Multi-crew could be much more, we all know this. With 100% ship functionality purposely designed to be controlled by a single CMDR, there really isn't enough tasks to dole out to two or three people. In this post, I am strictly going to discuss the role of multi-crew in Combat.
Disclaimer: Obviously this would need to be heavily playtested and iterated to get timing and numbers for some of the proposed concepts to a balanced sweet spot. The numbers I am proposing are merely to showcase the concepts of the rework and are not optimized - so I hope the discussion does not get bogged down there. Also, this turned into a long post, apologies.
With multi-crew, some ships have two seats, others three. Under this rework, the multi-crewing CMDR(s) would be able to choose which chair/role they want to play, with two multi-crew CMDRs still being able to each pilot a Ship Launched Fighter (SLF), but only one Engineer role is available per ship.
"Dedicated SLF pilot" chair. You can guess what they do, but they can also man the turrets as a gunner if desired.
"Ship Engineer" (or "System Tech") chair. Supported by new functionality, this Engineer role has a big part to play in the fielding of the ship in combat.
The General Concept
Take the various subsystems of the ship and allow the Engineer to "optimize" them to provide temporary passive bonuses to boost ship performance. The bonuses have a timed duration and in some cases require trade off penalties.
I have no decent ideas for what that optimization minigame/process/function is, but its what the Engineer has to complete in order to enact the desired bonuses for the ship. For the rest of the post, I will refer to the minigame/process/function as "minigame" The "minigame" could be uniquely designed for each task, and may be as simple as randomized puzzles with a unique UI for each task. But I'd really like this to be fleshed out a little more and am hoping to crowdsource ideas from all of you.
In terms of the UI interface, I am thinking that the Engineer panel can be accessed from the lower Crew panel. The Engineer Panel then appears in the centre of the screen, similar to the station services menu after first docking, because the Engineer does not need to have an external view like the Helmsman/Captain does. There are tab-able/scrollable sections in the Engineer Panel for the various systems the Engineer can interface with. It is important that the UI system is easy to navigate and that the Engineer can switch between different sections quickly. There may also need to be a small permanent Summary section of the Engineer Panel that tracks cooldowns and buff durations (more on that shortly).
The Engineer Panel consists of six sections: Power Distributor, Shield Generator, Thrusters, Weapons, SLF Telemetry, Turrets.
Gameplay-wise, each section of the panel is a gameplay loop task for the Engineer to execute. To balance the experience, some tasks require frequent attention, while others have a longer "set and forget" gameplay loop. Panel subsections display additional relevant information to the Engineer.
Engineer Gameplay Tasks
1) Power Distributor Regulation
Buff: Extra pip awarded to Captain's distributor
Buff Duration: 60 sec
Cooldown Condition: 10 sec of static pips by the Captain
Gameplay loop frequency: medium term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: If the captain has kept pips unchanged for a certain cooldown time (10 sec?), the Engineer can launch & complete "minigame" to optimize distributor power fluctuations. If successful, it provides an extra pip to the captain for 60 sec. Rational is that changing pips introduces minor power fluctuations that can the Engineer can regulate to increase overall efficiency of the distributor, but a period of static power draw is required to gather the necessary accurate data by the ship's computer. After the buff expires, the pip is removed and the Engineer must again wait for the 10 seconds of unchanged pips before "minigame" can be relaunched to create another bonus pip. This would be in addition to a single bonus pip provided by the Engineer as a multi-crew bonus. This allows a single solo Engineer to provide two extra bonus pips, but would remove the automatic 2nd pip awarded from the 2nd multi-crew CMDR.
Panel Subsection Data: This Engineer Panel section shows the Engineer the Captain's current pip settings, Power Plant Module Health, Distributor Module Health, ship power requirement, and ship deployed power requirement.
