I hate seeing the empty seat beside me in my Cobra Mk3

Ishmerai Killforge

I
I've been using this ship mainly for trading and mining. I'm a newer player, about 30 hours on record. After flying from system to system, mining all these rocks, it gets lonely.
'
Yeah I chat with people, but I mean in my ship. It would be so cool if we could "hire" a crew member simply for the reason of just someone sitting there. Even better is they would make small talk like 'wow, it sure is quiet tonight." Even better than that would be that each crew member like that would have their own backstory that would take so many hours of flying with them to unlock it all. Like say after flying with a certain crew member after like 40 hours total, you will have heard their life story or something like that. Would be cool and I would totally pay for something like that from the store, no questions asked. Anyways, that's my suggestion.
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
Ishmerai Killforge said:
I've been using this ship mainly for trading and mining. I'm a newer player, about 30 hours on record. After flying from system to system, mining all these rocks, it gets lonely.
'
Yeah I chat with people, but I mean in my ship. It would be so cool if we could "hire" a crew member simply for the reason of just someone sitting there. Even better is they would make small talk like 'wow, it sure is quiet tonight." Even better than that would be that each crew member like that would have their own backstory that would take so many hours of flying with them to unlock it all. Like say after flying with a certain crew member after like 40 hours total, you will have heard their life story or something like that. Would be cool and I would totally pay for something like that from the store, no questions asked. Anyways, that's my suggestion.
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Many would agree.
For many of us, including me, multiplayer multicrew is out of the question.
Personally I feel that npc multicrew should have been implemented before the multiplayer version, simply because everybody will want to make use of that as opposed to the multiplayer implementation.

What I really want is a cool npc multicrew sytem. Nothing too elaborate to begin with.

This I posted elsewhere (but I have many more ideas about this particular subject):

I really would love to get npc crew eventually.
I do not need big, fancy advantages like are planned for multiplayer crew.

As far as having NPC crew is concerned I would already be happy if they were just a basic requirement for certain ships to be able to fly.
I just want them on board. I don't want special advantages and I don't want control taken away from me as a cmdr anyway.

Perhaps having an engineer might enable auto repair for internal modules, or perhaps the use of fuel might be reduced with 5% Percent. Or perhaps you get a 5% better jump range. Or shields might reboot just a little bit faster.
Perhaps having a medic might come in handy when first person action (FPA) is introduced and cmdrs can get wounded.
Perhaps having a co pilot would be required to fly SLF yourself (just like it is now) and the copilot might also enable auto jumping when you have plotted a jump route and auto approach to a station in a system.
Perhaps having an npc weapons officer would simply improve turret targeting speed by 5%, or let weapons run 3% cooler.
In the future we might hire a science officer and have a scientific module on board (cool for explorers).
etc.

As I said nothing fancy or complicated, or overpowered.
I don't need my ship to become a powerhouse.
I just would like to have npc crew.
Being a soloist at heart I will never play ED with others. I just do not want the social interaction.
I prefer simple obedient, silent, non-human crew, cobbled together from bits and bites and pixels.

Of course the current percentages crew get wouldn't work that well as they would eat into our profits far too much.
And we also need the ability to put our crew on hold when we want to fly smaller ships for a while. Otherwise we would either get bankrupt very soon, or we would have to fire them all the time (which is already happening now with the hireable pilots).
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I hope FD will eventually get around implementing something like that.
 
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Winterwalker

Winterwalker
Some good ideas there Iskariot.

Would be awesome in the long term to have SJA AI assistance in the side seat .. don't know if they do or not as part of their program but if NPC's manage pips, translate to my ship? Pretty indepth though, so your modifiers would be a good place to start and maybe the Crew Lounge lists NPC crew by specialism .. one catergory giving you one set of modifiers, another giving you a different set? Sure you've thought of that.

Many out there wouldn't mind Zeeman's escorts either .. hire a crew person, stick them in the spare seat with no effect. I would, but ultimately people might see Frontier as selling themselves short unless escort crew were a catergory of their own and free to hire (maybe they'd pay you for the chance to intern seeing as all they're really good for is making a cup of tea?)

