NPC crew development concept and ideas thread.
This is very good, you did a great job fleshing out the mechanics, i would LOVE to see this in the game.
The problem is that FDEV want to shoehorn multiplayer into the play session, they are avoiding anything that would make the game
deeper and feel more rich. That being said, I hope FDEV will be honest to us an tell us what they what with the game, that way we could decide to hang on or leave it all together.
lovely concept would love it and even spend money in the store to get items for my crew.
The problem is that FDEV want to shoehorn multiplayer into the play session, they are avoiding anything that would make the game
deeper and feel more rich. That being said, I hope FDEV will be honest to us an tell us what they what with the game, that way we could decide to hang on or leave it all together.
lovely concept would love it and even spend money in the store to get items for my crew.
First of all, kudos on the effort!
HOWEVER - My concern? This is just another variation of Engineers, improving ship performance at the expense of adding in even more paper scissors stone outcomes?
Personally? Rather than offering more and more perfomance perks, I'd prefer to see performance nerfs. ie: If you have a huge ship like an Anaconda, if you don't have an Elite crew on board, then things are nerfed (Isn't that more measured and realistic?). Only when you have all positions filled, and all crew working really well, will the ship have 100% performance. Until then areas of it are working below 100%.
No more performance bar raising. Now more magic side effects. Just a subtle outcome. If you choose to fly a bigger ship with no crew, then you save CRs, but you will have a (minor) penalty in various areas of your ship.
There could even be subtle things such as if you put a crew member in a fighter, then them no longer being in position X means position X has a subtle drop in performance?
HOWEVER - My concern? This is just another variation of Engineers, improving ship performance at the expense of adding in even more paper scissors stone outcomes?
Personally? Rather than offering more and more perfomance perks, I'd prefer to see performance nerfs. ie: If you have a huge ship like an Anaconda, if you don't have an Elite crew on board, then things are nerfed (Isn't that more measured and realistic?). Only when you have all positions filled, and all crew working really well, will the ship have 100% performance. Until then areas of it are working below 100%.
No more performance bar raising. Now more magic side effects. Just a subtle outcome. If you choose to fly a bigger ship with no crew, then you save CRs, but you will have a (minor) penalty in various areas of your ship.
There could even be subtle things such as if you put a crew member in a fighter, then them no longer being in position X means position X has a subtle drop in performance?
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This is how you make suggestions.
+ rep for some great ideas and clearly a lot of work went into this....well done.
Would love to see some of this in game one day.
+ rep for some great ideas and clearly a lot of work went into this....well done.
Would love to see some of this in game one day.
Those are great, here are a couple I came up with a while ago.
As a trader, there are two crew members that I would like to have on my ship.
The first is a Cargo Master.
He is responsible for supervising the loading of the ship and is an expert at squeezing stuff in where no one though though would be possible.
His (or her) presence on the ship would increase the carrying capacity of the ship beyond the capacity of the racks. The percentage would depend on his rating. Ideally he would also gain experience on particular ship classes (if he gained rank on a T-9 then he would be even more effective at loading T-9s').
The second is a Master Negotiator.
The Master Negotiator is skilled at just that. She can always negotiate the best price for fuel, in the markets, and sometimes the shipyard. Of course, her ability is influenced by how many times she has visited a particular market, and how well regarded her employer is.
As she gains rank when employed by a particular Commander, her ability to negotiate his needs and expectations also improves.
These crew members can make having a crew on-board useful for traders; who, otherwise, tend to fly alone.
As a trader, there are two crew members that I would like to have on my ship.
The first is a Cargo Master.
He is responsible for supervising the loading of the ship and is an expert at squeezing stuff in where no one though though would be possible.
His (or her) presence on the ship would increase the carrying capacity of the ship beyond the capacity of the racks. The percentage would depend on his rating. Ideally he would also gain experience on particular ship classes (if he gained rank on a T-9 then he would be even more effective at loading T-9s').
The second is a Master Negotiator.
The Master Negotiator is skilled at just that. She can always negotiate the best price for fuel, in the markets, and sometimes the shipyard. Of course, her ability is influenced by how many times she has visited a particular market, and how well regarded her employer is.
As she gains rank when employed by a particular Commander, her ability to negotiate his needs and expectations also improves.