2) Shield Generator Optimization
Buff: +5% Shield resistance to single dmg type OR Additional top-layer of shield MJ to single dmg type
Buff Duration: 180 sec OR Until depleted
Cooldown Condition: 20 sec OR 120 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Difficult
Description: Engineer "tunes" shield frequencies to present a stronger shield weave against specific damage type. Alternatively, Engineer can boost efficiency of select shield capacitors to provide bonus shielding to a dmg type. Complete "minigame" and generate either,
Panel Subsection Data: Displays dmg resistances, total raw shield strength, "effective" shield strength against each dmg type, SYS distributor power, shield generator health, Shield Booster Status, SCB status (would have to have a cool UI for when the go active) and cells remaining,
3) Thruster Power Reallocation
Buff: Various increase to thruster or boost output
Buff Duration: Indefinite until cancelled or reassigned
Cooldown Condition: 20 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Reallocating the flow of power from the ship's distributor allows the Engineer to boost the performance of the various thrusters around the ship, greatly influencing the movement and agility in a dogfight. Complete "minigame"; can choose to provide:
Panel Subsection Data: max speed at current pips, max boost speed at current pips, ENG distributor power, Thruster Module Health.
4) Weapon Targeting Protocol Reprogram.
Buff: Various temporary boosts to all weapon modules (plus sub-bonus for weapon class)
Buff Duration: 10 sec or WEP distributor empty
Cooldown Condition: 30 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: short term task
Minigame Difficulty: Easy
Description: Complete "minigame", provides temporary boosts to damage, reload speed, range, falloff, fire rate, and thermal load for all hardpoints - no penalty applied to the other stats. Fixed weapons gain an additional bonus to reduced thermal load, gimballed weapons gain an additional bonus to fire rate, turreted weapons gain an additional bonus to falloff and range. Engineer visits this subsection frequently, getting the most out of the weapons for the Captain. Revising the computer's targeting protocols on the fly, the engineer is able to provide a powerful temporary boost to all weapon systems either improving target accuracy or optimizing the weapon's mechanical performance. If the Captain drains the WEP distributor while the buff is active, the protocols get reset and the cooldown starts. Coordinate with the captain to optimize attach runs on enemies. Lots of potential options with this one, but I like it to be a shorter effect vs. the other buffs.
Edit: Considering the state of shields, this one should be tuned carefully so its not OP, but it needs to make a measurable difference in the ship's DPS. Also consider the captain is losing out on the DPS from having a player controlled SLF.
Panel Subsection Data: Remaining ammo for each hardpoint, WEP distributor power, Hardpoint module health (maybe range and falloff too).
5) SLF Telepresence Tether Boost.
Buff: Additional distributor pip to SLF pilot, stacks 3x
Buff Duration: Until SLF is destroyed.
Cooldown Condition: 30 sec 1st cooldown, 60 second 2nd cooldown.
Gameplay loop frequency: medium/long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Boosting the strength of the Mothership's Telepresence Tether, allows for a significant increase in the connection bandwidth with the SLF. The Engineer can then better utilize the Mothership's power control computer to help optimize the SLF's subsystems, granting powerful boosts to the SLF distributor. Complete "minigame", provides:
Panel Subsection Data: SLF shields, SLF hull, SLF ammo remaining, SLF distributor settings (showing the bonus pips), remaining SLFs, SLF construction time.
6) Man Turreted Weapon. Functions as current to give the Engineer something to shoot so they're not just playing in panels the whole time. But maybe requires a short transition window to "switch" to the gunner role, similar to the delay in launch a fighter? Could see a similar treatment as 1) - 5) if anyone has any good ideas.
The overall gist is that the Engineer is the ship's system's expert, and can utilize their programming prowess and systems expertise to assign temporary passive bonuses to increase ship performance.
An overhaul like this would consistently give the 2nd/3rd chair something to do in combat situations. If designed well (think of exploration redesign that brought Analysis Mode and the FSS), could be a lot of fun.
Disclaimer: Obviously this would need to be heavily playtested and iterated to get timing and numbers for some of the proposed concepts to a balanced sweet spot. The numbers I am proposing are merely to showcase the concepts of the rework and are not optimized - so I hope the discussion does not get bogged down there. Also, this turned into a long post, apologies.
With multi-crew, some ships have two seats, others three. Under this rework, the multi-crewing CMDR(s) would be able to choose which chair/role they want to play, with two multi-crew CMDRs still being able to each pilot a Ship Launched Fighter (SLF), but only one Engineer role is available per ship.
