Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Do you honestly think that you alone are piloting these massive mobile ships with everything at your finger tips? CCP did release a page on ship crews on ships including player ships which do have crews

Now, I wonder. Who are these people? Where do they come from? Are they hobos that live in stations until you undock so you can just fill out numbers? I had an idea on how to make an isk sink as well as more dynamic POSes. You need a ship crew to watch and observe lesser parts of your ship and since you're a capsuleer, you need them to also have that technology and training

First, you need fresh bodies. Not PI created bodies, actual living bodies that can think and do more than livestock. The most obvious start for these men and women would be from highsec stations and seeded sell orders but that's lame and could be a lot more dynamic and interesting. Plus, people out in Nullsec and wormholes will obviously need a source of crew because people don't just pop out of the air and grow up to an age where they can fly ships

Introducing the two POS modules for getting fresh bodies. They act like Moon Harvesting Arrays but they don't need a target

Recruitment Center: This POS mod will bring in a number of Recruits based on location. The Recruits will build up in the Recruitment Center before the center is linked to a Training Ground like a Moon Harvesting Array. The amount of recruits is determined by Sec Status and the number of Temperature or planets with a population on it. Obviously, the further out you are from Empire Hubs, the less you recruit.

Refuge Center: This POS mod brings in a much lower amount of Recruits than the Recruitment Center but there is a bonus. Whenever a ship explodes in space, capsuleer pilots will obviously flee to the nearest safe house. This is where the Refuge Center comes in. Whenever a ship is destroyed, the survivors will flee to the nearest Refuge Center, ready to be trained and work for their next captain.

Training Ground: Training Grounds work much like Reactors. Instead of materials, it takes in Recruits which are generated by the two modules above. They output to Habitation Modules which house all of the crew members in a POS. Recruits go in and with different reactions, you can make Ship Crew, Janitors or Assistants.

Habitation Module: These are just like the ones you see in missions. Any crew member in a POS lives in one and when a ship is put into storage, the crew on that ship will return to this. Due to the size of crews, these can hold a large amount of people in suitable living quarters.

With these four modules, you can make Ship Crew, Janitors and Assistants

Ship Crew: These are trained men and women who will fly and help maintain the lesser aspects of your ship while you focus on the more important tasks. Obviously, the larger the ship, the more ship crew you will need

Assistants: When running a POS, you need someone to help maintain the labs and construction. These are the men and women who do so. They are not trained capsuleers so they do not assist in ship operation

Janitors: With such large amount of people living in a POS and Nullsec stations, you will need someone to keep the toilets working. Its a terrible job but SOMEONE has to do it.

Depending on the amount of crew you have in a POS and your ships docked in a station, you will have to pay out a sum of money for their wages so they can send it home to their families about once a month or so. Of course, there is a bit more than just bare basic crew and assistants. You will need someone to manage slightly more advanced processes with a School. With the reactions, you can make Navigators, Security Officers, Engineers, Technicians, Mechanics, Industrialists and Scientists. The Ship Crew and Assistants need someone to tell them what to do

Navigators: These regulate and manage ship navigational systems, propulsion, star charts and even manage crew ships flying around in POSes and letting in Recruits. They also make sure who enters and leaves Nullsec Stations

Security Officers: These folks are in charge of gunnery, missiles, drones and POS Defenses. They also screen any potential Recruits and keep dissent in the ranks in line.

Engineers: They keep your power core, capacitors and shield running even in the most intense of battles. They also maintain POS shields, some construction and nullsec station shielding.

Mechanic: The internal structure of a ship and its armor are made sure to be running fine with these men and women in charge. They also assist in construction and are necessary for Nullsec Stations

Technician: They regulate computers and the electronics of ships, POSes and Nullsec Stations

Industrialist: They have a limited use on ships but are vital for POSes and Nulsec stations. They are in charge of reprocessing and Industry and are used for mining ships and Capital Industrial ships like the Orca and the Rorqual. These can only be made from reacting Assistants

Scientist: These men and women regulate POS Labs, Station research but more importantly, they are necessary for highly advanced ships such as Strategic Cruisers and Titans. These can only be made by reacting assistants.

Finally, one final reaction is necessary to turn Ship Crew into a Fighter Pilot. Fighter Pilots obviously only have one use but are necessary for Carriers since those pilots are not Capsuleers. The number of Pilots a Carrier will need will be determined by the number of Fighters and Fighter Bombers in the Carrier

All ships will require a crew to function properly. A ship without a proper crew would not be allowed to undock and the crew will need to be paid in order to keep working under that captain. Obviously, the ship crew is not permanent stationed in one ship and they can be transferred from ship to ship. But the larger and more advanced the ship is, the better trained the crew will need to be.

Maybe not, its just something I thought of.

You have to pay them once a month for their wages.

Then sell the ship if you can't afford a crew to keep it running.

This adds immersion to the game, of course.

Adds immersion to the game:

2nd Lieutenant Redshirt gets drunk and stumbles haplessly into the warp core causing a massive explosion and destroys the ship. Sad part is 100 units of 'Tourists' parished in the resulting blast and pressure change.

I'll keep my lightning fast neurons fly the ship. :)

Immersion at the cost of fun is a terrible idea.

What if you're in a wormhole, have no pos there and run out of isk to pay your crew? Or you're a super pilot?

Also, isn't a single isk, lore wise, more than most planet dwellers will see in a lifetime?

If you want crews, come up with a way to add them that does NOT make the game less fun, nor penalise PVPers, wormhole dwellers and the like, or make it impossible to play if you don't have enough space money

The Templar One novel makes it abundantly clear that ships do have crews, even if it doesn't go into the specfics of what they actually do...and of course the Clear Skies fanboi movies have a crew on the Typhoon of the same name.

I agree that adding crew skills etc does add immersion to the game...and crew skill levels should have an effect on overall ship efficiency.

G

Only way I see this being applicable is an experience system that develops as you pvp/pve, you have one static crew that never changes (despite dying) and you get a passive (and small) bonus to the stats/skills you have been using. Like for instance 5% tops. Make it a long grind, with diminishing returns, exp caps (so you cant just fight your friend in a perma tanked ship and waste loads of ammo leveling your weapons calibration mechanics up).

Zap Brannigan alt spotted...

I think a more reasonable scenario would be hiring OFFICERS instead of CREW
so a ship would still have all the same functions if you were to ignore the mechanic completely