investing more in the crew

[kaheidt]

I was thinking it would be nice to be able to manage your crew in order to affect various bonuses and penalties based on their roles, kind of like having weapons and electronics on board. You could have navigation officers which affects travel and accuracy, marines which affect combat skills, intelligence officers which affect stealth and surveillance, economists which affects prices, and comm officers for intimidation. Then maybe have each crew member get xp for us to manage kind of like a pet. That way, if they are killed during exploring, its not as easy as just replacing them at the next spice house.

[Cory Trese]

Each ship (based on awesomeness) with have a maximum number of Officers that the Captain can hire (mercenaries) or earn (story)

These officers will provide special features.

Ship's Navigator
Ship's Gunner
Ship's Doctor
Assault Squad Leader
Ship's Engineer

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You added:

Comms Officer (Crew Control, Water Use)
Economist Advisor (Trade Advantages)
Intelligence Officers (awesome! helps with surveillance and records)
Combat Marines (Boarding, Close Combat)
Navigation Officers (Travel Bonuses)

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You will be able to name them and they'll advance based on XP like the Captain, but simpler.

More ideas for officers?

[havocme]

Not to make it more complicated, either a cargo master (% boost in cargo space based on level,) or add that perk to the economic advisor?

[Cory Trese]

we're going to have cargo space upgrades for the ship (Cargo Box, Cargo Pod, Cargo Bay, Cargo Maximizer)

would that help?

[kaheidt]

Maybe Public Relations Rep for bonuses with reputation, skills mentor for bonus to xp, and planetary guide for bonus to the success rate of exploring and harvesting? I was tossing around the idea of someone that increases your chances of surviving defeats and searches or something, but I can't think of a good title.

[Cory Trese]

Maybe a Diplomat or Entertainer for Morale?

I like Planetary Scout and Public Relations Officer.

I think from a balance standpoint a skills officer wouldn't work out but it is a good idea and makes sense in a Captain's story, just too hard to balance i think.

[kaheidt]

Dec 15, 2010 15:27:34 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Maybe a Diplomat or Entertainer for Morale?

I think this may be redundant with what we're thinking as far as the Commanding Officer (CO) goes, see he pertains to intimidation which correlates with mutinies. Unless you're thinking of keeping them separate. I also don't know what else morale pertains to, so if you think a separate class is a good call, then who am I to say differently. But if you were going to do something, maybe a chef since there's luxury rations which affect morale?

Dec 15, 2010 15:27:34 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

I think from a balance standpoint a skills officer wouldn't work out but it is a good idea and makes sense in a Captain's story, just too hard to balance i think.

That's true. Maybe instead there could be a "Training experts team" that requires like 25% of the max crew in order to actually provide a bonus? That way it balances for the individual bonuses you would get from them if you used them differently. But if it's xp bonus just isn't a good idea, then I'm cool with that.

[kaheidt]

Also, what do you think about off-ship crew? The ambassadors could stay on the planets, and that way you would need multiple ambassadors, which could be viewed as good or bad.

[Cory Trese]

In all the RPG's I have made it is my experience (haha) that experience bonuses are really difficult to make work. The XP bonus is always at risk of becoming the #1 most important thing you can possibly get to advance faster. It often makes all other upgrades or crew appear in the "after you max training crew out..." and are therefore, just by proxy, less fun.

[Cory Trese]

The current vision include the following near-term features:

- Ship Officers
- Multiple Ships per Captain
- Faction Dry Docks
- Player Constructed Bases
- Player Constructed Base Upgrades (Mercenary Training Units, Dry Docks, ect)

With that in mind the following play modes are soon to be available:

Build, Upgrade and Staff different multiple ships for different purposes
For example, the Captain purchase, upgrades and Dry Docks 3 ships. One ship each for Exploration, Bounty Hunting, and Pirate Fighting.

Torpedos vs. Cargo, Armor vs. Science Bays

Build and Staff Installations in Wilderness Areas (Store Ships, Crew, Officers, Cargo)

Leave Staff Instructions (Repairs, Gather, Experiment, Exploration)

[kaheidt]

Couple other ideas I had...

Start your own faction once you have enough ally support: get yourself to be one side of a conflict instead of being a gun for hire. Maybe include an ally and enemy list of captains.

Have one of the crew classes be an infiltrator which can be used as a weapon against enemies via sabotage, or to get info or plant false evidence against other factions via espionage. You could leave them at a dock with instructions and a type of target, and if/when they get enlisted, you'd see a tracking icon that shows where their ship issue. Then you trigger the trap they've laid by coming along side so the spy can return, but you have to be careful not to kill them by blowing up the ship before you get them. Same thing can happen to you, so you need to have counter measures for exposing them before the trap occurs. This stemmed from the "can you trust them" comment when you enlist new people.

A siimilar idea is the ability to inspire the crew of the enemy ship to do spontaneous actions, either fleeing battle or having a mutiny and then voluntarily joining your crew. This could be based on renown, warrior skill, or charisma skill. That way you could gain enemy crew members by means other than enslavement which would be less or no morale penalty. Could maybe involve the PR rep crew class.

Finally, some other loot it options, like being able to loot guns torps and armor from enemies, or sealed crates that require Stardock services to open. Contents could be standard items, or rare unique items, or a biological weapon that infects the crew, or a bomb that detonates if the crate isn't opened soon enough. So these boxes could be traps, and you can use them as weapons against an enemy yourself by intentionaly losing a battle or surrendering to get searched and allowing them to be looted.

[Kelvin Zero]

In tying in with the issues of crew loss during exploring or fighting, suppose two types of crew could be made: Ordinary and Able Crewmen. You would usually pick up mostly ordinary crewmen but rarely an able crewman. The able crewmen would have better morale, be better skilled, and have less risk of dying than the ordinary "red shirt" crewmen.

A captain could have his ordinary crewmen trained for a price at training academies found at faction capitals or select independent planets. The captain may need a certain rank with the faction to get use of the academy and only so many crewmen could be trained at a time. That way time and money would be spent on getting better crewmen. Extra time and money could be spent converting Able Crewmen into Officers.

Another training method could be the addition of training rooms on the ship with better quality ones being able to slowly convert Ordinary to Able over time and travel. That way as a Captain travels around a few crewmen would automatically improve.

Finally, whenever the Captain Bases are implemented in the game, training rooms could be added there. Then the captain could drop off Ordinary crew for training, pick up newly minted Able crewmen, and head off for adventure. There would probably need to be some limiting factors for how many could be trained at a time and what factors could hinder training. Possibly if the Base runs down on Water-Fuel and Credits deposited, the morale of the crew there drops.

[Cory Trese]

both great ideas!