"Dedicated SLF pilot" chair. You can guess what they do, but they can also man the turrets as a gunner if desired.
"Ship Engineer" (or "System Tech") chair. Supported by new functionality, this Engineer role has a big part to play in the fielding of the ship in combat.
The General Concept
Take the various subsystems of the ship and allow the Engineer to "optimize" them to provide temporary passive bonuses to boost ship performance. The bonuses have a timed duration and in some cases require trade off penalties.
I have no decent ideas for what that optimization minigame/process/function is, but its what the Engineer has to complete in order to enact the desired bonuses for the ship. For the rest of the post, I will refer to the minigame/process/function as "minigame" The "minigame" could be uniquely designed for each task, and may be as simple as randomized puzzles with a unique UI for each task. But I'd really like this to be fleshed out a little more and am hoping to crowdsource ideas from all of you.
In terms of the UI interface, I am thinking that the Engineer panel can be accessed from the lower Crew panel. The Engineer Panel then appears in the centre of the screen, similar to the station services menu after first docking, because the Engineer does not need to have an external view like the Helmsman/Captain does. There are tab-able/scrollable sections in the Engineer Panel for the various systems the Engineer can interface with. It is important that the UI system is easy to navigate and that the Engineer can switch between different sections quickly. There may also need to be a small permanent Summary section of the Engineer Panel that tracks cooldowns and buff durations (more on that shortly).
The Engineer Panel consists of six sections: Power Distributor, Shield Generator, Thrusters, Weapons, SLF Telemetry, Turrets.
Gameplay-wise, each section of the panel is a gameplay loop task for the Engineer to execute. To balance the experience, some tasks require frequent attention, while others have a longer "set and forget" gameplay loop. Panel subsections display additional relevant information to the Engineer.
Engineer Gameplay Tasks
1) Power Distributor Regulation
Buff: Extra pip awarded to Captain's distributor
Buff Duration: 60 sec
Cooldown Condition: 10 sec of static pips by the Captain
Gameplay loop frequency: medium term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: If the captain has kept pips unchanged for a certain cooldown time (10 sec?), the Engineer can launch & complete "minigame" to optimize distributor power fluctuations. If successful, it provides an extra pip to the captain for 60 sec. Rational is that changing pips introduces minor power fluctuations that can the Engineer can regulate to increase overall efficiency of the distributor, but a period of static power draw is required to gather the necessary accurate data by the ship's computer. After the buff expires, the pip is removed and the Engineer must again wait for the 10 seconds of unchanged pips before "minigame" can be relaunched to create another bonus pip. This would be in addition to a single bonus pip provided by the Engineer as a multi-crew bonus. This allows a single solo Engineer to provide two extra bonus pips, but would remove the automatic 2nd pip awarded from the 2nd multi-crew CMDR.
Panel Subsection Data: This Engineer Panel section shows the Engineer the Captain's current pip settings, Power Plant Module Health, Distributor Module Health, ship power requirement, and ship deployed power requirement.
2) Shield Generator Optimization
Buff: +5% Shield resistance to single dmg type OR Additional top-layer of shield MJ to single dmg type
Buff Duration: 180 sec OR Until depleted
Cooldown Condition: 20 sec OR 120 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Difficult
Description: Engineer "tunes" shield frequencies to present a stronger shield weave against specific damage type. Alternatively, Engineer can boost efficiency of select shield capacitors to provide bonus shielding to a dmg type. Complete "minigame" and generate either,
- An extra bonus 5% of shield resistance that they can then assign to explosive, thermal, or kinetic shield resistance. Bonus can be reallocated at will, but has a 20 sec cooldown before the "minigame" can be started again to cut down on instantaneous abuse in dogfights.
- Additional top-layer of shield MJ to a single dmg type (calculated as a % of ship base shield MJ). Enemy attacks of that dmg type need to chew through the bonus shields BEFORE they hit the ship's main shields, allowing the captain a small percentage of "free" shielding against a single dmg type. Longer cooldown than resistance boost due to potential for dmg negation.
