This is an extraordinarily long feature suggestion. I've done my best to fully flesh out how the system would function, including numbers for filler and detailed examples. I hope you find it worthwhile to support!
Summary: This feature will allow commanders to recruit a roster of crew members to service modules installed in their ship, providing improved performance or modifiers to functionality. Ship type dictates maximum crew that can be brought aboard, further filtered by how many crew can man a given module based on its type and size. Crew will cost a fee to hire and charge a nominal percentile fee on earnings when in use. Crew will have dispositions that increase and decrease their satisfaction based on mission types completed and will be able to ‘quit’ a commander if dissatisfied for too long.
Feature Goal: Ship Crew provide the opportunity for commanders to further customize and invest in their fleet of vessels. Crew will be more accessible than engineering (though not necessarily as powerful in benefit) and will provide opportunities for player decision in regard to their personal brand of playstyle.
A Brief Overview of Crew Categories
With this feature, crew are divided into two major categories: Bridge Crew and Ship Crew. Bridge Crew are NPC commanders who, like the player, are members of the Pilots Federation and can pilot vessels. Should the Gunner Role ever become available, this NPC would also be considered Bridge Crew as they directly ‘control’ the ship or its systems in some manner.
Ship Crew are employees hired by the owning commander to maintain and assist modules aboard their assigned vessel. It is important to note that, as of now, all ships in Elite: Dangerous are completely autonomous and require no crew save for a lone commander pilot. While this is sensible for a smaller vessel like the Viper Mk. III, a Beluga Liner’s guests or the myriad systems of an exploring Anaconda would be much more difficult to single-hand.
Ship Crew, then, are not necessary for the function of a ship nor do they radically change its performance compared to a Bridge Crew member (player or NPC). Instead, they moderately improve the functionality of the ship.
Ship Crew Profiles
Ship Crew are not registered members of the Pilots Federation and instead follow a universally recognized ranking system of experience, ranging from Apprentice to Captain. They hire onto the commander’s roster for a nominal fee based on these ranks and charge a portion of earnings based upon this rank – similar to Bridge Crew. Ranks increase with individual earnings from their fees, with each rank requiring larger increases in earnings than the last. Earnings cuts, unlike Bridge Crew, do not increase in size with rank. This is detailed later in ranks.
Unlike Bridge Crew, whose cut is larger and loyalty more secure, ship crew have an ever-shifting state of ‘morale’ on an individual basis. Higher morale leads to greater performance in their role, whereas low morale leads to poorer performance. Ship Crew that have the lowest morale for too long will terminate their contract after some time and, until the commander docks again to offload them, they will still be aboard and thus will begin to negatively impact their fellow crew members. How morale functions is detailed later.
In addition to morale, Ship Crew have ‘mission preferences’. Crew members will prefer one type of mission and dislike another type. These two are not necessarily mutually exclusive from a career perspective, though most mission preferences will follow a sort of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ style between the three major career areas of Elite:
Crew members that prefer combat missions will generally dislike exploration missions, those that prefer exploration will generally dislike trade, and those that prefer trade will generally dislike combat. Mission preferences are further detailed later.
Crew and Your Ship
As mentioned earlier, every ship in Elite: Dangerous is fully autonomous and does not need crew to function beyond its piloting commander. While this is reasonable for the tiny Eagle, it is far from sensible for the hulking Anaconda. Crew are optional improvements to installed modules aboard the ship, similar to engineering but with critical differences:
Crew can move between ships, unlike modifications, and only provide bonuses and no drawbacks. However, these bonuses are much smaller compared to high-end engineering, they fluctuate with crew morale, and actively cost the commander in credits to maintain, much like fuel or munitions.
How many crew a ship can employ is based on two factors:
First, every ship has a ‘maximum crew capacity’. As modules are not built to require crew, they do not include the necessary amenities to support a crew such as births, a galley, or emergency facilities. Instead, these are in-built with the commander’s own facilities. Thus, every ship comes with a pre-determined number of crew it can support. As a general reference, small ships will support between 1 and 4 crew members, medium will support between 4 and 12 crew members, and large ships will support between 12 and 24 crew members.
The second factor in crew assignment are modules. Crew can be assigned to most optional, hardpoint, and utility modules, but not internals. The size of a module will dictate how many crew can be assigned to modify it. Smaller modules (Sizes 1 to 3) will only handle a single crew member in general, whereas mid-size modules (Sizes 4 to 6) will handle pairs or even trios. Large modules (Sizes 7 and 8) will be able to handle as many as four crew members in certain cases.
