Now that Multicrew has been rolled into Wings (a good change, in my opinion), it still leaves the problem of WHY you should multicrew.
Multicrew wingmates can essentially do four things: redistribute their distributor energy, control turrets, control some utilities, and fly fighters.
Unfortunately, of these four things, three of them are either neutral or actively harmful. Turrets, for example, are usually only included in ways that the main player can use them effectively. In general, giving another player control of them makes them LESS effective, not more, as instead of automatically shooting at the main target, the player tends to shoot other things. Controlling utilities is a similar vein; the pilot is the one who knows when these things should be used, NOT the multicrew member. Typically giving the multicrew members shield cell access just results in overheating, whether accidental or on purpose.
The only place that multicrew is functional is with fighters, and even there, the multicrew member gets a significant nerf to their income compared to flying their own ship, even if they were flying a sidewinder that did significantly less damage than the fighter.
So I have a series of suggestions to make Multicrew more engaging and interesting.
1. Change turret control from global control to overcharging one single turret.
When a multicrewmate takes over your turrets, there is little benefit. They can ignore chaff, true, but that's only relevant in a small number of cases, and most builds with turrets are designed to function with or without a multicrewmate at the controls, and in fact work worse with them there.
So change the turrets. Rather than controlling ALL the turrets, place the camera mounted directly to the turret itself, and overcharge that specific turret to Fixed weapon damage levels. This gives a more immersive and effective bonus.
2. Add similar minigames to other functions(shields, engines)
On top of the change to turrets, players should have ways of helping with all ship functions. For shields, give players an overlay of the ship, with the ability to intensify shield strength over specific quadrants. For example, on the front of the ship, or the top, or the back, or any other of the eight sides. This would give additional multiplicative strength to that part of the shield, so players need to pay attention to where the enemy is firing and increase shield strength there.
As far as Engines are concerned, there could be a minigame displaying thruster camber and fuel flow. By modifying them, you could move the boost performance in various ways; one way to give more speed, another for greater maneuverability, a third for weaker boosts but shorter boost cooldown.
3. Put bonus distributor energy under Pilot control.
Having the extra distro pip is nice, but needing to rely on the multicrew member to control it usually results in it just sitting still rather than being available for change. This results in less complex gameplay, not more complex play, making the game simpler and less interesting.
This could be easily fixed by letting the pilot control them freely.
Multicrew wingmates can essentially do four things: redistribute their distributor energy, control turrets, control some utilities, and fly fighters.
Unfortunately, of these four things, three of them are either neutral or actively harmful. Turrets, for example, are usually only included in ways that the main player can use them effectively. In general, giving another player control of them makes them LESS effective, not more, as instead of automatically shooting at the main target, the player tends to shoot other things. Controlling utilities is a similar vein; the pilot is the one who knows when these things should be used, NOT the multicrew member. Typically giving the multicrew members shield cell access just results in overheating, whether accidental or on purpose.
The only place that multicrew is functional is with fighters, and even there, the multicrew member gets a significant nerf to their income compared to flying their own ship, even if they were flying a sidewinder that did significantly less damage than the fighter.
So I have a series of suggestions to make Multicrew more engaging and interesting.
1. Change turret control from global control to overcharging one single turret.
When a multicrewmate takes over your turrets, there is little benefit. They can ignore chaff, true, but that's only relevant in a small number of cases, and most builds with turrets are designed to function with or without a multicrewmate at the controls, and in fact work worse with them there.
So change the turrets. Rather than controlling ALL the turrets, place the camera mounted directly to the turret itself, and overcharge that specific turret to Fixed weapon damage levels. This gives a more immersive and effective bonus.
2. Add similar minigames to other functions(shields, engines)
On top of the change to turrets, players should have ways of helping with all ship functions. For shields, give players an overlay of the ship, with the ability to intensify shield strength over specific quadrants. For example, on the front of the ship, or the top, or the back, or any other of the eight sides. This would give additional multiplicative strength to that part of the shield, so players need to pay attention to where the enemy is firing and increase shield strength there.
As far as Engines are concerned, there could be a minigame displaying thruster camber and fuel flow. By modifying them, you could move the boost performance in various ways; one way to give more speed, another for greater maneuverability, a third for weaker boosts but shorter boost cooldown.
3. Put bonus distributor energy under Pilot control.
Having the extra distro pip is nice, but needing to rely on the multicrew member to control it usually results in it just sitting still rather than being available for change. This results in less complex gameplay, not more complex play, making the game simpler and less interesting.
This could be easily fixed by letting the pilot control them freely.
