the lore behind this dust equipment seems poorly developed imo. Seriously, Jovian Fusion Reactor? I expected something fancy, really just to increase powergird in vehicles
But on topic, from what i know capsuleers dont care at all about crew, since they are cheap and pretty much disposable.

Do you have any links to information where it says that capsuleers don't care about crew? I would assume the respect of life would vary from capsuleer to capsuleer. And besides crew would probably be the ones closest to be able to assassinate a capsuleer so in general i would think one would want to treat them well.

Yes, it might be reasonable to assume a capsuleer who came into possession of DUST tech might fit it to his most worthwhile crew members. Keep in mind, though, that not everyone can handle the psychological implications of cloning. There's a reason capsuleers are a rarity.

Ok, there are reasons why capsuleers are a rarity. Mindlock is one of them, as is the psychological impact of cloning.

Using the DUST tech to crew your ships would be a technology with its trade-offs - much like any other technology.

Yes, you'd effectively be able to keep the same crew indefinitely (barring cloning accidents), but the process would likely be fantastically expensive compared to simply hiring another crew - not to mention, of course, the psychological implications of cloning as discussed here.

Whether a capsuleer cares enough about their crew is, of course, dependent on the capsuleer.

This. How much is one jump clone in ISK, not planet side currency, but ISK?

For one person it could be around 1 million to 100 million or more. Now multiply those prices by the amount of people in your crew.

A titan would cost all the money in Eve, ALL OF IT.

Edit: Just calculated. If a Titan crew is 20,000...and their clones were 10mil each...a titan would cost 200,000,000,000 (200 billion) just to crew it.

I'm not.talking about all of your crew I'm just talking about your 2 or 3 highly trained crew that would be.a waste to die like your main engineer that understands out to get better performance out of you engines and such.

While that's interesting, I don't know what it could really add to Eve in terms of gameplay. So what you're thinking is that you have a right click option to access certain crew members in a window kind of like...fitting or something. These crew members with clone tech give tiny boosts to your ship processes such as a little boost of armor or shields or guns etc.

But why add that new dimension? We have drugs for that, rigs and mods too. Why add yet another facet? Surely not for the sake of just...adding it right?

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, my being critical isn't to be offensive. I like the idea, but it needs a true purpose.

This is a little off topic but would the Dust technology work for a capsuleer? I've always wanted to imagine my pilot as walking around his ship or standing on the bridge giving orders to his elite crew and only assuming direct control when absolutely needed. Before Dust I know this was, strictly speaking, not feasible. However, with the addition of the Dust technology to the lore could my pilot not opt to exist outside his pod when he wanted to without risking his immortal existence?

This is a little off topic but would the Dust technology work for a capsuleer? I've always wanted to imagine my pilot as walking around his ship or standing on the bridge giving orders to his elite crew and only assuming direct control when absolutely needed. Before Dust I know this was, strictly speaking, not feasible. However, with the addition of the Dust technology to the lore could my pilot not opt to exist outside his pod when he wanted to without risking his immortal existence?

It would probably require a second clone that was missing the interface hardware for the pod. It seems to occupy much of the same region in the head. Or as Nation seems to be attempting to perfect, a hybrid system that allows both, in which case it would effectively illiminate the pod. True Slave hardware without the inhibitive systems.

If I remember correctly the book that talks about and deals with the DUST states that for the dust tech to work there has to be a cloning facility very close by. Like a mobile cloning vehicle or something.
Therefore the tech would not be a good fit for capsuleer crews because you typically get blown up far away from anything.
However I could be wrong. I haven't delved too deeply into the DUST tech. I read the book but that was about it.