A manifesto on crewability

[Snk]

I've noticed that there have been some threads on this recently, and I have spent most of my Star Made career working on providing some sort of crewable system on my ship. I have decided to write up a thread on the subject.

Crewability is important for several reasons. One, it allows several different players to collaborate on a ship, creating a sense of teamwork and comradery. Second, it allows for a player's skill to be more prevalent in a fire fight, as there would be more systems that he and his team can edit in order to gain the upper hand. Third, it gives a point to having interiors and better looking ships.Fourth, when Star Made's population booms (Hopefully, it will) you can't have 200 people all in ships. And lastly, there is a feeling of satisfaction from walking around a ship, managing the systems, working in a team and enjoying the view of space that I think is currently absent from Star Made.

This is what I suggest: Allowing people to directly interface with a ship's systems so they can effectively improve its efficiency in combat by a certain margin. It needs to be enjoyable at any time - whether on a long voyage, sitting in space dock, in combat, or going down a wormhole. I am not going to place down specifics of how this system should work, because honestly its up to Schema and dreaming up specifics creates more argument than productive discussion. So no statistics here. All I want is: A way for a few bridge player crew members to improve the ship, large amounts of AI crew that could contribute/replace bridge crews in an enjoyable and fun way. AI crew are important because you can't always find players, they could give life to anything (Space station, ship, factory, etc) and they give a point to an interior. Essentially, if you only hire AI crew, they give you a set bonus at the expense of building an interior.

But honestly, you don't have to take whatever I said above into stock. Any sort of being able to contribute to a ship would be great. If you think sitting on someone else's ship is boring, that's fine, but there would be many other people who would enjoy it. Please don't argue specifics/statics, as I find that always torpedoes a thread.

 

[Megacrafter127]

And what?

 

[Mariux]

I like the idea of having NPC/PC crew, but I don't think it should be forced and only provide certain buffs (like you said). And I'm not talking power, shield capacity, DPS increse, because that would make very little sense (imagine what would happen if the more crew a tank has the thicker the armor gets). I suggest adding things like improved turret accuracy, etc.. Just having crew members onboard should add a layer of protection against boarding (assuming they're equiped for the job)

 

[Snk]

Sorry guys, I accidentally posted the thread. I've edited and updated it. I'm not really sure how it happened. My apologies, but it is up now.

I like the idea of having NPC/PC crew, but I don't think it should be forced and only provide certain buffs (like you said). And I'm not talking power, shield capacity, DPS increse, because that would make very little sense (imagine what would happen if the more crew a tank has the thicker the armor gets). I suggest adding things like improved turret accuracy, etc.. Just having crew members onboard should add a layer of protection against boarding (assuming they're equiped for the job)

I disagree, I think that if the crew is smart and skilled enough it should increase things like shield capacity and DPS. Armor makes no sense, but if you could improve reactor efficiency and increase the shields recharge rate by like 10%, that would be a good mechanic. But like I said, it doesn't really matter WHAT you do, as long as people can contribute effectively.

 

[AtraUnam]

I've seen a lot of posts suggesting things like manually modulating shields to withstand certain damage types while being weak to others. Sounds like something a player crew-member could do. change damage type to frequency and do the same for weapons and it might be interesting.

 

[starhaiden]

what about you can change the amount of power to shields, weapons etc and you have to get in a 'control computer' to be able to change the amount of power that goes to systems.

 

[Snk]

Doesn't really matter what they do. I suggest you guys start your own threads about it if you have specific suggestions.

 

[KiloZulu]

This is something I've given thought to, as well. A friend of mine has often said it is the one thing that would pull him into the game. Here are my thoughts for crew, and how to do it.

Helm: This is basically a player in the ship core, but limited to only controlling the direction and speed of the ship.
Navigation: Sets waypoints, uses scanners, might have a larger, more robust mini-map to better provide information.
Engineering: Has direct control over the directional power of the the thrusters, so that it can be changed on the fly. Might also have some form of control regarding shield recharge.
Weapons: Has control over all ship-mounted weapons.
Targeting: Has control over all turret-mounted weapons. If Bobby AI is set to Player's Target, it is controlled by this position.
Captain: An optional position that doesn't have direct control over any system, but rather coordinates the actions of the crew.
Damage Control: Basically a build block for a ship, the player using this can be actively replacing/repairing blocks during a fight.

Each of these positions would have its own block which can be added to a ship. They might take the form of a chair (preferred) or block that players enter like the ship core. If one of the blocks isn't placed on the ship, the function either falls back to the ship core operator or doesn't exist (like the navigator's mini-map.)

To be truly worthwhile, the players need to have places to go and things to do. Inhabited planets to explore, missions to undertake, and enemy ships that can be boarded. These would provide the players with a reason to work and stay together on a single ship rather than going off to do their own thing. As an alternative, an invitation/recruiting system could be added that allows one player to invite others to a group, at which point they teleport to his location. This means that the players can all be working on their individual projects until someone comes across something interesting that he feels others might want to participate in. This would also be a great mechanic for a carrier ship. A crew of pilots isn't going to want to hang around the flight deck twiddling their thumbs until pirates show up. Send them an invite when trouble is brewing so they can teleport aboard and hop into the ship's fighters.

 

[Snk]

This is something I've given thought to, as well. A friend of mine has often said it is the one thing that would pull him into the game. Here are my thoughts for crew, and how to do it.

Tell your friend there are several ways to do it, but they are very crude. You could have them activate externally docked power tanks to supply the ship with logic, have him use the weapon computers, etc. If he goes on the Ragnorak Galaxy server, I could show him how to do it.