Quickly it can be seen that while a small ship might have slots for many crew members because of its modules (such as the Diamondback Explorer, which employs numerous modules) it won’t be able to staff them all. This is true even for large vessels, which will require even more thoughtful planning of crew assignments as the disparity between module assignments and maximum crew size increases. This balancing act of crew selection and assignment is the first element of what makes Ship Crew a much more dynamic system than engineering.
Crew cannot be assigned to internals for several reasons, both lore and gameplay. From a lore perspective, internals are already entirely autonomous and/or located on ships such that they cannot be reached for service outside of a station or facility. From a gameplay perspective, internals are where engineering really shines and has its greatest impact - adding crew to this would only 'overcharge' or reduce the value of engineering. Optional modules are woefully lacking in modifications, providing a great shoe-in for crew from both a gameplay and lore perspective.
Ship Crew Benefits
Ship Crew share some similarities with engineering in what they provide in benefits. Broadly, crew members are sorted into five categories: Mercantile, Maintenance, Technology, Fire Control, and Service.
Mercantile: These crew members provide benefits towards credit gains, cargo efficiency, reputation development, and requisitions. A mercantile crew member might provide a bonus to profits on a cargo sale, or increase the amount of reputation gained from a mission completion.
Maintenance: These crew members provide benefits towards ship integrity and repair, mechanical efficiency, deployed vehicles, and limpet controller effectiveness. A maintenance crew member might provide a decrease in Fighter rebuild time or reduce the resource cost of operating an AFMU.
Technology: These crew members provide benefits towards many modules types by augmenting or further enhancing their capabilities. A technology crew member might provide increased resistances to shielding or enhance credit gains from passengers as a knowledgeable guide.
Fire Control: These crew member provide benefits towards weapons systems and many defensive utilities. A fire control crew member might decrease the activation time of shield cells or improve the rotational speed of turrets.
Service: These crew members provide benefits towards passengers, augment mission terms, and modify the effectiveness of influence. A service crew member might preemptively increase passenger satisfaction at launch or increase the influence gained from mission completion.
Most crew will have mission preferences in alignment with their chosen specialty, but not all will! There are crew members who excel in Fire Control but yearn for the emptiness of the black just as there are mercantile crew members that thrive in the heat of battle. For commanders that wish to perfect a single, large vessel, finding these unique individuals will be important to ensure crew harmony.
Crew Ranks
Crew can be hired at varying ranks, with higher ranks charging a higher starting fee and earnings fee. Like bridge crew, ship crew hired at lower ranks will be more economical in the long rung but will also be weaker in benefit at first. For commanders that expect to have a regularly disgruntled crew (see: frequent ship destruction), hiring higher ranks may be more reasonable. More important, though, is the time investment in lower rank crew as their fees are so marginal their growth is much slower.
Ranks are increased through earnings. For example, a crew member that is an Apprentice will increase in rank when their earnings reach 10,000 credits. As an apprentice hire, their earnings fee is only .1%, this means the commander will have earned 1,000,000 credits while employing this crew member. As crew members will charge smaller sums than bridge crew members, ranking is a comparatively slow process – the tradeoff being more credits in the commander’s own pocket if they choose to invest in low rank crew. The formula for rank increases is at the bottom of this post in Technical Details.
For the sake of simplicity and ease of reading, how ranks modify performance is included in the Morale section.
The Crew Roster
At the start of a commander’s career they will be unable to hire any crew because their Pilot’s Federation rank in any of the three careers is too low. However, with each gain in rank a commander may hire one additional crew member. Thus, a commander who is ‘Elite’ in all three career tracks will be able to hire a total of 24 crew members, eight for each career track.
This system of advancement allows for new commanders to immediately take advantage of Ship Crew, while providing an incentive for veteran commanders to ‘expand their horizons’ so as to leverage a full-size crew in their favorite large vessel, or develop a diverse roster for ‘ship-hopping’ between activities in smaller vessels.
When crew are not assigned to a ship, they reside in the Crew Lounge and do not incur earnings fees. However, when placed into the crew lounge a crew member’s morale will be reset to the neutral level of ‘content’ and they will also cease to increase in experience towards higher ranks as they are no longer acquiring earnings.
Mission Preference
Mission Preference will have the most frequent impact on crew morale and is the primary means by which it increases or decreases, and thus, their effectiveness in their role.
First, mission preferences (liked and disliked) are always singular. A crew member will not like or dislike multiple mission types. Generally, the mission type they prefer will be categorically opposed to their dislike. Referencing the rock, paper, scissors earlier: combat dislikes exploration dislikes trade dislikes combat.
Second, a ship crew member’s mission preference generally aligns with the modules they provide bonuses to. Fire Control crew members largely prefer combat missions, not surprisingly, while service largely prefers passenger and mercantile prefers trade. Maintenance and Technology have no particular leanings and are randomly assigned preferences.
