Uronksur Suth
Imperial Academy
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Posted - 2009.06.11 03:58:00 -
[1]
I realize that implementation would be a nightmare but I support this because it would add depth to the game.
If/when walking in stations is implemented would be a good time I think. Next would be walking in ships, and that would be a logical point to introduce NPC crew. You would have a standard crew, maybe with the option to hire specialists to serve as a gunner (improved accuracy), a navigation officer (improved ship velocity, faster autopilot, an autopilot which warps to within 0 meters of gate instead of 10km out) an engineering chief (cheaper repairs, less chance of heat damage from overloading racks) and so on. You could pay to send them to school to upgrade abilities.
It would be interesting for pirates, they could train crews in combat, and maybe if CCP implemented modules for it, instead of just blowing your ship up, they could attempt to board the ship and simply loot your cargo and enslave your crew. Makes a lot more sense.
When docked in a station, when Walking in Stations is implemented, you could choose to grant the crew shore leave, which could improve morale or maybe you don't have to pay them, or have it happen automatically when docked for more then 12 hours or so. When you want to launch, you have to call the crew back to the ship. The larger the crew, the more time it takes for everyone to get back. This would actually make smaller ships, Frigates, Cruisers, Destroyers and such, more viable as fast response craft because if your corps station in 0.0 is suddenly attacked you can actually get into the fight faster. The longer its been since you've played (or left the station) the longer it takes, since crew are likely to be drunk/asleep/scattered everywhere on the huge station/whatever. This creates an incentive for people to actually play, rather then simply setting a skill to train and logging out for a week.
I'm not sure how this could be implemented for ships that can't dock like Titans, maybe upon logging in, when they appear in space, they are non-operational for 1-10 minutes depending on how long its been since you last played. The idea being you enter space but you sit there dead while your crew is waking up and running to their stations. It would give caps, supercaps and Titans a window of vulnerability. Their pilots would have to be intelligent about choosing a place to park and log off, and would prevent the absurdity of being able to scramble something as massive as a Titan within 30 seconds of a surprise attack.
Sorry for the length of the post, but I've thought about this a lot myself, and like games that involve micromanaging and detail, and I would rather CCP focus on stuff like this which makes the current universe more realistic then things like WH space, T3 tech and the epic arc. It would introduce a steeper learning curve, probably frustrate 90% of the player base and generally make the game more difficult, but I think it'd be really fun. I dislike how we can play a game involving enormous space ships and some people still think capsuleers are the sole operators. 
Anyways, there's at least one chronicle on capsuleer/crew interaction. While I'd be annoyed if this happened to me, It'd be great if the game was this in depth.
Its called "All These Lives are Fit to Ruin"
http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=20-04-09
/crazed fantasizing |