Brainstorm This Crew: Stations, bonuses, specialties, experience & expense.

[kiraen]

Alright, here's what's been rattling around in my head.
Some of these labels require some mental gymnastics to make sense, but this is more about the idea and the system then the words. I tried to limit myself to 8 Attributes and 8 skills. I could easily expand this so I felt some limit was needed, even if it is artificial.

Attribute (personality)

These are set at crew spawn. If they change at all it will be a rare and special occasion.
For these examples I'm using a range of 1-100. This can easily be converted to whatever scale is wanted.​

• Greed
• Stamina
• Vitality
• Loyalty
• Empathy
• Organization
• Chaos
• Logic

Stats (Needs)

These decay and/or regenerate over time. They need to be constantly maintained. The rate of decay/regen is dependent on Attributes.​

• Hunger - Pretty basic, slowly decays with spikes based on activity, eat stuff to regenerate. Different quality foods give different gains/losses. [Attribute: Stamina]
  
• Energy - Again, basic, slowly decays with spikes based on activity, sleep to regenerate. Not really any need for multiple types of beds, but maybe a C/V can improve quality. [Attribute: Vitality]
  
• Income - Slowly decays. Needs to periodicly be replenished with credits. [Attribute: Greed]
  
• Health - Another basic. See a doctor for a quick heal, but should regen if hunger and energy are dealt with properly. [Attribute: function(Stamina, Vitality)]
  
• Moral - This one is a bit more complicated. While regeneration of this stat is based on the Loyalty Attribute, it's decay rate is based on outside factors. function(food available, pay available, sleep available, current health). Note, these are not the stats/needs. It doesn't matter if Dave has a full belly, he's not gonna be happy if the galley only has a slice of bread and the player is completely broke. If moral drops to low, Dave may leave.

Skills

This is what Dave knows. These should not be confused with Jobs and tasks. These are what determines how well Dave does a job or task. Skills increase with use and a percentage chance based on an average of the linked attributes.
Skill levels are 1-100, providing a percentage bonus to re related Job.​

• Kinesthesis - [Empathy, Organization]
  
• Spacial - [Empathy, Logic]
  
• Gathering - [Greed, Organization]
• Production - [Logic, Greed]
• Biology - [Empathy, Organization]
• Mechanical - [Loyalty, Logic]
• Combat - [Logic, Chaos]
• Repair - [Organization, Chaos]

Here is where is starts coming together and making sense.

Jobs / Tasks

This is when Dave actually does something. I like the idea of assigning them a duty station, but whatever works, that's not in the scope of this post. Each job requires two skills.​

• Piloting - Spacial, Mechanical
• Ship Combat - Spacial, Combat
• Turret Combat - Mechanical, Combat
  
• Infantry Combat - Kinesthesis, Combat
• Mining - Mechanical, Gathering
• Manufacturing - Mechanical, Production
• Engineering - Mechanical, Repair
• Farming/Ranching - Biology, Gathering
• Medical - Biology, Repair
• Cooking - Biology, Production
• Trading - Gathering, Production

Explanation

Simply by changing the the 8 basic attributes we can change how each Dave acts and grows, but these basic attributes do not limit what Dave is capable of. These percentages actually seem a bit high to me, but it's about the system not the actual numbers. Adjustment and fine tuning will be needed, of course.

Our example Dave has the following attributes:

Gre-10,Sta-42,Vit-27,Loy-68,Emp-45,Org-33,Cha-79,Log-64

Logic, Loyalty and Chaos are his highest attributes.
His best skills would be:

Combat(73.5% chance of increase per use)
Mechanical(66% chance of increase per use)​

His best job would then be as a Turret Gunner, giving him a 69.75% chance to increase his skills.
His Vitality is pretty low, tho. He's not going to heal very fast and he'll sleep a lot. Lazy bastard.
Then again, with a high Loyalty and a low Greed, he is less likely to defect if his morale drops to low.
And he'll be cheap to pay and won't eat more then average.
Seems like a good deal, I'd hire him for my turrets. But not as a Doctor (only a 47.5%, I want my doctor better then that)

​

I hope all that makes sense. Now that I got it out of my head I can stop thinking about it. It may be to complicated or memory/cpu intensive. Hopefully it at least sparks some ideas.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

OK... guys, I think we kinda need to hold our horses here.

