[Speculation] The Future of NPC Crew

[Marc_Hicks]

So the addition of a "Crew Lounge"-& the ability to hire NPC Crew (even if it is only to pilot your fighter and/or your ship whilst you pilot the fighter) does make me wonder if NPC Crew will be more of a feature in future updates of the game!

My hope is that, eventually, the largest ships-at least-will *require* a crew to fly at maximum effectiveness, even if all the Crew are just physical representations in the various seats on the bridge of your ship & do nothing else in-game. I also hope that you can hire crew for the smaller ships, if only to give you someone you can look over at whilst you are piloting.

That said, it'd be even greater if NPC crew were given extra functionality-like specialities with Engineering, Sensors, Astro-navigation, Weapons & Jury-rigging-to give commanders bonuses in those areas & also allowing the Commander to focus on piloting the ship.

Of course it'd be even greater, again, if we one day had the ability to interact with our Crew......if only on a limited basis.....though I suspect that is more than a year away, assuming we get it at all.

So what does everyone else think? Does this represent a move in this kind of direction?

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I'm hoping the same. It would be nice to see specialized crew functions... not even necessarily ship functions, but things like trade advisors, etc. h347h here on the forums has made a couple of posts about it.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

I'm hoping the same. It would be nice to see specialized crew functions... not even necessarily ship functions, but things like trade advisors, etc. h347h here on the forums has made a couple of posts about it.

Yes, I noticed that. Feared making a duplicate thread about the subject.....but decided to take a chance.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yes, I noticed that. Feared making a duplicate thread about the subject.....but decided to take a chance.

Nah, you're alright

 

[CMDR-AD]

I would also like this.

A few thoughts I've had for NPC crew roles. Maybe they could also have role specialties to add variety to them, and give the player some choice as to the expertise of their NPC crew.

Situation callout voices - In the options menu a button toggle ON/OFF (and a slider to choose values where appropriate) for things like:
"We've got company" when previously alone in instance.
"New Wing" dropped into instance.
"Hull has nearly had it, LETS GO!" - Set the desired call point with a slider.
"Local Security is here!" - When system security drops into instance.
"We've got two bogeys on us!" - When our ship is a focus of more than one hostile ship.

Power Management Expert - In the options menu, player presets preferred Pips settings for a few situations. In game this behaves like 3rd party macro software, with the NPC Crew moving Pips between the preset values as conditions change, or as the player demands them.

Cargo Master - Able to reduce Hatch Breaker Limpet effectiveness by a small amount, for a short while.

Systems Expert - Slightly reduces chance of module malfunction, slightly decreases boot times.

Mining Engineer - Allows prioritizing mined fragments. Vents lower priority partial bins to make room for higher priority fragments. Vents any fragments marked as "always reject".

Anyway, stuff like that. Simple things mostly, stuff that instead of just being another menu option, is wrapped into the fun of an NPC crew.

 

[Fosdyke]

I would like to see that in the future A bold move that FD has made, it's a first step to better implementation for the future.

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

Big YES. I have expressed myself in numerous other threads, so i will put it simple: YES!

K.

 

[D.G.Cerberus]

Also big yes as expressed in other posts.

CMDR-AD - don't forget....."God-dammit this bogey's all over me!"

 

[Bobbydylan]

I would also like this.

A few thoughts I've had for NPC crew roles. Maybe they could also have role specialties to add variety to them, and give the player some choice as to the expertise of their NPC crew.

Situation callout voices - In the options menu a button toggle ON/OFF (and a slider to choose values where appropriate) for things like:
"We've got company" when previously alone in instance.
"New Wing" dropped into instance.
"Hull has nearly had it, LETS GO!" - Set the desired call point with a slider.
"Local Security is here!" - When system security drops into instance.
"We've got two bogeys on us!" - When our ship is a focus of more than one hostile ship.

Power Management Expert - In the options menu, player presets preferred Pips settings for a few situations. In game this behaves like 3rd party macro software, with the NPC Crew moving Pips between the preset values as conditions change, or as the player demands them.

Cargo Master - Able to reduce Hatch Breaker Limpet effectiveness by a small amount, for a short while.

Systems Expert - Slightly reduces chance of module malfunction, slightly decreases boot times.

Mining Engineer - Allows prioritizing mined fragments. Vents lower priority partial bins to make room for higher priority fragments. Vents any fragments marked as "always reject".

Anyway, stuff like that. Simple things mostly, stuff that instead of just being another menu option, is wrapped into the fun of an NPC crew.

All good idea's. I've had discussions about NPC crew before, and I've often said that I can't understand why FD stated that Multi crew will come this year, but not NPC crew. For me, NPC crew seems to be much easier than Multicrew.
1) How to recruit: Crew Lounge, so that's solved.
2) What does it look like: Crew avatars on the bridge need to be a thing with multi crew. Just allow these helmeted avatars to be in for NPC crew. so I don't see this as any more work for FD.
3) Effects: Engineer mods have ship effects, allow crew to do the same.
Pilot: as is from SLF.
Engineer: Gives a % boost to power production, and maybe an extra pip depending on how skilled he is.
Tactical: Gives different bonuses, from reduced judder, to increased damage to lower power draw.....

 

[Muzz UK]

I'd imagine NPC crew will just add certain stats like engineer upgrades eventually.

NPC Weapons Tech - Adds 2% damage to multi-cannon hits with slower reload time

NPC Engines Tech - Adds 5% speed to boost increases jump range by 1ly at cost of heat or cool down

Maybe they'll get levels and exp that would be nice, I almost think they should die with your ship and you have to recruit new people or you have to go to a specific system to find where their escape pod went if you want to use them again.

etc etc etc

 

[Karlos Ploryman]

I'd imagine NPC crew will just add certain stats like engineer upgrades eventually.

NPC Weapons Tech - Adds 2% damage to multi-cannon hits with slower reload time

NPC Engines Tech - Adds 5% speed to boost increases jump range by 1ly at cost of heat or cool down

Maybe they'll get levels and exp that would be nice, I almost think they should die with your ship and you have to recruit new people or you have to go to a specific system to find where their escape pod went if you want to use them again.

etc etc etc

Good Ideas there!

Maybe these NPC crew members such as "weapon technician" could do their work according to commander orders...

I mean you could choose from several options:
MENU for crew interactions:
* Weapons officer
** prioritize weapon power efficiency (lower damage, lower PD capacitor draw, unaffected reload time)
** prioritize weapon damage (higher damage, higher PD capacitor draw, longer reload time)
** prioritize reload time (damage unaffected, higher PD capacitor draw, shorter reload time)
etc...

So you could "mode switch" according to your situation...

 

[Deathwatch]

Ship Cook I would like one of those.

 

[lysan]

hoping the same, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Weps]

Prediction: in the next year, the crew member functionality will see a number of improvements equal to the number of improvements having been made to Powerplay and CQC in the periods subsequent to their respective introductions.

 

[Jumpin' Jack Flash]

Hi
.
I personally think that NPC crew has got the chance of a better shelf life (if you'll excuse the term) than player multi crew, in the sense that it would probably be more popular to the wider player base.
Player multi crew relies on just that, you need other players to let it work. NPC crew can have the possibility of migrating across all three modes, Solo, Group or Open.
Player groups (ships crew) can also benefit, or there's a possibility?...For Example, if a ships player crew is short of a 'complete' crew it's maybe also possible to 'fill in' the missing crew members with hired NPC's?
This is what I mean by a better shelf life, nothing derogatory meant against player crew, (we need both), but NPC crew 'should' be more ambidextrous to use overall in the long term, I'm thinking.
.
Jack