EVE New Citizens Q&A

So I've put a little over 80 some hours into eve so far, and after playing several other space sims, it dawned on me that some of the larger ships I own must have a crew on board to operate.

This being said, the crew is not in any way a part of EVE, and you never hear about or interact with your crew.

Does CCP plan on perhaps adding crew in the future?

I could see this being a lot of fun. Getting to hire crew members, they could even have stats of their own where a better crew would help your ship perform better (higher stats)

In a situation where you took hull damage, you may lose crew and have to replace them at a station.

Crew management just seems like it would be a fun little addition, and players could choose how in depth they want to go with it.

Thoughts?

Ship crews exist, but they're hidden: https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Ship_crew and https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/New_Eden_crew_guidelines

One has to think about what crews would actually bring to the game, though. In an era where CCP are attempting to reduce unnecessary complexity, would adding crews really have any sort of benefit? Having a "required" crew would be a nuisance with no added benefit as you're simply maintaining the status quo. They would bring nothing, but would take away if done without. Making crews akin to Industry Teams might be a bit better, but they would have to be 'special' crews, that aren't required to pilot your ship. These team-crews may given bonuses, but they would have to give drawbacks, as well (a crew that specializes with, say, turrets would do less-well when utilizing defensive measures, so resists and / or HP would be reduced, for example). If a crew gave only benefits, they would become just another essential "thing" to put onto your ship, as otherwise, you wouldn't be flying to your ships' fullest capabilities. That isn't exactly a choice, there.

Another question is how the crews would even come into the game. Do you buy civilians from a market, or harvest them through PI? Then train them up into specialized crews? Or are they essentially like the Industry teams, where they get auctioned off to the highest bidder? Mess around with Industry teams a bit and see if you really think something like that would be wise for ship crews.

It basically comes down to a single question: Would this actually add anything to the game that would outweigh the negatives it would also bring? If not, it just brings needless complexity, and should be avoided.

My thought....what did that dead horse do to you that you are beating him again...


And...tl:dr - I played game 'x' and now want to add stuff that works in that game into EVE. Which usually (as proven again) leads to hilarious ideas. Sorry, this has been asked over and over and over and over. And so far...nope.

This belongs in Features.

This comes to mind: Hands of a Killer



Still... I prefer my way of acquiring crews.

See... I make deals with justice system of local planets. They give me convicted felons (the kind that you would never want released) and I tell them, "If you can survive on my ship for the duration of its insurance policy, you get a full pardon and 15,000 ISK (*which is apparently a lot of money to non-capsuleers*)."

I give them a crash course in maintenance and repairs, load them up into ships (with no escape pods), seal them in, make all systems accessible only to me, and then do my thing.

One point of interest; none of my ships have ever survived past their insurance policy. Those that get close to the policy expiration date always seem to suffer some sort of "malfunction" in their warp core. It is so strange.

I take great pride in the knowledge that I save many court and prison systems so much money.

Not that long ago there was a 30 second delay while swapping out for ships.
It was largely hated by those who quickly wanted/needed to dock, flip ship undock and get back shooting others in the (in game) face.

Adding crews, having to hire them to fly your ship would be a bad idea therefor.

Also I hear CCP Fozzie screaming, having just rebalanced most of the ship in EVE, adding crews to enhance ship stats would mean he'd to start all over again.

So, no, leave it as it is in the lore but as game mechanic bad idea.

Also wrong forum. :)

Eve ships don't really need crews, it would not add much tot he game tbh. I know another game is coming where supposdibly your friends can fly with you, but honestly we dunno how dull that would be. So ship crews in eve npc or otherwise don't really fit.

What might fit however, is eve players move dust and or legion clones to get set for battle. But that's a whole other can of worms.

Had they simply named armour repairers as "small/medium/large armour repair maintenance crew" or weapons as "1600mm howitzer battery contingent" in the beginning we wouldn't be having this discussion.
Since CCP has been in a fad of raping the lore / otherwise established names lately it wouldn't be a long stretch to rename modules to imply that they are actually a module and a crew along with it that you just bought and fitted to your ship.

.... and people call us gankers sociopathic???