Ideas for hired Crew

[IcewindZG]

One of the annoyances that I feel could be easily fixed, is the cost of acquiring and keeping crew.

Granted, I understand that the process of hiring crew is meant to be a financial sink, but the current implementation is not effective. Any hired crew takes a cut of any and all income you make, whether they are active or on leave. I would LOVE to get paid a large flat percentage of what my boss earns while I'm sitting back waiting for a job. This isn't realistic and encourages Commanders to fire their crew at the first opportunity, especially before turning in any missions. That certainly doesn't encourage Commanders to invest in their crew and keep them around as long as possible.

I propose a change.

Hiring:
Hiring works fine, a flat fee to initiate the services of a pilot. Makes sense.

Continuing pay:
This is where I think the largest amount of rework needs to be done. It would be fair to have a monthly/weekly/daily pay to your crew, and it even makes sense for it to increase based on their skill level. However, it should be a flat rate based on their rank and if they're active. I have no idea how much would be fair, honestly. Maybe for a harmless rank pilot it would be some small amount weekly. It would naturally ramp up as they get better. Active crew would have a higher weekly pay than standby crew, but all would get paid. Ideally the amount wouldn't be punishing for any pilot, but would be a small investment to keep them around. This would not be the only money they make.

When the pilots are active and in your crew, the get an immediate cut of any bounties or bonds you earn. This would be more like their original cut. You wouldn't be able to fire them before turning in your bounties and cut them out entirely, as they already took their percentage. These pilots are there to help you in combat and to protect you. They get a cut for each engagement. Something would have to be worked out in case the pilot is used as a distraction for a cargo ship, as that probably doesn't include many kills.

Closing thoughts:
Having a difference in pay for standby crew vs active, and not paying a flat percent of everything you do makes more sense. Encourage Commanders to keep their crew around, without being so financially obnoxious when they aren't in use.

 

[metatheurgist]

Honestly CR are so easy to come by I don't care that much about the pay. But I do think it'd be better halved. The thing that bugs me more is the 30% handicap I take into combat CGs.

And ideas for hired crew should include actual stuff you could do with your crew to justify that pay. It's been 9 years and all we can do is fly ONE SLF with them. If anything else represents the absolute minimum of effort and ideas put into any game mechanic that Frontier puts up I don't know what it is.

 

[aRJay]

I used to hire crew, fly the mission or whatever, fire the crew before completing/handing in the mission. It is a great way to save credits but ignoring the worth of credits there are downsides.

The biggest downside is that your crew stays at a level where they are almost useless for anything other than a distraction, they only really become effective at a around the rank of Dangerous by which time firing them or not buying them back is a bit of a waste.

The big cost is of course how much combat XP they take and hire and fire makes that worse.

That said the percentage cut they take all the time does feel wrong a flat salary based on their rank with a straight bonus when they are on your ship, they get the percentage of the profits bonus if the SLF is actually deployed seems better. But it would probably be a pain to code.

 

[ethelred]

All crew should add a bonus or multiplier to some aspect of you ship, depending on their own stats and where you place them on the ship. Like mini engineering, even to the extent of having specialities that appear when they level.

Obviously they should also appear and interact with you too.

But above all this, please give us NPC wingmen.

 

[DemiserofD]

I just want them to be able to fly your ship with you in it to a destination. Imagine if you could task your ship to a system and then multicrew in there until your ship arrives?

 

[BackToTheMud]

Should your NPC crew be able to do more? Yes!
Does even the 10% an elite trained one cost matter? No, with how easy it is to earn credits, it doesn't.

 

[g0oglyeyes]

Ah yes, NPC crew. Anoher pain point where the pleas of the players go unheard.

 

[aRJay]

Ah yes, NPC crew. Anoher pain point where the pleas of the players go unheard.

Not so much unheard I am sure, merely ignored as they aren’t what the Devs want.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi

All crew should add a bonus or multiplier to some aspect of you ship, depending on their own stats and where you place them on the ship. Like mini engineering, even to the extent of having specialities that appear when they level.

Obviously they should also appear and interact with you too.

But above all this, please give us NPC wingmen.

I agree , and by appear and interact I personally would like to see one or more (I hire) sitting in the cockpit seat or seats at least, and obviously animated!