In uncommon cases, it is possible for a crew member to prefer a mission type that is similar to the type they dislike: for example, they may prefer bulk passenger missions but dislike VIP passenger missions.
Crew Morale
Each level of morale modifies the base value of the benefit in increments determined by rank.
As an example, we’ll use an Apprentice Mercantile crew member who provides a 1% base bonus to profits when assigned to a cargo hold:
-Highly Dissatisfied: -3%
-Dissatisfied: -1%
-Content: 1%
-Satisfied: 3%
-Highly Satisfied: 5%
Because the crew member is an apprentice, his morale shifts the base value in increments of just 2%. Higher ranks will shift this by more, and will lead to larger negatives on the dissatisfied end of the scale, reflecting how a more senior crew member might feel if they feel like their time is being wasted.
At hire, crew are always content and will have zero earnings. Morale increases when any one of the following occurs:
- The commander completes a mission that aligns with their preference. +1 Level
- The crew member gains a rank. +2 Levels
Morale decreases when any of the following occur:
- The commander completes a mission that is against their preference. -1 Level
- The module they are assigned to is damaged at or below 50%. -1 Level
- If a terminated crew member is present, there is a global decrease of 1 level while the terminated crew member is aboard. Once removed, this decrease will subside and all morale levels will return to where they should be.
- The ship is destroyed. -3 Levels
Due to recent changes in Pilots Federation regulations, ship crew must be provided with escape pods. Despite an unfortunate destruction, ship crew won’t immediately quit your employ…but with a three level decrease, they’ll be pretty close.
There is one other way to decrease morale for crew: time away from a station or facility. For every 12 hours (logged in game time) a commander has not docked, all crew will lose 1 level of morale due to isolation from society. The exception to this are those crew members who prefer ‘research’ missions (deep space), for whom the black poses no psychological threat. Commanders seeking to build a robust crew for deep space exploration will have a tougher time building the perfect crew than most, but this also represents the level of planning that goes into selecting expedition crew.
Finally, morale is not affected by ‘non-mission’ activity, such as exploration, buying low/selling high, or combat bonds. Commanders who eschew the mission board won’t bring their crew’s preferences into play, but they’ll also be giving up the quickest method to raise and maintain morale.
Terminating Ship Crew
Ship Crew can be fired at any time while docked at a station and, likewise, hired if a crew lounge is present and the commander has free slots in their roster. Ship crew can also voluntarily terminate due to dissatisfaction.
When a ship crew member is Highly Dissatisfied for six hours (logged in game time), they will terminate their employment immediately…even if in space. If this occurs, their performance bonus to their assigned module will decrease by one more rank increment. Using our previous example of an apprentice mercantile crew member who affects profits from cargo sales:
Apprentice Increment: 2%
Highly Dissatisfied Bonus: -3%
Terminated Bonus: -3% - 2% = -5%
Thus, crew members with larger bonuses (even at low morale) pose a greater risk to ship performance if they terminate while in-flight. Upon docking at any facility, a terminated crew member will disembark and their crew roster slot will become open.
Generally, ship performance decreases like this will be marginal and merely annoying but they could be severe. Technology crew members, who might decrease the power usage of a module, may render your ship’s power usage out of balance if terminated in-flight. As one can see, this could have severe implications in the heat of battle or far from station services.
When you take rank into consideration, a ‘captain’ crew member has a large incremental difference of 20% and their base bonus is 10%, at just dissatisfied their effect on the assigned module will be decently negative even though they aren’t yet at risk of voluntary termination. This is the tradeoff for higher ranked crew, who will greatly appreciate you catering to their preferences…or greatly slow you down for wasting their time.
Captain Increment: 20%
Base: 10%
Dissatisfied: -10%
Highly Dissatisfied: -30%
Terminated: -50%
Conclusion
Ship Crew provide additional customization and player decision across all sizes and classes of ships and playstyles. Unlike engineering, which is a static, one-time cost that is permanently affixed to a module, ship crew represent a more dynamic and fluid system of improvement and playstyle enhancement.
A critical component to the design of this feature is the limitations of crew count relative to module slots they can fulfill. A prime example would be a veteran player in a Federal Corvette built for combat. How this player approaches that combat dictates their approach to crew: do they primarily rely on missions, or do they haunt combat zones? Do they fly in a wing and support multicrew or do they fly solo? Are they defensively or offensively oriented? Do they use a killscanner or do they just shoot first?