Morals? Needs? Food, drink, empathy, cooking?

Let's not turn Starmade into The Sims: Space, OK? I see here more complicated systems invented for NPCs than the rest of the game combined.

Keep it simple. It should be one feature of the game, among the many, not the center of it. Seriously, between mining runs, construction sprees, battles and forum flaming (Like I said, let's keep it real, folks) how much time do you think y'all will realistically spend on catering to the needs of your Tamagochi-like NPC crew? Besides, they are supposed to help you, not the other way around.
NPCs are supposed to be assets. Useful assets, as now they are nothing but paper weights.


On another note: I'd like to add the option to my suggestion that players could also man the Crew Interface. You know, for Roleplay. They would always gain the bonus stats of a lvl 5 crew of the skill, with the following additions:
- Tactical: enters pilot mode upon activating Tactical Crew interface, just like he'd enter a weapon computer, except this way he'd access all weapons connected to the block.
- Navigation: enters pilot mode upon activating Navigation Interface, gains access to thrusters and jump drives but no guns or onboard logic
- Engineering: enters build mode upon activating Engineering Interface. Cannot switch to pilot mode.
- Medical: gains the level 5 speed bonus, can roam the ship freely until activating Medical Interface again.

 

[kiraen]

Basic food, basic bed, and regular pay wouldn't be that hard to plan for. Crew are an investment. Besides, I would expect most of the need values would be configurable by the server admins. Higher values for rp servers, lower for pvp. Any way, I like to think it would work something like this, but I'm not holding my breath. It is fairly complicated.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

Basic food, basic bed, and regular pay wouldn't be that hard to plan for. Crew are an investment. Besides, I would expect most of the need values would be configurable by the server admins. Higher values for rp servers, lower for pvp. Any way, I like to think it would work something like this, but I'm not holding my breath. It is fairly complicated.

I just don't want my chief gunner desert ship or mutiny in the middle of a large PvP fleet battle because I forgot to feed him.

 

[Goblin]

Ok, lets put in my 5 cents:

From GaeasSon 's idea to kiraen 's idea the complexity went to the roof.

I like the ideas and the deepness but also i don't want it to be overly complex, KIS is a pretty need theme.

The basic idea of GaeasSon just to add a percentage to certain systems is for me the best way to deal with the npc bonus:
Easy to understand, easy to maintain (programatically/useability - i would prefer this via the other systems).
Additionally as a personal prefernce i wouldn't use levels with fixed values but simple raising boni.
No chance to get Experience, just a fixed value over time, or bound to an action.
-> Simpler to maintain/ simpler to balance

Basic needs are also a good idea (like sleeping, getting money or let it be food - even if i personally wouldn't like food as a base requirement)
But if there are basic needs ,there must be an ingame way to "deaktivate" the needs for "standby-mode im off for today" or at least when you have to build something (which can take LONG times - as much as i love them i wouldn't use the daves if this would mean they are gone after i finished my new prototype). Let it be cryochambers - beds, a go to the bar option ......

Everything above this level would be fine but shouldn't bother the basic user. Maybe give them a temporary buff if they are "happy" because the got booty and boozy otherwise you need a guide for beginners only to lern the mechanics of the daves.

The idea of having some base attributes which make difference in the outcomming stats (in form of more percentage to the system) would also be nice, this would spice up the crew building. The base problem: It needs luck to get a good crewman and i know a lots of people with counter-luck. If you don't care about that, implement it. BUT keep it two steps, as near to simple as it gets without loosing the spicy part.

