I've seen a few problems with people in Multi-Crew. From utilities being used up to ship launched fighters being abused but I've played a little and I think I might have a fix to that.
This might be REALLY difficult to implement but I can see this actually helping gameplay, even if you get into a mulitcrew with douches who want to make your playtime difficult. Now this is ONLY for combat situations
Firstly, with permission from the Commander, give the one crew mate access to a separate set of default utilities (heat sinks, cell banks, chaff) while letting the helmsmen keep their own. This gives multi-crew ships an advantage over other ships while also giving the "gankers" a reason not to use all of the utilities in place specifically for them. These utilities can be restocked by the Commander in "advanced maintenance" called "Crew Utilities" so crew mates can't just leave multi-crew and come back and the multi-crew utilities be restocked.
But not just that. For balance reasons and to find if you're crewed up with a "ganker", Crew utilities have a longer cool down (10x or x12 longer) than the Commander regular utilities. That way, the helm and the crew mate have to strategically use their extra utilities instead of spamming one after the other WHILE also exposing the "gankers" because they will slowly use your utilities at inappropriate moments giving you time to react without loosing too many "Crew Utilities"
This also guarantees that there will be something for the crew mate to use when not in gunner seat.
Secondly, The Pip System. This one is going to be fun. With permission from the Helmsman, one crew mate is going to be fully responsible for the pips in the ship. This gives the helmsman sort of a "Star Trek" like command
(Example scenario: "Jake343 Full power to engines I need to turn my ship around, faster, on that Clipper, Max464, I'm turning the ship, take out that clipper, Jake343 full power to Weapons so Max464 can go for the kill.")
But this will also help helmsmen who don't know how to fully utilize their pips and will help them learn how it's used.
Now this can also work for a two-person mulit-crew as the wingman can switch between the Pip role, gunner role or the utilities role unless the Commander chooses to use any of those roles for themselves.
Any problems with this? if so, let me know, I would like some feed back.
This might be REALLY difficult to implement but I can see this actually helping gameplay, even if you get into a mulitcrew with douches who want to make your playtime difficult. Now this is ONLY for combat situations
Firstly, with permission from the Commander, give the one crew mate access to a separate set of default utilities (heat sinks, cell banks, chaff) while letting the helmsmen keep their own. This gives multi-crew ships an advantage over other ships while also giving the "gankers" a reason not to use all of the utilities in place specifically for them. These utilities can be restocked by the Commander in "advanced maintenance" called "Crew Utilities" so crew mates can't just leave multi-crew and come back and the multi-crew utilities be restocked.
But not just that. For balance reasons and to find if you're crewed up with a "ganker", Crew utilities have a longer cool down (10x or x12 longer) than the Commander regular utilities. That way, the helm and the crew mate have to strategically use their extra utilities instead of spamming one after the other WHILE also exposing the "gankers" because they will slowly use your utilities at inappropriate moments giving you time to react without loosing too many "Crew Utilities"
This also guarantees that there will be something for the crew mate to use when not in gunner seat.
Secondly, The Pip System. This one is going to be fun. With permission from the Helmsman, one crew mate is going to be fully responsible for the pips in the ship. This gives the helmsman sort of a "Star Trek" like command
(Example scenario: "Jake343 Full power to engines I need to turn my ship around, faster, on that Clipper, Max464, I'm turning the ship, take out that clipper, Jake343 full power to Weapons so Max464 can go for the kill.")
But this will also help helmsmen who don't know how to fully utilize their pips and will help them learn how it's used.
Now this can also work for a two-person mulit-crew as the wingman can switch between the Pip role, gunner role or the utilities role unless the Commander chooses to use any of those roles for themselves.
Any problems with this? if so, let me know, I would like some feed back.