Intergalactic Summit

I've always been a firm believer that a strong captain-crew relationship is what makes a ship run best. Part of that is making sure the crew don't get killed, and part of that is making sure that nothing hits the hull. My main source of income being blowing up pirates, not other capsuleers, this is very easy to do, as my ship's shields are strong... and usually if they're down, I'm in over my head and am warping out anyway. But I try to maintain a safe workspace. I pay my crew well enough for them to enjoy themselves and maintain a somewhat higher quality of life than your average Caldari crewman, and make sure they are well cared for. My shipboard crews are always ready to work for our collective good, and my "core" crewmen are the ones where the mutual trust between captain and crewman are strongest.

Those "core" men are the kinds of people who I trust to do what is necessary, meaning that if a missile won't launch because the launch system is broken, I can trust them to climb in there to dislodge and fire it, and ride it all the way to its target while waving a 10-gallon hat in the vaccum, and I know they'll do that because they know that if I was in their situation, I'd do the same for them.

Ah, a moment of free time, and an interesting discussion.

I'd like to ask the Caldari contingent their thoughts on Automation. and by Automation, I mean Automaton workers, maintenance Drones, I suppose you would call them, maintaining your systems inflight, rather than Human Crews.

I intend to look into this further in the future, as an alternative to risking Caldari lives, whose talents can be put to use elsewhere. I still intend to employ sizable station-based human maintenance crews, of course.

The crew? I have a group for high sec ships and my nullsec ships and needless to say the nullsec group has higher pay to go with their higher chance of death. That said I try to give greater consideration to the nullsec crew by going to see them during my down time. They are usually found with the Intaki workers from the assembly lines or with my alliance mates crews. Holo game tournaments are something I like to provide as well as free rounds at the stations bars and eateries. It's the least I can do for them for the danger I put them in. I also have a friend ferry over packages from their families or small items from Amarr or Jita when he can. Small things that make them comfortable.

My highsec crews are a bit more relaxed in their standards being so close to Amarr so I let them on shore leave whenever I go shopping. I'm not entirely connected to them as much as the nullsec crew because of their relatively local status. They have their lives and are free to go about them as they will. I occassionaly see them but mostly professional relationships.

Maybe you could try a bit harder not to invade anyone's private space? Seriously, these are people your ship depends upon. These are people you (or your HR people) have hired. They are still every single one of them a person, with feelings that are important and valid.

If you can't get that through the jacks in your skull, you should stick to flying things you can pilot on your own.

Respect your crew, respect your ship, it's not that difficult.

Crew members on my ships are treated very well. I have crew members that have served with me since my earliest days. All tasks that could endanger their lives are done by drones, I've even payed extra to retrofit non Gallente ships to be more crew drone friendly.

In the event one of my ships go boom, some of the insurance goes to the families of crew members who have been injured or killed.

Admittedly I don't have the best conditions on board my ships, these aren't luxury yachts, but for the most part they are slighty above the standards you would expect for the crews of a faction navy.

My crew members put their lives on the line every time we undock. As such they deserve my respect at the very least. I would not say I treat them as friends, but why should they fight for an officer who sees no value in them?

At minimum I do like to remember the names of those on board (which becomes difficult as hell once crews start to go into the hundreds).

I like to throw ISK and gifts at my crew but still for some reason it seems some of them are afraid of me.. There was once this female Sebiestor engineer who vanished on me during a routine visit to a station for some repairs and ammo. I went to great lengths in trying to find her, but never did and I was devastated for a while. Women are so complicated!

I suppose I have a tendency to wander alone. Somehow, flying a frigate or a destroyer where automation can handle the more mundane tasks leaves me free to enjoy the boundless reaches of the universe and everything within it. A crew hardly finds their stays as entertaining as I do when we make port. They seem to forget the bounties of God's creation and worry about little details like maneuvering-thruster reliability and warp-bubble stability.

I suppose that may be because my crew, when I have occasion to fly a larger ship, are all servants of my family and have been, generation after generation, for often hundreds if not thousands of years. In fact, when we heard the Emancipation was imminent, we took all our servants, in small groups, around Minmatar space in our own little cloaked transports wherever they would like to see. Having seen all of Minmatar space they wanted to see, a mere two left the House of Baracca. One of them left to marry some young thing he had befriended on a station in more neutral territory, the sneaky rascal. He returned with her, though, so I suppose it is all swings and roundabouts.

I suppose the point is that most of my crew would much rather service more conservative (i.e. sedentary) members of the House of Baracca to stay as far away from the sort of rabble I enjoy the company of. As a consequence, I do try to keep my journeys in larger vessels short and to the point. I much prefer not needing to take their feelings into account, and they would much rather leave me to my own devices. Most of them are simply too sophisticated and refined to enjoy non-traditional recreation among mixed company.

As a favor to mother, I also must turn away any attentions our servants of fairer sex might offer. I suppose I can understand her point of view. The pods are technically built for one and I've nearly lost more than one ship in my career by not paying strict attention to where I'm going.

Well said, Ms. Grace. And there's nothing wrong with loving your crew either. If things go haywire enough, me and my crew all die. It's romantic.. living and dying together, the fiery wreck and and its dead inhabitants entwined to each other, floating in cold space.. glorious!

Only one of my ships uses a "skeleton crew" if you will, just enough for engines to burn and electronics to be supervised...


I took a Hurricane into service , and made it suitable for a small crew to assist with specific functions, beyond that the ship runs itself.

As for automatons, I'd say our Blackbird-class ship would be nice, since electronic warfare only needs equipment, really.