Multi-crew (or the lack of it)

[koop26]

I really wish Multicrew had been NPC crewmembers instead of a multiplayer thing. I've a strong feeling that a lot of people would be using the feature if it had been.


And then later on they could have added the multiplayer part of it, but instead of telepresence the players would simply "fill in" for the NPC crews.

This is all I ever wanted too. I just wanted the empty seats on the larger ships to be filled by NPCs pretending to do something valuable. It would make day to day in my ship a little more pleasant, especially in VR.

This is also 50% the reason why I don't use an Anaconda despite having the money for it. Flying a ship that has a huge empty bridge just feels incomplete and weird to me.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Its good for linking up with friends and known people. Trying to hook up with randoms... don't think it works well from several perspectives.

I really wish Multicrew had been NPC crewmembers instead of a multiplayer thing. I've a strong feeling that a lot of people would be using the feature if it had been.


And then later on they could have added the multiplayer part of it, but instead of telepresence the players would simply "fill in" for the NPC crews.

Made a suggestion a while back about getting our empty seats filled up with NPCs, just cosmetic.

 

[Bortas]

IMHO the biggest problem is the lack of NPC-multicrew. FDev ignored the players' plea for NPC multicrew, who predicted it would become irrelevant if it was implemented without this.

And so it became irrelevant. It's probably mostly used with secondary/tertiary accounts to get the extra pips.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

They just got multi crew horribly wrong.
It's implemented as quick drop-in drop out pew-pew with strangers, which is something that I don't think many people want at all.
Long-term gameplay with established friends, which would be interesting, is not at all what it's aimed at.

They did a pretty good job of implementing completely the wrong thing.

i think this is a decent summation..... they implemented the cherry on the cake, without actually implementing the cake, or the icing.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

i think this is a decent summation..... they implemented the cherry on the cake, without actually implementing the cake, or the icing.

When a lot of people don't even like cherries.

Implementing something for a sub-set of a sub-set of the playing population was always going to be difficult problematic.

 

[GunnerBill]

We're not to far from Eravate and in our BH Res there was about 10 people across 3 ships. We saw a FDL that was crew 4/4!

Imagine 4 in a FDL???

We regularly see crewed ships and I'd say it was mainly newer players using MC.

TBH though I reckon it's something you do with players on your friends list, likely using voice comm's too.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

I see a few people saying they play multi-crew with friends but not with strangers. I like the idea, but given my friends won't stretch beyond Fifa and COD I very much doubt I will get them playing a game like ED. Perhaps I need new friends....

even whith the DUMBED DOWN controls for a gunner, that part of multicrew is tooo much to handle for someone who doesn't play elite dangerous alone.
i have a whole week several MC sessions with a close friend, to have him learn all the things he should do, and not do.

now that he learned the game controls himself, he started to use the SLF fighter more often then the turrets.

We're not to far from Eravate and in our BH Res there was about 10 people across 3 ships. We saw a FDL that was crew 4/4!

Imagine 4 in a FDL???

We regularly see crewed ships and I'd say it was mainly newer players using MC.

TBH though I reckon it's something you do with players on your friends list, likely using voice comm's too.

AFAIK the crew count display is bugged.

 

[GunnerBill]

AFAIK the crew count display is bugged.

Didn't know that!

Bugged as in the count is wrong but it is crewed by at least one other person, or it might have no crew?

 

[Conch]

Multicrew has some big faults in it.. the payment is wrong and not motivating people to do it.

the other day did some BH with a new player. Im Elite, he is harmless.. i made 1m, he made 50k..

People that join MC, dont get any rank increase.. altho they gain skills from doing it.

While in MC.. no outfitting etc. No planet landings with multiple SRVs..

cant send the mother ship away todo some racing in SLF with your crew..

All in all, multicrew is verry limited.

 

[Drelthar]

Multicrew would be one of the best features ever implemented into Elite Dangerous.

If it had been finished before release.

 

[GG7]

If this is true, FD made a serious misjudgement of what the community want from this game....



6pm GMT on a Sunday. I would think that's not too low activity?

NPC Crews FTW! [up]


Frontier would have been wise to LISTEN to the community outcry for NPC CREWS when this feature was first announced and being developed. None of the discussions I read on here at the time showed very much support for a MP/P2P ONLY Model. The majority of comments I remember were all shouting NPC CREWS along with me!

