Hiring strategies

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lostboron
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Hiring strategies

Post by lostboron » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 01:44

As I start to develop my empire, I find myself spending more and more time hiring staff, and this is not fun. I only found 2 ways to do it:

- Go to a zone with lots of employees of the right kind. Dock to a station. Do a difficult small-talk. This quickly drives me crazy, as the small talk is always the same and absurdly unrealistic. Click at the right time. Another dumb mini-game driving me insane. Ask for hiring advice. Undock and go to employee. Hope he is not too bad.

- Go to a zone with lots of employees of the right kind. Do not dock. Use the menu to talk to the right people and ask how much they are to hire. Compare to a list of high salaries. Use esc-esc-down arrow-2-3 to switch to the next one. Hire the most expensive. Wait for him to come. Go to the crew room. Esc to skip that video. Check the skills. Reload if needed. I still prefer that option, as I avoid the dreaded small talk.

Am I missing something here ? Has anyone found a less annoying strategy to hire staff ? Should I just try to ignore the skills and fill my ships and stations with bad staff ? I will welcome any advice !

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Santi
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Post by Santi » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 04:13

If it really is becoming a pain, then a mod like "show me your skills" will be the way to go, just make sure any mod you install is compatible with the latest version of X Rebirth. If you use Steam just check the workshop, otherwise use Nexus mods site.
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Ezarkal
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Post by Ezarkal » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 05:01

I'm using two mods as solution for that problem

-The "Show skills" mod, as mentionned by Santi, work without problems with v4.10.
If you go that route, I recommend communicating with people directly from space. You have a list of all hireable people in the side-bar menu. The only problem is the additionnal transport fee (which is so small it doesn't really factor when you're at the point of expanding your empire.)

-The mod "NPCs gain XP" is also a solution. Just hire anyone and with time they will slowly upgrade to 4 stars.

-There's another mod called AutoCrew which automatically hires people for you. I don't use it anymore due to some incompatibility issues with another mod, but otherwise it worked flawlessly.
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Zetoss
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Post by Zetoss » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 05:06

There is a third unmodded option that I tend to use when it gets too annoying: save, fill the whole Skunk with every candidate, check and fire as needed, repeat until a good one shows up and either continue with that or load the save and hire just that name. Also their fees can be stupidly random and are rarely a good indication of skill unfortunately.

Anyway the minigame has novelty value for the first few dozen times but not making it optional is probably not the best way to make the game enjoyable. Having either an option to bribe NPCs to obtain theirs or others info, or having an "agent" of some kind that you need to pay an absurd amount of credits to locate the 3 best candidates from an entire zone so you don't have to hire the guy talking about warts... would be nice. Maybe the agent could have something much like the BBS but for potential employees, you can see all info and hire any (or all) on a short list but the list costs at least 10M to view. That last version would probably require a lot of tinkering but feel very authentic and only be used late game when minigames have become stale.

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Re: Hiring strategies

Post by RAVEN.myst » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 08:05

lostboron wrote:- Go to a zone with lots of employees of the right kind. Do not dock. Use the menu to talk to the right people and ask how much they are to hire. Compare to a list of high salaries. Use esc-esc-down arrow-2-3 to switch to the next one. Hire the most expensive.
I have found that while there is SOME correlation between price and quality, there is much greater variability - I have had 5-star engineers for under 20k and 2-star engineers for just under 40, for example. I've also (and more frequently than the above example) had a DO for ~100k that is substantially better than one for 150~160. Granted, *generally speaking* the more you spend, the higher the likelihood of quality, but just hiring the most expensive doesn't guarantee you get the best one (as you've already realised, as evidence by you checking post factum). I used to use much the same approach as yours, but toward the end, I was simply going down the list, and skipping names, demeanours, or appearances that didn't appeal to me :P Just going down the list is a slightly faster approach, as there is no price-comparing pass and subsequent memory game - just simple first-in-first-out...
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Lord Crc
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Post by Lord Crc » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 10:42

I use the mod that levels up the NPC's over time. When you have 10+ stations and dozens of ships, doing the small-talk or hiring/firing minigames are just way too time consuming.

For the next rebirth I would welcome a "headhunter" NPC which would find suitable employees for you. Obviously at a much greater cost depending on employee skills.

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Post by GCU Grey Area » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 12:00

Tend to use your second approach, though I don't reload - if I get anyone particularly awful I fire them immediately & try the next most expensive.

Also I'm not all that picky about skill ratings (as long as they're not truly abysmal). Don't really need highly skilled crews to operate mining ships assigned to stations, for example, 2* crew are good enough for that role IMO.

There are really only 2 cases where I want to have the best people I can find - warships & squad freighters that I'll be controlling directly. To obtain crew for these ships I look through my notes on the crews assigned to station-based ships, reassign the best & then hire new people to replace them.

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Post by Sparky Sparkycorp » Wed, 19. Jul 17, 14:37

I take the 'fill up Skunk with the NPC type and fire the bad ones' approach.

lostboron
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Post by lostboron » Fri, 21. Jul 17, 00:38

Thanks for the tips. I like the idea of NPCs slowly gaining XP, but I have not been able to install the mod. I am not using steam (got the game with GOG), I have not seen the mod on Nexus, and steamworkshopdownloader.com doesn't seem to work. I am running without any mod so far.

