Roles for crew +1, but I don’t think that all AI crew should give you pips. That said, it would be good to have them provide some bonuses and I’d love for you to be able to allocate perks as they gain experience based on what you think would suit you best.
For example, all crew start with no bonuses at grade 1, but each time they gain experience you get a point to spend on them, could even be like an engineer roll now with the risk of increasing one thing whilst decreasing another.
Some upgrades could have multiple applications and stack, like the Repair upgrade suggested for the engineer. Each application of this upgrade could increase their efficiency.
As with they are now, the more experience they gain, the more they cost you.
Fighter Pilot:
The only crew member that can occupy an SLF other than the XO (see below).
Upgrades;
- Increased accuracy
- Higher DPS
- Faster shield recharge
- Faster top speed
- Better Maneuverability
Engineer:
Provides half a pip to systems
Upgrades;
- Repair (like an automated, but slow AFM unit)
- Stores management, 3 tiers
- I - Automatically restock ammo after docked at a suitable port with a 20% discount
- II - Automatically refuel the ship after docked at a suitable port with a 20% discount
- III - Automatically repair the ship after docked at a suitable port with a 20% discount
- Inventory Management, 3 tiers
- I - Requisitions a preset number of limpets after docking at a suitable port with a 20% discount
- II - Automatically jettison filtered minerals from the refinery
- III - Automatically jettison engineering materials based on filters
Gunner:
Operates your turrets
Upgrades;
- Increased accuracy of turrets (reduced Jitter)
- Increased thermal efficiency of turrets
- Increased DPS of turrets
Navigator:
Pilots the ship
Upgrades;
- Auto docking/undocking
- Decreased FSD cooldown
- Faster FSD boot
- Automatic Discovery Scanner operation
- Faster Detailed Surface Scanner operation & range
XO:
Once one of the above crew reach Elite, they can be promoted to XO, there is no other way to obtain one, an XO cannot be hired and you can only have 1 XO on your roster. They will retain the skills that they already have prior to the promotion and can perform any other role on demand (via the crew panel), but become a level 1 XO for further perks and upgrades.
An XO is an extremely valuable crew member, but would come in at a high cost. Minimum 20% cut of your profits with another 1% for each additional upgrade.
Upgrades;
- Mission Agent (automatically hands in missions upon docking with a 10% bonus payout)
- Security Officer (automatically claims bounties and pays fines with a 10% bonus / discount)
- Personnel Officer (automatically ejects escape pods for the AI crew at 10% hull strength, these can be recovered in space as an automatic mission USS for the owning CMDR for up to 24 hours)
- Any upgrade from the other crew roles
I think these could open up some varied game play options and force you to evaluate your priorities. For example, an explorer would benefit most from having an Engineer and a Navigator onboard, but a bounty hunter may benefit from a Gunner and a Fighter pilot if they're in a large ship, but a Navigator could come in handy too.
