IMO large ships should require 4 crew (including the player, so 3 npcs and the player), medium ships 2, and small ships 1. And they should be balanced so that a ship is generally about as effective as the number of crew in it. So a medium ship is twice as effective as a small, a large twice as effective as a medium (and by large I don't mean landing pad size. I would count the clipper as a medium ship in terms of crew count for example, same with the t7). However, to balance this, players could hire and equip npc wingmen as well, with a cap of 3 npc's total across all ships. So a small ship pilot could hire up to 3 other small ships to fly with him, or a medium and a small. A medium ship could hire another medium ship or two small ships, and large ships would have to make do with SLF.
By effectiveness I don't just mean firepower and hp, I also mean various other factors like jump range, speed, staying power, ect. So a player leading a wing of 4 vultures wouldn't be able to do everything a player flying an FDL with a wingman FDL would be able to and to the same extent, they would have their differences, but generally both groups of ships would have as many relative advantages as disadvantages when compared to the other.
This would make it viable to fly all ship sizes without having to worry about losing some critical advantage by going down a size or two, while still making large ship distinguishable from the rest.
I don't think this is going to happen though, as it would require a lot of work to program and balance and probably would upset quite a few people. Plus I don't know if fdev would be happy with wings 4 player and 12 NPC small ships being a thing, as cool as that might be.
By effectiveness I don't just mean firepower and hp, I also mean various other factors like jump range, speed, staying power, ect. So a player leading a wing of 4 vultures wouldn't be able to do everything a player flying an FDL with a wingman FDL would be able to and to the same extent, they would have their differences, but generally both groups of ships would have as many relative advantages as disadvantages when compared to the other.
This would make it viable to fly all ship sizes without having to worry about losing some critical advantage by going down a size or two, while still making large ship distinguishable from the rest.
I don't think this is going to happen though, as it would require a lot of work to program and balance and probably would upset quite a few people. Plus I don't know if fdev would be happy with wings 4 player and 12 NPC small ships being a thing, as cool as that might be.
