Did some reading elsewhere - not at the "bad place."

Normally I don't read too extensively on upcoming features as they are subject to change. And I am to busy having fun now.
But I did read about the upcoming Multi-crew.

My presumption was that I could place/hire/whatever NPC crew members to be in my ship - like the empty co-pilot seat in a Cobra. And their presence there would add a little to ship performance and/or function. Not sure if I read that or am dreaming how cool that would be.

Now I read that Multi-crew does not involve NPC's at all (though it "may" in the future) but strictly human Cmdr's.
Okay...I guess...maybe 1 in a SRV and 1 piloting the ship? May have cool mission possibilities I think.
But what in the world are (up to) 4 human Cmdr's going to do aboard one ship??
Does anyone know for sure or is it too soon to tell and not enough information has been released?

Redirecting power to give your ship an edge, jumping into deployable fighters and taking direct control over turreted weapons would seem most likely.

Sounds like fairly extensive programming event. As big as Horizons.
Is that coming this "Season" then? If you know off the top of your head.
Sounds like a Year 3 thing to me. Guess I didn't catch a timeline.

Ah, so not someone to come by and offer me some biscuits and a flask of tea then. Good help is so hard to find. Seriously looking forward to seeing how they implement this since Leaf's Law states "packet loss and lag spikes are directly and proportionally correlated to importance of player role"

It's part of horizons, that is this 'season'

I know they recently said there wound be no NPC crew, but I do hope they can work something in for that.

Or at the very least let us hire a wingman. 5,000 cr and hour for a 'Winder 250,000 cr for a Fer-de-Lance? Or maybe they get paid a commission, 20% of trade profits/bounties.

Yep, I'd be fine with a commission or something.

And a touch of voice acting. Even Arma has had the pitch shifting effects to fake more variety into the AI recordings, something like that would be great.

"Leaf's Law"!

Yep any lag issues I have ever had with ED has been in the presence of other players. Though the servers have been much better lately disconnect-wise.
Well I guess we will see. Still sounds like a major programming event to me so I will be curious to see how it is implemented.

This is what I would like to understand. Currently, I cannot imagine a situation where another human player is better off being in the seat beside you instead of being in a separate ship.

"Control turrets"
Turrets work fine as is. Won't the 2nd human player be more useful if he was in a second ship meaning he contributes MORE firepower?

"Redirect power"
I'm not really finding that I need more help with the current system. Sure, maybe I drain my capacitors and need to redirect power --- and a human player could've done that for me, but at the most, I lose a few seconds of firing time. Is the human player really more useful watching my capacitors drain down? Or would he not be more useful in his own ship, watching his own capacitors drain down as he contributes firepower into the enemy ship?

"Deployable fighters"
If the Anaconda can only carry Sidewinders, then again, I don't see the point. Any decent commander should have a good Cobra in his hangar, or if he doesn't, any commander that can purchase an Anaconda should have enough spare credits to give the other player a good Cobra. Maybe if the ship could carry a Vulture, I'd see the point. The Anaconda has better jump range so that'll cover one weakness of the Vulture.

The only real situation I could see this useful is if the players want to do a planetary assault. One player would fly in and stay with the ship while the other one drops onto the surface on the SRV. That way, they provide mutual support and the 2nd player doesn't have to bring a ship and have to stow it somewhere.

Good points. As a practical matter there is no real advantage that I can see. Except in a ship (top-cover)/SRV thing (ground mission) for two people. Probably a gimmicky CQC kind of thing to increase the "fun" factor of human interaction and team work.
My little fantasy (or was it adlabs6 dream?) was the idea of NPC crewman. On top of everything else they are always ready to play unlike trying to get multiple players all connected world-wide- especially if the "match making" is anything like the apparent (so I have read) CQC disaster. And then there is the "instance" thing.

Anyway I am a dock and there is a screen, like commodities, for NPC crewman. You "buy" them like a commodity and their price is...let's say...a months wages. There is a "timer" in-game already (mission and bounty) and in 30 days you have to "buy" them again. Or a commission as previously mentioned here.
Each one is rated in certain areas like piloting, weapons (ballistic and thermal). engines, navigation, repair, shield technology, etc, etc. the more skill in more areas drives up "his/her" costs.
Each ship has space for a certain number of crewman - the Cobra is at least two maybe three - dunno the lore.

So I buy a crewman, assign him to a spot (or slot like a module) and, if his skill is high enough at that crew station, then I get a bonus.
Nothing stupid but let's say a skilled shield tech adds 5% or something to shield strength and recharge time.
Basically an NPC would be treated like a ship module, so to speak, since that system is already in place and it wouldn't require a major programming thing.
Just some DIH spitballing...

I don't think there is any necessity or there is anything much extra multicrew will bring to elite.......

...............

.............................

Unless its a precursor for FPS play, then that is a whole different kettle of fish







As for npc crewman giving bonuses to various things. nooooooo, absolutely no fricken way. Elite is already dangerously (see what i did there) consoled up with its stupidly retarded and dumbed down sythesis boost your stat abilty.

Noooooooooooooooo. If we get more powerups and gameplay like cqc, then may as well stop developing elite and stick mariocart avatars in the ships and have childish powerup space races

Thinking about how could we actually have some meaningful multi-crew with these ideas:

Control Turrets: Have new cruiser-type turrets that cannot be fired or aimed without a player crew. But they do damage like a "Huge" Class 4 beam or burst fixed laser (much more than current turrets!). But perhaps with a slower aiming speed, so smaller ships and fighters could evade them.

Redirect Power: Introduce a new Pip system for internal module defenses for co-pilot use. Same design as current system (for pilot use), but the number of pips in each of determines where the ship (or an AFMU) directs internal defensive support against module targeting. Pips to SYS to harden power plant, shield generator, etc. against incoming fire. Pips to ENG to harden and protect thrusters. Pips to WEP to increase protection for weapons hardpoints being targeted (and those valuable player only turrets).

Deployable Fighters: I've got my doubts that the Sidewinder will count as a ship that can be carried. My bet: The Condor (already in CQC play), and the upcoming Imperial Fighter, mentioned in GALNET as coming early in Season 2.

Now... I have to stop and think how useful/valuable ship launched fighters will be. Currently, IMO, they would be very easy to kill in the current combat dynamics, where even big ships circle and turn fast.

But large ship combat might change, if there were powerful, player only turrets coming, too. Large ships carrying such heavy turrets would deal serious damage, but only so long as the power capacitor holds up. So this might introduce a sort of "broadside" attack pattern. Large ships close in, open a battery of focused heavy turret fire. Shields and power capacitors taking strain, then break off the pass to recharge both, preparing for a next pass.

How might ship launched fighters work into this different kind of battle, where the two large ships aren't simply "circling forever" until shields run down? A type of combat where high pitch speed doesn't matter as much for large ships? Where high speed (and thus passing your enemy *too fast* for the player heavy turrets to deal max damage) is not critical?

All just imaginations, from an admittedly non-combat guy. But perhaps some room for interesting changes to play.

So I take that to be a "No" vote eh?
Hehe...

I like the idea of NPC flight crew. Wouldn't mind seeing some fitters and riggers working on Old Mabel either-- just to breath a bit more life into the sim from a SP/MP point of view. Robotic drones flitting about, aliens dressed in Fun Fur/tentacles...

I can see why they (FD) are planning to add 'multi-crew' capability for those playing Elite as an MMO since Star Citizen have at least one ship my old clanmates went gaga over (?Constellation? not paid much attention to SC tbh) because they can fly together and 'ave rools for the Ops of that ship already.