Ideas on the Role of Crew

[EricBlank]

My personal dreams for crew are a lot like whats in the OP or otherwise already mentioned here. I would like them to be able to make more automated decisions, without my say-so, if i appoint them to such a command position, comparable to a sapient AI, as opposed to simpler ai controllers. All of which i would hope to be available to pilot ships or manage ship systems on my flagship, mind.

I need crew to be able to do basic infantry combat, repairs and all that fun stuff obviously.

I would also like them to automate things chambers can automate, like keeping my jump drive, thrust blast etc charged (under certain special conditions, like if reactor power usage already exceeds 80% dont charge the drive except under direct orders to do so) and switching to backup reactors when the active one fails. Because on big ships with big reactors, thats a buttload of expensive chamber blocks vs a couple crewmen's salaries and workstations (im assuming theyd need them.) Or one sapient ai administrator.

I kinda expect human crew, sapient ai, and simple drone ai to have different approaches to combat. Like human crewmen might fly a fighter or bomber like a wwii/starwars style dogfighter and do fly-bys of targets, approach from behind up to x range to get good accuracy, drone ai to do their orbit within x radius thing by default, and sapient ais to have their unique strategy.

 

[MacThule]

Main thing for me a setting so that when a section of ship is vaporized, the crew in it do not get vaporized but instead 'die' (become fully inactive) and just float around for a couple minutes before disappearing, bouncing off of other objects along their trajectory like little rubber balls.

We need more hilarity, and I like my humor the way I like my chocolate.

Also; lots of good ideas in here!
;-D

 

[alij331]

Lol, that would be hilarious!

 

[MossyStone48]

i've always wanted some ragdoll action in starmade. a pilot getting ejected from the core and spinning around disoriented and possibly dead or dying from the uncontrolled spin is comedy gold.

 

[Skwidz]

sure, floppy dead crew is cool, but why not some imported kraken spaghetti? Floppy ragdolls should do more than just flop when crushed between two giant bricks

 

[Muffin_man17]

Nothing is more apparent that a battle has just occurred then floating bodies mixed in the wreckage. I like it!

 

[Skwidz]

Nothing is more apparent that a battle has just occurred then floating bodies mixed in the wreckage. I like it!

View attachment 52103

not to mention the wreckage itself. Hopefully break off will be fixed during the universe update and effects like leaking gas and sparks (maybe not realistic) will be added to compliment the damage cracks on blocks

 

[MossyStone48]

omfg i can't breath
i'd make parts of my ship that just kill crewers just for lols

 

[Employee763]

I really like this a idea, but I think it could use a little more sauce.

Crew should add a new dimension of gameplay that blocks can't do, like the OP said. I like the idea of them repelling borders, repairing things, and being vented into space, but these are all combat related tasks. This would make combat way more dynamic and interesting, but there's way more to the game than combat. At least, there should be.

I think where crew can really shine is by having them alter the performance of systems, I believe that's been mentioned here but I'd like to flesh that out more.

I'd like some sort of system where you can hire/generate NPCs with skill sets in various tasks, but they can be trained/leveled up with them. Some NPCs would be good at fighting, of course. You could also hire Engineering staff whose job would be to provide buffs to certain elements not available through the chamber tree. I'd like to leave the specific buffs out of this post, since I'm only interested in the general idea but I'll throw a few ideas out there. Like maybe you could hire a propulsion engineer that could overclock your thrusters and give you a higher acceleration and top speed for a larger power draw.

These staff could be hired at stations, and would have skill levels related to their specializations. Some NPCs would be good at buffing shields, jump drives, weapons, etc. The higher the skill levels, the better buffs you get, but they'd also be more expensive. Alternatively, you could hire NPCs with no skill level that'd be super cheap, and while they man the computers or whatever they'd level up and progressively provide better buffs. You could have several NPCs working on the same system, but they'd eventually provide diminishing returns on their output.

A large amount of diversity in the NPCs would be good. For example, you could have a leader or project manager NPC that wouldn't buff your ship, but your crew. Or morale staff, like cooks or masseuses that would improve your crew's performance.

Some buff ideas:

Jump drive specialists that could:
Give you better range if you went through/near a gravitational body, a la gravity assists
Give you increased range at the expensive of your ship doesnt work for a short period when you get out of jump, except the jump drive woudl still work so if you're trying to get somewhere fast and not safe you'd hire these people

Shield staff that could:
Like they could make your shields preform better against certain kinds of damage

Weapon staff that could:
Make your turrets more accurate
Increase muzzle velocity

 

[OfficialCoding]

What I want to see is Crew being used for boarding parties. So let's say you managed to knock out the thrusters on a ship. You are also using an Anti-Jump and Tractor Beam. You want to take the ship largely intact. So you send some crew to locate the faction module while you take some other troopers to idk, do something else, maybe liberate the cargo. After that, you and your crew assault the bridge and take over the ship. Instead of just destroying the entire ship, you could use crew to do defeat targets without obliterating them. That's what I want to see.

 

[NeonSturm]

We should define the possible outputs.

Max 25% thrust bonus would mean that Component1 adds maybe 50% to 12.5% total but the other 50% you can only get by buffing all components to the maximum.
1/2 value = summarized buff (with diminishing returns), 1/2 value is lowest component (by weightening), maximum is defined.


Then you can make long lists and add many buffs without creating a hax when you find your awkward-people supercrew from 11 very distant stars randomly scattered around many galaxies.

 

[Zekester81]

I would definitely like to see crew giving buffs to systems they operate, though I think the buffs should be very small. The buffs being mostly system efficiency, or power reduction. Something like:

Three tiers of crew: Basic, Veteran, Master.

Ex 1- Gunner
Basic Gunner buff: +2% accuracy, Vet Gunner Buff: +3% accuracy -3% reload time, Master Gunner Buff: +5% accuracy -5% reload time

Ex 2- Engineer
Basic Engineer buff: -2% power usage, Vet Engineer buff: -3% power usage +3% system output, Master Engineer buff: -5% power usage +5% system output

You know, just a slight edge over using AI for time and work put in to crew upkeep, and so-on through out the crew classes . They would have other uses to make up for having small buffs. Pre-set orders for situations as one example. Say an enemy shows up, a vet or master gunner may acquire target and fire before AI would be able to respond, and do so because orders were set with crew member to maintain watch from turret. An engineer may be ordered to repair ship sections when damaged, before entering combat. The basic guy only gets to repair damaged blocks, while the master might be able to replace blocks and connections that have been completely destroyed. A sentry/infantry/security crew member would get better at shooting, hacking faction blocks, and get faster response/detection times to threats. The rest of however many crew classes following this trend for their specialties.

I really like the idea of being able to set crew to moving cargo and operating/configuring factories. I'm setting up an auto factory in a shipyard station right now, and crew would be a lot easier than setting it all up. No need for super complicated storage/factory connections, just let the crew go get the stuff, process it, and take it where it's needed or stored. The downside being you need a lot more crew to make/move lots of stuff. In my case, the automation would probably still beat crew operated equipment due to complexity and amounts being processed.

Whatever it turns out to be, I'm stoked for any crew or AI being worked on. Can't wait.