Each of those questions informs a roster layout for that large ship. Yet, there is still one more question: Is this the only ship they fly? As a roster is, at most, limited to 24 ship crew…if all are dedicated to their favorite death machine, most if not all won’t be very useful when they choose to relax with mining every so often. Their mission preferences may be a haberdasher and render them impossible to keep satisfied when undertaking missions due to conflicting preferences, forcing the player to stick to ‘non mission’ means of play like combat zones or general exploration.
On the flipside of large vessel play is mid-size and small: ship crew provide greater flexibility among these ships as their crew maximums allow a diverse roster to be developed. If you’re a lover of the Cobra Mk. III but also fly a Dolphin for VIP delivery and a FDL for serious combat work, you’ll find your roster more capable of supporting all of these playstyles and their needs. Thus, player decision is fully realized as they develop a crew roster that best meets the needs of their preferred ships and playstyle with those ships.
Technical Details - FAQ
If a module is removed while a crew member is assigned, that crew member will be forcibly returned to the crew lounge and will have their crew morale reset to content.
Crew member bonuses can stack when multiples of the same type of bonus are applied to the same module. A large pulse laser, for example, could have three crew members assigned to it, each providing a 2% bonus to damage increase – this would result in a net 6% damage increase.
The global morale debuff of a terminated crew member does not stack if more crew members terminate. However, it is possible for this debuff to have a ‘chain’ effect if it decreases another crew member to Highly Dissatisfied. In the case of deep space explorers, this could be a severe threat as the ‘new’ Highly Dissatisfied employee will likely terminate since a station facility is not nearby to offload the terminated crew member.
Unlike Bridge Crew, Ship Crew cannot be killed by ship destruction. If ship rebuy is selected, the crew will still be assigned but will suffer the significant morale penalty, almost certainly resulting in all being Highly Dissatisfied due to the initial level decrease from module damage. Recovering from defeat will be critical to retaining crew, though you’ll have six hours of game time to do so.
If your ship is destroyed and you do not rebuy, crew will return to the lounge and be reset to ‘content’ morale. Again, crew cannot be lost except by termination by the commander or the crew member.
Crew member base bonuses will range from 1% to 10%. Crew member base bonuses rise by 1% with each rank, with Apprentice at a base bonus of 1% and a Captain at a base bonus of 10%.
Rank increments range from 2% to 20%.
The highest possible benefit, then, is a base 10% + Highly Satisfied 40% = 50% increase.
The worst possible debuff, then, is a base 10% - Highly Dissatisfied 40% = - 30% decrease prior to termination.
At termination, the worst possible debuff is base 10% - Highly Dissatisfied 40% - Termination Rank Increment 20% = - 50% decrease.
Ship Crew fees will range from 0.1% to 1% of earnings, dependent upon rank when hired.
Ship Hiring Fees will range from 500 credits to 25,000 credits, also based on rank when hired.
Ship Crew module bonuses are partially randomly assigned. The algorithm for their specific module bonus is determined by (in order of weight):
- The type of station they are at (Industrial stations will likely have maintenance crew, for example)
- The type of crew that they are (e.g. maintenance)
- Their mission preference
This makes finding general categories of crew easier: If I want a service crew member for my Beluga Liner, I know a tourism station is a good bet.
Ship Rank increases based on the formula: Rank +1 when credits earned = (10,000*n2) where ‘n’ is the current rank (numerically) of the crew. Rank 2 will require 10,000 credits whereas rank three will require 40,000 credits earned. Rank 10, captain, requires 1,000,000 credits earned. For an example of how this would look for the commander:
An apprentice will hire at an earnings fee of just .1%, which means for every 1000 credits the commander earns, they only earn 1 credit. Thus, taking an apprentice to captain rank (1,000,000 credits earned for the crew member) will require the commander to earn: 1,000,000 / .001 = 1 billion credits earned by the commander with that crew member assigned during those earnings. Thus, choosing to hire an apprentice crew member is a significant investment of time in exchange for very low fees in the long-run. Part of the reason ship crew cannot be killed is to offset this significant time investment for those who seek it.
This feature does not address the Gunner Role as an NPC nor does it address that multicrew (Bridge Crew, as termed here) NPCs are killed on ship destruction. I do support changing both of these topics, but this thread is not for that purpose.
If you read this far, I appreciate you taking the time to look it over! Obviously I’m not a developer, so the numbers are just fillers for the sake of painting the picture. If you feel like this adds value to your Elite: Dangerous experience, please say so!
My intent behind this feature suggestion is to present a relatively easy to integrate system that adds value for all levels of play, while not taking away from the heart and soul of Elite which is a spaceship flight simulator. Crew management should be a fairly straightforward and rewarding experience that immerses the player further in Elite, while not creating a system that is burdensome or annoying (see: supercruising 60% of gameplay).
