NPC Crew - Experience

[amcb10]

I have just decided to add a fighter to my Corvette (yes I know its taken a while) but the only crew I seem to find are of the lower ranks.

Do they need to gain experience and level up or is it possible to recruit Elite pilots etc.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Ophion]

There are no NPC crew members with rank higher than Expert. Yo have to train them yourself, let them collect kills so they can progress towards higher ranks, like you did.

 

[Peregrine Vee]

They gain experience and level up, that's how you'll get yourself the really good npc pilots is basically by taking them along with you and letting them learn from flying with you. An additional thing to note is that higher ranked npc pilots take a higher percentage of your pay, but if gaining levels by flying with you they won't take as much as if you had already hired them at that rank. So a pilot you adopt at harmless and train up to expert will take less of your money than one you just flat out bought at expert, and that will hold through whatever level you train them up to.

 

[Iskariot]

I have just decided to add a fighter to my Corvette (yes I know its taken a while) but the only crew I seem to find are of the lower ranks.

Do they need to gain experience and level up or is it possible to recruit Elite pilots etc.

Thanks for the help.

Warning.
Crew are money eaters.
Even if you do not use them you will have to pay them percentages of your profits.

Never hire more than one.
Personally I do not bother leveling them because I sack them before I cash in.
I very often fly my Python (no SLF = no crew), or even smaller ships.
Keeping a pilot on the payroll is something I cannot afford. The way they are implemented now turns them into leeches.

 

[Alderius]

If you hire a Novice, and rank them up to Elite, their take will be less than if you hire an expert and rank them up to Elite. I make my pilot work for her money, like in the latest BH CG in a HiRes, I just tag ships and tell her to take them out. The local security forces join in and they work the target while I go after another. I almost double my money and she takes 10% IFRC. Plus, as an NPC, I can send her into a security furball and not have to worry about her hitting a friendly (which I do occasionally). Worth it to me!

 

[Mac Ingram]

I have used NCP crew for the last 6 months, I noticed that they rank up quite quickly, however, I never really thought about it beyond that.... Until today. About 10 days ago I ranked up to Dangerous, and, after a couple of days in the Hazres, noticed that my progress was somewhat snail like, this made me investigate how the progress was awarded. I found that it is based upon rank and craft ie a combination of the difficulties governs progress (worked it out in round figures, and given a mean spread of ships and pilots, a 1% gain requires approximately 250 kills. During this slow progress, I had a minor disaster and lost my ship and my crewperson. So I got replacements for both. Today, at about 14:00 hrs, my crew ranked up to dangerous. At this point, it had taken me the said 10(ish) days of regular play to get to 18%. When, tonight, I decided to stop, my progress was 1%, that of my crew was 12% (in 7 hrs) which really hacks me off, because about a third of the kills gained today was without fighter assistance, it having been killed off early in the engagement, leaving me engaged in combat with x3 boogies on numerous occasions. That being so simply put, I killed more than the fighter but the crew was rewarded with points that for me would have required something in the region 2500 to 3000 kills....... REALLY!

 

[Northpin]

They take half of your experience if you use them in combat.
And if you raise one from Novice all the way to Elite, it will take 10% of your income no mater if you use them or if you keep them inactive.
that's 10% of everything, missions, explo data, bounty and combat bonds etc.

 

[Stealthie]

There are no NPC crew members with rank higher than Expert. Yo have to train them yourself, let them collect kills so they can progress towards higher ranks, like you did.

On that note, I suppose it's worth pointing out that it's probably best to hire a Harmless newbie instead of paying extra for an Expert.
They rank-up fairly quickly and if you start off with a Harmless recruit, they'll end-up costing you significantly less than if you'd hired an Expert.

For example, a Harmless recruit trained-up to Elite will take 10% of your earnings.
By comparison, an Expert recruit trained-up to Elite will take 18% or 20% of your earnings (dunno for sure cos I've never hired/trained one).

If you're earning billions of credits, that's hundreds of millions of credits you'll be losing simply for the sake of spending one or two fewer sessions in a RES to rank-up the recruit.

 

[Stealthie]

They take half of your experience if you use them in combat.
And if you raise one from Novice all the way to Elite, it will take 10% of your income no mater if you use them or if you keep them inactive.
that's 10% of everything, missions, explo data, bounty and combat bonds etc.

Not forgetting CG contributions too.

Sometimes bugs me if I do really well at a CG and my SLF pilot could probably have made, say, the top 50% of the CG just by handing-in her 10% of the contribution that I made.
And then they double-dip by getting a percentage of your reward from the CG too.

That's kind of like hiring somebody to work in your shop, paying them a wage and then having to give them a cut of your profits too.

FDev should stop SLF jockeys taking a slice of CG contributions and then just let them take their cut of the reward at the end of it.