NPC Crew use Ironman mode

[Alec Turner]

I've probably missed an entire threadnaught about this but I've just spotted that the NPC crew will use Ironman mode.

https://community.elitedangerous.com/gamescom/2016/day-two
If your ship is destroyed, any pilot on-board will be lost, along with their experience. However as one chapter ends a new begins; a hotshot ace might be waiting at the next starport...

Gulp! If you spend ages levelling your crew up to Elite rank ... dying just became SERIOUS!

 

[ForeverN00b]

It's a beautiful thing. For teh immersion.

 

[Sentenza]

I foresee Alt+F4 will suddenly gain a lot of popularity

 

[who?]

Hmm. If they always die, they become a bit like disposable resources, you don't really feel any sense of loss. OTOH, if they always survived, then being destroyed has much less meaning.

I'd prefer a (dare I say it) element of randomness to it. When you're pulled out of the escape pod, you'll be told which (if any) of your crew survived, with higher-ranked crew being more likely to have made it out.

 

[Martian Successor]

On the one hand it will massively suck plasma spheres of great magnitude to lose a crew member you might have raised from Master to Elite and have grown attached to.

On the other hand if they never die then it'll be simple cookies for everyone to eventually have a whole crew compliment of Elite <pilots>. Thereby diminishing the skill it would take to raise strong crew member(s) by not dying.

It could be fun. Then again it could be aweful in terms of never again allowing you to have competitive PvP duels among friends or risk accidentally dying in a stripped out racing ship for example. Need more info on how hired crew will function - like can you park them at stations when you want to go race or do something risky for occassional funzies and then pick them back up afterwards?

Also, purely aesthetical but very important to many, will we see a crew member sitting next to us in the cockpit?

 

[DukeIronHand]

If more human commanders would use "Ironman mode" (as I do) I guarantee a lot of the complaints about playing in Open wouldn't be around.
Death really doesn't hurt in ED.

 

[ForeverN00b]

I'm with Martian, can we park our NPCs when we do "hold my beer and watch this" type things (like landing on the 9.77G world)?

 

[Alec Turner]

I'm with Martian, can we park our NPCs when we do "hold my beer and watch this" type things (like landing on the 9.77G world)?

If I remember rightly from the NPC crew video then the interface certainly looked as if it was possible to temporarily return an on-board crew member back to the "lounge" or "shore leave" or whatever it was called.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

pretty sure it was stated you can put them on shore leave

 

[Bacalao]

It's a beautiful thing. For teh immersion.

Please elaborate. I don't see how it is at all immersive to have internal inconsistency. I don't die when my ship blows up, neither should they, they should have the same thing happen as I do. The least immersive parts of NPC behavior is where it deviates from the player's rules of the game (cargo knowledge in supercruise, instant drop out at station, jumping further than their ship has capacity, infinite chaff/ammo, blind dodging PA/cannon shots, etc).
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I hope one day for NPCs to be equal with players in every possible way, including ship destruction.

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Hmm. If they always die, they become a bit like disposable resources, you don't really feel any sense of loss. OTOH, if they always survived, then being destroyed has much less meaning.

I'd prefer a (dare I say it) element of randomness to it. When you're pulled out of the escape pod, you'll be told which (if any) of your crew survived, with higher-ranked crew being more likely to have made it out.

Or maybe some NPCs just don't like getting blown up, so after a few rude awakenings in the starport med center they decide they want to look for work with someone else.

 

[insanephoton]

While I can see that 'always surviving' isn't ideal, I don't think 'always dying' is ideal either. Sure we can put them on 'shore leave' when we're doing something particularly risky, but there's always going to be the situation where somehow you mess up and things go bad very quickly. I'd like an eject button ,something like the ejector system in modern fighter jets ,where when the pilot yanks the handle the navigator/weapons op is also ejected whether they like it or not. That way you'd still lose your ship but not your crew. Of course if you didn't hit eject in time you'd lose both your ship and crew.

 

[AndyJ]

Shore leave is only when you are at a station and switching to a ship that doesn't have a fighter bay - not something that takes effect mid flight.

NPC crew are locked into the fighter bay before leaving the station and so go down with the ship. Which smacks more of 'easiest to implement' tbh.

