Ship Crew Size

[Cmdr Kharma]

Like I give a flying fuck........

Crew with me......

Ya take ya chances.....

Guaranteed fun though.....

Or death......

With a smile on ya face.......

[TorTorden]

Due to the automated nature of most things in the elite universe I think all CMDR class vessels are capable of being piloted by one single person.

Now that said I am certain there are room in the game mechanic where crew members can be beneficial. Like more accurate turrets, better more efficient sensors, maybe even finer automated power management.

Heck I would honestly love it if a player could dock a Sidewinder in my conda, join me on the bridge and take over turret control, or plot courses or manage my shields.
One could for instance introduce directional shield hardening, and during combat he/she has a minigame where he amplifies shields in the direction of the enemies.
A third CMDR could manually control turrets or manage power to modules or a myriad of other ideas.

A mismatched group of CMDRS would porbably just get in the way of eachother :p but a good group would turn a conda into a god like thing on the battle field.

[Skipp]

They could make it very simple though. For example - Put an extra crewe member on board so we can see him/her visually, and depending on which crewe member we take, the ship gets a percentage boost to a specific module.

For example, Tactical officer gives us 10% dmg to weapons, Security officer gives us 10% better shields, Engineers gives us 10% engine power or jump distance, Science officers give us faster scanning time ... stuff like that.

They can put the NPCs on a monthly paycheck so we need to hire them for credits. Something like they did in X: Rebirth.

[TorTorden]

True. But simple can be so.. boring.

Although hiring an npc crew member to increase jump range, pay him for a month. What would happen if you go on a three month tour of the Galaxy?

Would he start bitching after four weeks? Take an escape pod and try his own luck (rather stupid) or even worse go space mad and start sabotaging the ship?

10k on the other side of sag a*, so we want an npc to go "are we there yet?" Every two jumps?

[Skipp]

so we want an npc to go "are we there yet?" Every two jumps?

LOL, I'd pay extra for that!

But no - You pay a monthly fee when you hire him. It auto-renews the fee (just like standard monthly pay checks) once it runs out. That's at least how it works in X:R - but it was just a suggestion.

Naturally, a full blown "living" crewe member would need a lot of work from the dev point of view so I really don't see that coming any time soon.

[Hrdina]

They can put the NPCs on a monthly paycheck so we need to hire them for credits. Something like they did in X: Rebirth.

Like they did in Fronter: First Encounters and (IIRC) Frontier: Elite 2?

[Loriath]

I am not suggesting that this would be a mechanic in game, or an Expansion for season 5 called "Back Seat Drivers". I am more interested in the idea/concept of ships these size and the actuality of crewing it. Yes the automation is such that one person is all it takes to fly and fight with even something as large as the Anaconda, but is that the most efficient way of running the ship?

It seems that according to my google search, FireFly's Serenity is in the range of 60-70m in length. And it had a few people to crew it. See this site for relative ship sizes, and be prepared to waste a lot of time looking around http://www.merzo.net/

So how many would we need on an equivalent size ship? say a Python?

[Xebeth]

So I think there are 3 primary roles, Pilot, Navigator, and Engineer. When you look at the bridge of an Anaconda there are clearly seats for each of the roles (you can tell by what is on the screens in front of the other two seats), but there appears to be no other stations on the bridge.

Looking at the bridge of a Python there are only two seats, but banks of what look like standing workstations behind you, So I'm guessing it has the three same roles, but the Engineer has to stand up? It could be that there are more than two Engineering/Systems roles, but on the Anaconda the other work is done off the bridge, hence there only being three stations.

Taking something like a Vulture, it would seem the role of Navigator and Engineer is combined, hence there being just one extra seat behind you.

I think it would come down to a) what is automated on the ship b) what is the role of the ship c) how many people are needed to do a) and b).

So an Anaconda used for exploration would probably have the three primary roles, probably a few more engineering staff (there's going to be a lot of stuff to keep fixing, a bunch of scientists, some security staff, and people to look after the people.

[TorTorden]

Was just Googling some stuff regarding crew sizes since whenever this discussion pops up we keep ending up resorting to naval terms (and I too find a rather apt conparisson)

Regarding the not yet in service Zumwalt class destroyer
http://www.navy.com/about/equipment/ves ... isers.html

With its angular looks and wave-piercing "Tumblehome" hull form, the next-generation destroyer almost looks like science-fiction. It certainly doesn't look like any other warship. And it doesn't operate like one. Multifunctional, capable of operating in various environments and on schedule to be operational by 2016, the Zumwalt-Class is more automated than most warships. With that automation comes increased efficiency – to the point that a standard crew of only 130 is required. But make no mistake, even though the technical sophistication is high, it is built to be rugged and incredibly well-armed.

As has been noted an anaconda is roughly the size of a destroyer class ship, but that is a combat oriented vessel.
For what I am using my conda for namely cargo runs we might just as well look to high volume freight.
Where ships are much larger (obviously) than these range in crew size of three to thirty.

As for automation, nothing increases cost of operations more than having a large crew so any buisniss interested in making money (all of them) would want to decrease crew size as much as possible as soon as posibble.

Inow I think we are mere decades away from having entirely automated shipping, indeed drones will rule the seas in our lifetimes.
This would obvisouly go for space commerce as well but we have the added complication of FTL travel a remote controlled drone would not get his commands if it had to wait 200 years to get them.
So in some sense the role of cmdr is possible more like an in-ship drone pilot than actually a needed part of the crew.
Only because the distances are so large the pilot has to be in the ship rather than sitting on his butt in a station/planet.

I also then suggest that in fact most fed sec ships who operate in system are in fact entirely automated/remote controlled.


But we could all say we have crews already, maybe overpopulation has become so bad people are willing to sell their services for a nickel even if it means nearly dieing on a daily basis?
Maybe the crew is actually what we pay for when we fix ship integrity?