I personally can't feel 'attached' to a static picture only displayed on the menu board. If the player (in my opinion only) could interact with these npc's on a more intimate level their real value as a loyal crew member should (generally) only increase over time.

Edit...I carried on writing a long tome about a more interactive npc crew at this point...but thankfully (for the forum readers) I deleted it all.

All I will say is...everybody and their donkey is spouting off how good the modern AI is so let's see it in action here!
At the end of the day though it's obviously up to Frontier whether they think a more real time interactive npc crew is required, either in ships crews or other areas of gameplay aboard your ship.
I personally can see the possibilities for some great new features in this direction....but then, I do tend to fantasize about this game's direction sometimes!

Jack

 

[Hank]

FDev is way behind regarding Crew. I agree with these ^^ ideas and what I've asked for in the past is to put those crew in the seats on my ships. Any ship with a co-pilot seat (Python, etc.) up to full bridges (Conda, Ts, Cutter, etc etc etc) should let me put those crew members in those seats; and be able to dialog with them in lieu of a set of menus.
GL HF

 

[Capt. Hook]

Sid Meyers Pirates back in the day meant NPC crew needed to 'pilot' any captured ships. Would be nice 30 years later in game development to allow our NPC crew to be despatched to pilot your captured ship back to port as a prize rather than just blow it up. Maybe even control it as a wingman. I would like them to be used to run haulage for me. The better the pilot the better the chance of it arriving etc. Again a version of the wingman.

Going to reinstall Pirates I think, yarrrr

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Not so much unheard I am sure, merely ignored as they aren’t what the Devs want.

They might even like the ideas presented, but just don't have the time or resources to do it vs their other priorities.

Sometimes in development things are in the backlog for doing but never get done, because there's always something else more important that needs doing.

 

[BackToTheMud]

Not so much unheard I am sure, merely ignored as they aren’t what the Devs want.

The "ignore" part is a problem though. Not that they don't do what "we" want, but their silence. There are a few subjects that come up over and over and over and over again. Fdev could make this forum a lot less repetitive by addressing those topics. In some cases rhat would literally just require the to let us know if something is a bug, or working as intended.

 

[aRJay]

The "ignore" part is a problem though. Not that they don't do what "we" want, but their silence. There are a few subjects that come up over and over and over and over again. Fdev could make this forum a lot less repetitive by addressing those topics. In some cases rhat would literally just require the to let us know if something is a bug, or working as intended.

Yes, but the downside is some of us would just rearrange whatever FDev said until it matched what we wanted it to say.

 

[BackToTheMud]

Yes, but the downside is some of us would just rearrange whatever FDev said until it matched what we wanted it to say.

You can of of course never fully compensate for someones poor reading comprehension, or tenuous grasp on reality, but Fdev clearly stating "that is working as intended", "it's a placeholder", or "it's a bug" would go a long way.

 

[i_sparrow]

I'll take the liberty of responding on behalf of Frontier.

At the current stage of Elite Dangerous's development, it wouldn't be feasible to implement major changes.

Fixed Salary

Establishing a fixed weekly salary seems reasonable, but... In the case of a commander with few or no credits, paying a fixed salary would result in a negative balance. We could discuss various "correct" ways to handle this, but that would necessarily require a coding effort that's unlikely to be expended - in other words, no chance.

Preventing Dismissal of Crew with Pending Salary

This is difficult to implement because it doesn't just involve pending credits but also future profits from stored minerals and commodities.


Despite all this, we can improve the working relationship with crew members. The crew member would cease to be a fixed employee and would instead become an occasional collaborator (freelancer). This means that whenever they are called upon (activated) to perform work, they would charge a fixed upfront fee (the current hiring cost), in addition to immediately receiving a percentage (double the current percentage) of combat bonds and bounties for eliminated criminals.

In summary... The crew member receives a fixed amount whenever they are called upon (activated) and immediately receives a percentage of combat credits. This ensures fair payment for crew members, discouraging their dismissal as currently happens.

On the other hand, commanders would not need to pay a percentage of profits from trading and exploration. This is fair because the primary (if not sole) function of crew members is to assist in combat situations.

All other aspects of crew members, including level progression and increasing participation in combat credits, would be maintained.

I believe these changes would be very positive and extremely easy to implement, requiring very little coding effort.

Please support this suggestion, and perhaps it will be implemented.