Min Crew Calculation Questions

[Gambit]

Can someone explain to me in a little more detail how the min crew requirements are calculated or needed?

I have read that you need at least 1 crew per engine and also that you should have 1 crew per gun, and extra crew are allocated to boarding defense or boarding attackers.

I have also heard cory state no ship will be under staffed. But there are quite a few ships that have less crew than engines plus guns. And you can create ships with less crew than engines plus guns, but not below just engines I think.

Is there any mathmatical or hard rule regaurding this or is the min crew defined by the engines? If so who fires the guns and what are the effects of having less crew than engines plus guns?

[phantombudgie]

I think I recall him saying that they try and man the engines or guns depending on what you are doing - like repelling boarders or running away. But there are penalties in terms of effectiveness or response time or something like that if there are not enough crew to go around.

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[4BIN4D3R]

Great question. I have no idea.

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[Deleted]

Apr 22, 2014 21:18:56 GMT -5 Gambit said:

Can someone explain to me in a little more detail how the min crew requirements are calculated or needed?

I have read that you need at least 1 crew per engine and also that you should have 1 crew per gun, and extra crew are allocated to boarding defense or boarding attackers.

I have also heard cory state no ship will be under staffed. But there are quite a few ships that have less crew than engines plus guns. And you can create ships with less crew than engines plus guns, but not below just engines I think.

Is there any mathmatical or hard rule regaurding this or is the min crew defined by the engines? If so who fires the guns and what are the effects of having less crew than engines plus guns?

It's kinda complicated. Generally, crew greater than engines + guns will be most advantageous in combat. However, you can get away with less crew than this as long as crew still remains greater than engines. Some ships are designed such that there is more crew than engines but less than engines + guns. It is possible that these ships are designed so that you don't need crew greater than engines + guns, but it is also possible that those ships will have a penalty when gunning. You need an absolute minimum of 1 crew per engine, and no ship design can compensate for this rule. Crew less than engines will make the ship much more ineffective and because of this no ship can be designed unless crew equals engines or greater. Boarding rules are ultra complicated. Gun crew will leave their posts to fight during board and hence I believe it's just the engine crew that stays put for boarding. This may change however during gun vs board, because the gun crew does not know whether to fire guns or fight off enemy boarders. There is also a penalty for boarding (and this isn't said anywhere but from my own testing I can clearly see this) if crew is less than engines x2. And once crew hits critically low numbers (5 or less) your crew no longer soaks up damage, meaning your captain takes more damage and boarding becomes dangerous. Lastly, no matter your engines and guns, you will always be most effective fully-staffed.

To sum up, here is what I think is the case with Crew:
*Gun - crew = guns + engines most effective
*Board - crew greater than engines x2 most effective for board attack and board damage; crew greater than engines + guns most effective for resisting board; crew = 5 or less highly dangerous; each weapon in-hold increases effectiveness of 1 crew
*Crew fully-staffed most effective
*Crew less than engines dangerous for all combat and noncombat operations

[Gambit]

When you state crew fully staffed you mean crew number equal to engine plus gun, or at 100 percent ship design number? For example: Is a ship with 30 engines and 20 guns fully staffed with 50 crew? Or fulled staffed with 40/40 crew if the max crew for that design is 40 crew (even though it is <50 crew)?

Why design or buy a ship with 30 engines and 20 guns if the crew is 40? Why design a ship with 20 guns instead of just 10 guns if you are getting a penalty to gun if less than 50 crew?

[Deleted]

Apr 26, 2014 23:30:51 GMT -5 Gambit said:

When you state crew fully staffed you mean crew number equal to engine plus gun, or at 100 percent ship design number? For example: Is a ship with 30 engines and 20 guns fully staffed with 50 crew? Or fulled staffed with 40/40 crew if the max crew for that design is 40 crew (even though it is <50 crew)?

Why design or buy a ship with 30 engines and 20 guns if the crew is 40? Why design a ship with 20 guns instead of just 10 guns if you are getting a penalty to gun if less than 50 crew?

For fully staffed, I mean crew/crew max. Crew increases fuel consumption and encounters, so I guess for those that don't want that and don't gun or board, they don't need crew greater than engines + guns or crew x2

[Cory Trese]

Well put "don't need crew greater than engines + guns or crew x2."

I think the counter to this is that Crew is also a soaker to reduce Captain HP. Very low Crew during Battle = more lost HP.

So on small ships, sometimes the minimum Crew isn't advantageous.

THANK YOU @starfixer