AND keep the job list small. The bigger the list, the bigger a "Base" crew. I don't want to have a mega-titan just to fit all the crew in. As someone said: This should be an addition not a whole new game.

Additional we need some basic commands we can use to controle them:

I nighter want my bro-dave to demolish my ship from the inside because he didn't find his way back from the bar, while i need him to heal my crew, nor beeing mid combat with co-bro-dave snoozing in his bed while the bad guy demolishes my shields.
So there need at least be a command like: Red alert / All to stations
Additionally you could think of:
- go to defined spot
- have fun
- of the ship you go (beeing at your local booze dealer)


I WANT to see the daves walking but as mentioned befor: Second edition.

I really like the Idea given by Matt_Bradock with the player standing at the NPC-stations and getting partly controle over some systems.
This would group the access and give a better solution as currently to step in the on board weapon only able to fire, let away the RP factor.

 

[Panpiper]

No chance to get Experience, just a fixed value over time, or bound to an action.

I could not possibly disagree more. Experience is half the raison d'etre of the idea. Without experience, this is yet another exercise in ship building except for adding an additional component, crew. Configure the ship for optimum performance, then dock it somewhere while you build another ship.

I want a motivation for actually flying our ships. I want a reason to go out there and explore. Such reasons are extremely sparse right now. Flying your slugboat battleminer through molasses to mine asteroids is about all we are likely to ever do given the current game. Pirates and pirate stations are a complete joke, no challenge whatsoever. By having crew experience we have a reason to go out there and actually use our ships. We might see factions start a 'friendly' war with each other just so they can 'blood' their crews. Right now there is everything to lose and nothing to gain for doing so.

Experience changes everything.

 

[Matt_Bradock]

I could not possibly disagree more. Experience is half the raison d'etre of the idea. Without experience, this is yet another exercise in ship building except for adding an additional component, crew. Configure the ship for optimum performance, then dock it somewhere while you build another ship.

I want a motivation for actually flying our ships. I want a reason to go out there and explore. Such reasons are extremely sparse right now. Flying your slugboat battleminer through molasses to mine asteroids is about all we are likely to ever do given the current game. Pirates and pirate stations are a complete joke, no challenge whatsoever. By having crew experience we have a reason to go out there and actually use our ships. We might see factions start a 'friendly' war with each other just so they can 'blood' their crews. Right now there is everything to lose and nothing to gain for doing so.

Experience changes everything.

Exactly. In every concept with crew experience so far, ship without crew < crewed ship, and ship with rookie crew < ship with experienced crew.
And combat time really counts when getting those bonuses.

My concept was about getting considerable utility and bonuses from (especially experienced) crew, without breaking them. The bonuses, especially when all stations are manned and the crew is highly experienced, are considerable, but it would take a lot of time to train your crew to such a high level (or alternatively, you could use your faction mates to man the stations, but looking at the average number of active members in a faction, it is unlikely to meet a faction that would rather have 5 people on 1 ship than 1 people on each of 5 ships)
And even though my idea involved certain stations granting XP over time out of combat (Navigation and Engineering, since those 2 guys would have work even if none of the guns are fired for weeks - someone has to keep it flying and working even during peacetime) that's a lot less XP than in the heat of battle, when Engineering doesn't only have to worry about the power grid but also structural and shield integrity, and Navigation would have to learn how to fly in combat (interception or evasive maneuvers etc.).

Experience would be the strongest motive to put time into flying around with your crew, and a highly trained crewmember would be a very vaulable asset thanks to the bonuses he/she provides. But cultivating that asset would take valuable time. And as Panpiper said, military exercises and mock battles could actually be a thing to train crew, even between allies.

 

[Parameter]

I agree that the behavior system for crew NPCs should probably be pretty simple. There's a game called Dwarf Fortress which is essentially a dwarven kingdom/calamity simulator. You can't directly control the dwarves, but you can outline tasks that need to be done. The dwarves live their lives based on a very complex needs/personality system, and their needs and desires don't always line up with yours. This leads to hilarity and often frustration as your dwarves do things like going to collect socks in the midst of battle.