If we are meant to care about them and their Bio's, then they should have a chance of escaping. If they have a Bio, then that suggests they've had previous employers who didn't get them killed(!) and perhaps personality and morals.

So instead of the lose the ship, NPC gimp gets killed mechanic - why can't that be expanded upon?
Maybe they die before reaching their pod, or are lost to space. If they survive they may not want to repeat the experience or lose faith in your piloting abilities.
If you start pirating or smuggling, perhaps a crew member won't want any part in it and will choose to leave you at the next station you visit.
Similarly if you keep them locked in their box for months without seeing any action, they might also want to move on out of boredom.
and if they want to move on, perhaps we could get a chance to persuade them to stay...

Much could be done to inject a little 'life' surely?

 

[Cosmo]

I've probably missed an entire threadnaught about this but I've just spotted that the NPC crew will use Ironman mode.

https://community.elitedangerous.com/gamescom/2016/day-two
If your ship is destroyed, any pilot on-board will be lost, along with their experience. However as one chapter ends a new begins; a hotshot ace might be waiting at the next starport...

Gulp! If you spend ages levelling your crew up to Elite rank ... dying just became SERIOUS!

I prefer insurance with cloning like Eve-Online so we can ourselves and the crew. If it's very expensive to clone a crew member then you can choose to get a new one at the nearest station.

Cloning is the technology that makes New Eden's capsuleers (i.e. EVE players) immortal. It consists of two main technologies:

• Medical clones act as a new clean (no implants) clone, which are only activated when your current body is killed. This clone is always located at your set Home Station. This should not be confused with the current clone you are in, regardless if you have jump clones.

 

[Alec Turner]

If we are meant to care about them and their Bio's, then they should have a chance of escaping. If they have a Bio, then that suggests they've had previous employers who didn't get them killed(!) and perhaps personality and morals.

So instead of the lose the ship, NPC gimp gets killed mechanic - why can't that be expanded upon?

Here's a nice idea ... you know how you can switch the NPC crew member to aggressive, defensive, follow-me, etc, etc.

How about if there's was an "abandon ship" option. It'd be cool because, at the point where you start to realise all is lost, you'd have to make a quick reflex decision to open that menu and issue the command. Too slow and they're gone but do it fast and they're saved.

 

[=71st=RuSh]

I prefer the escape pod option, everytime an NPC or player is killed, automatically is cacooned and sent to space in hibernation with an auto distress signal ON, to be later recovered!.

 

[shadragon]

I don't see how it is at all immersive to have internal inconsistency.

It isn't, and there's a lot of it about.

 

[ForeverN00b]

Please elaborate. I don't see how it is at all immersive to have internal inconsistency. I don't die when my ship blows up, neither should they, they should have the same thing happen as I do. The least immersive parts of NPC behavior is where it deviates from the player's rules of the game (cargo knowledge in supercruise, instant drop out at station, jumping further than their ship has capacity, infinite chaff/ammo, blind dodging PA/cannon shots, etc).
-
I hope one day for NPCs to be equal with players in every possible way, including ship destruction.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -



Or maybe some NPCs just don't like getting blown up, so after a few rude awakenings in the starport med center they decide they want to look for work with someone else.

Teh immersion comes from when you die, they die. I couldn't blame them for wanting work elsewhere if you get beat up. All I am wanting is an option to store them at the last station if you don't want to risk them on your current venture.

 

[who?]

Or maybe some NPCs just don't like getting blown up, so after a few rude awakenings in the starport med center they decide they want to look for work with someone else.

Hah, I like it. And/or they should demand danger-pay if you're being blown up too often.

...or if you're in the middle of a furball with a wing of 4 Elite FDLs, amidst all the chaos you'll hear lots of "Crew member ejected"...

 

[mossfoot]

The way names are recycled I guarantee you'll end up seeing your "dead" shipmate again at some point. I'll just assume they ejected (or maybe roll on my Pilot Ejection Table, see signature, plug plug) to see if they survive too. Then they go their separate way, perhaps to meet again, perhaps not.

 

[Alec Turner]

Just started listening and the whole NPC crewman death thing is really nicely covered by Sandro in the first question on this week's lave radio.