+1
 
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Mobediah Jones

Mobediah Jones
I've seen this thread before. Nevertheless I still totally agree.

The npc crew at this moment can only be of use if you're using fighter hangars, and because it gives you another source of damage and they'll take a % cut of any profits made dependable on their rank.
That is fair, until you come to the realization that everything, be it exploring, trading, smuggling and doing missions, the cut will still take place even tho the npc didn't enhance the experience or contribute towards it.

If you're not bounty hunting every time you log on, you'll loose money for nothing. Which is solvable with hiring a brand new npc, bounty hunt and kick the npc before turning the bounties in. That way if you decide to do some exploring or trading next, you'll get 100% of the payout since you did it alone.

Asking frontier to just add them to the next seat isn't enough for me, sure it'll be great to actually have him/her on the ship. But they need to implement reasons besides immersion to do it. Bonuses towards different goals, trading adds another Ton of cargo space depending on the rank, exploring adds another LY jump-range depending on the rank. Idéas ontop of my head but atleast that'll give me a reason to keep a Elite crew-member around.

Hell just give me 1more pip and I'll call it fair.
 

Flimley

Flimley
Me too. Its wrong I tell ya....WRONG !
you can see other people in multicrew can't you ?! So why not your solo crew member ?
Flimley
 

Flimley

Flimley
Stellar Gambit said:
If you position the star (after you jump into a system) to the left of your ship - and look at the silhouette of yourself on the inside of the cockpit to your right.. you will find what you seek.

Space is indeed lonely.
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Haha. Do you talk to your shadow also !

Flimley
 

Magic Man

Magic Man
This is why I bought a second account and fly both at the same time, so that I have a crewmate along for the ride. They don't say much but at least the chair isn't empty anymore.

Agree with the above, especially since 'proper' multi-crew seems to have gone quiet. Please FD, don't let that go to waste, allow us to place NPC in our cockpits and allow some form of interaction.
 

Ishmerai Killforge

I
Sorry, didn't mean to bring up something that might've been talked about a lot. Being a new pilot, I probably should've known to search first, but I was writing this as I was jumping around hauling stuff. Just did it fast.

Iskariot said:
Many would agree.
For many of us, including me, multiplayer multicrew is out of the question.
Personally I feel that npc multicrew should have been implemented before the multiplayer version, simply because everybody will want to make use of that as opposed to the multiplayer implementation.

What I really want is a cool npc multicrew sytem. Nothing too elaborate to begin with.

This I posted elsewhere (but I have many more ideas about this particular subject):


I hope FD will eventually get around implementing something like that.
Click to expand...

Really cool ideas.

Magic Man said:
This is why I bought a second account and fly both at the same time, so that I have a crewmate along for the ride. They don't say much but at least the chair isn't empty anymore.

Agree with the above, especially since 'proper' multi-crew seems to have gone quiet. Please FD, don't let that go to waste, allow us to place NPC in our cockpits and allow some form of interaction.
Click to expand...

I seriously might have to do this. When I'm hopping around, hauling stuff from place to place, I look around my ship a lot and really just admire the detail. Also imagining what a real ship might look like. I'm space junkie, always have been since Wing Commander. But yeah, when I see that empty seat, it's just lonely. I'll really consider getting a 2nd account just to do that.
 

Hank

H
I was like the OP, when I got my 1st Cobra I wished I could hire a crew member to sit next to me. They would not have to do much other than look around like my holo-me does; maybe we could look at each other. :)

I would hope ED would soon add the ability to have the crew you hire sit in the other seats in the cockpit or in the case of the big ships occupy the other two seats. (I can't see why that would be a problem from a code standpoint, but I could be wrong)

On another but similar topic, I was surprised I could not assign my crew to a two seat ship like my Vulture until I read the crew lounge text saying I had to have a fighter bay installed which limits you to 6 or 8 ships. I know; I should read more. But why have two or three seats when you can't put a crew member in them.