A Starmade ship's crew's first duty is to provide an enjoyable system for managing the complexity of running a large spaceship.

NPC behaviors or personality can add to the fun of the crew system by adding variety and uncertainty to managing crew. Too much, however, and crew becomes too time consuming or chaotic and either becomes less fun, or fails to reduce ship management complexity.

An example of what I would consider a fun crew system:

Basics

1. A setup like previous posters where crew can be assigned to man stations and gain experience performing at those stations. More experience means better performance at that duty station. This is similar to how FTL handles crew.
2. Crew members have a soft cap on experience gain. This means you have to specialize or generalize your crew. You can't have an uber crew with max skill at all duty stations.
3. Crew have ship pathfinding between a mesh of player-defined spaces and waypoints.
4. Crew members don't have very large stat systems. They have attributes similar to the following:
   • Health (normally astronaut default)
   • Armor (normally zero)
     
   • Shields (normally zero)
   • Movement speed (normally astronaut default)
   • Recruitment cost or upkeep
     
   • Stamina (0-100%)
     
   • Morale (0-100%)
     
   • A skill for each duty station (0-100%)
   • Job Effectiveness (0-100%)
5. An NPCs effectiveness at a duty station = (DutySkill)*(JobEffectiveness)
6. By default, Stamina would slowly degrade over time.
7. By default, Stamina could be regained by sleeping at a bed.
   
8. By default, Morale would slowly degrade as an NPC is at a duty station.
9. By default, Morale could be regained by spending time in a R&R zone.
10. Total loss of HP would kill the NPC
11. Job Effectiveness is a catch-all for how well an NPC functions at using its experience to manage systems. It could be modified by Stamina/Morale/HP levels, perks, etc.
    
12. Other impacts from stat loss would be covered by perks.

Perks

1. Crew have a personality defined by perks. Perks positively or negatively affect the above attributes. One or more perks are assigned to a crew NPC on creation. NPCs could possibly gain perks as the gain experience or various things happen. An example of a system like this would be generals in the older Total War games.
2. Buffs, debuffs, or status effects could be applied to NPCs as additional perks. Morale loss, health loss, tiredness, being well-rested, anything that affects crew performance could be boiled down to a perk that is situationally applied to an NPC.
   
3. Examples of perks:
   • Tech Whiz: +10% Engineering Skill
   • Lazy: -10% Job Effectiveness
   • High Performer: +30% Recruitment cost, +15% Job Effectiveness
     
   • Sprinter: +5% Job Effectiveness, +10% Speed, -10% Stamina
     
   • Wounded (50%<Health<75%): -5% Job Effectiveness, -5% Morale
   • Seriously Wounded (Health<50%): -15% Job Effectiveness, -15% Morale, -15% Stamina
   • Shaken (25%<Morale<50%): -25% Job Effectiveness
   • Broken (Morale<25%): -100% Job Effectiveness
   • Adrenaline (Sometimes when under fire): +20% Job Effectiveness, +10%Movement, +10% Stamina
   • etc...

NPC Management

1. Players can group crew members into Shifts. (useful for handling large crews)
   
2. Players can specify standing "ship orders" that apply to all crew or specified shifts automatically. Examples:
   • All crew automatically go to sleep at X% stamina.
     
   • All crew automatically go to relax at X% morale.
   • All crew not at a duty post, sleeping, or relaxing are "Idle"
     
   • If a duty post is left empty, the Idle crew member with the highest related duty skill mans the post.
   • Shifts cycle between On-Duty and Off-Duty in numeric order. End Shift duty when average stamina is X/morale is Y.
     
