NPC SLF pilots: make more of them using the mechanics we have

[Rubbernuke]

SLF pilots have to be the ultimate work from home guys, using the Elite internet galactic hyperweb to control ships.

So please FD, lets make SLF pilots do more- so much can be attached to them to really make that A-Team vibe.

In this light:

Make them visible in your ship- for the love of Brebus pleeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaseeee. I won't tolerate someone telepresencing while on the toilet light years away and not making at least an appearance.

Give each NPC a bonus of some sort. These could be:

Extra ship speed
Extra ship handling
Better scan / probe range
Better shields (resists, strength, less power etc)
Enhanced SLF skills
Extra power 'pip'
Better turret targeting
Chaff resistance
Ground combat skills

Said skills could grow with rank, and would balance out players in MC having an energy pip to the classic distro.

Be able to change uniforms based on what you unlock / bought. Your team must co-ordinate fashion wise at all times.

Crew NPCs should disembark when you disembark and go to the bar or just walk about- you know, stretch the legs after a hard days graft.

NPC can deploy as ground commandos. Also be able to equip new suits and weapons.

Crew will generate missions - "I know a guy who needs a few guns, he'll pay well" "I met a guy at the bar who needs a few thousand landmines, because" etc.

Record a few lines of quips, wisecracks etc for critical points or actions. For example "we have a tail!" when we are interdicted.

In short, make these guys a bit more than a .jpg and two lines, and that players care about them a bit more because other than a face they are identical.

 

[Nepeta Uchiha]

You do know they are on your ship when active otherwise you wouldn't need to "rebuy" them on ship lost.

 

[Rubbernuke]

You do know they are on your ship when active otherwise you wouldn't need to "rebuy" them on ship lost.

Then they need to have less 'tele' and more presence really. They could add a great deal to a sense of PvE 'team'.

 

[FX2K]

You do know they are on your ship when active otherwise you wouldn't need to "rebuy" them on ship lost.

So many inconsistencies with NPC pilots.

If they are always on your ship, then it makes sense how you can give them a break in one station and set them active again from another, but then it doesn't make sense how I can drop them off in one station, take a single seater ship elsewhere and set my crew as active again and ... Magic!
So can I set them as active when out in the black, after forgetting at a station. Not as far as I know.

Even if its telepresence from home, I can see them in an SLF, so why not in my cockpit.
I can telepresence to an SLF from my cockpit seat, so they could too.

Totally unrelated, but I didn't realise you could go out in an SLF and also tell your NPC to go out in another, no idea what the mother ship would do in that case (just sit there I guess) will have to test that later, but if I had another lazy NPC on board, would they take the helm .. hmmmm

But yes, as a solo commander (not meaning solo/open, but lone wolf) I really wish there was more to do with NPC's.

 

[ethelred]

All great ideas. In fact it should be extended to any crew for any positions as in NPC hireable crew give some sort of bonus.

An engineer with an ability to slowly repair hull damage.

Shield specialists to help with regen or a few extra MJ.

I hope and pray to gods I don't believe in that one day NPC and multicrew gets an overhaul and just adds something meaningful and interactive.

 

[HRDiagram]

All brilliant ideas, even if only a handful of these were implemented, it would dramatically improve my gaming experience.
I particularly like the idea of special bonuses, which would improve with rank (although I imagine that would come with an engineers-like system of resource gathering, or grind, depending on preferences).

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

Yeah my meta for crew is to hire expert NPC for expendable SLF and fire them before claiming any significant rewards/profits.

My worry with some of the specifics here would be that this makes engineering even more overpowered. So I could see it done as a debuff to basic engineering and to get back to the original level you need to employ and direct appropriate crew.

Just having a full compliment on board would get you a good chunk of the way there, but an extra layer of executive orders that can act in synergy (good player captain) or against (incompetent player captain) their talents might be interesting. Thing is, if crew have these capabilities, basically they become a necessity, more grind. Although it could be something that allows small ships to get an edge on mediums (simpler crew mechanics, less base debuff), and large ships could be more differentiated in how they feel to fly (more challenging to captain, but with a bigger payoff if you do it well), which might be worth it.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Yeah my meta for crew is to hire expert NPC for expendable SLF and fire them before claiming any significant rewards/profits.

My worry with some of the specifics here would be that this makes engineering even more overpowered. So I could see it done as a debuff to basic engineering and to get back to the original level you need to employ and direct appropriate crew.

Just having a full compliment on board would get you a good chunk of the way there, but an extra layer of executive orders that can act in synergy (good player captain) or against (incompetent player captain) their talents might be interesting. Thing is, if crew have these capabilities, basically they become a necessity, more grind. Although it could be something that allows small ships to get an edge on mediums (simpler crew mechanics, less base debuff), and large ships could be more differentiated in how they feel to fly (more challenging to captain, but with a bigger payoff if you do it well), which might be worth it.

A few years back I made a more complicated version of this idea with 'traits' for crew- i.e. crew work best with the same traits and worse with traits that don't get on.

The buffs I talk about would not be large (maybe 1/4 of an experimentals bonus, and only one bonus) plus they'd only work when that crew member is doing that job- so, the ship only gets a bonus if they are flying it as an example.

 

[ethelred]

If we're in Dreamland, then for human multicrew, activities like hull repair, shields management, fsd boost etc could be tied into a minigame.

I would immediately spend my LEP money again if the minigame for matching shield frequency with incoming fire was a rhythm game

 

[Nadreck]

As we can keep up to 3 of them on the payroll, and we only ever need one for the SLF, I'd like the ability to hire other "specialists" in those slots.

