Hired Crew should take up a Crew slot and give an extra pip

[Starwolfe]

As stated, a Hired Crew should be able to be selected as an Active crewmember, take up that crew slot for friends and grant that extra pip.

Instead of having a friend shooting turrets with accuracy or being a smarter fighter pilot, you at least get an extra pip for that % fee they take.

This would also be beneficial for players flying ships that don't normally have friends that want to fly with them. I'm looking at those Cobras, Vultures, Asp and Adders out there.

 

[metatheurgist]

Yep, more balance for solo commanders.

 

[Allchemyst]

Matter-of-factly, we totally could assign an NPC to the gunner seat and gain increased accuracy!

It's not like the inbred-faced drunkard I abduc - I mean, chose - on that dingy starport and painstakingly got up to elite couldn't be of more use, considering how the little - [Really, you censored that? What age do you think forum goers are, on average? five?!] - cuddlebug has quite litterally sucked 90 millions out of my profits by just sitting there as I joyfully carried clueless tourists across the bubble...

And now, since we can get two fighters out with multicrew, why not let us put all three of our useless bags of human waste crewmembers and launch the two fighters we have anyway?

You know, we still remember how open and solo are supposed to have access to the same functionality, right?

 

[space voyager]

I agree. Someone already suggested specialist NPCs giving advantanges to various fields, which I'd welcome.

 

[Y nt Zoidberg7]

It'd be nice

 

[Moesis]

Agreed, Crew should be crew, there should be none of this discriminatory & prejudicial handling of NPC Crew. And then maybe someday NPC's can be considered equal enough to be allowed to be wing-mates too

 

[Mohenjo]

I've often thought, if your ship has a crew, that you could assign one of them to land for you if you don't feel like doing it yourself... Kind of like the docking computer, but without taking up an internal space.

 

[Sylveria]

Ya know, I've kinda been trying to steer clear of anything related in comparison to "multicrew" because it really doesn't have any benefit to Solo as it's currently implemented.

It *would* be nice to have something that Solo CMDR's can benefit from, and NPC hirelings could be a way to assist with this. Not entirely sure a "pip" is the answer, but definitely some passive bonuses of some sort if they're not going to actively man/woman a gun or station somewhere.

All 3 modes being "equal", of course- you know... PvPer's being "neglected" and all that. (ahem, multicrew)

 

[Starwolfe]

Ya know, I've kinda been trying to steer clear of anything related in comparison to "multicrew" because it really doesn't have any benefit to Solo as it's currently implemented.

It *would* be nice to have something that Solo CMDR's can benefit from, and NPC hirelings could be a way to assist with this. Not entirely sure a "pip" is the answer, but definitely some passive bonuses of some sort if they're not going to actively man/woman a gun or station somewhere.

All 3 modes being "equal", of course- you know... PvPer's being "neglected" and all that. (ahem, multicrew)

In all honesty, player crew only grants you three advantages;
1) extra Pip.
2) chaff-ignoring turrets
3) potentially second fighter (skill notwithstanding) but be unable to launch yourself in the fighter

The deviant difference currently with NPC crew is that you get to;
1) launch one fighter, or fly the fighter
*) also costs extra credits, you loose out on income from Bounties and Bonds

That's pretty much it. Personally, I'd be all for the whole list - crewed ship turrets would ignore chaff, or you get to launch up to two fighters and that additional pip per extra crew.

Of all the list, the Pip is the most important when you calculate shield strengths. Increasing Sys Pips grants stronger shields, on Eng and Wep is increases power recharge. having additional pips would drastically improve ships' performance portfolio.


The risk is in the wing differences currently. The intended difference I see was to have it so a single crewed ship could match a wing of ships easier. Probably more to do with instancing and coding restrictions, but that's a balance too.

I can see the never-miss turrets being an issue, and the extra fighter could be trivial in all honesty - its the Pips that really change the game.


To me, as it stands now it would be essentially a non-issue of balance because everybody would have access to the same effects, but I can understand the reservations on some of it for balance and all that.

I would still want it.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Pips are only meaningful in combat. There's no reason why a trader/explorer would want to pay a percentage of his profits for something which, at very best, might possibly help him escape from a PvP interdiction. So the only people who would use NPC crew in this manner are people who fly warships, which makes it even less useful for traders/explorers, since they any benefit they might get from having NPC crew is nullified by the fact that the person attacking them has it too.

Consequently, I don't see this as a particularly good idea.

 

[Sylveria]

Pips are only meaningful in combat. There's no reason why a trader/explorer would want to pay a percentage of his profits for something which, at very best, might possibly help him escape from a PvP interdiction. So the only people who would use NPC crew in this manner are people who fly warships, which makes it even less useful for traders/explorers, since they any benefit they might get from having NPC crew is nullified by the fact that the person attacking them has it too.

Consequently, I don't see this as a particularly good idea.