 

[Mr.Steam]

I love building ships with complete interiors, medical labs, science labs, hangers, galley, rec center, etc. But they don't really serve any purpose right now. If you have ever played the Silent Hunter submarine series you know that you can assign crew to different areas. Repair crews increase repair rates, torpedo men load torpedoes quicker. I would love to see something like this implemented (or at least have that option). As Captain you assign crew to different stations and crew quarters and watch them go back and forth. It would make the ship seem alive, and actually serve a purpose. Good ship designs would be needed to quickly get crew from their quarters to battle stations during an emergency.

 

[KiloZulu]

Players aren't going to participate as crew if the positions they can inhabit don't offer fun, meaningful play. Any position must provide a constant benefit to the ship, and require constant attention. When my friend first brought up the crew complaint, I suggested the idea of taking over a weapon computer or one of the turrets. Such an option was much too limited and had little bearing on the ship's performance. By breaking out crew positions as I listed above, I think that we get something more meaty for individual players to chew on.

Simply having one player controlling targeting of all turrets, allowing them to be focus fired instead of choosing at random, and allowing another player to focus on piloting, would be a great boon. I'm a big user of turrets in my ship designs, but they all get set to "any" ever since I targeted a shop so I could find it and fly to it, only to have my ship start firing on the thing and set me at war with the Trade Guild.

 

[Drumboy168]

It'd be a cool feature, but it should never be mandatory, and honestly, I want fleet control first.

 

[jayman38]

It would be great to have more stuff to do around the ship. Swing a wrench. "Activate" a computer to have it run through a quick animation to simulate a diagnostic test. Maybe have a player able to bang on a computer for a while to build up a "bonus" timer that adds a buff to that system for a limited amount of time. (E.g. Bang on a thruster for 10 seconds to get 5% more thrust for a second or two, or maybe build up an afterburner counter that the pilot can use at their discretion. Bang on a weapon computer to get a 5% bonus to reload for a while. Bang on a shield system to get a slightly higher combat recharge for up to 10 seconds the next time it recharges in combat.) Needs a solid sound effect (CLANG!) to add to the fun.

Summary: I'm talking about tiny, time-limited buffs that could be constantly effected by crew as a fun constant activity for them. To avoid abuse, these constant buffing activities should not be accessible by NPCs. But it would still be fun if they (NPCs) could do things that only have a visual (and maybe audio) effect, such as running computer diagnostics, ineffectually banging away with their wrench, zapping things visually with a repair laser, running from one system to another, and similarly visually interesting activities.

 

[Snk]

It'd be a cool feature, but it should never be mandatory, and honestly, I want fleet control first.

Of course, it should never be mandatory. You should be able to design a ship that would be completely automated. I think crewability adds more to the game than fleet control, because fleet control is mainly for faction leaders while anyone can crew something. It would be appropriate for them to be released in the same update.

 

[Drumboy168]

Of course, it should never be mandatory. You should be able to design a ship that would be completely automated. I think crewability adds more to the game than fleet control, because fleet control is mainly for faction leaders while anyone can crew something. It would be appropriate for them to be released in the same update.

It all depends on how large the server you play on is, and how many members your faction has. For a 10+ member faction, crewabilty is viable, but for fewer members, or single player, I would take fleet control any day.

 

[Snk]

It's the opposite, though. A small faction wouldn't be able to afford massive fleets, while a larger one would. I think your definition of fleet control and mine is different. I mean, sending ships to different parts of the map, sort of like an RTS portion of the game. If you just mean controlling AI, than sure, that goes hand in hand with crews. It would be nice to have a few player "bridge" officers and AI deckhands. If you were a smaller faction and needed some people to manage your ship, you could use some AI instead of players, while a massive faction could have like 3 players a ship with AI crews. That limits how many ships a faction can yield, but a ship with a crew would be a little more effective than one with out, and especially be more effective with a highly skilled crew. Also, with fleet control they could have massive AI fleets.

Also, to what extent should crews/interiors be mandatory? I think they should be highly useful, and increase a ship's fighting prowess by the extend of the crews skill, however, not building an interior should also be an option. You would have to place various computers throughout the ship, which wouldn't be as effective as AI/player crew but they need no interior. So it would take a little thought to make an automated ship. Or you could have AI crew and computers work hand in hand. You could just have a regular ship without any of these and have no bonus.

 

[Ithirahad]

They should be semi-necessary for optimal performance, but AI should be able to perform player functions to a reasonable extent. Think of current turrets - The AI isn't smart enough to intelligently choose targets and where to hit them like a player would, but it can still shoot and add to omnidirectional DPS, which would be the basic reason to have a player in a turret.

 

[Snk]

Out of curiosity, to what extent do you think crews should have an effect on the ship? I feel like crewability should affect the ship in different ways, that eventually add up to make it a more effective vessel. Things like, say, connecting a scanner to a missile to decrease locking time (More AI doing the task means it goes faster) micromanaging the antimatter firing process to increase the fire rate of an AMC, decreasing the heat loss between overdrive-thruster for a small bonus, managing a warp field so you can make it an extra sector or so, decreasing the time it takes for your ship to get all blue and stuff to pass through an asteriod, or commanding your AIs to get them to make your ship for faster. There would be different tasks relating to different areas of the ship.

 

[Ciggofwar]

Played a few games where being in a crew was quite fun, player or having AI assistance managing fleet maneuvers added to the universe.

 

[Snk]

Played a few games where being in a crew was quite fun, player or having AI assistance managing fleet maneuvers added to the universe.

What games?