Player Features and Ideas Discussion

That's actually an old Idea I had quite some time ago, but since it is talked about the in general section of the forums, I thought I post it again to see what people think about it... here we go. So, each ship larger then a shuttle should have a crew stat. It depicts the crews strength, condition and level of training in 4 different categories, and has the following effects...

- Level of Training: This stat is actually composed of 4 stats, that combined are expressed in overall skill level: Amateur, standard, professional, expert and elite. The crew skills are:
-- Weapons: This stat represents the ships weapon (or energy transfer/mining module) crews that tend and work the modules that fit in the category. They reload weapons, maintain laser and energy emitters, etc. Training your crew in that skill group will decrease reloading/refitting and cycle time of said modules by 2-10% per skill rank they hold and also reduce damage taken from overheating said modules by 10-50%. In addition, they increase ship specific module bonuses (missile damage, mining yield, etc.) by an additional 1-5%.
-- Electronics: This stat represents the ships electronic operators and techs. Much like weapons crews, they grant a bonus of 2-10% to cycle and reload time and reduce overload damage to "their" modules. They also reduce the CPU need of all modules by 1-5% active on the ship.
-- Engineering: This stat represents the ships engineering crew. They give the same general bonuses to the modules that fall under the category and also reduce the power grid and activation energy needs of all modules fitted to the ship by 1-5%.
-- Navigation: This stat represents the ships navigation officers and engine techs. In addition to the general bonuses they grant to propulsion and navigation modules, they increase the ships speed and agility by 1-5%.

- Crew condition: This general stat represent the crews morale and health/mental and is measured in a percentage of 1-100% that has a direct effect on the effectiveness of the crew bonuses the ship is granted. It slowly degrades over time, the longer the ship is in service without docking, the more often it is hit in combat or stays outside of a station. That stat can be slowly increased by staying docked in a station or fast by spending ISK, effectively "bribing" the crew to keep it together.

- Crew strength: This is a 2 part stat (ie. 100/100) and governs the crews ship bonuses. You can loose crew by taking structure damage (chance of 50% per point to loose one crewmen/women). Crew does not regenerate automatically and has to be purchased (hired) like ammunition and charges. Like loosing morale, replacing or loosing crew directly effects the crew bonuses they grant to the ship they serve on.

Crew training: The training of ones crew is handled by the "crew management" skill, that falls under the "leadership" category. Basically, training your crew works like training your character, over time. The skill, like all others, has 5 ranks reflecting the five levels of crew skill. So, in order to raise your crew to "expert" status, you, yourself have to have skilled the "crew management" skill to rank 4. The actual training of your crew, however, works a bit differently... Since the overall skill level of your crew is a combined stat taking into account all your crews different fields of work, it is very well possible for a crew to be, say rank 4 in "navigation" but rank 1 in all other departments, with you having the management skill on rank 1, but the lower your skill, the longer will it take for your crew to actually reach higher ranks since they are, all in all still amateurs.

I have no exact numbers for crew training times ironed out yet because this is only a quick write up, but they should be low... hours and days rather then weeks.

Yea, that's it: A system like that would be nice groundwork for later stuff to build upon... like crew specific modules (facilities to boost morale, excape pods to save a portion of your experienced crew when ship is destroyed, etc.) or even boarding actions...

A few things immediately jump out at me...

- It's a "maintenance mechanic" (see: you are given penalties for doing nothing). Not everyone has access to a station (whormhole dwellers, scouts, "true" nomads, etc) and forcing some people to "bribe" their crew just so they remain "effective" will be opposed no matter how you spin it.
- having crew give bonuses that are actually quite sizable means that the mechanic will become "mandatory" when fitting a ship.
- it encourages people to stockpile ships and train their crews before ever taking them out to see combat so people have the most optimized stats they can have. This is something that people with huge support networks and lots of ISK can pull off... not so much for the newbies and poor people.
- it may be immersive, but it also seems tedious and needlessly complex... putting limits on your activities or forcing you to pay penalties.

