Do You want Non-Combat Roles for Multicrew?
- Thread starter Cosmo
- Start date
Sure, because historically they have regularly gone back to earlier implemented features and improved them by adding additional content, like for CQC, Power Play, Wings, fighters.
Oh, wait….
Judging by what they’ve told us now, I don’t think multicrew was ever intended to be anything but purely combat focused, and I doubt they will ever bother to go back and revisit it later. If they do you can bet your Cutter that it will only be to add more combat features to multicrew, NOT non-combat stuff. Frontier just doesn’t seem to want to bother, at all, and I’ve lost faith in their “vision” for the game. They just seem to want a multiplayer blow stuff up game to appeal to the CoD crowds on consoles, and us non-combat players are just along for the ride.
I'd like to see multi crew shipmates involved in scientific operations, salvage, rescue, exploration. I'd like to see walking around ships, walking on planets, gathering soil samples for exploration data.. exploring ancient caves, Fauna and Flora forms on appropriately appropriate planets.. persistent ships (until everyone logs out), want to be able to explore the galaxy with crewmates.. tasks on ships.. engineering, sciences.. proper helm control, astrometrics. shuttlecraft to land on planets without taking your ship down... short range transporters to 'beam' on to planet surfaces, or stations.. commodity kiosks, lounge areas to meet other commanders and advert boards in commumal areas.
but all this is technology based on space legs, and avatars, so multicrew is actually addressing the former.. so in sorts we're on the right track.
Multicrew doesn't have to just be standing at a gun booth shooting moving stuff.
but all this is technology based on space legs, and avatars, so multicrew is actually addressing the former.. so in sorts we're on the right track.
Multicrew doesn't have to just be standing at a gun booth shooting moving stuff.
Personally I don't know anyone who'd want to come onto my ship and be a navigator...that sounds like trading a fun game about flying space ships to a total borefest if you ask me! Same goes for tactical.
Engineering could be interesting but I think we'd need space legs first, so you could be for example run to the engine room to put out a fire from overheating engines, then run to the shield generator room to get the shields back up quicker etc.
Still not something I'd buy a game to do, but would be far more interesting than sitting on a bridge looking at a screen for magic bonus's!
Engineering could be interesting but I think we'd need space legs first, so you could be for example run to the engine room to put out a fire from overheating engines, then run to the shield generator room to get the shields back up quicker etc.
Still not something I'd buy a game to do, but would be far more interesting than sitting on a bridge looking at a screen for magic bonus's!
I know the poll is closed but I just wanted to add my two cents. I think an Excellent non-combat role would be the navigator, which I know a lot of people have mentioned. Consider two very powerful mechanics you could implement: Hyperspace Slingshots and Topological Navigation.
I know there were talks about hyperspace slingshots back in the early development days, and so I'm not sure what the reasoning was for not including that mechanic, but if the reasons were not technical it might be fun to rehash the idea for someone with a navigator. In my vision, it would not allow players to slingshot through a system completely, but rather slingshot around the primary mass in a system and into a secondary mass. For example, you could slingshot around Alpha Centauri and exit hyperspace at Proxima instead.
The second idea, the topological navigation, has to do with the gravity wells in a solar system. I've often wondered if it would be faster to fly around a planet rather than right through its gravity well. A navigator might be given a topological map of the gravity in a system and could direct the helm to fly a certain course to avoid the slowing of heavy gravity. Not sure if that would be faster, but it could be cool if it was.
The navigator might be a good addition to the game whenever the Galaxy Map UI is upgraded (which I hope is in the works).
Anyways, that's my thoughts. Fly safe; O7.
I know there were talks about hyperspace slingshots back in the early development days, and so I'm not sure what the reasoning was for not including that mechanic, but if the reasons were not technical it might be fun to rehash the idea for someone with a navigator. In my vision, it would not allow players to slingshot through a system completely, but rather slingshot around the primary mass in a system and into a secondary mass. For example, you could slingshot around Alpha Centauri and exit hyperspace at Proxima instead.
The second idea, the topological navigation, has to do with the gravity wells in a solar system. I've often wondered if it would be faster to fly around a planet rather than right through its gravity well. A navigator might be given a topological map of the gravity in a system and could direct the helm to fly a certain course to avoid the slowing of heavy gravity. Not sure if that would be faster, but it could be cool if it was.
The navigator might be a good addition to the game whenever the Galaxy Map UI is upgraded (which I hope is in the works).
Anyways, that's my thoughts. Fly safe; O7.
I think a mod closed the poll, cause it would've overwhelmingly been yes for non-combat roles. 
