And I'm not referring in this case to performance issues, which I feel don't need explaining and already have been getting addressed more and more as time goes on.
No, I'm talking about the following particular problems:
((A)) NPC crew member permadeath.
This thread, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/288943-Frontier-Please-Don-t-Kill-Our-Crew! , first started in September of 2016, has had near-unanimous responses from the community to REMOVE the permadeath of crewmembers. And it is just one such example, many other similar threads exist both here and on the Elite Dangerous subreddit.
Fdev, nobody - or near enough to it - is enjoying the permadeath nonsense. Do away with it with all haste, please!
Late 2021 edit - been addressed!
((B)) Experience reduction when in a crew or wing of any kind.
See my thread here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...t-experience?p=6179692&viewfull=1#post6179692
For those unaware, combat XP is divided by how many crew and/or wing members are present with you, whether NPC or human - that is, bare minimum, you are losing 50% of XP gains and what you do get is reduced to a smaller and smaller fraction the more crew/wing members are there.
I see absolutely no reason that we should be actively punished for participating in a wing/crew. Being able to get kills faster, and thereby XP faster, should be a clear and obvious benefit of bothering to group up in the first place for wing/crew activities. It's not a pushover to find other players or to train up an NPC, nor is it true that having a wing/crew member directly correlates with getting twice, thrice, or four times and more the amount of kills in the same space of time - far from it!
With the system we have now, where combat rank is determined primarly by sheer quantity of kills as though Elite Dangerous is some kind of horde shooter, this XP gain reduction is nothing short of crippling. It makes having a wing or crew completely counter-productive and unappealing.
Oh, and if you've already bothered to work on a crew NPC? You're stuck between three quite ugly choices: Dismiss the crewmember and lose ALL your progress, just as bad as Permadeath; take twice as long (or worse) to gain combat XP no matter what the situation; or 'store' the NPC where it will still take full share of your earnings while doing absolutely nothing.
Which brings us to a third problem:
((C)) NPC crew taking exorbitant amounts of pay even when not in use - in other words, no way to set NPC crew to truely inactive status.
I personally don't think that taking a full percentage cut of player income is warranted, for what we get - the only real function NPC crew can serve is a minor combat enhancement at best, and that is if you bother training them up first.
But even with that, it's especially unfair that they continue to take that cut even when they are not aboard your ship and cannot possibly be performing any kind of service for you whatsoever.
That's nonsense, and nonsense needs to be stopped.
((D)) Being unable to see NPC crew on the bridge of our ships.
Again, this is something I've seen multiple threads with a unanimous voice, both here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/326255-NPC-crew-visible
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...t-Time-our-NPC-Crew-took-Seats-in-the-Cockpit
and on reddit:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/4z53dg/22_npc_crew_please_tell_me_we_can_see_them_in_the/
ever since Multicrew was implemented.
Those are just the first 3 links I was able to pull via a single google-search.
So, same as with the permadeath problem - Fdev, please listen to the community on this, and make it possible to see our crew as we are sitting in the pilot's chair! They can just be simply sitting there playing with their hair for all many of us care, just let us physically SEE them as something other than a character portrait and occasional voice on the comms.
No, I'm talking about the following particular problems:
This thread, https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/288943-Frontier-Please-Don-t-Kill-Our-Crew! , first started in September of 2016, has had near-unanimous responses from the community to REMOVE the permadeath of crewmembers. And it is just one such example, many other similar threads exist both here and on the Elite Dangerous subreddit.
Fdev, nobody - or near enough to it - is enjoying the permadeath nonsense. Do away with it with all haste, please!
Late 2021 edit - been addressed!
((B)) Experience reduction when in a crew or wing of any kind.
See my thread here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...t-experience?p=6179692&viewfull=1#post6179692
For those unaware, combat XP is divided by how many crew and/or wing members are present with you, whether NPC or human - that is, bare minimum, you are losing 50% of XP gains and what you do get is reduced to a smaller and smaller fraction the more crew/wing members are there.
I see absolutely no reason that we should be actively punished for participating in a wing/crew. Being able to get kills faster, and thereby XP faster, should be a clear and obvious benefit of bothering to group up in the first place for wing/crew activities. It's not a pushover to find other players or to train up an NPC, nor is it true that having a wing/crew member directly correlates with getting twice, thrice, or four times and more the amount of kills in the same space of time - far from it!
With the system we have now, where combat rank is determined primarly by sheer quantity of kills as though Elite Dangerous is some kind of horde shooter, this XP gain reduction is nothing short of crippling. It makes having a wing or crew completely counter-productive and unappealing.
Oh, and if you've already bothered to work on a crew NPC? You're stuck between three quite ugly choices: Dismiss the crewmember and lose ALL your progress, just as bad as Permadeath; take twice as long (or worse) to gain combat XP no matter what the situation; or 'store' the NPC where it will still take full share of your earnings while doing absolutely nothing.
Which brings us to a third problem:
((C)) NPC crew taking exorbitant amounts of pay even when not in use - in other words, no way to set NPC crew to truely inactive status.
I personally don't think that taking a full percentage cut of player income is warranted, for what we get - the only real function NPC crew can serve is a minor combat enhancement at best, and that is if you bother training them up first.
But even with that, it's especially unfair that they continue to take that cut even when they are not aboard your ship and cannot possibly be performing any kind of service for you whatsoever.
That's nonsense, and nonsense needs to be stopped.
((D)) Being unable to see NPC crew on the bridge of our ships.
Again, this is something I've seen multiple threads with a unanimous voice, both here:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/326255-NPC-crew-visible
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...t-Time-our-NPC-Crew-took-Seats-in-the-Cockpit
and on reddit:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/4z53dg/22_npc_crew_please_tell_me_we_can_see_them_in_the/
ever since Multicrew was implemented.
Those are just the first 3 links I was able to pull via a single google-search.
So, same as with the permadeath problem - Fdev, please listen to the community on this, and make it possible to see our crew as we are sitting in the pilot's chair! They can just be simply sitting there playing with their hair for all many of us care, just let us physically SEE them as something other than a character portrait and occasional voice on the comms.
Last edited:
