Player Co-Pilots ?

[giraffes]

My girlfriend and I were talking about Elite dangerous while I was playing it and she saw me looking over at the co-pilot seat in the Imperial clipper

And we almost instantly had a clever Idea

CO-Pilots

what could be the point of that....?

*The co-pilot would have their own view from the copilot cockpit seat and be granted whatever controls the Primary Pilot deems necessary .. (notice the joystick in Image 1, tucked neatly into the side of the seat.)

*the Pilot could turn on or off certain controls including flight controls for the co-pilot ..

*the co-pilot could manage power management to shields or weapons and so on and could take advantage of hands free communication between him/her and the pilot.

*The CO-pilot could Take control of fire groups not active on the primary pilots screen (perhaps copilot uses the kill warrant scanner while you blast away Or takes control of your cannons while you have the lasers )

*Co-pilot could send messages to CMDRs while you were busy flying

*The co-pilot could keep an eye on Module damage and status while you fly or fight (let's face it you can't be sifting through your module status while trying to keep that vulture in your line of sight.)

*Co-Pilot could control powered modules such as shield boosters

the more I think about it the More organic the Idea seems.. There's a lot to do In your ship as it is that you simply cannot keep track of by yourself especially while in a fire fight .. that two people could manage much more effectively.

could even be a great method for teaching your friends some of the finer flight mechanics of elite Dangerous from the seat over.

 

[X-Terminator]

Your Co-Pilot will get very jelous when you have another lady in her seat
It's coming sometime...

 

[Robert Maynard]

While the number of players in an instance is unlikely to change on the introduction of multi-player ships, I expect that the maximum number of player ships in an instance will be affected by the number of those ships that have more than one human on-board - simply down to the 32-player instance limit that is in place.

 

[X-Terminator]

That's obvious but it's on player count not ship count plus I have only seen about 4 players in one entire System nevermind in the same mini-map instance.

 

[giraffes]

even if it's player count that is important and not ship count I don't know if I've ever witnessed 16 players, never the less, 32 in the same instance
and of course which players are in which instance can easily be managed

*it is unlikely that everyone will have a 2 man ship and be flying with a co-pilot

* if you are at the 32 player limit new instances are created to balance the player load .. as it already is..

the player limit does not appear to conflict with the idea of co-piloting

 

[Robert Maynard]

That's obvious but it's on player count not ship count plus I have only seen about 4 players in one entire System nevermind in the same mini-map instance.

even if it's player count that is important and not ship count I don't know if I've ever witnessed 16 players, never the less, 32 in the same instance

The 32-player limit is a hard limit. There is a soft limit below that that is affected by QoS of the connections between players and player to server. For 32 players there would need to be 528 concurrent connections.

I've seen 14 other players in an instance a few times - generally in and around stations.

 

[giraffes]

even so it's not 14 is not 16 and 16 would only be a problem if they ALL were flying ships that were capable of having co-pilots . and all actually had co-pilots

 

[Robert Maynard]

even so it's not 14 is not 16 and 16 would only be a problem if they ALL were flying ships that were capable of having co-pilots . and all actually had co-pilots

With co-pilots, that 14 ships might have been reduced to 7 if all of the ships had co-pilots.

 

[giraffes]

the chances of everyone in a system having a ship capable of accommodating co-pilots and actually having co-pilots in them. is quite unlikely and even so 7 player ships as opposed to 14 isn't going to significantly alter your game experience

 

[Robert Maynard]

the chances of everyone in a system having a ship capable of accommodating co-pilots and actually having co-pilots in them. is quite unlikely and even so player ships as opposed to 14 isn't going to significantly alter your game experience

It might if a Wing of four ships, each with a co-pilot, is possible - that's eight players already - a great way to reduce potential competition in an instance.

 

[Mephane]

In the heat of a larger battle and in a wing, I can imagine having at least one ship with a co-pilot could become invaluable. Just imagine having one person with their hands and attention free to check the other ships - friend and foe alike - and their movements, reinforcements arriving for either side, check who is attacking the ship, juggle module power settings, determine the next target or directly switching to a higher priority target - all the while the pilots can entirely concentrate on flying and firing the guns.

 

[giraffes]

I think it's an interesting multiplayer mechanic that would add a valuable layer to the multiplayer experience

 

[giraffes]

It might if a Wing of four ships, each with a co-pilot, is possible - that's eight players already - a great way to reduce potential competition in an instance.

I believe you are far too focused on the player cap .. It's not like these unlikely scenario's cannot be addressed, corrected and developed in light of co-piloting being implimented