I also like the idea of hiring a bunch and firing the bad ones, but my Skunk is usually full, as I like to have a crew ready just in case I see an interesting target (just in case, you know...).

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NodusCursorius
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Post by NodusCursorius » Fri, 21. Jul 17, 02:48

lostboron wrote:I have not seen the mod on Nexus, and steamworkshopdownloader.com doesn't seem to work.
Here you go! Show Skills: http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/276/
I also like the idea of hiring a bunch and firing the bad ones, but my Skunk is usually full,.
Piece of cake. More Crew: http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/319/
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spankahontis
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Post by spankahontis » Fri, 21. Jul 17, 16:55

Employees as a whole are soulless, lifeless husks, stats are all that differentiate them from the next.


I like the idea Firaxis have done for their new Xcom:2 War of the Chosen Expansion where the soldiers have more personality bonds between other team mates; I know it can't work that way for Rebirth but i'm talking about giving the NPC's their own development based on the random and on how they fair in say.. Battle, Trade etc.. For example, every kill they make boosts not only their stats, but gives them positive perks, fleeing battle from damage gives them a mix like 'cowardly reputation' or reduces the Morale Stats of the Captain and the crew which can be remedied by winning fights.

Or even the Traits and Ancillaries system of Total War games that give Generals traits that buff or give penalties to certain generals based on actions and circumstances.
The idea is it makes you pour time and love into Captains, Engineers, Defence Officers, Pilots, Managers Etc. You want to nurture them into awesome characters with abilities that make them a cut above the rest; like hero characters.

To push the development of characters further.. The Details of a job applicant.
When you hire someone it just doesn't look realistic at all, even when you look at their details, it's crappy, dull (Especially when barely anyone knows how all the star ratings work?).
Needs to be a total redesign of the way you view an NPC's stats.

- A picture of the applicant in the top left corner.
- A colourful backstory describing the NPC, where in Space they're from?, whether they have a criminal record? dark past? etc.
Even allow Players after hiring them to be able to alter the description, to create their own exciting Backstory.. Works brilliantly in XCom 2.
- As I said before add Traits and Ancillaries, like praises from previous employers or blotches they received for disobedience or incompetence.
Maybe even have a chance of hiring someone who could be not who they say they are? Even a tiny percentage chance the Captain you hire is in fact a Pirate who steals your ship right from under you or is an agent from a corporation that will sabotage your empire in certain ways.
- And of course, their star ratings which can be altered through the new traits system, giving you incentive to nurture the NPC.

Also.. I agree with the above that we need to scrap small talk altogether or at least change how it's implemented and which NPC's use it?
For example, they only small talk if they have a secret mission which makes it interesting as the Mission can be totally random so you don't know what they have in store for you or the wealth you could acquire?

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Post by thesus1 » Sat, 22. Jul 17, 14:12

spankahontis wrote:...
I totally agree with this. A lot of games add personality to their NPC without create a complex AI, just by adding a small variation, but not just with pure skill stats.

Endless Legend/Space, XCom, Oxygen not included ... are good examples of "small AI comportment" made great personality for the player.

lostboron
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Post by lostboron » Thu, 27. Jul 17, 05:01

NodusCursorius wrote:Here you go! Show Skills: http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/276/
I tried to install "Show Skills" but that didn't make any difference. Do I have to start a new game ? Do I just have to put the "Show Skills" folder in the extensions folder for it to work ?

Zetoss
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Post by Zetoss » Thu, 27. Jul 17, 06:26

spankahontis wrote:---You want to nurture them into awesome characters with abilities that make them a cut above the rest; like hero characters.---
This. Make this feeling happen and make it work with the game and it will be amazing.

I've never been able to think of the "small talk to reveal stats or find the least useless employees" as a system created to solve a problem; it has always felt like the hidden stats are a problem created to force use of a system. I'd love to experience spankahontis' suggestion about using small talk for special missions and other stuff instead.

Small random thought: the "bribe" to just keep a conversation going for another 30 seconds? That bribe can be far more expensive than what you'd pay to hire the person for the rest of their life, yet they tell you to get lost if you stumble on your words. I'll leave my opinion of this to your imagination.

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Post by Ezarkal » Thu, 27. Jul 17, 13:50

lostboron wrote:
NodusCursorius wrote:Here you go! Show Skills: http://www.nexusmods.com/xrebirth/mods/276/
I tried to install "Show Skills" but that didn't make any difference. Do I have to start a new game ? Do I just have to put the "Show Skills" folder in the extensions folder for it to work ?
Usually yeah, just put the show skill folder in the extention folder. (Extract if needed.)
You might have to activate in from the "extension" game menu and reboot the game, though.

Just comm a hireable NPC, and the "show skill" option should be available in the radial menu. (Just like it would be if your NPC was already hired and assigned somewhere.)
Humans are deuterostomes, which means that when they develop in the womb the first opening they develop is the anus.
This means that at one point you were nothing but an asshole.

Some people never develop beyond this stage.

lostboron
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Post by lostboron » Fri, 28. Jul 17, 00:44

It was not even showing up in the extension menu. Eventually I found a way to get it to work: I renamed the folder and the md file to lowercase. I believe this is a bug in the Linux version of the game (extentions and extension files are ignored if they are not lowercase).

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