   • By default, crew do not go sleep or relax while the ship is under an alert.
3. Players can specify "Alerts," Sets of orders that override standing orders. Examples:
   • Battle Stations!
     1. Shift 1 is On-Duty
        
     2. Shift 2 is at Waypoint 1 (Backup bridge)
     3. Shift 3 is at Waypoint 2 (Armory)
   • Abandon Ship!
     1. Shift 1 is at Waypoint 4 (Escape Pod 1)
        
     2. Shift 2 is at Waypoint 5 (Escape Pod 2)
     3. Shift 3 is at Waypoint 6 (Escape Pod 3)
   • Shore Leave!
     1. All Shifts exit ship through Hatch A
4. Players can also issue direct orders to crew or shifts. Examples:
   1. Shift 1 go Off-duty.
   2. Scotty, man engineering duty post
   3. Redshirt #22343 go open that airlock
   4. Redshirt #22349 go fight that space alien
   5. Spock, go off-duty and relax
   6. Kirk, go negotiate with that voluptuous alien delegate
5. Players can specify a uniform/skin to be worn by Shifts, by a specific crew member, or by crew whose highest Skill is X.
6. Players can specify equipment (weapons, heal-beams, stimpacks, personal teleporters, etc.) like #5

It's a little rough, but you get the idea.

In general, give NPCs a simple base mechanic and a flexible system like perks that devs can use to add variety and depth to the base mechanic. Automate the boring parts of managing crew, but give players the flexibility to command the crew to do what they need the crew to do.

 

[Goblin]

Ok, even if i have to edit it:

Quik response to Panpiper and Matt_Bradock:
There was an idea of having a chance via RNG to get or not get experience.
I vote for getting XP over Time (Or siutation or action based) not based on a chance you MIGHT get XP.

As you interpreted my scentence i had to disagree to my self.

Sorry for the confusion.

Edit:

Don't get me wrong i also want to have the highly trained combat-dave which gives me an awesome... lets say... 10% bonus to my what so ever.
And i would also appreciate it if my combat-dave gives me this bonus because he was a long time with me. And it is good to have actuall training scenarios for certain skills/jobs (what ever you want to name it) like combat or aktual mining or....

Thats where i am with you and as long as its a simple idea, i'm a fan of it.
BUT i am against RNGs which have the capability to kill the fun like getting a super bad crewman or a super good. If random base skills/attributes exist the should alsways be a certain value if added up (a pro for a con)

Edit2:

Maybe another point to levels:

I like XP as a Abstract Base to "cap" levels and to define my supperdave having more XP than your only 2 XP less supirior dave. But i want the xp on certain skill/jobs define the bonus not the level.
If there are levels like you used it Matt_Bradock i fell always the need to skill or set somthing and it feels always like jumping up strairs and not continues walking to the goal.

 

[SilverAgeFan]

Super busy with work these days, so no time to filter through the full discussion. But I'd like to throw in my 2 space cents to advocate for crew not just on space stations but on planetary bases and mid-sized and capital ships. If you need inspiration for how this would work and bonuses it would confer, think Faster Than Light gameplay.

In a couple weeks I'll revisit this thread thoroughly and give it a good think. But for now, wanted to get that thought in the ring.

cheers.

 

[ltmauve]

A Starmade ship's crew's first duty is to provide an enjoyable system for managing the complexity of running a large spaceship.

AS long as there's an auto setting - I wouldn't expect it to be great, but if I'm assigning 100 inexperienced crew to a ship it really doesn't matter which station they go to.

A skill for each duty station (0-100%)

Well, what are we counting as individual stations?
Each different weapon type, or just a "space weapons" skill?
Will each type of system block require a different skill?
Also should we put ship targeting and ground targeting in as skills as well?

 

[whooplaah]

Right now Starmade is only about ships. I think that adding in crews would provide a different type of play style, which would benefit the game (and expand it's fan base).

1) More Computer Modules:
An NPC needs a station to be their assignment. Therefore we need a computer for HP, Armor, Thrust, Shield, etc.

