Endovior
Osmosis Inc Li3 Federation
175
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Posted - 2014.02.06 21:08:00 -
[1] - Quote
The idea as a whole is cool... but I wouldn't want to see entirely cosmetic and non-functional crew, which spawn only in destroyed ships, in the same way that salvage is, and which only function as tokens exchangeable for ISK/LP. At the very least, I'd want crew to actually be a required input sometime prior to undocking, since that'd excuse their presence in ships thereafter.
Keeping with the idea of minimum complexity, the easiest way to implement this would probably be as an ingredient in the production process; you need a certain number of guys to crew a ship... so if you don't already have them on-hand, you can pay some small (but non-zero) fee at any station to hire some. You could also use the same system (call it the 'passenger exchange' or some such) to free slaves, turn criminals in for bounties, and repatriate civilians... while at the same time having the option to enlist any random guys you have floating around to serve aboard ship, a process involving different training/hiring fees depending on the suitability of the people in question for shipboard life (but generally being a bargain in comparison to hiring new crew). Rescued 'veteran' crew would obviously be the most desirable for this purpose (though there's no doubt people out there who will insist on crewing their shiny faction ships with exotic dancers, regardless of the premium involved).
As a sidenote, certain ships should probably have extra cargobays for holding crew. SoE ships are the obvious choice for the serious S&R player... but as an interesting alternative, why not equip ordinary shuttles with a small crew bay, and let them offload passengers directly to other ships with shuttle bays (including SoE ships, of course). That would make search-and-rescue a thing that the very newest of players could reasonably cooperate with experienced veterans on, touring the aftermaths of large fights in unarmed ships for purely humanitarian purposes. |
Endovior
Osmosis Inc Li3 Federation
175
|
Posted - 2014.02.06 21:24:00 -
[2] - Quote
Rees Noturana wrote:It'd be interesting to require them for unpackaging but so many people dislike change. The people that live in POS would probably rage.
I thought about this... but concluded much the same thing. Either you should go all the way and make crew work like modules that you can slot in and out without much trouble... or make the system quiet and unobtrusive, more noticeable to manufacturers than to the end user. Do not force your average players to mess around with having and managing crew if they aren't actually getting a bonus out of it.
Also, and in particular, do not needlessly complicate the logistics of wormhole players. Those guys have it hard enough already. |