Where do crew come from?

[MacThule]

This is less a suggestion than a solicitation for brainstorming suggestions.

Where do you think crew should come from? How do we crew ships? Where do we recruit?

Will we just 'buy' them at shops? Will they just appear on ships out of nowhere? Must we go to a planet to recruit? Are there other compelling options?

Please consider not just what would be cool but also what is reasonably possible to implement and would be accessible in terms of user experience. But also what would be cool and complex.

Personally, I like the notion of somehow recruiting at planets, but don't think it's terribly important.

I don't want to buy them at shops... that is the one option that I think falls kind of flat.

I'd be happy seeing them spontaneously show up too, on the premise that your captain put an ad up on Craigslist and some random folks showed up for the job... Just don't make me jump through a hoop to get them that isn't also compelling in some way, please, Schine!

 

[Lone_Puppy]

Starmade Academy?

Perhaps a module like the Shop module, but one that spawns crew to a transporter?

Example, slave a transporter pad to this Academy module.
[doublepost=1492487250,1492487215][/doublepost]This module could have different skill levels to tick on/off for the individual NPC maybe?
[doublepost=1492487342][/doublepost]The module idea allows us to create people, but your planet idea would be cool to.
Have them trained by the Academy module using the transporter pad.

 

[Brokengauge]

Build a station, or build structures on a planet, and they'll appear on their own. You can recruit them to your ship, or any ship in your fleet, or assign them duty stations to your station/base/outpost. As you recruit from them, and feed resources towards that outpost, they will replenish their numbers.

They should be able to do other things like mine the area, and build their own ships from blueprints you designate for defense and general use. hell, if you get into trouble near them, and call for backup. They could come running to reinforce you

 

[MacThule]

Good thoughts so far. Gets me thinking - if they aren't strictly and automatically populating ships to which they are assigned, where the heck are they? Are they maybe in your inventory until assigned, or do they exist unloaded in a spreadsheet pool with stats and such? Or do they always have a physical positon in the galaxy?

 

[terra mining corp.]

How about job listings / for hire ads at a trade station , or recruit from captured ships?

 

[Brokengauge]

When they auto-populate planets and stations they just hangout, freeloading lol. If you don't feel like micromanaging them, set or send an npc there to assign them duties, or even recruit for your ship. There should always be options for how micromanagy or decentralised you want to be. I would say though, npc entities aren't actually loaded until you're on the planet/station/ship that has them.

Just my 2¢

 

[Crashmaster]

Maybe you could build a pod, feed some flora and fauna into it and grow a crewmember? Perhaps grown crewmembers are a little bit slower then their hired counterparts and cannot gain experience.

 

[NaStral]

When a mommy NPC and and a Daddy NPC love each other very very much...

Actually though, in a simulation sense, having two or more NPCs inhabiting a station or planet could start increasing the population provided necessary needs are met. So given enough time, you come back to a planet where you dropped off some colonists to find the population has increased.

 

[Brokengauge]

When a mommy NPC and and a Daddy NPC love each other very very much...

Actually though, in a simulation sense, having two or more NPCs inhabiting a station or planet could start increasing the population provided necessary needs are met. So given enough time, you come back to a planet where you dropped off some colonists to find the population has increased.

As long as they don't all end up with 6 fingers on each hand and have an uncanny ability to play bluegrass music despite a very conspicuous absence of banjos....

 

[Crashmaster]

"Ceti Alpha something something, Whatever, it should be packed with colonists by now keptin."

 

[Edymnion]

I prefer the idea that planets are primary colony sites that generate NPCs via some kind of Happiness or Attractiveness score.

As in, different planets would have different base Happiness Scores (HS from here out). Desert worlds would have low base HS, earthlike planets would have high base HS. You would then need to build structures on these planets that would:

1) House NPCs. You'd need bedrooms, barracks, etc. Might even whip out some new Bed blocks specifically for this.

2) Feed NPCs. NPCs would need to eat a food block every X units of time (like say one block a day, however long we define a day as lasting). Might use existing storage, might need a new Refrigerator block to make it easier for the AI to find. Add some new food producing blocks that we can grow/farm.

After that, you could build additional structures to increase the HS, things like entertainment centers, zoos for fauna, etc.

So in the end you'd need to cultivate a colony on a planet in order to generate NPCs that you can then later assign to ships and stations. Can put all this stuff on stations, but stations would start with a base 0 HS, meaning you'd have to REALLY build one up for it to generate any NPCs on it's own, and even then it would be an inferior option to simply using a planet.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I want natural civilization, that some of the NPC factions have populated planets and you can somehow recruit NPCs from them. As well as NPCs roaming around trade stations and such and you're able to hire some of them. Then, if you have colonized stations/planets of your own you can have NPCs live there and the population will grow somehow (I'm a fan of some kind of farming resource mechanic which maintains your faction's NPC population).