Aye, I have to agree with this- which is why I said I'm not totally sure the pip is the right thing, but I definitely do agree we need some sort of supplement for PvE/Solo peeps as the only people who stand to benefit (even if the implementation is flimsy currently) is PG/Open.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Aye, I have to agree with this- which is why I said I'm not totally sure the pip is the right thing, but I definitely do agree we need some sort of supplement for PvE/Solo peeps as the only people who stand to benefit (even if the implementation is flimsy currently) is PG/Open.

I think the problem is traders.
I could conceive of some benefit that NPC crew could bring to explorers (wider scan angle, quicker scans) or miners (better yields - like prospector limpets give you), but unless there's some arbitrary increase in profit (for handwavium reasons) then I don't see how they could gain. Also, if you're increasing profit on one hand, but paying out profit in wages, how does that even work?

 

[Sylveria]

I think the problem is traders.
I could conceive of some benefit that NPC crew could bring to explorers (wider scan angle, quicker scans) or miners (better yields - like prospector limpets give you), but unless there's some arbitrary increase in profit (for handwavium reasons) then I don't see how they could gain. Also, if you're increasing profit on one hand, but paying out profit in wages, how does that even work?

Yeah I know, a lot of it doesn't seem like it was very well thought out to begin with. (hence the missing implementation in Solo)

It's also one of the reasons I've been advocating for passive secondary ship bonuses for role-based ships, because haulers, miners and explorers really do get the "stick" end of the carrot and stick here. I've been trying to wait patiently to see how things will develop with all the new changes, however- perhaps they'll start addressing some of the inconsistencies over the next few months. Giving passive bonuses for NPC crew really could be a way to help mitigate the difference, something small but still better than nothing at all.

Then again- all the NPC's we can hire (at present) are all combat-based pilots meant for SLF... and multicrew roles are a lot more expansive.

 

[metatheurgist]

I dunno. I think a lot of traders would find that extra SYS pip or ENG pip very useful when they're being attacked by pirates or mission wrinkles.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

I dunno. I think a lot of traders would find that extra SYS pip or ENG pip very useful when they're being attacked by pirates or mission wrinkles.

But how often does that happen? And more importantly, how often do they fail to evade the interdiction? I haven't lost an interdiction in over a year.

As an additional point in the 'Against' column:
If all the crew member does is add a pip, then everyone will just fire the crew member before they cash in (bounties, commodities, etc) and then hire a new one for the next trip. Some people do this already, but at least with the current pilot crew there's some benefit to training them up - which pips alone doesn't give.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be bonuses for NPC crew, but using pips is a bad idea and the current mechanisms are wide open to abuse.

 

[metatheurgist]

Well, I'm on this from a mostly balance standpoint. If MC ships get the pip, so should solo ships, exploit or otherwise. What's good for one is good for the other, either fix it for both or allow it for both. Interdictions are easy now but they weren't before, who's to say it wont change again. After all, if as you say it's impossible to fail that seems like an issue to me.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Well, I'm on this from a mostly balance standpoint. If MC ships get the pip, so should solo ships, exploit or otherwise. What's good for one is good for the other, either fix it for both or allow it for both. Interdictions are easy now but they weren't before, who's to say it wont change again. After all, if as you say it's impossible to fail that seems like an issue to me.

To me, MC is balanced because it's two players in one ship. Despite the extra pip, they're still less effective than they would be winged up.
A solo player and an NPC crewman getting a pip is more effective than a solo player alone.

Also, the Dolphin, T-6 and T-7 are single crewed (according to Coriolis) so in the interest of balance, you'd actually be making these ships weaker than the already are.

 

[metatheurgist]

To me, MC is balanced because it's two players in one ship. Despite the extra pip, they're still less effective than they would be winged up.
A solo player and an NPC crewman getting a pip is more effective than a solo player alone.

Not if they complete the fix and let solo commanders have NPC escorts. It's a complete solution.

Also, the Dolphin, T-6 and T-7 are single crewed (according to Coriolis) so in the interest of balance, you'd actually be making these ships weaker than the already are.

Nothing wrong with that. Some ships are weaker than others. The problem is solo commanders keep getting left behind, not what ships are stronger than others.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Not if they complete the fix and let solo commanders have NPC escorts. It's a complete solution.



Nothing wrong with that. Some ships are weaker than others. The problem is solo commanders keep getting left behind, not what ships are stronger than others.

Uuurgh, sounds horrible!
I like being alone in my ship and not having to hire NPC crew and wingmen. If FDev do implement that stuff then they'll need to make sure the difficulty scales to allow lone wolf Cmdrs to survive.

 

[space voyager]

Well, I'm on this from a mostly balance standpoint. If MC ships get the pip, so should solo ships, exploit or otherwise. What's good for one is good for the other, either fix it for both or allow it for both. Interdictions are easy now but they weren't before, who's to say it wont change again. After all, if as you say it's impossible to fail that seems like an issue to me.

I agree. Also, nobody would be forced to hire NPCs, Drew.