Summary: This feature will allow commanders to recruit a roster of crew members to service modules installed in their ship, providing improved performance or modifiers to functionality. Ship type dictates maximum crew that can be brought aboard, further filtered by how many crew can man a given module based on its type and size. Crew will cost a fee to hire and charge a nominal percentile fee on earnings when in use. Crew will have dispositions that increase and decrease their satisfaction based on mission types completed and will be able to ‘quit’ a commander if dissatisfied for too long.
Feature Goal: Ship Crew provide the opportunity for commanders to further customize and invest in their fleet of vessels. Crew will be more accessible than engineering (though not necessarily as powerful in benefit) and will provide opportunities for player decision in regard to their personal brand of playstyle.
A Brief Overview of Crew Categories
With this feature, crew are divided into two major categories: Bridge Crew and Ship Crew. Bridge Crew are NPC commanders who, like the player, are members of the Pilots Federation and can pilot vessels. Should the Gunner Role ever become available, this NPC would also be considered Bridge Crew as they directly ‘control’ the ship or its systems in some manner.
Ship Crew are employees hired by the owning commander to maintain and assist modules aboard their assigned vessel. It is important to note that, as of now, all ships in Elite: Dangerous are completely autonomous and require no crew save for a lone commander pilot. While this is sensible for a smaller vessel like the Viper Mk. III, a Beluga Liner’s guests or the myriad systems of an exploring Anaconda would be much more difficult to single-hand.
Ship Crew, then, are not necessary for the function of a ship nor do they radically change its performance compared to a Bridge Crew member (player or NPC). Instead, they moderately improve the functionality of the ship.
Ship Crew Profiles
Ship Crew are not registered members of the Pilots Federation and instead follow a universally recognized ranking system of experience, ranging from Apprentice to Captain. They hire onto the commander’s roster for a nominal fee based on these ranks and charge a portion of earnings based upon this rank – similar to Bridge Crew. Ranks increase with individual earnings from their fees, with each rank requiring larger increases in earnings than the last. Earnings cuts, unlike Bridge Crew, do not increase in size with rank. This is detailed later in ranks.
Unlike Bridge Crew, whose cut is larger and loyalty more secure, ship crew have an ever-shifting state of ‘morale’ on an individual basis. Higher morale leads to greater performance in their role, whereas low morale leads to poorer performance. Ship Crew that have the lowest morale for too long will terminate their contract after some time and, until the commander docks again to offload them, they will still be aboard and thus will begin to negatively impact their fellow crew members. How morale functions is detailed later.
In addition to morale, Ship Crew have ‘mission preferences’. Crew members will prefer one type of mission and dislike another type. These two are not necessarily mutually exclusive from a career perspective, though most mission preferences will follow a sort of ‘rock, paper, scissors’ style between the three major career areas of Elite:
Crew members that prefer combat missions will generally dislike exploration missions, those that prefer exploration will generally dislike trade, and those that prefer trade will generally dislike combat. Mission preferences are further detailed later.
Crew and Your Ship
As mentioned earlier, every ship in Elite: Dangerous is fully autonomous and does not need crew to function beyond its piloting commander. While this is reasonable for the tiny Eagle, it is far from sensible for the hulking Anaconda. Crew are optional improvements to installed modules aboard the ship, similar to engineering but with critical differences:
Crew can move between ships, unlike modifications, and only provide bonuses and no drawbacks. However, these bonuses are much smaller compared to high-end engineering, they fluctuate with crew morale, and actively cost the commander in credits to maintain, much like fuel or munitions.
How many crew a ship can employ is based on two factors:
First, every ship has a ‘maximum crew capacity’. As modules are not built to require crew, they do not include the necessary amenities to support a crew such as births, a galley, or emergency facilities. Instead, these are in-built with the commander’s own facilities. Thus, every ship comes with a pre-determined number of crew it can support. As a general reference, small ships will support between 1 and 4 crew members, medium will support between 4 and 12 crew members, and large ships will support between 12 and 24 crew members.
The second factor in crew assignment are modules. Crew can be assigned to most optional, hardpoint, and utility modules, but not internals. The size of a module will dictate how many crew can be assigned to modify it. Smaller modules (Sizes 1 to 3) will only handle a single crew member in general, whereas mid-size modules (Sizes 4 to 6) will handle pairs or even trios. Large modules (Sizes 7 and 8) will be able to handle as many as four crew members in certain cases.
