Coming back after some time, Multicrew ?!

Lorathor

L
So, after some time, almost 2 years now, I've got back into elite again. A friend of mine got Elite and we wanted to get into it. I've been pretty far, had my Anaconda with a lot of millions to spare and have seen some stuff. Right off the bat I can say that a lot has been positively changed. I really like the way the new scanners work now, this is so much cooler now and exploring makes way more fun. Also the mission variety is pretty nice. Couldn't see much yet besides that but overall I'm positively surprised, good job on that one.

Then we wanted to test out the multicrew, I had no chance to test this out the last time and what to say... this is a real disappointment. I did not want to start from scratch and loose all my stuff so we quickly as possible got my friend a multicrew vessel so I could join him on the adventures. What is the point of multicrew ? Fighting, yes, everything else ? hell no. This is so unbelievably boring if you don't keep yourself active in some other way. I mean, there is the FSS but why does the ship needs to slow down ? Let the pilot fly as he wants while the crew scans the system. Always stopping for the scan is annoying. I get it, the pilot also can scan so it would be faster but there is so less to do for the crew anyway, just let him scan while flying and both players can have something to do at the same time. Same for the surface scanner. I know, it kind of breaks the system and I don't know any other way to solve this but you're giving the crew an opportunity but at the same time limiting it. Anway, we lived to live with it, it is nothing crucial BUT holy damn, why on earth would you not share the experience / money you get for exploring ? This is beyond my grasp. You are on the same ship, discovering the same systems, scanning the same planets, investigating the same points of interests but the crew gets absolutely nothing. The only way is trading and combat, are you serious ? Trading is somewhat fun alone but as a crew it can't get more boring for the joining members. That leaves us just with combat, unbelievable.
There are so many things the crew could do. For example just small things, give them the possibility to get the approval for landing, plot a route (or at least give a plotting recommendation to the pilot, just as a highlight), investigate the station and access the traders, shops, shipyards just to check. They don't need to have the right to buy but just to check out the things the station buys or sells to support communication. Maybe the pilot can decide on what the crew is allowed to do in a simple menu. Don't want the crew to buy or sell commodities ? Don't allow it on your ship, simple as that. Want a Co-Pilot that can plot the routes, refuel and take care of comms - allow it. Right now you just sit in your chair and do nothing until you leave the station again just to sit in your chair and do: nothing.
Fighting is another level, you have a lot of stuff to do while you fight as a crew, this is pretty nice but everything else is not worthy to try out. Right now, when we play together I am more of a support and I keep myself busy with other stuff like searching for trade routes and nearby stations on EDDB where we can resupply, have some other useful stuff open to look up but that is something the game should offer to keep me busy instead of just being an extra pip.

Please, if any of you has some recommendations of what else as a crew there is to do or if we miss anything, please give me a heads up!
So long, o7
 

Ignition

I
Multicrew is terrible and boring.
Even in combat with its stupid 3rd person camera which can only be used in big ships with a ton of hardpoints.
An engineer who could manage all the ships systems and overcharge them, diferential shields, comunications, detailed ship scans and complex repair mechanics maybe for faster repair times would be much better and usefull in all the ships.
They went for a stupid 3rd person camera instead, yeah its easier but dull.
 

Craith

Volunteer Moderator
Craith
As much as I want to love multicrew and as much as I like the idea, unfortunately the final version missed the mark.
If shares were treated like in a wing it would be much better already, including first discoveries.
Speaking of wings, why do I have to decide how I want to team up with my friends, why can't I combine wings with multicrew?
Why no SRVs? I want to be able to make a combined forces approach to a base.
Just imagine if you could fly in a vulture and the gunner could use its gimballed weapons like a helicopter gunner?

While this requires some work and I guess the Srv encountered technical problems (since it was on the first ideas but got dropped later), it should be possible.

Don't get me started with a more defensive role, aligning shield vectors (150% front, 50% back, and manually rotate it towards the enemy, adjusting shield resistances to some readings you get from incoming damage. ), an engineer role - that would require more work. Allow the sensors to be more focused to increase range, more detailed heat management, scanning while in motion as mentioned above

Let the second player directly control limpets and even the DSS probes (limited maneuverability, but some final adjustments to the course)

Make the permissions more open, let me hand over all right, even the helm. I trust them not to fire at the station I dock, why can't I trust them flying through empty space?
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
Good points. I don't know how exploration payout would work though. Do you only get the money once the helm returns to the bubble and sells the exploration data? In that case it would often take months until you get the credits. Probably still better than nothing. Everything else would be exploitable: Join an explorer, scan a few systems, teleport yourself back to the bubble, sell data and get first discovered tags + credits.
 

maboleth

maboleth
I'm probably a minority, but I do like MC more and more. It's not just the "title" or job I have to do, but more a feeling that I'm a co-op passenger in a ship I don't command, I can enjoy the views, all potential "aaah" moments, assist the pilot and have a nice chat with him/her. Sort of like being a passenger in a car, when you can admire the scenery and help the driver, without being focused on the driving itself. It's a totally new experience, far away in the galaxy.