Spoiler

Any block that modifies a ship should have a Computer Module counterpart for the crew to utilize. This already exists for weapon systems and effects, but not for shields, shield regen, thrusters (and turning in general), armor, hp, rails, turrets, etc. These stations are viable postings for engineers, scientists, laborers, programmers, etc.
A ship can have a single shield cluster with a single computer and a single crew assignment slot, or several smaller systems with several computers and several crew slots.

2) Crew Facilities and Modules:
Phsycially and mentally healthy NPCs are more effective and less expensive, so we need recreation and basic living quarters. We also want to avoid putting 1,000 NPC's on a 10x10x10 ship, so these facilities need some minimum dimensions.

Spoiler

Food, dorm (bed, bathroom), entertainment/recreation/relaxation/off duty activities, med bay, library/study area, combat simulation, etc. Blocks for these facilities add bonuses to the crew, such as: higher loyalty (lower salary), better resistance to disease, faster XP gain, faster healing rates, etc. Some recreation modules act as assignment posts for NPCs (cook, shop keep, doctor, janitor, entertainer).
I think a good mechanic for construction would be to place a control point (kitchen station) which defines a cube dedicated to that facility (kitchen/cafeteria). Visually looks like the old docking system but has a smaller minimum size. This area can only contain blocks flagged as decorative. The larger the XYZ of the facility, the more crew it can sustain and the higher the bonuses it confers to each member (also consider having a minimum count of blocks in the docking area based upon total volume).
The volume requirement helps control the ship size to crew size ratio. Having 1,000 NPCs on a 10x10x10 ship is a bit overkill...

3) Crew Management:
There needs to be a GUI to quickly look at crew member's health, skill, and assignment. It should be intuitive and simple, able to be used during combat to reassign NPCs to roles where crew members have died.

Spoiler

To obtain a crew member, you need to have a dorm block. You then use the C+V to connect the dorm block to ship facilities (like entertainment, med-bay, and work station). This is similar to how weapon systems are built. Any crew assigned to that bed is then connected to said facilities, and the bed can be reassigned the same way that weapons can. Assigning a crew to a bed happens in bulk when hired from a station through GUI.

Ships will need a Crew Roster Computer if they want to have a quick way to track NPC skills, health, and assignment. This is the menu that functions like the GUI for ship weapons. This would make changing assignments during battle a bit easier (in case the weapons expert died and needs a replacement).
The Crew Roster Computer is populated according to viable assignment posts (computer modules and recreation modules) and the number of Dorm Modules constructed.

4) Crew Usefulness:
Crew members should provide a numeric bonus, not a % bonus. This is needed to maintain game balance.

Spoiler

Having crew confer a % bonus to their assigned station will only exacerbate the balance problems between small and large ships. They should confer a number calculated by their skill + health (engineers are less efficient when sick or injured) which is simply added to the module/system to which they are assigned. Pretend that a crew member is a set of modules added to the system, but without increasing ship mass or energy consumption. As their skill improves, they are 'more modules added' without having to invest more in the ship or change its size.
Crew members with low skills will not give as big a bonus to large modules - for example a Weapons Expert 1 using a 5 module cannon would be appropriately (or under) assigned, but putting a Weapons Expert 1 on a 1,000 module cannon is asking a bit much of him/her/it. A big ship with big guns has to have a well trained crew to get the same bonuses as a small ship with an untrained crew - or alternatively have many smaller systems (this helps maintain game balance).

5) Trading Crew Members:
This is something like how professional athletes are traded. They work with one team until they are really good, and then the team trades them away (either for profit or because they can't afford them). The team that buys them pays X amount, the player gets 50% and the manager of their old team gets the rest.

