As far as i know pod ships are essentially one-man robotic ships.
If crew are to be implemented they would probably cause a somekind of bonus, but i dont think it would make much sense.
How exactly could a crew improve a ship that is already 100% automated?

you are wrong at that point. our capsuleer ships are indeed controlled from 1 central place, but the ship itself is sustained by the crew. When you read some of the EVE Chronicles, you notice that we indeed have crews onboard our ships, but they just do the maintenance work and keep the ship running, while we, capsuleers, issue the orders.

Ok, for one everyone is right. capsuleers are what i like to think of as the hybrids (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cylon_Basestar#The_Hybrid) in Battlestar Galactica.

As, in they are in a goo of sorts and are plugged directly into the ship and with a single thought they can turn the warp engines on or fire a volley of missiles.

they, never get to walk around their ship. i would like to do something like your idea. but, it doesn't fit into eve.

you are wrong at that point. our capsuleer ships are indeed controlled from 1 central place, but the ship itself is sustained by the crew. When you read some of the EVE Chronicles, you notice that we indeed have crews onboard our ships, but they just do the maintenance work and keep the ship running, while we, capsuleers, issue the orders.

I also notice that when I tell a 300 meter ship to turn on its axis, it does so at a speed which would squish anything organic that was not close to the exact center of rotation.

The lore and the game are inconsistent. Deal with it. From there, give me a persuasive gameplay related argument for ship crews.

Inertia Dampeners, derp. Which is a technology existing in eve as it is, additional I damps increases the rate a ship can accelerate and turn, if one should fail entirely on your boat youll have pudding. Long as its operational though everything is fine and dandy. I think the gravity pull drives eve uses possibly functions as the I dampener as well but im not certain more research must be done in order to ascertain such.

Give me a persuasive gameplay related argument for ship crews.

And despite having hybrids, Cylon baseships have crews who can also do stuff.

There is no reason why a capsuleer needs to be in place to command the ship and have a supplementary crew to maintain the ship or provide the atmosphere from a social interaction perspective.

That goes without saying, if you can get out of a pod outside of the ship, then maybe you can get out of your pod inside of your ship. This implies the ship goes offline, and allows the player to move around inside. If the ship in question isn't docked up or safe, then a gang could kill it before the capsuleer even knew he was under attack.

I never thought about it like that. You are right though. We just wouldn't be able to move your ship or repel an attack until you get back in your pod. we just really need some kind of visualization to help with this. Like how is your pod attached to the ship? is it suspended on cables? or is it just like an egg in the middle of a room? all of these things are necessary to know if your idea will work.

I hate to rehash this as i know its been decided that our ships have crew - but it seems impossible to me that they do.
At least to the extent that the canonical figures indicate.

mainly because of wh space.

If you establish a Pos in wh space and mine minerals locally to build ships there are no limits to the number of ships you can produce.

Where are the crews coming from?
The pos ? I doubt it as the space required for shipping a pos is very small.
Local planets ? Unlikely as these were uninhabited on our arrival apart from sleepers.
Immigration into Wh space ? get real!

The same goes for PI installations.

I also notice that when I tell a 300 meter ship to turn on its axis, it does so at a speed which would squish anything organic that was not close to the exact center of rotation.

The lore and the game are inconsistent. Deal with it. From there, give me a persuasive gameplay related argument for ship crews.

I never thought about it like that. You are right though. We just wouldn't be able to move your ship or repel an attack until you get back in your pod. we just really need some kind of visualization to help with this. Like how is your pod attached to the ship? is it suspended on cables? or is it just like an egg in the middle of a room? all of these things are necessary to know if your idea will work.

For example if you own a Gallente ship, but prefer Minmatar weapons, you could hire a Minmatar Weapons officer who will replace a 5% bonus to hybrid damage with a 5% bonus to projectile tracking speed. When you start thinking about it, crews could bring a whole new life to EVE.

Perhaps they're purchased with the cost of the installation? In other words: when you purchase a Command Center (or any other PI building) or a Control Tower (or other POS building), you're paying not only for the physical building, but at least a minimum amount of crew to run the thing. I see it as a package deal: the (virtual) crews automatically come with the cost of the installation, and are already there when set things up.

I see this as more akin to Rigs, an additional "module" we can add to our ships. You can control the whole ship by yourself or you could hire (I use hire deliberately) certain crewmembers that can be responsible for different departments.

Maybe on a Frigate you only have one "Crew Slot" and could pop in there a Gunnery Chief for extra DPS or to change the DPS bonus of the ship. This would go up much the same as Rigs - in that a BS might have 4 Crew Slots. Initially having vanilla crew slots and perhaps having specific crew slots for specific departments with a more effective bonus if you put the right crewmember in the right department slot.

As far as training - I agree with all the above thoughts on your crew getting more experienced the more they are in combat. However if you get blown up - your crew are done. Harsh - but then that's EVE :-)

Also I have been thinking that you would pay your crew on a weekly/monthly basis and this would scale up as the skill of the crewmember increases (either from the "Crew Recruitment" section of the Market or as they increase in skill through experience).

Gameplay wise this would add the following:

- A new section of the market to recruit your crewmembers, also a place to put your unwanted crew
- Crew XP would be lost if your ship is exploded. Much the same as Rigs - this would create demand for crew on the market
- PI on terran worlds could have a new item for "Academy" or "Flight School" that would create new green crew
- Surprise factor in PVP - you are flying a Drake but have +% to EM because you have a specific Gunnery Chief that can change the flavor of your DPS
- No-one must have Crew - but if you do it can adjust your ships potential bonuses or add a bonus to one aspect while reducing another (as per Rigs)
- Pilots must balance having an experienced crewmember in a Crew Slot vs the cost of paying the guy. If you cannot pay then he/she leaves the crew and your bonus is lost

I see the development of this being not unsimilar to when Rigs were introduced. A new section on the market - change to the fitting UI - updates to the back end ship data - new PI Nodes for academies/schools - a way to charge the pilot for crewmembers on a cyclical basis.

Anyway that's my 2c