Plus, with Beyond updates, there are several more things to do as a copilot as well. For example, during exploration we can use both DSS and FSS. Not only a time saver for the pilot, but also a nice job to do. Also I've seen new mining tools offer MC as well. I'd love to try these too.

While certainly not being perfect, with much future potential, MC is still better and more complete after Beyond updates that I tend to enjoy very much.
 
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Sylow

Sylow
Multi-Crew really is about combat. And also, don't go for the gunnery role. It's no fun. Both players feel like they now have half a ship at their hand, for the simple reason that they do. If using a gunner is your only chance of multi-crew, you're better of flying in a wing.

If you on the other hand have a SLF, it becomes great fun. The SLF is a joy to fly, is very agile and packs a punch. It sure is very vulnerable, but even the smallest SLF hangar holds eight of them and they are very cheap. A beginner can learn a lot about combat in them and make plenty of mistakes without really hurting your budget.

But the biggest advantage for me is accessibility. I have some friends who play like once every few months, and when they play, the often only have an hour or two available between work and family. Having to travel to each other for half an hour is a deal breaker here. Before multi-crew, the standard was that i left ED and we played something else to save time. With multi-crew, they can jump in any time, crew my SLF and we're off to go. All i have to do is to find the next RES or corrupted nav beacon and we're good.

I know that for most players here this doesn't matter too much. I also don't need this feature too often, but when i do, i am very glad that we have it.


That all being said, you are very right: FD should really upgrade other aspects of multi-crew. I accept that gunnery was dead on arrival and that there's not much to be done about it. It went exactly the way i expected things to go, as it was the very same in other space flight games with turrets available.

But things like the the FSS being useable without requiring the pilot putting the throttle to zero and count his fingernails would really be a step ahead. And that's before even going for crew members being able to deplay SRVs. Which would be a huge upgrade and really desirable.
 
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krylite

krylite
MC will probably be worked on in the future. And FD are probably waiting for an expended and updated infrastructure that supports spacelegs before getting back to mc, which I'd think makes more economical sense because prioritizing mc now , or even back during Beyond season would likely have delayed everything else. Recall that holo-me also came at the same time as mc, so it could have been seen as a preliminary spacelegs foundational effort, imo where mc would generally make more sense with fully implemented spacelegs for pc and npc crew avatars.
 
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Phoenix_Dfire

Phoenix_Dfire
I haven't used Multi-crew for quite a while (mostly because I have no Friends) but just to ask
  1. Can all crew members use the scanner and probe launcher to map a system?
  2. Can the gunner use turreted version of the new mining weapons?
  3. Can gunner's target Thargoid Hearts? So we could multi-crew Thargoids?
 

zimms

zimms
FD had nowhere near enough time to work on MC. But since the players "had to" pay in advance with the Horizons Season model, FD felt the need to make good on their promise and that also included a relatively small release window. When they started designing and actually thinking the MC features through they soon realized that they can't do most of the things they envisioned.

Hard pressed and out of options they took some wooden planks, a couple of nails and duct tape and built something nobody knows what the heck it's supposed to be.

I really hope TNE 2020 kicks it all in the bin and builds those multi-crew/multi-player features from ground up anew.
 

babelfisch

babelfisch
zimms said:
FD had nowhere near enough time to work on MC. But since the players "had to" pay in advance with the Horizons Season model, FD felt the need to make good on their promise and that also included a relatively small release window. When they started designing and actually thinking the MC features through they soon realized that they can't do most of the things they envisioned.

Hard pressed and out of options they took some wooden planks, a couple of nails and duct tape and built something nobody knows what the heck it's supposed to be.

I really hope TNE 2020 kicks it all in the bin and builds those multi-crew/multi-player features from ground up anew.
Click to expand...
Don't get your hopes up. If you read the forums long enough you'll realise that what you said can be true for any area of the game, based on preferences of the person posting. So in the end the entire game would need a rewrite...
 
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