Spoiler

You can hire crew from NPC stations, obviously, but such are normally cadets of low level. You can also hire them from player factions, and these are veteraned NPCs. A player could make money by training crew members and then assigning them to another player's command (like how football coaches trade players). The selling player only gets a fraction of the actual cost of hiring the NPC - and the NPC 'keeps' the rest.
This might be useful as a way to make money other than mining/factory, but the main purpose is so that when one player can no longer afford to pay a highly skilled NPC they can benefit from trading it off rather than just killing it. This could also be used to ransom NPCs back to the faction from which they were captured.

6) Aliens, Robots, and Zoos:
Animals and Robots need facilities too, but not the same ones as crew members. Animals don't gain skills but don't require payment. Robots can be built, animals can be genetically engineered or bred or captured, and Aliens of different species get a bonus to some skill (or improve that skill faster).

Spoiler

Most sci-fi crews have aliens. Spock, Data, Worf, and Jar-Jar come to mind quickly enough. Different species of crew member might need different ship facilities; you don't need a dorm or med-bay for a robot, but you do need a Repair Station; Klingons need combat training modules instead of recreation; and Snovaks need a Pollenation Pod instead of a kitchen.
Catering to diverse species creates an interesting ship - or a player might specialize for a particular species. It depends upon the skill benefits of the race and the mechanics of the ship.
Animals could be tamed or genetically engineered at labs to fulfill some minor purpose. Aggressive breeds can be used as guards, pet breeds as recreation for crew, livestock as food, and other species might be utilized in other ways (Nibler from Futurama excretes starship fuel, other species might excrete ingredients for factories). Animals would still need basic facilities, such as a cage and food.

 

[Lecic]

Any block that modifies a ship should have a Computer Module counterpart for the crew to utilize. This already exists for weapon systems and effects, but not for shields, shield regen, thrusters (and turning in general), armor, hp, rails, turrets, etc. These stations are viable postings for engineers, scientists, laborers, programmers, etc.

Shield/Power Cap, Shield/Power Regen, Thrust? Sure. But losing the computers for those systems shouldn't disable them. The computers should solely be for crew to operate. I don't want to have to put a thrust and power computer on my three block zoom stick.
Armor and HP? No. These are the physical blocks that make up your ship. There's nothing for a person manning a computer to do with inert bricks of capsule and metal mesh. And HP is just a measure of the blocks making up your ship. It's not something to man. The systems that make up the HP are what get manned.
Turrets? I'd like to have remote control computer for NPCs. They could man turrets and give them increased accuracy.

 

[whooplaah]

Shield/Power Cap, Shield/Power Regen, Thrust? Sure. But losing the computers for those systems shouldn't disable them. The computers should solely be for crew to operate. I don't want to have to put a thrust and power computer on my three block zoom stick.
Armor and HP? No. These are the physical blocks that make up your ship. There's nothing for a person manning a computer to do with inert bricks of capsule and metal mesh. And HP is just a measure of the blocks making up your ship. It's not something to man. The systems that make up the HP are what get manned.
Turrets? I'd like to have remote control computer for NPCs. They could man turrets and give them increased accuracy.

Let's say we hire a crew member whose role is to 'repair and maintain the hull.' This member, by virtue of working on the ship, grants a numeric bonus to the effectiveness of these blocks. The work he does goes beyond the factory standard construction - blocks are better reinforced or lighter or tougher. The computer is just the assigned post, not how the guy does his job, the same way that the med-lab computer is where a crew member is assigned even though doctors work on people and not computers.

If it helps we could call the HP Computer a Hull Maintenance Hub or an Engineer Assignment Post.

You were spot on with the turret idea. The AI has a base speed/accuracy/damage, but an NPC can help it be more lethal. We wouldn't want to have to put the NPC in the turret, just remotely assist the Bobby.

Edit:
I think that having power/shield disabled from a single computer would encourage redundant systems. Have 4 different shield systems set up so that if one goes down you only loose 1/4th your max shields.

 

[Lecic]

Let's say we hire a crew member whose role is to 'repair and maintain the hull.' This member, by virtue of working on the ship, grants a numeric bonus to the effectiveness of these blocks. The work he does goes beyond the factory standard construction - blocks are better reinforced or lighter or tougher. The computer is just the assigned post, not how the guy does his job, the same way that the med-lab computer is where a crew member is assigned even though doctors work on people and not computers.

