Bases and weapons

[that1guy]

I want to first say incredible job. I know you put in a lot of hard work and it shows.
-I was thinking as a possible expansion you could have the ability to create permanent bases on planets with factions that you have high reputation with. These bass could even serve as the start of your own takeover of the planet and the creation of your own syndicate or house (or empire). I know that it would probably be a huge amount of work so it is probably not likely but I thought i'd put it down anyway.
-The other thing is maybe there could be customization of the crew, like a separate type of weapons and armor used just for the crew for land missions or boarding with different classes of weapons and armor.
-The last thing is maybe a bit more customization with the ships like coherent classes of guns or armor that you could buy for your ships to make them even stronger. Right now we can only increase the number but not the quality.
-anyway these are my wishes. The're pretty big ones so I won't be sad if they never get implemented. And once again, awesome game already.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Player bases are already in the works. ;-)

[that1guy]

Sweet :-D. Oh I can't wait to decorate the place. I'll have a pool to the left, some nice gardens out back, torture chambers and prisoner cells in the basement, a nice dining hall and of course a big comfy bed.

[sebastian]

Torture chambers: future crew training and morale enhancement.
Prison cells: crew training dormitories.

[oldalchemist]

"Who put this teeny tiny hat rack in my office!"

[Cory Trese]

Great post! I think if I could go back and start over I would have Crew broken down into like "Junior Crew" "Senior Crew" and "Chief Crew" so that you could arm, deploy and allocate/train them up to various levels.

I am indeed deep in testing of the player bases add on.

[slayernz]

I'd love the fact that more senior crew die less, are able to explore and combat more efficiently, etc.
I'd even be happy to pay a credit per year towards their wages (Man I'm generous).

[Cory Trese]

You know they'd just spend it on Rychart hat girls and De Valtos Vudka.

[that1guy]

Exactly, and that stuff is bad for their health. That's why I try and lookout for my crew's safety and health by enslaving them. I'm really worried that they would hurt themselves; the universe us such a dangerous place. Their lives are so much better with me.

[slayernz]

"Free red ensign shirts when you sign up to be part of my crew. Don't worry, I don't charge much to sign you on - pay me half a credit now and we can sort out a payment plan for the remaining 4 1/2 credits."

[sebastian]

I am generous enough that I refund the five credits to the crewmans family if the shirt can be reused.

[slayernz]

I dunno. There's the cost of repairing all of the teeth marks, and don't forget the laundry costs to get the blood stains out. I know the shirt is red, but the blood is darker than the shade typically used, and don't forget the smell of blood is distinct and could put off some new crew.

At a push, I'd be willing to refund 3 credits to the family, but only on the condition that they find someone new to replace the person who so inconsiderately died (who must also then pay a 5 credit signing fee). I have to emphasize the cost to me, as captain of a very busy star ship, in terms of time (training, feeding, hosing down, etc). If a crew member dies on my watch, it means I have to fill out piles of paperwork, not to mention risk the lives of my remaining crew to fetch the bits of body for identification.

Sometimes I have the body parts for 2 people and realize at the twice-daily roll-call that I am actually down 18 people. That in itself necessitates additional costs as I have to use more plastic bags to separate the bits and pieces into. I'm just thankful that none of the crew families can afford cloning technology as I can't guarantee they have their beloved in the baggie.

I have told crew that they do get their 5 credits back at the end of 5 years service as payment for said service, so nobody can say that I don't pay my crew. That's kind of what I meant by offering 1 credit per year as payment. After 5 years I plead poverty and offer them a high risk high profit venture to make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. The promise seems to be enough to keep them motivated until the next workplace accident.

[sebastian]

Teeth marks and blood stains ruin the shirts, as do scorch marks. I have to date not actually had to reimburse anyones joining fee. I also did away with bagging of body parts. There was a terrible mix up when after a particularly difficult planetary exploration we ran out of room in the morgue cooler, and though the crew at first seemed pleased with the increased rations, I decided it was best to quickly send the remains out the airlock after a few brief words "Should ducked, fools."

As for the paperwork, I have a handy template and can usually get all the details done in a matter of minutes, even on the worst of days.

I am currently working on an adapter to use particularly low morale troops / random body bits as a source of water fuel. Being as the human body is mostly water, it's merely a matter of extraction.

[that1guy]

What?!?! The crew members have families.... Huh... Guess I never thought it worth my time to ask. Never ask names either, the second these cadets errrrr..... join (yeah that works) my crew I just give them a number. That way paperwork is a breeze... "any crew deaths? Nope, still have the same number of cadets (my secret is shove the old corpses out the air lock).

[sebastian]

Using the numbering system gets to be rather bulky after awhile. I was tattooing the crews id numbers to their foreheads, but with lots, and lots of poorly run explorations, the numbers start getting hard to fit, even after shaving their heads. Therefore a subclause of the "hiring contract" also officially changes each crewmans name to Bob.

When a crewman fails to return, all queries "what about bob?" Are met with "hes right there, now close the damn airlock bob!"