Quickly it can be seen that while a small ship might have slots for many crew members because of its modules (such as the Diamondback Explorer, which employs numerous modules) it won’t be able to staff them all. This is true even for large vessels, which will require even more thoughtful planning of crew assignments as the disparity between module assignments and maximum crew size increases. This balancing act of crew selection and assignment is the first element of what makes Ship Crew a much more dynamic system than engineering.
Crew cannot be assigned to internals for several reasons, both lore and gameplay. From a lore perspective, internals are already entirely autonomous and/or located on ships such that they cannot be reached for service outside of a station or facility. From a gameplay perspective, internals are where engineering really shines and has its greatest impact - adding crew to this would only 'overcharge' or reduce the value of engineering. Optional modules are woefully lacking in modifications, providing a great shoe-in for crew from both a gameplay and lore perspective.
Ship Crew Benefits
Ship Crew share some similarities with engineering in what they provide in benefits. Broadly, crew members are sorted into five categories: Mercantile, Maintenance, Technology, Fire Control, and Service.
Mercantile: These crew members provide benefits towards credit gains, cargo efficiency, reputation development, and requisitions. A mercantile crew member might provide a bonus to profits on a cargo sale, or increase the amount of reputation gained from a mission completion.
Maintenance: These crew members provide benefits towards ship integrity and repair, mechanical efficiency, deployed vehicles, and limpet controller effectiveness. A maintenance crew member might provide a decrease in Fighter rebuild time or reduce the resource cost of operating an AFMU.
Technology: These crew members provide benefits towards many modules types by augmenting or further enhancing their capabilities. A technology crew member might provide increased resistances to shielding or enhance credit gains from passengers as a knowledgeable guide.
Fire Control: These crew member provide benefits towards weapons systems and many defensive utilities. A fire control crew member might decrease the activation time of shield cells or improve the rotational speed of turrets.
Service: These crew members provide benefits towards passengers, augment mission terms, and modify the effectiveness of influence. A service crew member might preemptively increase passenger satisfaction at launch or increase the influence gained from mission completion.
Most crew will have mission preferences in alignment with their chosen specialty, but not all will! There are crew members who excel in Fire Control but yearn for the emptiness of the black just as there are mercantile crew members that thrive in the heat of battle. For commanders that wish to perfect a single, large vessel, finding these unique individuals will be important to ensure crew harmony.
Crew Ranks
Crew can be hired at varying ranks, with higher ranks charging a higher starting fee and earnings fee. Like bridge crew, ship crew hired at lower ranks will be more economical in the long rung but will also be weaker in benefit at first. For commanders that expect to have a regularly disgruntled crew (see: frequent ship destruction), hiring higher ranks may be more reasonable. More important, though, is the time investment in lower rank crew as their fees are so marginal their growth is much slower.
Ranks are increased through earnings. For example, a crew member that is an Apprentice will increase in rank when their earnings reach 10,000 credits. As an apprentice hire, their earnings fee is only .1%, this means the commander will have earned 1,000,000 credits while employing this crew member. As crew members will charge smaller sums than bridge crew members, ranking is a comparatively slow process – the tradeoff being more credits in the commander’s own pocket if they choose to invest in low rank crew. The formula for rank increases is at the bottom of this post in Technical Details.
For the sake of simplicity and ease of reading, how ranks modify performance is included in the Morale section.
The Crew Roster
At the start of a commander’s career they will be unable to hire any crew because their Pilot’s Federation rank in any of the three careers is too low. However, with each gain in rank a commander may hire one additional crew member. Thus, a commander who is ‘Elite’ in all three career tracks will be able to hire a total of 24 crew members, eight for each career track.
This system of advancement allows for new commanders to immediately take advantage of Ship Crew, while providing an incentive for veteran commanders to ‘expand their horizons’ so as to leverage a full-size crew in their favorite large vessel, or develop a diverse roster for ‘ship-hopping’ between activities in smaller vessels.
When crew are not assigned to a ship, they reside in the Crew Lounge and do not incur earnings fees. However, when placed into the crew lounge a crew member’s morale will be reset to the neutral level of ‘content’ and they will also cease to increase in experience towards higher ranks as they are no longer acquiring earnings.
Mission Preference
Mission Preference will have the most frequent impact on crew morale and is the primary means by which it increases or decreases, and thus, their effectiveness in their role.
First, mission preferences (liked and disliked) are always singular. A crew member will not like or dislike multiple mission types. Generally, the mission type they prefer will be categorically opposed to their dislike. Referencing the rock, paper, scissors earlier: combat dislikes exploration dislikes trade dislikes combat.
Second, a ship crew member’s mission preference generally aligns with the modules they provide bonuses to. Fire Control crew members largely prefer combat missions, not surprisingly, while service largely prefers passenger and mercantile prefers trade. Maintenance and Technology have no particular leanings and are randomly assigned preferences.
