I understand this is something that has been up before but this is something I feel should be in the game.
while both arguments for and against have valid points I feel the balance is fairly easy to maintain while making minimal changes and to those who are worried about balance I will provide my opinion on the major concerns and a possible balance suggestion.
the argument that its like having an extra huge hardpoint or its too overpowered is the main argument I've seen and I personally don't understand that argument,
yes you can have with two fighters a max of 144 extra dps if you go with the shard cannon (guardian version) but the fighters are pretty much made of paper as is. so that extra dps is very temporary but with multi crew that extra damage potential is already in game so it's not an argument against the Ai crew but with the fighters in general, with Ai crew running the second fighter you just take out the issues with players disconnecting which I have experienced on both sides. (note using multi crew in my ship funny enough has ended up where the disconnected player became an Ai and responded to orders just like my regular hired crew so it works just fine in game. even after being destroyed the "player" ship could be redeployed) As a few people have mentioned you can train your pilots as a reason why you shouldn't need two. I would argue that's not really an argument for or against, a harmless pilot has crashed into me and has distracted attackers long enough for me to take the upper hand, I've had elite pilots take down anacondas and I've seen them melt immediately after launch. they may be able to fight but they will always be less effective than a player which you can already have, so that again isn't a huge bonus in pve and those worried about the impact on pvp really don't have much to worry about as even small ships can rip the fighters apart and focus the main ship with relative ease. the argument against two fighters being allowed that they would be OP is already balanced out in game through the rebuild time and launch time, it takes about 6-7 seconds to launch without navigating the menus and it takes 80 seconds to rebuild them once destroyed all they would have to do is increase the rebuild time a little bit if people are still worried but even that seems like a pointless change as it really doesn't need to be balanced any further.
the biggest arguments I have for adding this to the game is that it really just makes sense it's already possible if my experience with multi crew disconnected players effectively becoming extra Ai crew members and following orders perfectly, from attacking and defending to focus fire and recall the orders worked perfectly and even after being destroyed they could be redeployed like regular crew.
another argument for it is that it gives you an actual reason to hire more than one crew member, using multi crew you get access to multiple fighters already but unlike the Ai crew they don't really take money from you they don't really have any negative repercussions whereas the Ai crew reduces your exp gain and takes a percentage of your income what reason could you have for hiring more than one in this current state they cant follow you on the ground they cant operate srv's and unless carrier interiors puts your hired crew in the bridge they don't even serve a purpose as a collectable. (having all elite crew members with the combat elite symbol on the shoulders in your bridge would almost make it worth the grind imo)
if you can come up with an argument against it I would gladly address it as best I can but I don't see many reasons that can hold up to the facts.
it's already possible the damage potential is already in game via multi crew, last but not least it would be cool as hell to have a wing of corvettes and clippers facing off look like two groups of high ranked commanders commanding a small fleet in a battle.
while both arguments for and against have valid points I feel the balance is fairly easy to maintain while making minimal changes and to those who are worried about balance I will provide my opinion on the major concerns and a possible balance suggestion.
the argument that its like having an extra huge hardpoint or its too overpowered is the main argument I've seen and I personally don't understand that argument,
yes you can have with two fighters a max of 144 extra dps if you go with the shard cannon (guardian version) but the fighters are pretty much made of paper as is. so that extra dps is very temporary but with multi crew that extra damage potential is already in game so it's not an argument against the Ai crew but with the fighters in general, with Ai crew running the second fighter you just take out the issues with players disconnecting which I have experienced on both sides. (note using multi crew in my ship funny enough has ended up where the disconnected player became an Ai and responded to orders just like my regular hired crew so it works just fine in game. even after being destroyed the "player" ship could be redeployed) As a few people have mentioned you can train your pilots as a reason why you shouldn't need two. I would argue that's not really an argument for or against, a harmless pilot has crashed into me and has distracted attackers long enough for me to take the upper hand, I've had elite pilots take down anacondas and I've seen them melt immediately after launch. they may be able to fight but they will always be less effective than a player which you can already have, so that again isn't a huge bonus in pve and those worried about the impact on pvp really don't have much to worry about as even small ships can rip the fighters apart and focus the main ship with relative ease. the argument against two fighters being allowed that they would be OP is already balanced out in game through the rebuild time and launch time, it takes about 6-7 seconds to launch without navigating the menus and it takes 80 seconds to rebuild them once destroyed all they would have to do is increase the rebuild time a little bit if people are still worried but even that seems like a pointless change as it really doesn't need to be balanced any further.
the biggest arguments I have for adding this to the game is that it really just makes sense it's already possible if my experience with multi crew disconnected players effectively becoming extra Ai crew members and following orders perfectly, from attacking and defending to focus fire and recall the orders worked perfectly and even after being destroyed they could be redeployed like regular crew.
another argument for it is that it gives you an actual reason to hire more than one crew member, using multi crew you get access to multiple fighters already but unlike the Ai crew they don't really take money from you they don't really have any negative repercussions whereas the Ai crew reduces your exp gain and takes a percentage of your income what reason could you have for hiring more than one in this current state they cant follow you on the ground they cant operate srv's and unless carrier interiors puts your hired crew in the bridge they don't even serve a purpose as a collectable. (having all elite crew members with the combat elite symbol on the shoulders in your bridge would almost make it worth the grind imo)
if you can come up with an argument against it I would gladly address it as best I can but I don't see many reasons that can hold up to the facts.
it's already possible the damage potential is already in game via multi crew, last but not least it would be cool as hell to have a wing of corvettes and clippers facing off look like two groups of high ranked commanders commanding a small fleet in a battle.