Frontier chose to totally ignore that majority opinion/desire for this feature. So it is not surprising that when it was released, it received only a luke warm response which quickly faded to one of indifference once all the instancing issues started to surface.

I know of no one on my friends list who posts MC requests any more, and the few I have tried to host never got any traction either. I am not a fan of playing with randoms, but if you want to use MC, that is your only viable option most of the time. And the experience is predictably lackluster/mediocre.

No thank you.

The Epic Fail of Multi-Crew was easily predicted by the majority of the ED community once FDEV made it clear that the NPC Crew option EVERYONE WANTED was not going to be included.

It doesn't get much more Tone Deaf than that.

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

Multicrew - the biggest add on that no-one worth listening to ever asked for.

Not a relevant comment.
Try a rage thread of your own.

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

I've found that the problem is that there is not much for crew to do.
They can take control of turreted guns and some modules.
They can also fly SLFs.

This can be fun in a combat scenario. Rewards are probably not great, but can be fun.

I find quite a few takers for exploring. They can do nothing more than look out of window, check system map and chat ship pilot. But even that can be fun.

There are ships out there to be crew for, just be patient.

 

[Muzz UK]

I was hoping with winged missions and such that multi crew might be expanded, at least to allow crew to complete combat missions.

 

[777Driver]

I think it's a relevant comment. If FD have spent time developing something no-one wants and not on something people do want....well, let's just say that's not a great idea.

Except FD developed something that many wanted. Sorry to break it to you mate, but you and a group of whingers do not speak for everyone. I can appreciate people wanted more features, or the more introverted preferring NPC crew over humans, but please stop trying to speak for everybody.

 

[NeilF]

Multicrew - the biggest add on that no-one worth listening to ever asked for.

Isn't that CQC?

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

I really wish Multicrew had been NPC crewmembers instead of a multiplayer thing. I've a strong feeling that a lot of people would be using the feature if it had been.


And then later on they could have added the multiplayer part of it, but instead of telepresence the players would simply "fill in" for the NPC crews.

As we can already swap between the Fighter and Pilot role, I'm assuming that you'd like to swap the pilot and Gunner roles with NPCs?

Please, NO. NO and thrice NO.

It will turn the game into freelancer, with everyone flying around in 3rd person view.

It's a pity because Bounty Hunting in Multi-crew is fun (if you get good talkative crew) but it really needs to be usable in other modes, like exploration. I think they may have missed a trick by not making the thargoids a little bit more vulnerable to multi-crew ships.

 

[NeilF]

It's not a bad idea, but I thought they were supposed to be listening to the community? It appears no-one is interested in it. If they tied it in with the hirable NPC crew it could be a decent addition.

It is a bad idea when the core gameplay is so simple and paper thin, there's only just about enough to keep one player occupied, let alone split the gameplay up for multiple people to undertake it.

The issues - and the now too little to leverage for the Thargoid invasion - comes from years of lack of investment in more involved game mechanics IMHO - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...is-now-coming-back-to-bite-ED-in-the-boosters!

 

[Phoenix_Dfire]

NPC Crews FTW! [up]


Frontier would have been wise to LISTEN to the community outcry for NPC CREWS when this feature was first announced and being developed. None of the discussions I read on here at the time showed very much support for a MP/P2P ONLY Model. The majority of comments I remember were all shouting NPC CREWS along with me!

Frontier chose to totally ignore that majority opinion/desire for this feature. So it is not surprising that when it was released, it received only a luke warm response which quickly faded to one of indifference once all the instancing issues started to surface.

I know of no one on my friends list who posts MC requests any more, and the few I have tried to host never got any traction either. I am not a fan of playing with randoms, but if you want to use MC, that is your only viable option most of the time. And the experience is predictably lackluster/mediocre.

No thank you.

The Epic Fail of Multi-Crew was easily predicted by the majority of the ED community once FDEV made it clear that the NPC Crew option EVERYONE WANTED was not going to be included.

It doesn't get much more Tone Deaf than that.

and it will turn the game into Freelancer. No thanks.

 

[Enderby]

I rather think that the decent thing to do would be to not mention ‘mc’ any longer. You know, to save FD’s blushes.

They must be feeling rather embarrassed about it so I think it would be tactful if we didn’t mention it and acted as if it had never happened.

Which, when one comes to think about it, is pretty much what everyone has done since its release anyway, what!