In uncommon cases, it is possible for a crew member to prefer a mission type that is similar to the type they dislike: for example, they may prefer bulk passenger missions but dislike VIP passenger missions.
Crew Morale
Each level of morale modifies the base value of the benefit in increments determined by rank.
As an example, we’ll use an Apprentice Mercantile crew member who provides a 1% base bonus to profits when assigned to a cargo hold:
-Highly Dissatisfied: -3%
-Dissatisfied: -1%
-Content: 1%
-Satisfied: 3%
-Highly Satisfied: 5%
Because the crew member is an apprentice, his morale shifts the base value in increments of just 2%. Higher ranks will shift this by more, and will lead to larger negatives on the dissatisfied end of the scale, reflecting how a more senior crew member might feel if they feel like their time is being wasted.
At hire, crew are always content and will have zero earnings. Morale increases when any one of the following occurs:
- The commander completes a mission that aligns with their preference. +1 Level
- The crew member gains a rank. +2 Levels
Morale decreases when any of the following occur:
- The commander completes a mission that is against their preference. -1 Level
- The module they are assigned to is damaged at or below 50%. -1 Level
- If a terminated crew member is present, there is a global decrease of 1 level while the terminated crew member is aboard. Once removed, this decrease will subside and all morale levels will return to where they should be.
- The ship is destroyed. -3 Levels
Due to recent changes in Pilots Federation regulations, ship crew must be provided with escape pods. Despite an unfortunate destruction, ship crew won’t immediately quit your employ…but with a three level decrease, they’ll be pretty close.
There is one other way to decrease morale for crew: time away from a station or facility. For every 12 hours (logged in game time) a commander has not docked, all crew will lose 1 level of morale due to isolation from society. The exception to this are those crew members who prefer ‘research’ missions (deep space), for whom the black poses no psychological threat. Commanders seeking to build a robust crew for deep space exploration will have a tougher time building the perfect crew than most, but this also represents the level of planning that goes into selecting expedition crew.
Finally, morale is not affected by ‘non-mission’ activity, such as exploration, buying low/selling high, or combat bonds. Commanders who eschew the mission board won’t bring their crew’s preferences into play, but they’ll also be giving up the quickest method to raise and maintain morale.
Terminating Ship Crew
Ship Crew can be fired at any time while docked at a station and, likewise, hired if a crew lounge is present and the commander has free slots in their roster. Ship crew can also voluntarily terminate due to dissatisfaction.
When a ship crew member is Highly Dissatisfied for six hours (logged in game time), they will terminate their employment immediately…even if in space. If this occurs, their performance bonus to their assigned module will decrease by one more rank increment. Using our previous example of an apprentice mercantile crew member who affects profits from cargo sales:
Apprentice Increment: 2%
Highly Dissatisfied Bonus: -3%
Terminated Bonus: -3% - 2% = -5%
Thus, crew members with larger bonuses (even at low morale) pose a greater risk to ship performance if they terminate while in-flight. Upon docking at any facility, a terminated crew member will disembark and their crew roster slot will become open.
Generally, ship performance decreases like this will be marginal and merely annoying but they could be severe. Technology crew members, who might decrease the power usage of a module, may render your ship’s power usage out of balance if terminated in-flight. As one can see, this could have severe implications in the heat of battle or far from station services.
When you take rank into consideration, a ‘captain’ crew member has a large incremental difference of 20% and their base bonus is 10%, at just dissatisfied their effect on the assigned module will be decently negative even though they aren’t yet at risk of voluntary termination. This is the tradeoff for higher ranked crew, who will greatly appreciate you catering to their preferences…or greatly slow you down for wasting their time.
Captain Increment: 20%
Base: 10%
Dissatisfied: -10%
Highly Dissatisfied: -30%
Terminated: -50%
Conclusion
Ship Crew provide additional customization and player decision across all sizes and classes of ships and playstyles. Unlike engineering, which is a static, one-time cost that is permanently affixed to a module, ship crew represent a more dynamic and fluid system of improvement and playstyle enhancement.
A critical component to the design of this feature is the limitations of crew count relative to module slots they can fulfill. A prime example would be a veteran player in a Federal Corvette built for combat. How this player approaches that combat dictates their approach to crew: do they primarily rely on missions, or do they haunt combat zones? Do they fly in a wing and support multicrew or do they fly solo? Are they defensively or offensively oriented? Do they use a killscanner or do they just shoot first?
