No Pilots, No Ranks, No Fun

[heratik]

The only way to train marines is to invest massive amounts of into them, and no amount of thought or skill on the player's part can expedite the process.

With fight skill, the training is entirely in the players hands, and with the other skills, it just requires forward planning.

I started a new run through recently, and my first priority, even before buying any trade ships etc was to get at least 6 marines in basic training. I did this knowing they would be at least well on their way to being ready for basic ops by the time I had enough resources to start using them...

[Scoob]

Well we known our ship has a crew, we know capital ships have at least a captain. We also know that Stations can have a station manager.

We know that there are lots of types of drones for different tasks, some of them may even be considered fairly significant assets - i.e. not just a simple fighter drone as we're accustomed to.

I do hope that manned fighters still exist. I'd love to have to buy/build a fighter (one would assume much better equiped and shielded than a basic drone at least) and have to invest in hiring a pilot...

I remember in one of the old Reunion scripts, Fight MkIII I think, you had a vested interest in your skilled pilots as they were MUCH better than having no pilot. Pilots would bail if their ship was destroyed and you could collect them and put them to work in a new ship. I LIKED this. I actually cared about my living assets!

So, I hope XR enables us to hire pilots for our smaller ships, both combat and trade types. I also hope to see Pilots on non-player ships, going about their business as usual. This adds (literally) life to the universe in my view. I always found it odd in TC that ALL of my ships were drones in effect...no pilots, no skill progression no desire to STAY LIVE! lol.

I have high hopes XR will be something awesome...but we will have to wait and see.

Scoob.

[Cycrow]

The only way to train marines is to invest massive amounts of into them, and no amount of thought or skill on the player's part can expedite the process.

not entierly true.

you dont actually have to train all your marines to their full stats.

if you plan on the targets you wish to take, the amount of marines your using, you can cut down on the training time considerably by just focus different marines on different tasks.

you only need full stats when going after certain ships, so if you want a specific ship, then you need to train accordingly, if you just want to board, then you can setup your marines quicker and find sutible targets to board

[aeligos]

I just want a nice looking ship that can do a lot of upgrading.

The "pilot" is assumed to be present and being a space game, it is the ship that will receive most of my visual attention.

I do want images of other "pilots" presenting in my HUD, like the last X game when they initiate contact with me.

As far as ranking goes, I'm open to it either way.

-.-

[Arragoth]

Somehow i oppose too the idear of FighterPilots in space, since even in space a human body will severly temper the preformace of any craft (air of space) due G limits...

Also the loss of life of a pilot is bigger hit as loosing a droneship, so TBH i do see a future in VR controlled crafts, and its allready out that the F22 prolly will be the last manned fighter craft build, project this too the future i doubt we will see many fighterjocks in cockpits...

Having said that, i dont think pilots will be removed at all, only they are now detached from their crafts with remote control (Future VR) too place them back into the cockpit but without the risk of them actually beeing there.

And it doesnt matter if they are in the cockpit or located on a mothership, the job as fighterjock is still there, only they sit now warm and comfy far away with a cup of hot coco playing a very real "game"
At least thats how i envision future air (space) combat in reality, thus not so crazy if that is also implemented in Rebirth..

And still those VR jock recieve promotions/ranks/medals like in the "old days" when cockpit and craft where still attached too each other
In retrospect too this, there wont be much of a difference is there, cept the location of the cockpit

[Chris0132]

Although I kinda feel as though grinding experience for people is one of the things that meant I never used marines in TC, it's just tedious honestly.

Yes it is tedious, but it reflects the rewards that are to be gained. A group of fully trained marines is one of the most powerful tools you can acquire in TC...

The most powerful however is a well stocked M7M, which you need in order to use marines effectively.

So they don't really reward you in any way other than a few prestige xenon ships, which are good ships, but certainly not useful when compared to the kind of fleet you can field by the time you get them.

[heratik]

So they don't really reward you in any way other than a few prestige xenon ships, which are good ships, but certainly not useful when compared to the kind of fleet you can field by the time you get them.

Let me see:

"Oh the Pirates and Yaki hate me, but I loves me some IBL, without them nearly all of my lovely M7s are pretty much redundant. Marines! Lets go capping!". I have over 200 IBL from boarding operations without having to make my game completely sterile by befriending Yaki and/or Pirates.

Those pesky Xenon are killing all my Trade ships, Time to block their gates, Oh no, only 2 ships (Osaka, Tyr) are capable of withstanding a full Q OOS barrage, one of them is not purchasable and the other costs 74 million WITHOUT any of its incredibly hard to come by weapons, and I need dozens of the buggers. I know, "Marines! Lets go capping" and we'll probably get all the weapons we need in the process too.

Oh no, I am rubbish at building complexes and I can't be bothered running around buying hundreds of traders, how can I make insane amounts of money? I know! I'll just cap 15-20 M2s and I am a billionaire!

So, like I said, Marines come with great rewards...