Crew: Full Time or Casual

[Lanceor]

As per the title - what are your thoughts of hiring one or more pilots?

They take a smaller cut of your profits if you train them up from Harmless, but is it worth the continuous drain on your finances? Do you find Master/Dangerous/Deadly/Elite NPC pilots significantly better than Expert?

Or do you just hire a crewperson as needed and terminate their contract just before handing in your bounties/missions/whatever? Is the Expert skill level "good enough"?

It would be interesting to know what everyone thinks.

 

[Mordhar]

For me one of the most important characteristics of NPC crewmember is their appearance and description. And it is extremely hard to find one with good looks, logical description and nice name.
For this reason, I never fire NPC when I finally find a good one. Naturally, I only hire NPCs with “harmless” rank and rank-up them myself. Because it saves 6% on “elite” rank.

Combat effectiveness of high-ranked NPCs depends on ship they use. While “basic” combat more or less the same regardless of rank, especially when using gimbal weapons, “deadly” and “elite” aim better, use chaff more effectively and survive longer. High-ranked NPCs also have much better pip management, which is important if trusted with mothership control.

 

[Backelaer]

For me one of the most important characteristics of NPC crewmember is their appearance and description. And it is extremely hard to find one with good looks, logical description and nice name.
For this reason, I never fire NPC when I finally find a good one. Naturally, I only hire NPCs with “harmless” rank and rank-up them myself. Because it saves 6% on “elite” rank.

Combat effectiveness of high-ranked NPCs depends on ship they use. While “basic” combat more or less the same regardless of rank, especially when using gimbal weapons, “deadly” and “elite” aim better, use chaff more effectively and survive longer. High-ranked NPCs also have much better pip management, which is important if trusted with mothership control.

Agreed, on all parts. I look for a cool backstory and name, and only hire harmless pilots. Only one at a time though, and I try to stick with them.
I do have got one serious issue: I never let them fly my ship. I always intend to, but when push comes to shove, I just can't hand over the controls of the mothership. Even though my crewmember is now Deadly. One of these these days I will let her take the wheel. Seriously!
That being said, a deadly pilot in a SLF can really kick some . In my experience, from the rank of Dangerous and onwards, they tend to be most usefull in a Imp fighter with fixed beams. They actually help out bringing down a target. (Mostly for assassination missions and in RES though. In a CZ, they get popped earlier)

 

[Finn638]

As per the title - what are your thoughts of hiring one or more pilots?

They take a smaller cut of your profits if you train them up from Harmless, but is it worth the continuous drain on your finances? Do you find Master/Dangerous/Deadly/Elite NPC pilots significantly better than Expert?

Or do you just hire a crewperson as needed and terminate their contract just before handing in your bounties/missions/whatever? Is the Expert skill level "good enough"?

It would be interesting to know what everyone thinks.

Like others said, for me the reason for hiring is the looks. I hired and fired over 1000 crew, and chose to keep only two of them so far - good-looking ones are pretty rare.

And yeah, huge difference between Harmless and Elite. The only things Harmless ones can do is get blown up, but when they're Elite it's fun to watch them destroying enemy pythons and the like in an SLF, or take on several enemies at once all by themselves.

 

[Stealthie]

Take a wild guess.