For instance, there have been calls for Carrier concourses with Vista Genomics available, to cash-in bio samples out in the black. But a more interesting alternative would be a size 6 ship module (equivalent to a big passenger cabin) as a "genomics lab" which would let you have an active exobiologist NPC (just as a fighter hangar lets you have an active SLF pilot). The exobiologist analyses your samples as you bring them in, and effectively converts them into Codex vouchers, which you can cash-in at a Carrier's Redemption Office. Meanwhile your vouchers should survive you getting blown up, whereas the unconverted bio samples don't (assume your NPC fired off a broadcast of the data to Vista Genomics at some point, which is why the discovery is still yours).

 

[Rubbernuke]

As we can keep up to 3 of them on the payroll, and we only ever need one for the SLF, I'd like the ability to hire other "specialists" in those slots.

This is what I mean; why do we need three SLF pilots now they are immortal? You only need one because other than rank they are all functionally identical.

 

[Sylow]

This suggestion is "meat to the bare bones of game mechanics". I like it, but based on what happened since launch, i would not expect it to happen. Ever.

 

[xzanfr]

There have been so many great ideas for NPC crew over the years to include all of the above comments.

Personally I'd live to see crew management being a thing in ED as it was in FE2 but also the following:

Implementation / lore
Elite lore used to reference having minimal AI due to the fear of it getting too smart and taking over (or something along those lines). We have the potential within the current game lore to introduce a similar concept referencing the guardians (e.g. thargoids have introduced a virus that destroys AI like it did to the guardians).
As with most of the lore, it's probably been retconned as the control of the game is passed to successive people who want to add their own stamp.

Functionality
On the most basic level I'd like to see crew mandatory on larger ships to even fly much like FE2, and sitting in the spare seats.

In addition, removing existing functionality from all ships unless crew are on board to include having crew required to replicate the following:
Advanced docking computer
Advanced nav thingy
Ability to dismiss ships on planets (if possible, might be a game reason why ships need to leave)
Auto landing on planets
Working turrets

Employment
Pretty much as FE2 with hiring and firing, raising and lowering wages, crew ability to leave if they consider you rubbish.
Crew could be employed / found via the board or from rescued slaves / pods & encountered npc's (i/e pick up a pirates lifepod after a fight).

Ultimately I'd just be happy with a crewmember that sits in the spare seats (even the new child seat) and hides in the loo for the 0.00001% of the time players have a friend in multicrew.

References
I can't the quote from Sandro where he dismissed the idea of having crew in the spare seats back when they were implemented - I think it was during a livestream however I may have misremembered it.

Response to my last question about it:

AMA III - Revenge of the Glyph

Is there a stance on 'cut scenes'? (I consider Elite all the better for having none.)

forums.frontier.co.uk

I can only assume there is some programming issue with implementing it.

 

[Rubbernuke]

There have been so many great ideas for NPC crew over the years to include all of the above comments.

Personally I'd live to see crew management being a thing in ED as it was in FE2 but also the following:

Implementation / lore
Elite lore used to reference having minimal AI due to the fear of it getting too smart and taking over (or something along those lines). We have the potential within the current game lore to introduce a similar concept referencing the guardians (e.g. thargoids have introduced a virus that destroys AI like it did to the guardians).
As with most of the lore, it's probably been retconned as the control of the game is passed to successive people who want to add their own stamp.

Functionality
On the most basic level I'd like to see crew mandatory on larger ships to even fly much like FE2, and sitting in the spare seats.

In addition, removing existing functionality from all ships unless crew are on board to include having crew required to replicate the following:
Advanced docking computer
Advanced nav thingy
Ability to dismiss ships on planets (if possible, might be a game reason why ships need to leave)
Auto landing on planets
Working turrets

Employment
Pretty much as FE2 with hiring and firing, raising and lowering wages, crew ability to leave if they consider you rubbish.
Crew could be employed / found via the board or from rescued slaves / pods & encountered npc's (i/e pick up a pirates lifepod after a fight).

Ultimately I'd just be happy with a crewmember that sits in the spare seats (even the new child seat) and hides in the loo for the 0.00001% of the time players have a friend in multicrew.

References
I can't the quote from Sandro where he dismissed the idea of having crew in the spare seats back when they were implemented - I think it was during a livestream however I may have misremembered it.

Response to my last question about it:

AMA III - Revenge of the Glyph

Is there a stance on 'cut scenes'? (I consider Elite all the better for having none.)

forums.frontier.co.uk

I can only assume there is some programming issue with implementing it.

A bit like this?

PROPOSAL: Hiring NPC crew [mockup]

The 2.1 Engineers has shown great potential to open up NPC hiring, and make us actually care about our ships, and where we go. Right now we fly anywhere and don't really care about what stations we dock at, or what we really do there. No station has any real 'atmosphere' like say the Cantina...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Flip its 2016

 

[xzanfr]

A bit like this?

PROPOSAL: Hiring NPC crew [mockup]

The 2.1 Engineers has shown great potential to open up NPC hiring, and make us actually care about our ships, and where we go. Right now we fly anywhere and don't really care about what stations we dock at, or what we really do there. No station has any real 'atmosphere' like say the Cantina...

forums.frontier.co.uk

Exactly!

I think we're both on the same page about this.

why the whole crew and gameplay surrounding it has been ignored is mind boggling.

Still, we got CQC.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Exactly!

I think we're both on the same page about this.

why the whole crew and gameplay surrounding it has been ignored is mind boggling.

Still, we got CQC.

The thing is (what with EDO and concourses) this would be the exact time this could be put in because it brings together a lot of areas.