for xyz and lets roll"
Tactical "whats the hold up"
Pilot "hurry up with the course Engineering"
Gunner " ohh hes gone for a Cig break be back in 5 mins "
 
It seems very odd to me, how exactly does having 3 other humans at the controls increase the effectiveness of the ship by 400% ?! Sure there will be advantages but, as effective as 4 complete ships?

I think we must consider things the other way : to me, it makes far more sense to say that piloting your anaconda alone makes it 400% less effective... Big ships with advanced systems... It made no sense that one single man could get the most out of it! it was made to be handled by a crew. Just like the enterprise... Kirk wouldn't fly it alone!
 
I think we must consider things the other way : to me, it makes far more sense to say that piloting your anaconda alone makes it 400% less effective... Big ships with advanced systems... It made no sense that one single man could get the most out of it! it was made to be handled by a crew. Just like the enterprise... Kirk wouldn't fly it alone!
Previously we have had to hire crew to populate larger ships, at a price. This would be a good balance, but it's not a popular choice when people have spent so long grinding etc

All up for hiring crew, just I know I play at times a lot of friends can't and darn few of them have time or interest in Elite sad to say. Who needs kids - oh yes! For multicrew (hehe)
 
I think people are assuming that the game mechanics and interface will stay the same, and that the 3 new roles will be operating on essentially the same panels. While I am sure that there will be a default mode that is very similar to the current mechanic, The new crew roles will very likely have completely new User Interfaces and consoles with significantly expanded options.

Up to this point, Frontier designed the game mechanics with 1 pilot in mind. This makes sense on smaller ships, but on larger ships this oversimplification has always been a bit silly. Obviously, for the multi-crew to work, the mechanics must be redesigned/expanded. And maybe, just maybe, that's a GOOD thing.
 
From the reddit (I really hate reddit please don't let be the main source for information)

I've spent five minutes now looking for some kind of announcement on reddit that includes the text you quote with no success. I've only been using the internet for 22 years.

So:

1: Can someone link it please and
2: If it's an official announcement can someone from FD please explain why I'm expected to go somewhere other than the game's official forum, which is run by the company who develop it, to read official information about the game?

That's without even getting into that somewhere being reddit which is one of the most godawful, unintuitive, difficult to search, circle-jerk piles of junk on the internet. Honestly, every time I see 'oh it's on reddit' my heart just sinks.
 
Red > it's from here https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...rizons_and_its_included_expansions_the_known/

complete with references - apparently from a livestream - but indeed, why isn't it here too. i hate reddit. did i say that?

I think people are assuming that the game mechanics and interface will stay the same, and that the 3 new roles will be operating on essentially the same panels. While I am sure that there will be a default mode that is very similar to the current mechanic, The new crew roles will very likely have completely new User Interfaces and consoles with significantly expanded options.

Up to this point, Frontier designed the game mechanics with 1 pilot in mind. This makes sense on smaller ships, but on larger ships this oversimplification has always been a bit silly. Obviously, for the multi-crew to work, the mechanics must be redesigned/expanded. And maybe, just maybe, that's a GOOD thing.
You underestimate us, I think everyone assumed it'd be new screens.

And that sounds like I'll end up being forced into a single person ship.
 
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From the reddit (I really hate reddit please don't let be the main source for information)



I'm really curious how this isn't going to completely screw me as someone who wants to play on my own. Has FDev offered any explanation?

That statement is so hilariously wrong I don't even know what to say.

4vs1 is always a lopsided fight, no matter how well micromanaged the single ship is. It's only shooting at one enemy ship, maybe two, and the other two can go balls out with 4 pip wep 2 pip eng and unload.
 
I think people are assuming that the game mechanics and interface will stay the same, and that the 3 new roles will be operating on essentially the same panels. While I am sure that there will be a default mode that is very similar to the current mechanic, The new crew roles will very likely have completely new User Interfaces and consoles with significantly expanded options.

Up to this point, Frontier designed the game mechanics with 1 pilot in mind. This makes sense on smaller ships, but on larger ships this oversimplification has always been a bit silly. Obviously, for the multi-crew to work, the mechanics must be redesigned/expanded. And maybe, just maybe, that's a GOOD thing.

My thinking is the same. Lets hope we are correct.

Being a soloist I badly want multicrew with NPC and winging up with NPC.
I believe we will get these features eventually.
It will probably take a lot of patience though.

Larger ships should get minimum crew requirements just like in Frontier Elite 2.
But acquiring crew should not be as difficult :).
I still remember that I got stuck for a while after I bought my Panther Clipper, because I could not find sufficient crew via the bulletin board.

Winging up with NPC should also make escort missions possible I believe. It would open up cool new gameplay.

If they do change the mechanics to be better with multi-crew, lets push for NPC crew members to help balance the board.
I do remember DB saying this would be possible, way back in the beginning. Hiring a crew.

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Engineers DID add depth and functionality though.

Sorry, I do not see it the same way as you.
Engineers just added a pathetic attempt at crafting modules.
And it re-enforced a disjointed way of playing, in my opinion it weakened the game.
 
<snip> My bet goes to simple hard-coded buff to all major characteristics of the multicrew ship: two guys in ship - 2x damage output; 4 guys - 4x damage output, and so on. This is the simplest design and FDEV is usually picking those. We'll see.