Navigator would be interesting to scan systems and planets, find points of interest, alien life then communicate with the pilot and set a course. Also scan planetary rings for valuable minerals. There's a lot of potential for non-combat gameplay.
Navigator would be interesting to scan systems and planets, find points of interest, alien life then communicate with the pilot and set a course. Also scan planetary rings for valuable minerals. There's a lot of potential for non-combat gameplay.
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Wow, where's the 70/30 split?
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Also, in trying to do the singshot, you could introduce mis-jumps and the need to figure out where you are!
It would also be a great time to introduce the orrery map view
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Also, in trying to do the singshot, you could introduce mis-jumps and the need to figure out where you are!
It would also be a great time to introduce the orrery map view
Cannot vote because phone, but hell yes multicrew should be for more then just combat. SLFs should have been more then just for combat and could have gone a long way for exploration and even trading gameplay if done right. There are so many features of this game that are only useful for combat and multi crew of all things should be about doing activities you enjoy with friends, it just getting that little extra edge in combat
I feel like this "bare bones" approach is sort of testing The waters. It's a pretty experimental feature if you think about it. And they need to see if this is going to be a problem with latency, overall balance, and actually seeing use. If no one seems to be using it then why pump more money into it? That being said I fully expect this to be a fun and popular feature. Especially for active groups. 4 ships in a wing each with maxed out multicrew would be a serious threat
Absolutely it should have non-combat roles. See this is an update that could have been a real game changer for things like exploration, mining, and trading. Real depth could have been added to those parts of the game with multi-crew.
Navigators with advanced tools in system and galaxy map to find interesting bodies while exploring, or can help finding best trade routes.
Engineers that could tune a ship on the fly to increase jump range, or boost shields during combat, at the expense of other modules. And of course the ability to repair modules.
Scientists that could take core samples, collect more precise data, access to different scans.
I feel like these roles could have added so much more depth to roles that have so far been a little boring if I'm honest. They could have even made it accessible to single players if NPC crew were available to fly your ship while you take on an alternative role. But alas, we're left with only 1 new role, gunner, and a second SLF, roles that are completely useless outside of combat. Sure, it would have been a lot more work, but I would have been willing to wait on that.
HOWEVER, I do understand FD's decision, and I'm not really upset with them. I'm convinced that there will be further development on multi-crew down the road, I think a lot of things will grow over time, but right now it seems we're in the placing module phase, I believe, and hope, that the fleshing out phase is coming. They seem to have a long plan, and I trust them.
Navigators with advanced tools in system and galaxy map to find interesting bodies while exploring, or can help finding best trade routes.
Engineers that could tune a ship on the fly to increase jump range, or boost shields during combat, at the expense of other modules. And of course the ability to repair modules.
Scientists that could take core samples, collect more precise data, access to different scans.
I feel like these roles could have added so much more depth to roles that have so far been a little boring if I'm honest. They could have even made it accessible to single players if NPC crew were available to fly your ship while you take on an alternative role. But alas, we're left with only 1 new role, gunner, and a second SLF, roles that are completely useless outside of combat. Sure, it would have been a lot more work, but I would have been willing to wait on that.
HOWEVER, I do understand FD's decision, and I'm not really upset with them. I'm convinced that there will be further development on multi-crew down the road, I think a lot of things will grow over time, but right now it seems we're in the placing module phase, I believe, and hope, that the fleshing out phase is coming. They seem to have a long plan, and I trust them.
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Cooking mamma space edition
The root of the problem is that Frontier has spent so much dev time and so many point updates focusing on combat that it's really the only aspect of the game with enough meat to make use of multicrew. They've neglected so many other non-combat aspects for so long that there just aren't any meaningful mechanics to utilize with multicrew. Mining is really the only aspect next to combat that is in a decent place, and it's no coincidence that 2.3 just might yet be getting a bit of mining functionality for multicrew.
The different professions of the game will continue to be terribly unbalanced with regards to features and mechanics until Frontier decides to put some actual work into exploration, trading, etc. I wish they'd change their priorities, because it really is getting tiring. I mean just look at that poll up above....
The different professions of the game will continue to be terribly unbalanced with regards to features and mechanics until Frontier decides to put some actual work into exploration, trading, etc. I wish they'd change their priorities, because it really is getting tiring. I mean just look at that poll up above....
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I appreciate what you are saying Mengy but whilst watching the steam my first thought was that if I found a pretty HMC I would be able to invite you to see it from my ship
A feature doesn't need to be designed specifically for exploration for it to be of use.