Multi-Crew in Solo Play?

Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
So an obvious question is-will Multi-Crew ships only be a thing for multiplayer or, like in Elite II & Elite III, will Solo players (& multi-players too, to be fair) be able to hire extra AI crew from the Bulletin Boards? I really, *really* hope it is the latter, as I am already feeling side-lined by the lack of wings for solo play (though I do understand why this feature isn't able to be provided at present).

Just so people understand, I would love to play outside of Solo, but I have no Australian friends who play the game, & my own playing schedule is far too erratic to team up with people on a regular basis (also, given all the horror stories I have heard about "griefing", I'm a little scared to enter Open Play ;-) ), so an option to have AI crew, even if the interaction is extremely limited, would be wonderful.

Yours,

CMDR Marcus Hicks.
 

sam445

S
Don't worry, griefing is quite a rare act. You can come up in Open. Of course it is a bit less safe but it isn't really worse. I experienced more positive player encounters than negative ones.
 

Lazerus Artificial

Lazerus Artificial
there were a few interviews (from Obsidianant and Laveradio for example) who asked this.
The response was, that there will be AI controlls for these things, so AI controlled fighter for example
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
If you play in the Aussie timezone (West Aussie here) chances are you won't see anyone anyway. I see one or 2 CMDRs a night if I'm lucky. :)
 

Jumpin' Jack Flash

Jumpin' Jack Flash
Marc_Hicks said:
So an obvious question is-will Multi-Crew ships only be a thing for multiplayer or, like in Elite II & Elite III, will Solo players (& multi-players too, to be fair) be able to hire extra AI crew from the Bulletin Boards? I really, *really* hope it is the latter, as I am already feeling side-lined by the lack of wings for solo play (though I do understand why this feature isn't able to be provided at present).

Just so people understand, I would love to play outside of Solo, but I have no Australian friends who play the game, & my own playing schedule is far too erratic to team up with people on a regular basis (also, given all the horror stories I have heard about "griefing", I'm a little scared to enter Open Play ;-) ), so an option to have AI crew, even if the interaction is extremely limited, would be wonderful.

Yours,

CMDR Marcus Hicks.
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm also hoping that eventually we'll be able to hire AI crew in solo, I'm thinking that there's so many possibilities for interesting and varied type of gameplay here that it would be a natural/logical path in development that Frontier would implement at some time in the near future.
It's obviously one, or many ways in which a solo player could form a 'team' spirit within the solo player aspect, especially for example if the hired crew had varied personalities and they also gained or enhanced those certain skill levels as time aboard your ship progressed.
As was present in the last two previous games, hired crew members were roughly graded by what wages they asked for when you first hired them. If this feature was of a more intricate nature and had a real impact on the performance of your ship as a whole then it's quite possible it could even be beneficial in open play as well, especially for the 'lone' player.
For another example, would real player 'pirates' think twice before attacking player owned armed traders with an 'Elite' crew of AI gunners aboard, or 'defence' 'specialists' in open play ? ;)
So, a player targets what seems to be an easy trading ship to pirate, the pilot (player) has a rank of 'competent' in the targeting info. but the the pirate sees that the defence/gunnery crew are designated Deadly or Elite. It may mean the pirate might have to disable the gun/defence crew first before concentrating fire on other modules of the ship initially. Can the trader pilot afford to lose a valued member of the crew?...is the pirate confident enough to risk this encounter?....interesting possible scenarios I think. Even more so if the trader could somehow also own or hire AI wingmen escorts to protect his/her ship. ;)
How complex this could become obviously depends on the limits of programming and 'balance' to the game, but it might perhaps give a player in solo a bit more confidence to try open game trading and perhaps even exploration to some degree, especially near the core systems. I think players could generally form lasting 'bonds' with some hired crew, so it would tend to flesh the game out in that respect, and blurr or soften the line a bit maybe between solo and open play.
.
Jack :)
 

Nitek [pl]

Banned
N
Just come to Open. There is no reason to stay solo. Griefers and gankers are REALLY rare. REALLY. I have met so much great friends in open. Just do it and enjoy multicrew when it's out. In solo - even if they put in models in the seats.... what will that do? change pips for you?:]
We have australians in our Ts - look for me ingame cmdr Nitek [pl]
 

Stocker

Stocker
I'm a lone wolf, and I would love to be able to hire (employ) NPC's. Guessing that is what FD means by AI controlling the ship, As AI is not legal in the Elite universe.
 