 

[MacThule]

When a mommy NPC and and a Daddy NPC love each other very very much...

This is my favorite so far, because right after I posted I thought about it and started wondering about space storks...

And seriously, I'm liking the notion of 'living' worlds, where colonies can be seeded to grow crew by putting in facilities to improve population growth, and perhaps quality (build a university and you get better techs, build a flight academy and you get better pilots, or just let them rough it if all you want is bodies to man your decks). If NPC species ever became a thing, the different planet types would probably be better suited to different species. A definite advantage to a system of planetary crew generation is that it would finally make use of planets and give them serious value, and would also turn them into a form of distributed infrastructure that would be worth putting defense fleets around and adding shield generators and defensive turrets to because if you lose you premium crew planet, you're losing your best bonuses. Striking at enemy planets would be a way to undermine their faction's strength a bit. I feel like implementation of planetary crew generation would be totally viable and a lot of fun, but demandingly complex for certain and probably something that would have to be a beta-phase expansion.

The notion someone had of a "starmade academy" block to install on existing station and planetary structures is much more straightforward, and suits the games dynamics.
[doublepost=1492527691,1492526771][/doublepost]

Striking at enemy planets would be a way to undermine their faction's strength a bit.

I just realized that this is kind of a natural conclusion as well, because honestly, the dev team has worked so hard to create planets that seamlessly blend into space.

What is the point of it all if we will never have any real reason to exploit that seamless transition by dropping bombs or firing massive PTO barrages at attackers?

 

[Sen OTS Tier]

When a mommy NPC and and a Daddy NPC love each other very very much....

Aww, someone beat me to it.

 

[KaRe]

This is my favorite so far, because right after I posted I thought about it and started wondering about space storks...

And seriously, I'm liking the notion of 'living' worlds, where colonies can be seeded to grow crew by putting in facilities to improve population growth, and perhaps quality (build a university and you get better techs, build a flight academy and you get better pilots, or just let them rough it if all you want is bodies to man your decks). If NPC species ever became a thing, the different planet types would probably be better suited to different species. A definite advantage to a system of planetary crew generation is that it would finally make use of planets and give them serious value, and would also turn them into a form of distributed infrastructure that would be worth putting defense fleets around and adding shield generators and defensive turrets to because if you lose you premium crew planet, you're losing your best bonuses. Striking at enemy planets would be a way to undermine their faction's strength a bit. I feel like implementation of planetary crew generation would be totally viable and a lot of fun, but demandingly complex for certain and probably something that would have to be a beta-phase expansion.

The notion someone had of a "starmade academy" block to install on existing station and planetary structures is much more straightforward, and suits the games dynamics.
[doublepost=1492527691,1492526771][/doublepost]

I just realized that this is kind of a natural conclusion as well, because honestly, the dev team has worked so hard to create planets that seamlessly blend into space.

What is the point of it all if we will never have any real reason to exploit that seamless transition by dropping bombs or firing massive PTO barrages at attackers?

Have to mention this and this plus Edymnion's crew post. While it is interesting to develop a story for the NPCs, what about the players? Why do they start at 2 2 2, how'd they get there, why are they alone, etc.

 

[jontyfreack]

Where do you think crew should come from? How do we crew ships? Where do we recruit?

I think crew should be found on stations and planets and could be simply "press R" at and click the option for them to join you in some way such as joining your crew or faction. possibly requiring a small payment or kidnapping them.

 

[Valiant70]

I would propose a few different ways to get crew:

1. Clones, for those who want a quick and easy way. You can order them from the Trading Guild. They cost quite a few credits and they only have average or mediocre stats, but you can get a lot of them quickly if you can cough up the fee.
2. Growing your own clones! They require some kind of rare resource to create, and require a great deal of it to make their stats any good.
3. Recruiting. Random NPCs found around the galaxy could potentially be hired for enough money. Some are too loyal to their factions to be recruited though.
4. Conscription. NPCs from populations (cities? civilian stations? civilian ships?) within your faction territory may be pressed into service. Be careful though, as their morale may be poor to begin with (though not always), or the population may become angry and revolt.
5. Home-grown "Spartans!" If permitted, your personnel may reproduce occasionally. If the parents' loyalty is good, the child's loyalty will be very good, having grown up under your reign of terror... Uh, I mean your glorious republic.

 

[Brokengauge]

I've got a few ship designs. Specifically, ship designs for assholes. Each duty station is a cramped room with a simple flat bench, open toilet, a one way entrance, and a damage pulse for an exit. Needless to say, these ships wouldn't have "crew" so much as they'd have "victims" lol

 

[NaStral]

Form a press gang and visit all the bars on a station or planet at closing time, like in the age of sail.

 

[Edymnion]

Have to mention this and this plus Edymnion's crew post.

Thats over here for anyone that wants to see it a bit more fleshed out:
NPCs and Planetary Colonies