|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 2, 2017 4:53:15 GMT -5
If it weren't that I needed the crewdogs to run the ship, I'd send most of them packing. Safety Protocols, Battle Damage Repair and Methodical Sweep are fine talents, but there are only so many of them you need. Failsafe Protocols is ok, but if you plan on fighting your ship you will soon have other non-crewdog talents that do a better job -- mostly because they do something else in addition to purging crippling ship effects. And again, how many of these things do you need?
The two crewdog talents that fire over the spice plate, Relaxing Leave and Talk in the Hall, I never want to take at all, because I always have other talents in other crew members that fire when spicing, and I don't want them to have any competition from the crewdogs. There are a few more crewdog talents left showing as unimplemented, but even if they are the cat's pajamas I cannot see needing more than 4 copies of them.
Which means if you have a big ship, you feel up to your ears in crewdogs. I'm in a Heavylift, and I have 7 of them right now (I just fired one) and they are all level 11 or 12. I've put some nice upgrades in my ship, so I am right now only at 153% Ship Ops -- an argument against firing that last guy, but his mysterious talents turned out to be Highbrow and Snob, and I had had enough of him.
It occurred to me that what I would really like to do is invest in a Military Officer or Commander or Star Trader talent that made the crewdogs more efficient at doing their jobs, so I could leave a few of them dirtside, and replace them with some of the more interesting hires you can only get from contacts. I wouldn't mind it if the Pilots, Mechanics, Navigators, and E-techs got more efficient as well, but it's with the crewdogs that I see the biggest problem, where problem == 'this isn't as much fun as it could be'.
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 2, 2017 10:36:15 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback! It isn't the kind of Talent that we can add to the game.
|
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 2, 2017 11:17:41 GMT -5
Could you add a talent that makes the ship require less in the way of Ship Ops (the skill) to run? That would work out the same way.
Or what about an equipment upgrade? Say I purchase a container's worth of robo-crewdogs. They give you lots of Ship Ops. They don't need salaries or spicing -- or healing either, but getting them repaired at the stardock costs an arm and a leg. They don't have talents. They don't get any better at their jobs.
Would this be possible?
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 2, 2017 11:42:28 GMT -5
Star Traders does not feature fully autonomous robots that help humans. The closest thing would be Narvidians  And you don't want to purchase a few container's worth of those "friendly robots" No, Talents are not built to work the reverse way, reducing Ship Ops requirements. |
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 2, 2017 11:57:29 GMT -5
Okay then, no robocrewdogs. But you could design a ship that requires fewer crewdogs to run than is typical for the universe? That would be doable?
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 2, 2017 12:50:17 GMT -5
Absolutely - to do that you'd be picking components that require less Ship Ops.
|
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 2, 2017 14:04:01 GMT -5
Absolutely - to do that you'd be picking components that require less Ship Ops. I meant aside from that. One of the things that we discussed in the Stream yesterday was the idea that the Dragoon Cruiser might not be a good starting ship, once the ability to buy ships makes it into the game. It costs an awful lot to run as it drinks W/F like a fish and every time a Pirate shoots you, you have terribly high repair costs. You have a big expensive crew, too, so you are constantly hovering on the edge of bankruptcy. But then the question was, if 'great big ship packed full of weapons' isn't something you would spend an A choice on in the start screen -- what would you consider 'worth it'? Because I would much rather start in a smaller ship that is a lot cheaper to run and wait until after I have a level 4 trading permit with my home faction (and maybe with another faction as well) before buying such a monster, if I wanted that sort of ship. It occurred to me that a ship that was a lot more efficient in design, so required many less warm bodies to run, would be something I would find very desirable, and worth some sort of bump when it came time to set priorities in the template. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 2, 2017 14:24:52 GMT -5
Sounds like something we address by better balancing the starting ships. We'll keep working to improve.
|
|
athios
Templar
[ Star Traders 2 Supporter ]
Posts: 1,611 
|
Post by athios on Jun 4, 2017 1:46:52 GMT -5
LOVE grävling's suggestion for an expensive, efficient starting ship. I fully support that, if it somehow fits into the ship builder framework. I'm also struggling with the Crew Dog's lack of useful Talents. I also tend to throw them overboard whenever I think I can get by without them. Keeping in mind that if each Crew Dog has a Ship Ops save talent, then I probably only need 3-5 at most to survive most Ship Ops tests if I'm near 110%. Even better if I have an Officer as Star Trader. On the flip side, I consider Crew Dogs as the fodder/filler of the ship. Unspecialized, average schmoes that are a dime a dozen. I'm not sure how I'd feel if they had some powerful talents. Perhaps this will become less of an issue once other Ship Ops-related Jobs are introduced. I just hope at least one of them can be hired at a regular Spice Hall (instead of as a special recruit). |
|
|
|
Post by bobc on Jun 4, 2017 3:42:06 GMT -5
Would it be possible to enable Crew Dog talents to fire in addition to other character talents instead of being in competition? In the discussion above Gravling does not take talents that interfere with her preferred spice plate talents. If a talent like Relaxing Leave could fire without affecting merchant talents etc at the spice plate it would open up a few more options.
|
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 4, 2017 5:05:21 GMT -5
Would it be possible to enable Crew Dog talents to fire in addition to other character talents instead of being in competition? In the discussion above Gravling does not take talents that interfere with her preferred spice plate talents. If a talent like Relaxing Leave could fire without affecting merchant talents etc at the spice plate it would open up a few more options.
That would make the crewdogs more useful, but I still would enjoy a way to not need so many of them, because there are lots of other people with more interesting jobs I would like to make room for. A recent forum post from athios gave me an idea. I've been assuming that it is a good idea to run your ship with shipop soak up near 200% to get strong dice, same as for other things. Maybe this is a mistake. What I am going to test now is running a big ship with only 4 crewdogs, all of whom have the Safety Protocols talent. Rely on the talent to save you from failures, and, on my HeavyLift, free up 4 crew births. Shall I hire some exoscouts? maybe some pirates? If I knew any Politicians, I would hire a diplomat or 2.  (Now watch my ship blow up, killing everybody.) |
|
|
|
Post by Officer Genious on Jun 4, 2017 5:55:01 GMT -5
Good luck, let us know how it goes, brave badger!
|
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 4, 2017 7:24:22 GMT -5
A recent forum post from athios gave me an idea. I've been assuming that it is a good idea to run your ship with shipop soak up near 200% to get strong dice, same as for other things. Maybe this is a mistake. What I am going to test now is running a big ship with only 4 crewdogs, all of whom have the Safety Protocols talent. Rely on the talent to save you from failures, and, on my HeavyLift, free up 4 crew births. That is how I play. I would recommend it. |
|
|
|
Post by fallen on Jun 4, 2017 7:25:08 GMT -5
I consider Crew Dogs as the fodder/filler of the ship. Unspecialized, average schmoes that are a dime a dozen. I'm not sure how I'd feel if they had some powerful talents. It would be really odd to have a large ship without crew dogs imho. |
|
|
|
Post by grävling on Jun 4, 2017 7:25:46 GMT -5
A recent forum post from athios gave me an idea. I've been assuming that it is a good idea to run your ship with shipop soak up near 200% to get strong dice, same as for other things. Maybe this is a mistake. What I am going to test now is running a big ship with only 4 crewdogs, all of whom have the Safety Protocols talent. Rely on the talent to save you from failures, and, on my HeavyLift, free up 4 crew births. That is how I play. I would recommend it. Ah. Now he tells us.   |
|
And you don't want to purchase a few container's worth of those "friendly robots"