Panel Subsection Data: Displays dmg resistances, total raw shield strength, "effective" shield strength against each dmg type, SYS distributor power, shield generator health, Shield Booster Status, SCB status (would have to have a cool UI for when the go active) and cells remaining,
3) Thruster Power Reallocation
Buff: Various increase to thruster or boost output
Buff Duration: Indefinite until cancelled or reassigned
Cooldown Condition: 20 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Reallocating the flow of power from the ship's distributor allows the Engineer to boost the performance of the various thrusters around the ship, greatly influencing the movement and agility in a dogfight. Complete "minigame"; can choose to provide:
- A bonus to maneuvering thrusters (aka: lateral, dorsal, retro thrusters), increase ship Yaw/Roll/Pitch by +15% (increased ship agility)
- Increase main thruster output for a higher maximum speed (maybe equivalent to half a pip?)
- Increase the overall effect provided by boosting by +15% (larger boost speed).
Panel Subsection Data: max speed at current pips, max boost speed at current pips, ENG distributor power, Thruster Module Health.
4) Weapon Targeting Protocol Reprogram.
Buff: Various temporary boosts to all weapon modules (plus sub-bonus for weapon class)
Buff Duration: 10 sec or WEP distributor empty
Cooldown Condition: 30 sec
Gameplay loop frequency: short term task
Minigame Difficulty: Easy
Description: Complete "minigame", provides temporary boosts to damage, reload speed, range, falloff, fire rate, and thermal load for all hardpoints - no penalty applied to the other stats. Fixed weapons gain an additional bonus to reduced thermal load, gimballed weapons gain an additional bonus to fire rate, turreted weapons gain an additional bonus to falloff and range. Engineer visits this subsection frequently, getting the most out of the weapons for the Captain. Revising the computer's targeting protocols on the fly, the engineer is able to provide a powerful temporary boost to all weapon systems either improving target accuracy or optimizing the weapon's mechanical performance. If the Captain drains the WEP distributor while the buff is active, the protocols get reset and the cooldown starts. Coordinate with the captain to optimize attach runs on enemies. Lots of potential options with this one, but I like it to be a shorter effect vs. the other buffs.
Edit: Considering the state of shields, this one should be tuned carefully so its not OP, but it needs to make a measurable difference in the ship's DPS. Also consider the captain is losing out on the DPS from having a player controlled SLF.
Panel Subsection Data: Remaining ammo for each hardpoint, WEP distributor power, Hardpoint module health (maybe range and falloff too).
5) SLF Telepresence Tether Boost.
Buff: Additional distributor pip to SLF pilot, stacks 3x
Buff Duration: Until SLF is destroyed.
Cooldown Condition: 30 sec 1st cooldown, 60 second 2nd cooldown.
Gameplay loop frequency: medium/long term task
Minigame Difficulty: Moderate
Description: Boosting the strength of the Mothership's Telepresence Tether, allows for a significant increase in the connection bandwidth with the SLF. The Engineer can then better utilize the Mothership's power control computer to help optimize the SLF's subsystems, granting powerful boosts to the SLF distributor. Complete "minigame", provides:
- Extra pip to the SLF pilot's distributor - pip does not expire. After 30 sec cooldown,
- Can complete additional "minigame" to grant another pip that does not expire. After 60 seconds,
- Can complete additional "minigame" to grant a 3rd pip that does not expire.
Panel Subsection Data: SLF shields, SLF hull, SLF ammo remaining, SLF distributor settings (showing the bonus pips), remaining SLFs, SLF construction time.
6) Man Turreted Weapon. Functions as current to give the Engineer something to shoot so they're not just playing in panels the whole time. But maybe requires a short transition window to "switch" to the gunner role, similar to the delay in launch a fighter? Could see a similar treatment as 1) - 5) if anyone has any good ideas.
The overall gist is that the Engineer is the ship's system's expert, and can utilize their programming prowess and systems expertise to assign temporary passive bonuses to increase ship performance.
An overhaul like this would consistently give the 2nd/3rd chair something to do in combat situations. If designed well (think of exploration redesign that brought Analysis Mode and the FSS), could be a lot of fun.