Firing and re-hiring - any downside apart from levelling up?

Jamey

Jamey
When I'm running missions to make some money I tend to hire an expert pilot for my SLF, fly to the destination and then terminate their contract before cashing in the missions to avoid paying them the 12%, then I re-hire a new expert pilot after I've cashed in.

Is there any downside to this apart from the fact I don't get to keep them and level them up? Oh and that I occasionally forget to re-hire and get interdicted only to find I have no pilot, which is always fun :)

But apart from those two things, any reasons not to do this?
 

Bunkerkind Anni

Bunkerkind Anni
i've leveled up my SLF pilot from total noob to almost elite
on deadly he only deducts 9% of the profits

took long enough to get him there, so i am kinda hesitant to fire him
 

[VR] Enexemander

[VR] Enexemander
Jamey said:
When I'm running missions to make some money I tend to hire an expert pilot for my SLF, fly to the destination and then terminate their contract before cashing in the missions to avoid paying them the 12%, then I re-hire a new expert pilot after I've cashed in.

Is there any downside to this apart from the fact I don't get to keep them and level them up? Oh and that I occasionally forget to re-hire and get interdicted only to find I have no pilot, which is always fun :)

But apart from those two things, any reasons not to do this?
Click to expand...

A few. Expert pilots are terrible compared to Elite ones, for one thing. Secondly, human looking SLF pilots can be rare, so if you get one, you might want to hang onto them. Of course, if sun dried goblins are your thing, there's plenty of those out there.
 

Gunnet

G
There's the fee to hire a new pilot, but it's not exactly huge.

The real downside is that NPC pilots only really get their teeth at Deadly/Elite.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Enexemander said:
A few. Expert pilots are terrible compared to Elite ones, for one thing. Secondly, human looking SLF pilots can be rare, so if you get one, you might want to hang onto them. Of course, if sun dried goblins are your thing, there's plenty of those out there.
Click to expand...

Both of these things.

SLF pilots are nice but even at Expert rank their main usefulness is as a distraction for the times you're being attacked by multiple ships.
At Elite rank, however, they're properly badass (relatively speaking, of course).

It's great fun to pilot the SLF yourself and watch your Elite NPC rip apart Anacondas and Corvettes in an FGS.
I'm not entirely sure I trust my SLF pilot enough to let her fly my Corvette or Anaconda yet but I probably should.
The biggest "issue" is that they tend not to be able to make the best use of a diverse array of weapons in the same way a human can.
If you plan on letting your SLF pilot fly a big ship, you really need to think carefully about what weapons (and defences) they'll be ab;e to make best use of.

Also, I've changed my mind about the amount of money SLF pilots earn.
I fired my first Elite SLF pilot after I realised she'd skimmed Cr270m from my profits.
I spent a couple of months hiring random potato-heads but I just couldn't stand it after that and set out to find another vaguely humanoid SLF pilot and damn the expense.
 

Cmdr Aeries Hunter

Cmdr Aeries Hunter
The advantage is the I trained a harmless pilot to Elite and saw the improvement in their skills as they got better. Now at Elite they take 10% compared to the 12% hiring an outright expert would. They are great in combat and can take out 1-2 small ships on their own, even in combat zones.

However, the downside can be a massive one. Depending on your playstyle, roleplay etc etc. That 10% really adds up. The issue is that they eat up your xp if you are not yet Elite in combat taking roughly half. Then if you are doing any activity in the game that is not combat and earns any type of money, they will take 10% just sitting in the magic part of your ship. Mine has already taken 1.4 billion credits.

So to sum up. It depends on your play style, roleplay or just fussy about looks :)
 
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Y nt Zoidberg7

Y nt Zoidberg7
Enexemander said:
A few. Expert pilots are terrible compared to Elite ones, for one thing. Secondly, human looking SLF pilots can be rare, so if you get one, you might want to hang onto them. Of course, if sun dried goblins are your thing, there's plenty of those out there.
Click to expand...

