Greetings Commanders! (and hopefully at least one developer - fingers crossed)
I'm going to be posting a few threads today of suggestions I have made on Reddit and Twitter, as I've been advised that this is where they're most likely to be seen. I'm going to try to be as concise as possible as I don't want to waste anyone's time. I absolutely love Elite, and my mind is constantly bristling with new ideas and suggestions. I hope that you like them.
NPC CREW
1. Let your NPC Crew sit in the cockpit with you. Where are they supposed to be? Surely they're in a pilot seat, same as you, in order to use Telepresence for the SLF? I totally understand that this would have problems due to multicrew, but how about if your NPC crew is in a seat that a player crew needs, THEN the NPC crew can go off to wherever they currently are. A lot of us get quite attached to our NPC crew, and they deserve a seat in the bridge with us.
2. Speaking of getting attached to your crew, you need to stop with this whole "Your crew dies if your ship is destroyed." I only just got my first Anaconda, and I've gotten an NPC crew (who I really like) from Harmless to Expert. There are undoubtedly some Commanders with Harmless to Elite NPC crew, and for them to just die if your ship gets destroyed is tragic, and bad design. I see two ways of solving this, one far more interesting than the other.
One way would be to simply let your NPC crew eject, same as you. Simple. I have no idea why this isn't already in the game... Is it because they aren't in an Escape Pod capable seat? If so, why not? Thats not safe, and is probably illegal. Is it because they don't have a Remlok suit capable of saving their life? Let me buy them one, or let them earn one from the Pilots Federation after they reach a certain rank?
The other way is a lot more complicated, but a lot cooler IMO. (TLDR - You have to recue your crew in an escape pod, either from pirates or just floating, stranded where your ship was destroyed) It would use architecture from mission types that are already in the game, but to create a mission to rescue your crew. Lets say you die in a Resource Extraction Site. You purchase your rebuy, and are met with a Mission Critical Message. It's a mayday call from your Crew's escape pod, containing their location, and oxygen remaining (Maybe you only have 24 hours to save them before they die). You would then head to the mission location and find it in the same way you would a Salvage mission. Scoop them up, take them back to a station to bring them out of stasis, and they're back!
However, there could also be a small chance that when you get to the mission location, there's nothing but a High Wake. You scan it, and jump to an adjacent system. You then perform either a Nav Beacon scan or an ADS scan, and receive the location of the escape pod's signature. You follow it to a mission objective (Or perhaps interdict the target), drop in, and there's a pirate (Or pirate wing). You have to use hatch breaker limpets to rescue your crew in the same way as a hostage rescue. Once you secure them, it's back to a station.
All the base architecture is already in the game, it would take s bit of tweaking obviously, but it's not impossible. You could even be given the mission by the Search and Rescue contact. I think it would be awesome.
MULTICREW[/U)
Very simply, we need more. More things that your co-pilot can do in Exploration (That's right, co-pilot. Not Gunner, co-pilot). Simple things like plotting routes, requesting docking permission, scanning bodies, and earning the same amount of money that we do from those discoveries. Also double SRV deployment would be awesome, or at least add a two seater SRV.
I'm going to be posting a few threads today of suggestions I have made on Reddit and Twitter, as I've been advised that this is where they're most likely to be seen. I'm going to try to be as concise as possible as I don't want to waste anyone's time. I absolutely love Elite, and my mind is constantly bristling with new ideas and suggestions. I hope that you like them.
NPC CREW
1. Let your NPC Crew sit in the cockpit with you. Where are they supposed to be? Surely they're in a pilot seat, same as you, in order to use Telepresence for the SLF? I totally understand that this would have problems due to multicrew, but how about if your NPC crew is in a seat that a player crew needs, THEN the NPC crew can go off to wherever they currently are. A lot of us get quite attached to our NPC crew, and they deserve a seat in the bridge with us.
2. Speaking of getting attached to your crew, you need to stop with this whole "Your crew dies if your ship is destroyed." I only just got my first Anaconda, and I've gotten an NPC crew (who I really like) from Harmless to Expert. There are undoubtedly some Commanders with Harmless to Elite NPC crew, and for them to just die if your ship gets destroyed is tragic, and bad design. I see two ways of solving this, one far more interesting than the other.
One way would be to simply let your NPC crew eject, same as you. Simple. I have no idea why this isn't already in the game... Is it because they aren't in an Escape Pod capable seat? If so, why not? Thats not safe, and is probably illegal. Is it because they don't have a Remlok suit capable of saving their life? Let me buy them one, or let them earn one from the Pilots Federation after they reach a certain rank?
The other way is a lot more complicated, but a lot cooler IMO. (TLDR - You have to recue your crew in an escape pod, either from pirates or just floating, stranded where your ship was destroyed) It would use architecture from mission types that are already in the game, but to create a mission to rescue your crew. Lets say you die in a Resource Extraction Site. You purchase your rebuy, and are met with a Mission Critical Message. It's a mayday call from your Crew's escape pod, containing their location, and oxygen remaining (Maybe you only have 24 hours to save them before they die). You would then head to the mission location and find it in the same way you would a Salvage mission. Scoop them up, take them back to a station to bring them out of stasis, and they're back!
However, there could also be a small chance that when you get to the mission location, there's nothing but a High Wake. You scan it, and jump to an adjacent system. You then perform either a Nav Beacon scan or an ADS scan, and receive the location of the escape pod's signature. You follow it to a mission objective (Or perhaps interdict the target), drop in, and there's a pirate (Or pirate wing). You have to use hatch breaker limpets to rescue your crew in the same way as a hostage rescue. Once you secure them, it's back to a station.
All the base architecture is already in the game, it would take s bit of tweaking obviously, but it's not impossible. You could even be given the mission by the Search and Rescue contact. I think it would be awesome.
MULTICREW[/U)
Very simply, we need more. More things that your co-pilot can do in Exploration (That's right, co-pilot. Not Gunner, co-pilot). Simple things like plotting routes, requesting docking permission, scanning bodies, and earning the same amount of money that we do from those discoveries. Also double SRV deployment would be awesome, or at least add a two seater SRV.