Annual attempt at trying to use random multicrew

[Strangepork]

All attempts in Open. I live in a building constructed in 2012, in the largest capital city in Europe (at time of writing), with the best non-fibre ADSL service money can buy.

Attempt 1

Two of the "join ship" categories show a +, which I take to mean that multicrew sessions are available in those categories.

But they aren't.

Attempt 2

I watch an orange Anaconda spinning for a couple of minutes before being returned to my own ship.

Attempt 3

I connect to a friendly person on the DW2 expedition. We exchange banter and s/he then spends five minutes trying to work out how to let me control the FSS. We never figure it out. I go and make a coffee and return a few minutes later. Nothing is happening because this person is engaged in the 2D exploration minigame and they can't talk to me and I can't participate or even see what they see or the planets they're scanning, so I'm just staring at empty space. I disconnect.

Attempt 4

I watch an orange Anaconda spinning for a couple of minutes before being booted to the main menu. On logging back in, I'm given 72,380 credits for participating in this experience. I could buy 13 docking computers with that.

Attempt 5

Same as attempt 4, except I only get 52,953 credits for doing absolutely nothing this time around.

Attempt 6

I wait ten minutes to try and avoid having to connect to the same person again, because there is no way of selecting from a list of available folks other than literally blocking the person that's unintentionally hogging the top of the list (which makes the differential +, ++ and +++ indicators a bit odd when you stop to think about it).

There is now no-one available. I keep trying over the next 20 minutes. In the meantime I get a bit of important slither.io immersive gameplay done.

Attempt 7

I eventually connect to a Corvette parked in Cleve Hub at Eravate. The owner is AFK for several minutes. On their return, I'm kicked out without any exchange of words. I permanently block this person because there's no other way to avoid wasting my time connecting to them again.

Attempt 8

No-one in any category becomes available for the next 15 minutes. For some of that, a + becomes available in the Bounty Hunting category, but I can't connect to them. It could be the person I blocked in Attempt 7, but I have no way of knowing.

Attempt 9

I connect to someone in a Krait. They're in a CZ. I deploy a fighter. I'm immediately disconnected with an Unrecoverable Transaction Error. I'm awarded 142,182 credits when I return to my ship.

Attempt 10

I connect to an Anaconda. They're in the middle of interdicting someone. We drop out. Excitingly, his target is a Harmless Cobra. I deploy the fighter. I actually make it out of the docking bay. I target the ship and start turning. I'm suddenly disconnected with "The multi-crew session ended unexpectedly - the helm may have become disconnected".

Attempt 11

I connect to a Corvette. They're at a resource site. The roles panel is a bit screwed up but I manage to take over from an invisible nameless NPC who is already deployed. Everything seems to be working. The helm opens up on an Anaconda. We take it out, followed by a DBX. It's at this point I notice that we're all Wanted through no action of mine, so I disconnect and decline the rewards.

And that was as much as I could stand. While this game has allegedly never been busier, multicrew clearly isn't.

Ace post...

my 3 minute smuggling multicrew was the best yet, I joined the pilot as they hit the toast rack hard, that was about it, struggling there. Memorable.

 

[Xaevryn]

I connected to multicrew for about five seconds, once. I joined while the pilot was in the middle of a scream as we careened out of control spinning faster than i've ever seen a conda spin before promptly exploding. Good times.

 

[B1rdy]

I can confirm Multicrew is a nightmare tech wise and also design wise. Even with somebody on the same internet connection (10ms ping as me, different port forwarded, we got soft locks, "endless" loading screens, disconnects, complete client crashes. When it was working, my crew mate didn't receive any credits from mission rewards. Same with using the FSS, no rewards at all. This is ridiculous with the statement "if you use it enough, we might expand it" in mind.

 

[pzykozomatik]

The one longer multicrew experience I had was actually very nice, I invited a CMDR whom I had befriended earlier to join my Corvette as a gunner and SLF pilot, since I saw that he was on the other side of the galaxy at the time and I thought he might welcome some action. We had a fun bounty hunting session and he even got a trophy out of it.

 

[deleteduser]

My one and only experience of MC was entirely accidental, clicking the wrong buttons whilst waiting for an FSD charge to another system.

I immediately connected and found myself in a T-10 & hunting 'Wanteds' in a Res of some description. I jumped into the SLF and had a blast with Plasma Repeaters, asteroids and explody things aplenty, before disconnecting to save my own ship from jumping itself into the centre of an actual star.

Great times.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

btw,
the last time my crew had issues dropping into the fighter (transaction error) was, when we used discord VoiP at the same time. but that was many patches ago and not tested recently again.

 

[Anxiety]

Random Multicrew is always a hoot because I have a fighter bay so I get some random idiot who doesn’t know what they are doing who crashes the fighter and leaves in about five minutes.

One time I got a really good pilot. His name was...thelegend27

 

[Spacecat]

My experience is generally much better, if I can find somebody...