Each of those questions informs a roster layout for that large ship. Yet, there is still one more question: Is this the only ship they fly? As a roster is, at most, limited to 24 ship crew…if all are dedicated to their favorite death machine, most if not all won’t be very useful when they choose to relax with mining every so often. Their mission preferences may be a haberdasher and render them impossible to keep satisfied when undertaking missions due to conflicting preferences, forcing the player to stick to ‘non mission’ means of play like combat zones or general exploration.
On the flipside of large vessel play is mid-size and small: ship crew provide greater flexibility among these ships as their crew maximums allow a diverse roster to be developed. If you’re a lover of the Cobra Mk. III but also fly a Dolphin for VIP delivery and a FDL for serious combat work, you’ll find your roster more capable of supporting all of these playstyles and their needs. Thus, player decision is fully realized as they develop a crew roster that best meets the needs of their preferred ships and playstyle with those ships.
Technical Details - FAQ
If a module is removed while a crew member is assigned, that crew member will be forcibly returned to the crew lounge and will have their crew morale reset to content.
Crew member bonuses can stack when multiples of the same type of bonus are applied to the same module. A large pulse laser, for example, could have three crew members assigned to it, each providing a 2% bonus to damage increase – this would result in a net 6% damage increase.
The global morale debuff of a terminated crew member does not stack if more crew members terminate. However, it is possible for this debuff to have a ‘chain’ effect if it decreases another crew member to Highly Dissatisfied. In the case of deep space explorers, this could be a severe threat as the ‘new’ Highly Dissatisfied employee will likely terminate since a station facility is not nearby to offload the terminated crew member.
Unlike Bridge Crew, Ship Crew cannot be killed by ship destruction. If ship rebuy is selected, the crew will still be assigned but will suffer the significant morale penalty, almost certainly resulting in all being Highly Dissatisfied due to the initial level decrease from module damage. Recovering from defeat will be critical to retaining crew, though you’ll have six hours of game time to do so.
If your ship is destroyed and you do not rebuy, crew will return to the lounge and be reset to ‘content’ morale. Again, crew cannot be lost except by termination by the commander or the crew member.
Crew member base bonuses will range from 1% to 10%. Crew member base bonuses rise by 1% with each rank, with Apprentice at a base bonus of 1% and a Captain at a base bonus of 10%.
Rank increments range from 2% to 20%.
The highest possible benefit, then, is a base 10% + Highly Satisfied 40% = 50% increase.
The worst possible debuff, then, is a base 10% - Highly Dissatisfied 40% = - 30% decrease prior to termination.
At termination, the worst possible debuff is base 10% - Highly Dissatisfied 40% - Termination Rank Increment 20% = - 50% decrease.
Ship Crew fees will range from 0.1% to 1% of earnings, dependent upon rank when hired.
Ship Hiring Fees will range from 500 credits to 25,000 credits, also based on rank when hired.
Ship Crew module bonuses are partially randomly assigned. The algorithm for their specific module bonus is determined by (in order of weight):
- The type of station they are at (Industrial stations will likely have maintenance crew, for example)
- The type of crew that they are (e.g. maintenance)
- Their mission preference
This makes finding general categories of crew easier: If I want a service crew member for my Beluga Liner, I know a tourism station is a good bet.
Ship Rank increases based on the formula: Rank +1 when credits earned = (10,000*n2) where ‘n’ is the current rank (numerically) of the crew. Rank 2 will require 10,000 credits whereas rank three will require 40,000 credits earned. Rank 10, captain, requires 1,000,000 credits earned. For an example of how this would look for the commander:
An apprentice will hire at an earnings fee of just .1%, which means for every 1000 credits the commander earns, they only earn 1 credit. Thus, taking an apprentice to captain rank (1,000,000 credits earned for the crew member) will require the commander to earn: 1,000,000 / .001 = 1 billion credits earned by the commander with that crew member assigned during those earnings. Thus, choosing to hire an apprentice crew member is a significant investment of time in exchange for very low fees in the long-run. Part of the reason ship crew cannot be killed is to offset this significant time investment for those who seek it.
This feature does not address the Gunner Role as an NPC nor does it address that multicrew (Bridge Crew, as termed here) NPCs are killed on ship destruction. I do support changing both of these topics, but this thread is not for that purpose.
If you read this far, I appreciate you taking the time to look it over! Obviously I’m not a developer, so the numbers are just fillers for the sake of painting the picture. If you feel like this adds value to your Elite: Dangerous experience, please say so!
My intent behind this feature suggestion is to present a relatively easy to integrate system that adds value for all levels of play, while not taking away from the heart and soul of Elite which is a spaceship flight simulator. Crew management should be a fairly straightforward and rewarding experience that immerses the player further in Elite, while not creating a system that is burdensome or annoying (see: supercruising 60% of gameplay).
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