GL on this and HF
 

DocLooshkin

DocLooshkin
Hello, Mr Killforge. :)

+1, with caveats. I'm not really sure we want to get that from the store - as it is, there are already enough things to find money for, with presumably, more things to come, such as interiors - but I do like the idea. It seems like a fair bit of work's involved, though - practical activity programming, extended animation (regardless of comedy potential, I assume we don't really want them to just sit there like a blow-up doll), voice-overs, etc - so perhaps it will need to be paid for separately.

I would be wary of expecting altogether too much from the dialogue. I've no idea who's individually responsible, but FD's writing skills have improved greatly since the game started. There are times when it is genuinely very sharp and amusing. That said, it's still somewhat variable in quality here and there - and over several hours, that variability might well stand out to a degree that isn't entirely comfortable. Perhaps more so, if it involves voice-overs from FD staff members - they've done a surprisingly good job with the traffic controllers, but how far will their acting skills extend?

FD could do worse than hire someone with more experience for the job, particularly if it's being made available as a real-money extra. I wonder what Kate Russell is doing, these days?

Regarding what the NPCs should be able to do, I think the original DDF thread covers the basics well.

The only things I'd like to see added to the premise would be to have multi-role crewpersons, who can just be reassigned to different duties, as and when needed. I'd also like to see NPCs occupy a Science Role for the ship, who can - just for a few easy examples - perhaps carry out various forms of analysis, such as on internally held materials for saleable / useable data-production, or scanning an enemy's shields and systems to identify particular weaknesses.

Winterwalker's idea of having an Intern - or, in British English, a Work Placement Lackey - who merely supplies tea and biscuits is an excellent idea - and seems like an perfect fit for the Canonn. Yamazaki whisky-coffees and Ginger Crunch Creams for the win! :)
 

Hedgehobbit

Hedgehobbit
o7MJ said:
But they need to implement reasons besides immersion to do it. Bonuses towards different goals, trading adds another Ton of cargo space depending on the rank, exploring adds another LY jump-range depending on the rank. Idéas ontop of my head but atleast that'll give me a reason to keep a Elite crew-member around.
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All this does is give a bonus to all the large super ships that are overpowered to begin with. Does the Anaconda really need more jump range?
 

Mobediah Jones

Mobediah Jones
Hedgehobbit said:
All this does is give a bonus to all the large super ships that are overpowered to begin with. Does the Anaconda really need more jump range?
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I fail to see how this would only benefit the large 'super ships'. Let's say a Elite crew member gives you 10ly boost for simplicity. How is that 10ly bonus less powerful on a Adder, Cobra Mk III, Vulture, Asp Explorer and Asp Scout just to name a few? It's still a 10ly boost, right?
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
Magic Man said:
This is why I bought a second account and fly both at the same time, so that I have a crewmate along for the ride. ....................
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Oh I never thought of that. Now my power bill is going to rocket and I might have to dust off a third computer for the third account.


:D

Ishmerai Killforge said:
.................... It would be so cool if we could "hire" a crew member simply for the reason of just someone sitting there. Even better is they would make small talk like 'wow, it sure is quiet tonight." .................
Click to expand...


You can have someone to chat with, the HCS Voice Packs, coupled with Voice Attack gives you a (more or less) useful virtual companion. I have the delightful Norwegian-accented Eden but there are loads you can buy (very reasonable - no connection to me).

There are some videos on the u-toob that give a good idea of what they are like.

:cool:
 

BirdWisdom

BirdWisdom
Ishmerai Killforge said:
I've been using this ship mainly for trading and mining. I'm a newer player, about 30 hours on record. After flying from system to system, mining all these rocks, it gets lonely.
'
Yeah I chat with people, but I mean in my ship. It would be so cool if we could "hire" a crew member simply for the reason of just someone sitting there. Even better is they would make small talk like 'wow, it sure is quiet tonight." Even better than that would be that each crew member like that would have their own backstory that would take so many hours of flying with them to unlock it all. Like say after flying with a certain crew member after like 40 hours total, you will have heard their life story or something like that. Would be cool and I would totally pay for something like that from the store, no questions asked. Anyways, that's my suggestion.
Click to expand...

Yep the seats are quite unusable in solo mode at the moment :(
 
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