These crew members can make having a crew on-board useful for traders; who, otherwise, tend to fly alone.
Yeah I wish the Engineers hadn't been so all encompassing, I think they threw everything at one mechanic and have left no space for other mechanics. I would have liked large ships to need a crew, so you couldn't have optimum performance without a good crew but I fear people would not enjoy such a nerf!!
But the complexity of balancing a crew and finding good crew would give me some more motivation.
Yeah I was trying to use mechanics that they already have ie NPC fighters and add a bit more, it seems that modules are a solid mechanic so if new crew where almost like variable modules then it wouldn't be such a massive undertaking. I know triggering missions etc is still hard but we are getting in system mission appear.
And yeah I think Frontier thought that we would be the content in this MMO but the investment of time to get ships means that most of us are unwilling to lose them or take large risks. NPC's are common in most other games and the last frontier games seem to do them pretty well, I think that they could give lore and a sense of narrative too.
But cheers dude
Really like all these ideas. I would love to have crew, and it would give me a reason to fly the bigger ships.
Gen-Han-Solo
Banned
Yes and you have to remember Frontier are no longer trying to develop the game they pushed out to every one in KICKSTARTER they are in fact trying to develop the game as little as possible, and any future up dates may just be to hard for them with the programmers skill level they currently have. But that is just my opinion because if any body bothered to really check the 2017 expo what happened to David yep was he even their.
Yep love these ideas and instead of just giving us new perks put some gameplay into having them
NPC crew is clearly needed, and I can't see why we should not have them, I'm pretty sure it won't change the balancing of the game, as this will mostly be a mini game played by most single players. CG and PVP would not be affected either as this is ship to ship combat and the engineers already made this an uneven challenge.
Great ideas!
I for one would have Camille and Freya on my ship!
I like teh ideas of levelling up NPC's so skills become more useful, but i also like how some will need to return to a specific location, or have regular shore leave or they stop working as effectively. I do like the idea of achilles robots being teh default units, so players who dont enjoy thsi type of management can opt out without missing too much.
Tyhe ability to manage these functions during longer cruises will make SC journeys less tedious if you have to twerk NPC settings and plan routes accordingly.
I for one would have Camille and Freya on my ship!
I like teh ideas of levelling up NPC's so skills become more useful, but i also like how some will need to return to a specific location, or have regular shore leave or they stop working as effectively. I do like the idea of achilles robots being teh default units, so players who dont enjoy thsi type of management can opt out without missing too much.
Tyhe ability to manage these functions during longer cruises will make SC journeys less tedious if you have to twerk NPC settings and plan routes accordingly.
You're gonna twerk the NPC's?
I have played since launch and I still love the game but sometimes the self motivation is a drain, missions are ok but it can all feel like background fluff, I don't always read what the mission givers say I just look at the price and check that it doesn't involve hatch breaker limpets!
Having crew could offer more things to be engaged with and also offer ways to make us listen to what they say a little more.
Just Camille and Freya! ;-)
I love the game too, I still buy stuff in the store eventhough I haven't logged in for a very very long time. The
reason is NPC crew and what they could do to make the game more fun and less grindy to play.
As you suggested there are many functions available like helmsman. I would love to hire a helmsman, get rid of all those
star jumps, and actually start to enjoy playing instead of biding my fingers off after jumping to a star for the 99th time!
Your suggestion, even with only some of it implemented would give the game some needed dept.
I really like the ideas Tocoso has presented! Would really enjoy something like this in the game as it makes sense and adds more depth to the game.
The NPC's background could be similar to Mass Effect, and the squadrons, and self own ships like X series. In fact I have been playing X Rebirth VR version in the last weeks and is very entertaining.
Just came to ED in the weekend to save people at Obsidian Orbital!. By the way, the ship shields can barely withstand the fire temperature inside the station, which is from 1900 to 4500 celsius degrees, but can withstand the temperature of any sun from 1.23 Ls! which is abysmally bigger !! ohhh god where is the science here!
Just came to ED in the weekend to save people at Obsidian Orbital!. By the way, the ship shields can barely withstand the fire temperature inside the station, which is from 1900 to 4500 celsius degrees, but can withstand the temperature of any sun from 1.23 Ls! which is abysmally bigger !! ohhh god where is the science here!