Ships Crew suggestion

[mropso]

The ships crew system is currently quite stand alone, you gain crew points to train your crew and to buy things from the Terran Crew Store. As things stand at the moment some items in the TCS require 10+ successful missions for a single item. They are not having an effect on the game and don't add to your capabilities as one might expect a trained ships crew to do.

I would like to see your ships crew effect the rest of the game so for instance:
Combat crew add 5% per level to the damage you cause during combat
Salvage crew reduce the total needed for each salvage level by 1% per level
Asteroid mining crew add 2% to your mining laser output per level
Nebula mining crew reduce the amount of dz fuel by 1 per hour per level
General crew could add crew points to the pool to be used to train others

You get the idea, a better trained crew results in better performance of the ship they are in.

What do you think?

MrOpsO

[pikolinianita]

Nice idea. Crew could be more useful But:

- My crew is lvl 11 now, and it is not best crew in the game, I suppose. I think it is possible to get crew level to 20. So Nebula and Combat are, in my opinion, overpowered.
- What if someone have few crew of same kind - Are 6 Combat crew (levele 10) give 6 times more bonus?

[mropso]

The levels of improvement were just a started for 10 and on reflection probably are to high.

There could be a system where the benefits for each level taper off so for instance if the max level was 20 and the max total benefit was 15% on combat then the maybe level 3 would give you a big boost - At last you have a trained person on the weapon systems. After that the benefit decreases per level so from 19 - 20 maybe only 0.1% - you are squeezing the last ounce of ability out of the poor sap.

If you have more than 1 then the effect could be cumulative - or have no benefit, they can still be used as now nothing is lost. That is game balance thing.

After the max is reached you still gather crew points to be sold as now.

[pikolinianita]

Thought a little about that. What about:

PM ship would be equipped with one "Crew Console". (You could add more with upgrades, from CE store or Festive store). Player could send crew on mission (like now) or could order him/her/them to "Crew Console". Only crew ordered to "Console" would give player benefits. Each crew would get one "Perk Point" per level. And player could choose "Perks" for his crew. For example:
Combat Perks:
+% to Shield output
+% to Damage (to enemy)
-% to damage (to me)
+% to Aurora pod
+% to VP Overcharge
+1 to Ships visible in Scanners

Each perk could have (or not) more than level achievable, and possibly different value in "perk points". If more than one crew have same skill only highest would be comsidered.
Option: Perk Points Reset in CE store
Option: Change Crew Specialisatoin in CE store

General Crew
+1 to Mech Capacity
+% to Energy Output
+% to Cargo Capacity
+% to Hull
+% to Armour
+% to some tickers (NEI)
+1 GBM contract

Mining
+% to Scan Rating
+1 to amount of ore found
+% to Fom Mission
+% to chance for rare loot (crystals, etc)

Exploration
+1 to available exploration/Survey
+% to Max_Stamina / Max_Health
+% to tool chances
+1 to number of rolls (tools/hacking, GeoSurvey)

Salvage
+1 to actual_location_level - better loot - like you are one level higher
+1 to amount of loot you found
+% to Location Exp you get (you found 20 units of something, and gets 25 points towards next level in your location)
+1 to time frame
+1 to Ships visible in Scanners

Manufacturing
-% in crafting skill requirements in Production/manuf
-% in resources required (like reduction matrix)
+% in Factory output
+% in Extractor output

And so on, and so on
Pros: a lot of choice, balancing (powerful perk require a lot of perk points, some could be level locked), some ideas for income
Cons: a lot of coding and testing, balancing.

[mropso]

I was trying to keep the idea simple - reduce the coding element and increase the likelihood.

[Rexx Shredd]

I yearn to have more crew members that look like Rexx

<Thumbs Up>

[Coops]

Some interesting ideas here folks. Crew were always meant to do more eventually, but its the issue of time. But keep the ideas flowing as we have a lot of players with Crew now.

Coops

[Darakhoranon]

How about tying piko's idea with the perks to the different crewmembers? E.g. Shredd Rexx has Asteroid Mining and +% energy if posted at the console. Do you keep him or do you replace him with C.Oops who has Asteroid Mining and a random perk (which is only revealed AFTER you hire him)? In other words, do you keep a crewmember with a perk you might not need at all or do you spend money to "gamble", hoping to get the "ideal" perk(s)?

[pikolinianita]

How about tying piko's idea with the perks to the different crewmembers? E.g. Shredd Rexx has Asteroid Mining and +% energy if posted at the console. Do you keep him or do you replace him with C.Oops who has Asteroid Mining and a random perk (which is only revealed AFTER you hire him)? In other words, do you keep a crewmember with a perk you might not need at all or do you spend money to "gamble", hoping to get the "ideal" perk(s)?

I hate this Idea a little I have crew, training it to level 12, just to learn that she has +1 to Gun damage? No way!
On the other hand, that would make some movement in crew offices, lol.
would be this Permanent Perk visible just after hiring, or when crew gets certain level? first would give advantage to rich players...
Anyway, I have mixed feeling, because "good" skills would be scooped by players, and (relatively) new players would have less choice. unless, crew would retire if unemployed for too long, or something like that (if she/he cannot get or keep job, in other words).

[Darakhoranon]

True, piko, that would be a drawback. But as it is now, you hire your crew ONCE and then basically forget about it (not counting sending them on missions and/or training them occasionally). But on the other hand, it would also force you to CHOOSE whether to keep your crewmember with the (nearly) useless skill or try for a "better" one. And Coops could always add some kind of "perk re-reroll" to the CE/festive store - let's be honest, those of us who have spent so much time on the game that we have really high-level crew are also the ones most likely to spend a little money on the game now and then (with the festive store making most things also available for free).

Besides, we probably all agree on the point that these perks should be just big enough to give a SMALL bonus to something, so even a "useless" perk isn't going to noticeably affect your game.