I know it goes against the lore, but I always imagined the crew to be robotic synthdroids that do not eat, sleep, complain, or get paid.

They are so cheap that it costs nothing to crew a ship.

They do not question, they do not mutiny, they do their job until they break.

True, I was thinking making those penalties to build VERY slowly... also: ISK is, by lore, a valuable trade currency. One ISK actually represents 1000's of credits (or any other planetary currency). So I imagine that "bribing" your crew to full morale wouldn't cost more then buying a load of T1 light missiles... other forms of compensation to raise crew morale are also thinkable.


The bonuses are only a rough cut to keep the concept in line with the base rules of EVE... they can be lowered, if balancing needs it. They shouldn't be too small, however, else the system will be meaningless.


Well, crew training doesn't take too long and happens more or less automatically, once the desired specialization is choosen... and it can be intruduced pretty easily to new players though the newby training missions.


Still it's something you can calculate with... you can train numerous crews on different ships and swap them out if needed... or buy/sell already trained crews.

Nanites only knit together metal, that's all that they are good for... they cannot operate sensors or reload weapons.

As I said, the bonuses could be lower... even in the 0.X%, if balancing makes it necessary.

As far as complexity goes: I dunno, I wouldn't ind it that complex, if it's impelemented well into the ship fitting screen... most simpulations on the level of EVE's complexity have some sort of crew management, and it usually blends in naturally (Age of Pirates, Silent Hunter, World of Tanks, etc.).


Depends on your deffinition of fun...

Exactly, especially considering that this level of complexity is already in the game... in lore/theory, at least.

And rigs are just more specialized, passive modules...

Biggest addition gameplay wise? A slight factor of randomness/uncertainty without breaking game balance.... and, of course, a greater sense of a living, breathing universe and a stronger feel of immersion.

Probability is not randomness... and, right now, (almost) everything in EVE is based around hard, calculable certainties... like chess. I'm not saying it should become poker, but it could use a little more "thrill of chance". Sure, it would require a "leap of faith" for some players, that have gotten used to this, very convenient and cozy certainties, but I still think it would benefit the game.

Also: It's a visceral and harsh universe, that's what we are beeing told, yet, we never see anything of that harshness... not in the presentation, atleast.

I like the idea of having a crew. It's also mentioned in ship stats that our ships actually do have crew. Something like 3-5 for a frigate, 20-30 for a destroyer, a few hundred for a battleship.

I think the training, the penalties, the categories, and the bonuses for the crew make it unnecessarily complicated. There's already a lot of stuff to micro-manage in combat, training, etc. Why would it be more 'fun' to add more?

A ship's crew should be more of a cosmetic addition than one with any game function. A drop down menu which shows how many crew your ship has for example. Kind of like a little doll house for your crew. Maybe make an entirely new kind of 'rig' fitting called a crew's quarters? Rigs are optional, but quite popular and varied. Crew slots might be the same.

Having a crew might give you a slight advantage in combat, such as one crew member = one additional ship's hit point, capacitor point, etc. The small number of crew listed for each ship would hardly unbalance the game against 'non-crew' users if this feature were included. Of course, the crew could be killed just as modules are damaged. This would mean buying (hiring) new crew.

I like to think that when I am training skills such as Engineering, gunnery, etc. I am actually training the skills of the crew as well. I think of my character as the pilot with the leadership and ship flying skills, and the rest of my imaginary crew as the ones who actually know the Engineering, gunnery, science, etc. If I get podded, my crew is right there in new cloned bodies as well. Either that, or new crew with identical skills are there at the station waiting to be hired.

This might give players a reason to haul around and buy and sell passenger/ commodities such as slaves, freed slaves, marines, etc. in their cargo holds and hangars. The crew (or station) might also require such commodity goods such as frozen foods, alcohol, vitoc, etc. which are consumable. The penalty for not providing these is that your crew 'rigs' stop working (mutiny). You might even use these trade commodities to 'build' a crew member from a blueprint.

I can see androids working as crew on Gallente ships, slaves on Amarrian ships, and so on.