And how exactly is he supposed to "repair and maintain the hull?" He's at a computer in the middle of the ship, not space walking around the outside of the ship with a blowtorch and some metal plates.

 

[GaeasSon]

And how exactly is he supposed to "repair and maintain the hull?" He's at a computer in the middle of the ship, not space walking around the outside of the ship with a blowtorch and some metal plates.

DUDE! That Dave is a total badass! I want to hire him! He probably smokes a cigar inside his helmet and takes pot-shots at enemy ships with his hand-gun for fun.

 

[whooplaah]

And how exactly is he supposed to "repair and maintain the hull?" He's at a computer in the middle of the ship, not space walking around the outside of the ship with a blowtorch and some metal plates.

I never said the NPC was sitting at the computer. I said it was his assigned post. Like being posted to Guard Duty doesn't mean you are standing in one area - it means you are performing that role as need dictates.

For the mechanics I suggested, we use the Hull Repair Hub to assign an NPC a as a Hull Repair Engineer. The NPC itself can be doing whatever, wherever. When he's at Med-Bay, you still get benefits. When he's in the recreation lounge, you still get bonuses. You want him tethered to the outside of the ship? Ok. You want him walking around the interior? Ok.

The computer is the block that we see when we bring up the crew assignment GUI, and the computer is what holds the value of the NPC + Ship Block. If the computer is lost, then the NPC no longer gives a benefit because his post no longer exists (think of him loosing his work orders, progress, schematics, schedule, inventory count, etc).

The NPC doesn't have to be physically at the computer to do his job, but he has to have the computer to have a job. The computer/hub/block /supply closet/tool chest/voxel is necessary for the mechanics and assignments to work.

 

[Lecic]

I never said the NPC was sitting at the computer. I said it was his assigned post. Like being posted to Guard Duty doesn't mean you are standing in one area - it means you are performing that role as need dictates.

For the mechanics I suggested, we use the Hull Repair Hub to assign an NPC a as a Hull Repair Engineer. The NPC itself can be doing whatever, wherever. When he's at Med-Bay, you still get benefits. When he's in the recreation lounge, you still get bonuses. You want him tethered to the outside of the ship? Ok. You want him walking around the interior? Ok.

The computer is the block that we see when we bring up the crew assignment GUI, and the computer is what holds the value of the NPC + Ship Block. If the computer is lost, then the NPC no longer gives a benefit because his post no longer exists (think of him loosing his work orders, progress, schematics, schedule, inventory count, etc).

The NPC doesn't have to be physically at the computer to do his job, but he has to have the computer to have a job. The computer/hub/block /supply closet/tool chest/voxel is necessary for the mechanics and assignments to work.

Alright, but WHY should HP and Armor be systems you cam buff with an NPC running it? It doesn't make any sense.

 

[whooplaah]

...because factory standard is not always the best.

You don't want to add an extra 12 months to the build time to have things reinforced, and you don't want to pay an extra 12 million to get all custom parts, so you get the standard model. Then you hire an engineer, put him on the ship, and have him make minor improvements over time.

Talk to mechanics who soup up their personal vehicles. You replace various components with more expensive pieces, you trade out the mass produced parts with custom fit pieces, and you end up with a better vehicle than what is carried in the store.

 

[GaeasSon]

Alright, but WHY should HP and Armor be systems you cam buff with an NPC running it? It doesn't make any sense.

I understand your objection.. But I can imagine this a couple ways. Our game universe includes a technology where a hand-mounted or ship mounted beam-device can repair damaged hull and systems. Simply having repair crews armed with repair beams could explain a lot of it.
Or managing power to auto-repair systems.
Or crew running around with blocks (like MC Ender-men) replacing blocks that are missing from the last build.