If they ever deployed this into production. I will stop playing.
 
Either way we are hypothesising way too much. We know very little yet.
When has that ever been an obstacle for discussion. :D

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If i remember correctly, they won't add npc crew for the moment, even because tbey don't know what the crew should do (i think it's about how to balance them).
However that might happen sooner or later (maybe when they add npc wingmates in a far far future)
I'd rather have NPC crew who just shut up and did their jobs rather than having other CMDR's in the back kicking my seat and asking "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Or worse...

"Oh look a Capital ship and I don't have to pay the insurance on this guys ship." PEW PEW PEW... BOOM!
 
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I'd rather have NPC crew who just shut up and did their jobs rather than having other CMDR's in the back kicking my seat and asking "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

Or worse...

"Oh look a Capital ship and I don't have to pay the insurance on this guys ship." PEW PEW PEW... BOOM!
CTRL-S for "SHUT UP AND PLAY YOUR MINIGAMES!"

We know very little, but even with a world of possibilities to imagine I can't see what they do for all the transit time and I can't see how me in my asp being intercepted by possibly multi-crew super-damage pilots/npcs can work out 'fun' - it's the every-npc-with-super-upgrades on crack.
 
My personal sceptic opinion is that the whole idea "one fully manned ship equals to a full wing" cannot end well. If I will simplify it just to the combat capabilities it means that simple ship should produce +300% more damage and has +300% in shields to compete with the firepower and survivability of the whole wing. In reality, rather even more, as it is just a single target for the enemies. And those are insane bonuses. Also, unless players will want to experience something like Star Trek's Enterprise bridge, I bet they rather will want to fly their own ships.

What seems to me a better approach is to create a 4 or more additional "shadow" slots to the current wings, which can be manned just by the crew members/players, doesn't matter on which ship(s) and they will provide more believable bonuses. It may be also nicely supplemented by the AI/NPCs which need to be paid by the ship captain (player) and may provide similar bonuses as a real player, just lower (and which can be replaced by a real player, when present). It can be still well balanced - wings with 4 real players and their NPC crews will be equal (depending on the ships in the wings, of course) and a wing with 4 real players and 4+ additional real players as a crew (replacing NPCs) will be just a slightly better. So there will be still a motivation to man a ship with a real players, but multi-crew will be still an option even for a solo players. Because without the NPC crew will be the whole update more or less pointless for solo or casual co-op players.
 
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1.6 added depth and functionality, 2.1 The Engineers, is to me, shallow and functionally broken.

Quoted for truth.

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I think people are assuming that the game mechanics and interface will stay the same, and that the 3 new roles will be operating on essentially the same panels. While I am sure that there will be a default mode that is very similar to the current mechanic, The new crew roles will very likely have completely new User Interfaces and consoles with significantly expanded options.

Up to this point, Frontier designed the game mechanics with 1 pilot in mind. This makes sense on smaller ships, but on larger ships this oversimplification has always been a bit silly. Obviously, for the multi-crew to work, the mechanics must be redesigned/expanded. And maybe, just maybe, that's a GOOD thing.

Considering how obviously all other expansions were hurried out the doorway, you really believe they will do that one any differently? Sure, if they -would- do what you say, it could turn out to be somewhat useful. It'll still be a "and the fourth man takes a nap", but at least for the first three it might be somewhat interesting.

Unfortunately considering the track record since launch, what you suggest can only happen if another company buys Frontier and puts new managers in place. I'd wish to be wrong, but it's very unlikely.
 
Red > it's from here https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDange...rizons_and_its_included_expansions_the_known/

complete with references - apparently from a livestream - but indeed, why isn't it here too. i hate reddit. did i say that?


You underestimate us, I think everyone assumed it'd be new screens.

And that sounds like I'll end up being forced into a single person ship.

Appreciated, rep in the bank for you but you must have posted something else that I appreciated recently. :D

I miss almost all of the livestreams because I don't get in from work until 7.30ish most days and 7pm seems to be a popular time for them. Then when I think about checking for archives, I realise that I'm more in the mood for playing a game than watching some people talk about it.

On the actual topic, I'd be perfectly happy with my own involvment with crews being exactly what it was in Frontier, namely I have to hire them and that's it. I really really don't want to have to mess around with multiple screens, panels or any of the rest of it when I decide to fly my Conda instead of a Courier or something. Don't have any problem with the fact that they're going to introduce it because I'm sure that some people will love being able to have that multi-player experience but it's one of the updates that's never really meant anything to me - I just want to fly my own ship on my own (whatever it may be) and play the game, as I do now.
 
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Wings of 4 are already in the game. Having one ship be equal power to a wing of 4 only means that now we can have a wing of 4, in a single ship. Nothing changes balance-wise. Unless you already have a problem with a wing of 4 you wont with multi-crew. If you do have a problem I have a simple solution. Solo mode or Private Group.

If its not being able to use your current larger ships I think its safe to say as a single person your ship will work as it does now. You will not NEED other crew members. This is even further probable when you consider even smaller combat ships like the vulture have at least two seats. Which would mean single players would have beginner ships like the viper left to fly If crew were required. I don't see that happening.
 
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