EVE General Discussion

So as has been shoehorned into EVE canon we have crews on our ships. I’ve read a few posts here and there discussing this fact and also discussing ways to actually make use of the crew in ways that make sense. All of this got me thinking about how I would like to see crew effects implemented on our internet spaceships.
In broad strokes, if it was me, this is how I’d do it.

When you assemble a ship for use, at that point you’re going to start assembling a crew. This happen automatically, and since this isn’t the navy you’ll have recruit from the population on the station. This will take time, and that amount of time will be determined by the standing you have with the people who own the station. Higher standing means less time to recruit crew. You cannot fit, or undock the boat until it’s fully crewed. One caveat to this is that a crew can be transferred from one ship to another of the same class. For example you’re PEV fit Apoc crew could be transferred to your PVP fit Geddon and their bonuses would go with them.

Brand new crews on brand new ships do not impact the ship in any way. However they begin to affect the ship positively the more time they spend aboard the ship. Even docked it would be assumed that they are drilling and maintaining the ship etc. The impact the crew has on the ships performance acts very much like hardwires do and impact things like.

~Gunnery~ Tracking, Damage, Rate of Fire, Falloff, Cap use, Mining Yield, Cycle time
~Navigation~ Align time, Base velocity, MWD/AB velocity, Maneuverability, Cap use
~Engineering~ Power Grid, Capacitor, Recharge rates, Shield HP, Shield Resist, Cycle times, Boost amounts
~Mechanics~ Armor & Hull HP, Repair amount, Cycle times, Armor, and Hull Resists
~Electronics~ CPU use, Cycle times, ECM and ECCM effectiveness, Sensor Strength, Lock range.

I’m likely overlooking a few areas so this list is far from comprehensive but you get the idea.

As for bonuses I think 1.5% incremental bonus up to a max of 9% accumulated at a rate of 1.5% per month until max is reached at the end of the seventh month. You get nothing the first 30 days.

Inside of one month (0-30) they are considered Green and give no bonus
Between one month and two months (31-90) they are considered Seasoned and give 1.5 to 3.0% bonus
Between two months and four months (91-120) they are considered Veteran and give 4.5 to 6.0% bonus
From month five months (120+) onward they are considered Elite and give 7.5 to 9.0% bonus.

If the ship is destroyed the crew is considered dead or dispersed and the accumulated bonus is lost.
Flame away!

I'm bored, I'm at work.

But back to the topic. Sounds cool, I like it. Try putting this up in the Features and Idea's section and see if it gets picked up.

Changes I would make:

1. Instead of requiring ships to have a crew before assembling (how does a newbie with no standings fly ships) let everyone assemble ships and they will come with a generic crew automatically (gives no bonuses).

2. Once a player has a standing of 3.0 (Arbitrary Number) or better they can purchase a crew from the corp at the station with isk (new isk sink).

3. Allow for different corps to offer different crews. Navy's give PVP oriented crews (guns bonuses....), have others (example: Roden Shipyards) give PVE oriented (armor repair, better social skill bonuses). Maybe mining corps can give mining crews and so on.

Just implement it sorta like the tank crew members in WoT :P

"The gunner bought the farm! Someone get on the gun!"

except it could be Aura telling you in a calm voice about how some of the crew are lost.

Well since you read F&I you must not fall under the category as person then.

.... Oh wait I thought this was the make blanket statements without any proof thread. Sorry

Adding ship crew effects will have one of two outcomes, depending on the mechanism.

1) If you can select your crew, they become "just another module" and having another stack of module slots to populate just makes fittings more tedious. You've already got high, mid, low, rigs, implants, boosters, and subsystems. That's enough.

2) If your crew is passive and gains experience, then it has a chilling effect on PVP as no one wants to lose the crew they've spent so long farming up. Grinding crew experience in PVE would become standard practice, and...no thank you.

It has been discussed before many times. I think CCP would rather leave crews as a non tangible part of the game, essentially keeping them out of the being another numerical factor in how well your ship operates. Being immortal god like beings to the planet siders that we enlist as crew we probably care little since their are trillions lining up to get the chance to become crew members and make their families rich.

You have to remember that the currency we use is worth vast fortunes on most planets, what we consider insignificant amounts, perhaps 100 isk, is, according to certain sources, equivalent to fortunes to planet dwellers. To recruit a crew member for such a dangerous job, capsule pilots simply pay their families a small fortune and even if their beloved is lost in a burning wreck, they are set for life, becoming incredibly wealthy overnight. That's quite an incentive for many to join up for such a potentially dangerous duty.

As far as crews having an effect on the running of your ship, others have asked who is responsible for your ships always being in fully working order and never degrading over time. Those poor planet siders you pay small amounts of isk for work hard while you're lounging in your pod to maintain the ship systems and keep them up to peak efficiency.

The way I like to look at is is they're highly expendable and I can get another crew as easily as I can buy a few rounds of ammo, my ship is worth more than they will ever be, as long as they do their job and keep the basic systems running and up to scratch so it's ready for me to use when I need it then I have no need to pay them unwanted attention.

I pretty sure you don't have anything insightful to add anyway.

This is a terrible idea. I fly Minmatar ships, there is no way I could afford to support a crew. The cost of tetanus shots alone would wipe me out.

Just from a lore point of view in terms of 'shoehorning'. They have never been shoehorned into the lore. They have been there all the time, just subtle references here and there and no complete numbers placed up for consumption. Many chronicles and short stories have stated that capsuleer ships have crew, just in reduced numbers from non-capsuleer controlled ships. And even the original EVE Online website had a section showing some example ship blueprints stating crew numbers on them.

Just FYI.