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Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
Jumpin' Jack Flash said:
Yep, I'm also hoping that eventually we'll be able to hire AI crew in solo, I'm thinking that there's so many possibilities for interesting and varied type of gameplay here that it would be a natural/logical path in development that Frontier would implement at some time in the near future.
It's obviously one, or many ways in which a solo player could form a 'team' spirit within the solo player aspect, especially for example if the hired crew had varied personalities and they also gained or enhanced those certain skill levels as time aboard your ship progressed.
As was present in the last two previous games, hired crew members were roughly graded by what wages they asked for when you first hired them. If this feature was of a more intricate nature and had a real impact on the performance of your ship as a whole then it's quite possible it could even be beneficial in open play as well, especially for the 'lone' player.
For another example, would real player 'pirates' think twice before attacking player owned armed traders with an 'Elite' crew of AI gunners aboard, or 'defence' 'specialists' in open play ? ;)
So, a player targets what seems to be an easy trading ship to pirate, the pilot (player) has a rank of 'competent' in the targeting info. but the the pirate sees that the defence/gunnery crew are designated Deadly or Elite. It may mean the pirate might have to disable the gun/defence crew first before concentrating fire on other modules of the ship initially. Can the trader pilot afford to lose a valued member of the crew?...is the pirate confident enough to risk this encounter?....interesting possible scenarios I think. Even more so if the trader could somehow also own or hire AI wingmen escorts to protect his/her ship. ;)
How complex this could become obviously depends on the limits of programming and 'balance' to the game, but it might perhaps give a player in solo a bit more confidence to try open game trading and perhaps even exploration to some degree, especially near the core systems. I think players could generally form lasting 'bonds' with some hired crew, so it would tend to flesh the game out in that respect, and blurr or soften the line a bit maybe between solo and open play.
.
Jack :)
Click to expand...


Very good points, Flash. The way I see, NPC crew could be a launch pad for more detailed NPC's that you can interact with-so called Tier 2 NPC's. This will help to make the Elite Galaxy seem even more alive IMHO.
 

Vasious

Vasious
Stocker said:
I'm a lone wolf, and I would love to be able to hire (employ) NPC's. Guessing that is what FD means by AI controlling the ship, As AI is not legal in the Elite universe.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think we need to call them NPCs rather than AI in terms of Artificial Intelligence
The DDF did have ideas about Robotic Crew members as well, which would be neat, but they were not envisioned as thinking Machines GAI
 

Marc_Hicks

Marc_Hicks
Vasious said:
Yeah, I think we need to call them NPCs rather than AI in terms of Artificial Intelligence
The DDF did have ideas about Robotic Crew members as well, which would be neat, but they were not envisioned as thinking Machines GAI
Click to expand...

Yep, you're absolutely correct. From here on out I will refer to them as NPC crew!
 

sensai25

sensai25
I definetly need NPC crew.

I move to play solo and it is a DDF possibility.


I could be fun trying to find thé perfect crew.


I also should allow to switch them for a friend who connect 2 hours, then leave and retrieve my favorite NPC onboard.
 

[VR] Mad Mike

[VR] Mad Mike
Marc_Hicks said:
So an obvious question is-will Multi-Crew ships only be a thing for multiplayer or, like in Elite II & Elite III, will Solo players (& multi-players too, to be fair) be able to hire extra AI crew from the Bulletin Boards? I really, *really* hope it is the latter, as I am already feeling side-lined by the lack of wings for solo play (though I do understand why this feature isn't able to be provided at present).

Just so people understand, I would love to play outside of Solo, but I have no Australian friends who play the game, & my own playing schedule is far too erratic to team up with people on a regular basis (also, given all the horror stories I have heard about "griefing", I'm a little scared to enter Open Play ;-) ), so an option to have AI crew, even if the interaction is extremely limited, would be wonderful.

Yours,

CMDR Marcus Hicks.
Click to expand...

I would really hope so.......... I would love to hear a clarification from the devs, and indeed in the live stream i was really hoping someone would ask that question, alas no one did.

Either way tho, I do hope we get an official response to this topic, and if it is a NO, I would hope the devs may explain why not.

Also, I know the devs have said about "AI" piloting our ship when we are away etc........ I am just hoping this is a miss-communication and by AI they mean the game AI, as in NPCs controlling our ship, because lore wise there is not meant to be any complex AI outside of the docking computer.
 
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excalibus

excalibus
it would be great (as well as keepin in context with previous incrnations of elite) where you need to hire crew for the larger ships with weekly pay costs etc and have them 'improve' in their ranking depending on what roles the player improves... such is crewmembers improving their combat rank as the player engages in more and more combat etc... and have them as tier 2 NPC's (or persistent NPC's) so players can trade their crew members if they choose to. that would add some definite variations to how well the ships weapons work or how quickly systems come back online or rebooting systems takes as well depending on the skill level of the NPC employed in the various shipboard roles... as well as the AI pilot level for when using fighters or so on...

A lot of possibilities exist here for FDev to really make something more indepth the shipboard setups
 
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