Lol. Thank you for that. "Sun-dried goblins". :)
 

MickyG1982

M
Unfortunately no,

Though the older games had a nice little thing where occasionally, if you fired an employee they would get more than slightly peeved tell you that you will regret it & send an assassin after you...

I so wish this would come back in ED!
 

Zebaoth

Zebaoth
I usually hire the best ones available when needed and fire them before handing in missions/bounties.

Leveling up has the downsides that they'll eat a percentage of your total profit, even when they're not active.
Having 3 pilots sitting in a station could cut your profit by more than 30%, which is a terrible design decision made by FD.
Pilots could be paid automatically with an hourly rate, even when the player is offline.
After a certain amount of time of the player not logging in the pilots will simply quit.
This way they'll still eat into profits but in a more realistical manner.

If FD wanted to bring a money sink into the game, why not just increase repair/fuel costs up to beta levels?
That would actually make sense instead of having 3 crew members sitting in a station eat 30%+ of your profits while eating boogers.

Next downside to leveling up a pilot is that they're simply vanishing if your ship gets destroyed (there are still some reasons to die if you don't pay attention).
Pilots could be reworked into having some kind of alignment system (Lawful good to chaotic evil as an example) and depending on the players actions they'd simply quit if your actions don't fit their alignment.

These kind of things are the very basics to be implemented in babbies first rpg.

Considering how few situations actually require a hired crew, especially with a heavily engineered ship,
hire and fire it is.
 

galahad2069

G
Hired NPC crew who eat away large percentages of profits earned without their active participation (e.g. by missions / BHing done in ships that they cannot even board) are not called "employees", but "tax collectors".

Employees would work for you for a fixed weekly wage, plus maybe a more reasonable (much smaller) profit share, but only from the part of your profit that they actually helped you to earn.
 

ajg74

ajg74
It's what I do currently, it's not about the money but I am nowhere near Elite in combat and keeping a pilot sitting around for the few things I need one for doesn't make sense. Maybe once I hit Elite in combat I will hire a novice and train them up.
 

Shanaeri

Shanaeri
Apart from funsies there are no compelling reasons to keep them. Fighters resplenish so fast it offsets any difference in skill and a NPC just can’t fly a mothership as well as a human, additional to the money factor they also slow down your combat ranking because they take a portion of your kill points.

So for fun keep em, any other reason fire em
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
MickyG1982 said:
Unfortunately no,

Though the older games had a nice little thing where occasionally, if you fired an employee they would get more than slightly peeved tell you that you will regret it & send an assassin after you...

I so wish this would come back in ED!
Click to expand...

FE2/FFE had a universal "reputation" system for the player. Doing "bad things" hurt your reputation, meaning you got fewer missions etc. Firing crew was considered a "bad thing". Back then, you actually needed crew to fly the bigger ships (they literally refused to take off without a full crew complement) so if you were in the habit of constantly chopping and changing between ships (you were only allowed to own one ship at a time back then, too) you'd be constantly hiring and firing crew, slashing your reputation.

Perhaps ED could link crew to the faction system: hiring someone from a faction got you a big rep boost (and maybe even special deals and bonus missions from that faction), firing them got you a rep drop. It might give some players some incentive to retain their crew long-term, and even hire extra crew they don't actually use, but just keep onboard for the rep gains.
 

Harley001

Harley001
Elite pilots are actually VERY op. They are almost impossible to hit, and function as a extra huge hard point.

Also for PvE, if you put a elite pilot in a cutter or anaconda, they have aim bot. I made a cutter with a Huge PA, rail guns and beam lasers. Wrecked house when I gave him the helm. The the cheats that the AI has, they apply to your ship when your let the AI fly! They can often kill things faster than a player if you give them a ship outfitted with a AI pilot in mind.
 

Ziljan

Ziljan
Keeping an NPC is probably something best set as a goal AFTER you get all the money and ships you could possibly want. I've probably given a couple hundred million to my NPCs. If I could see them in the cockpit that might be worth it, but the benefit they give it combat isn't really worth the money tbh.
 
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