What I want from 2.3 : Automation

[[VR] Bac Ho]

I love this game, but was deeply disappointed that NPC crew is not on the cards at the moment. For me NPC crew would be near the top of “the to do list” along with able to hire NPC wings. I was really looking forward to the multi-crew feature, but without NPC crew my interest in multi-crew feature is virtually zero. What I see on this forum comments from other commanders and polls a large majority feel the same way as myself.

I understand that there is a percentage of players who are looking forward to Players multi-crew and that's fine, but why not implement both NPC & Player multi-crew.

I have a horrible gut feeling that no matter what kind of magical bonuses Players crew members might give a ship. After the first couple of battles the novelty will quickly disappear and most of us will go back and fly are own ships. Even with Player multi-crew feature it won't change the fact that most of us will continue flying alone 99% of the time.

I can see in combat there would be some exciting game play, but outside from combat what will player multi-crew offer, and how fun is it going to be sitting in someone else ship when they are trading, mining or exploring?.

I just hope that Frontier takes note that a very large percentage of the player base is crying out for more love towards NPC wings & NPC crews as this would enrich game play across all the game modes (Open/Group & Solo) and wouldn't be better to implement a feature that benefits the largest percentage of the players .

 

[Wylie28]

In this poll 85.23% of the voters think NPC crew is essential.

What Commandeur_Brin describes would be possible if we had NPC crew.

Based on literally nothing. No one even knows what Multi-Crew actually is. It could be entirely possible the kind of things that a crew-member would do requires good judgement, which computers don't exactly have and you wouldn't want them doing. It would also make the game completely imbalanced. If NPC's could fill up a ship for a solo commander than why would players ever go to another's ship? They would be outclassed. Each crew member with the multi-crew system is going to make the ship as good as having another ship in the wing. If that didn't happen there wouldn't be a reason to use multi-crew over wings. If NPCs filled the seats there also wouldn't be a reason to use multi-crew over wings. NPCs crew members would break multi-crew based on the one thing we know about it.

 

[ROSS-128]

Actually, I can think of a very straightforward way for multi-crew to be competitive with wings without magical passive buffs: if a wing still consisted of 4 ships, regardless of how many people those ships had on them. Therefore, a fully multi-crewed wing could have 16 people in it, in 4 ships.

Of course, getting 16 people synced up would require Elite's instancing to stop sucking.

 

[babelfisch]

No, that's not at all what I was getting at buddy....

It's nothing about advantage, and all about which becomes the more enjoyable way to experience the game.

Either NPC crew will be fleshed out to the point that it's fun and engaging and there is no reason to play the game any other way, which completely changes the dynamics of how ED works and makes about half of the ships completely undesirable without a full re-design, or it'll be broken beyond repair. Doesn't help that most of those ships that would be getting the shaft have already gotten it and are some of the most unpopular ships to date.

So you cut ship variety in half right off the bat or spend years retooling them. Sounds productive, right?

Or scenario B is that NPC crew are so janky and gimped that players would rather never experience it again after their first 30 minutes, in which case what was the point?

I want, so gimme? Is that the logic we're following now?

You're not going to find a middle ground. There is no way to implement NPC multicrew CORRECTLY without making it a mandatory part of the game. Your only other option, to screw it up, isn't fun, so which do you choose?

Fair point, not sure if I agree with you but I get it

PS
General question:
Why is everyone so sure that NPC crew would mean a 400% buff? Did I miss an update?

 

[Hironichu]

guys.. guys just to cut off your conversation, i'm sorry to broke your dream or whatever but its done okay, 2.3 is pretty much finished that is why the Beta is coming, saying what you want from Frontier for 2.3 is pointless ^^ but I understand what you want and yes I agree with 98% of this thread ! but x) its useless to talk like this, wait till we get official information and then you will be able to say : oh okay Frontier you shouldn't do that because.. etc giving your opinion on something that is really coming, and not hope to get something that is not coming yet !

(Honestly i'm just saying that cause I want this update so bad, and there is a lot of stuff that I want to see, but I'm not hoping too much x) I'm too excited)

(And by the way, you can keep saying whatever you want, dont come back after Frontier say something that you dont wanted cause you say what you want when the update is ready, you are not realy hopting to get this in the next update do you?)

This thread make me laugh and make me dream..

just to finish this comment "Having a player only multicrew before we can walk around is pointless..." from Martian Successor is g right ! I think something else is coming in this update, something BIG that nobody expect

 

[Commandeur_Brin]

You are all talking about some magic 400% boost in combat performances when I was talking about the new roles we will be able to play and the mechanics that comes with it.

I don't care for combat one bit and I sure hope that 2.3 will bring more than new ways to shoot each other.

 

[ShimEnki]

The only use i would ever have with a npc in my ship is to operate the stereo and turn it up loud when station comms start on about speeding and the rest of it.

If they even try grabbing the left seat they are instant space flotsam

 

[z33r0x]

Frontier made travelling in this game as a such terrible experience, so we definitely need some sort of crew to fly the ship for us when we want to travel longer distances.

All this jump, refuel, aligh, jump over and over, it's like you going for a drive in your car, each 100 meters, you need to park your car, turn off the engine, go outside the car, take a walk around the car, then go into the car again, start the engine, and then drive for another 100 meter, and repeat this until you reach your destination. Fun ?

 

[Captain Willard]

Hopefully npc's never pilot the ship thru jumps, that's what I'm here for.

 

[Pumabear8]

Or you could just get a friend and be the 2nd pilot? You don't have to have NPC crew to enjoy the game the way you propose to..

Let me run this by you:
New player: How do I make money in game?
Other players: Get an NPC multi-crew, go exploring and put a bit of tape over the button for the discovery scanner and set to economic flight mode. AI flies, it honks every jump and you leave the pc on overnight for a few weeks then you are a multi billionaire and can get the biggest ship in game.
New player: Isn't that kinda broken?
Other players: Well if you don't like it don't use it, but we all have and now don't care about re-buys or crime or anything else because credits are meaningless.

Seriously? I want multi-crew NPC, but I would let them explore, they cannot navigate a star in this game, I use it to destroy NPC's trying to get in behind me to interdict, heck I've watched them crash and burn at a star just after they've delivered their B movie threat dialogue.

 

[Vasious]

Achilles Robotics anyone

See the Ads at the Starports

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/295011-Achilles-Robotics