Suggestion: Crew gain experience

[sd_jasper]

I recently started a no mod, no dlc play-through of X Rebirth, and I was worried that Trade Agents were going to be the thing that I had the most issue with, but not so. With the job offers (one that gave me 6 trade agents), and the occasional reward for destroying enemies, I haven't had too much issue (so far).

But, what does have me worried is crew skills. I'm not a fan of the conversation mini-game to begin with, but it (on the hard tier) is required to find the best crew, or to get skill upgrades.

The mod that I am missing the most is AutoTrain, which increases NPC skills as they perform the tasks that are influenced by that skill. Kind of like how the Marine Officer works in default.

If X4 has a similar skill system to X Rebirth, I'd love to see something like this in the core game.

[CBJ]

There are some differences in the skill system between XR in X4, but crew gaining experience from the things they are involved in is something we're working on for X4.

[sd_jasper]

There are some differences in the skill system between XR in X4, but crew gaining experience from the things they are involved in is something we're working on for X4.

Cool! Can't wait to see what y'all have come up with.

[spankahontis]

I hope to see a Ships Crew better thought out as well.

Seeing a Destroyer with a crew of just 1xCaptain, 1xEngineer and 1xDefense Officer seems poorly thought out to me.

Maybe have a larger crew the way a Marine Officer has 50xMarines under him?
- Defence Officers have Gunners that can gain experience over time?
- Rename the Engineer a 'Chief Engineer' That can have Engineers under him.
- Captain's have 'Officers'.

All can gain experience like in Auto-Train?

Also, you don't need to reach the Cap for each Crewman, you can still run the ship with just half the Engineers, Gunners, Officers.

But stats of the ship are effected, Aim, Recharge rates, Speed Etc. More crew the better, and maybe tied down to the quality of the superior officer?

[sd_jasper]

I hope to see a Ships Crew better thought out as well.

Seeing a Destroyer with a crew of just 1xCaptain, 1xEngineer and 1xDefense Officer seems poorly thought out to me.

Maybe have a larger crew the way a Marine Officer has 50xMarines under him?
- Defence Officers have Gunners that can gain experience over time?
- Rename the Engineer a 'Chief Engineer' That can have Engineers under him.
- Captain's have 'Officers'.

All can gain experience like in Auto-Train?

Also, you don't need to reach the Cap for each Crewman, you can still run the ship with just half the Engineers, Gunners, Officers.

But stats of the ship are effected, Aim, Recharge rates, Speed Etc. More crew the better, and maybe tied down to the quality of the superior officer?

I always assumed that each employee was just a "direct report" and that they each had their own staff under them that the player didn't really need to deal with. But it would be nice to see more NPCs about, even if the player can't give them direct commands.

In one of the streams they show a bit of capital ship bridge, and I noticed several more NPCs there. I think they had the "pilot" icon, so maybe they were just the folks from docked ships? In any case it was nice to see more NPCs on the bridge.

[Axeface]

I really hope that crews gain experience or traits depending on what happens to them. And my main reason for wanting this is not just to make things more convienient. Having your pilots/crew/station managers gain experience gives them value and personality, hoping that I'll have my favourite capital ship captain that I train from a rookie that just performs better in capital battles, and even gets his ship from A to B faster than everyone else (this is in rebirth i think but its so hard to judge) for example - or even my favourite marine that always gets the job done.

Theres a lot of things that could be tied to individual npc skills - for example a fighter pilot could know a specific evasive manouver at a certain skill level that help him survive more, or a capital ship captain might know a manouver that brings more guns to bare on a target.

It would add a huge amount of believability and emergent gameplay, and consequence when you lose them - thats what makes games interesting.

Glad to hear you are working on it at least Egosoft, it was a big missed opportunity in Rebirth.

PS: Im not asking for an xcom-esk skill tree or something, it should be much more nuanced and subtle in its implimentation to give the npcs a bit of mystery and personality, but it would be huge in regards to gameplay.

[ajime]

My usual routine is in XR to pick a dock which has 2 or 3 captains and do those 2 step minigames to open up the 3 captains. I tend to have a fully skilled captain,DO,engineer on my personal yacht but once in the endgame, i tend to try for the captains only so the ship is expendable to be thrown to the xenons. but it's quite hard to get science virtual seminars to improve my specialist on plants. Been spamming a lot of mini-games recently only to realize there was some variant of background chatter which i never really actually heard before.

[spankahontis]

I really hope that crews gain experience or traits depending on what happens to them. And my main reason for wanting this is not just to make things more convienient. Having your pilots/crew/station managers gain experience gives them value and personality, hoping that I'll have my favourite capital ship captain that I train from a rookie that just performs better in capital battles, and even gets his ship from A to B faster than everyone else (this is in rebirth i think but its so hard to judge) for example - or even my favourite marine that always gets the job done.

Theres a lot of things that could be tied to individual npc skills - for example a fighter pilot could know a specific evasive manouver at a certain skill level that help him survive more, or a capital ship captain might know a manouver that brings more guns to bare on a target.

It would add a huge amount of believability and emergent gameplay, and consequence when you lose them - thats what makes games interesting.

Glad to hear you are working on it at least Egosoft, it was a big missed opportunity in Rebirth.

PS: Im not asking for an xcom-esk skill tree or something, it should be much more nuanced and subtle in its implimentation to give the npcs a bit of mystery and personality, but it would be huge in regards to gameplay.

That be cool, if they had their own trait system, or even the potential for a Captain to betray you, giving you a unique personal mission to hunt the rogue Captain down and give him a swift exit.

But in all, NPC'S develop positive/negative traits would give them some life.

I always assumed that each employee was just a "direct report" and that they each had their own staff under them that the player didn't really need to deal with. But it would be nice to see more NPCs about, even if the player can't give them direct commands.

In one of the streams they show a bit of capital ship bridge, and I noticed several more NPCs there. I think they had the "pilot" icon, so maybe they were just the folks from docked ships? In any case it was nice to see more NPCs on the bridge.

Even just Crew with a 50/50 Cap that offered boosts to your ships performance the more Crew you hired up to the 50 Crew Cap.

There could even be like the Marine Officer Barracks in X3 TC, like a Naval Academy that requires Food, Water, Spacefuel Etc. And produces Naval Crew as a resource that you deliver to Shipyards, or even buy them from the Academy, Equip them like a Missile or store them in your Hold to trade.
Heck that would even give you a good Slave element, flog them to a Pirate Base, they'll become crew for Pirate Galleys.

[PowerPC603]

I hope to see a Ships Crew better thought out as well.

Seeing a Destroyer with a crew of just 1xCaptain, 1xEngineer and 1xDefense Officer seems poorly thought out to me.

Maybe have a larger crew the way a Marine Officer has 50xMarines under him?
- Defence Officers have Gunners that can gain experience over time?
- Rename the Engineer a 'Chief Engineer' That can have Engineers under him.
- Captain's have 'Officers'.

All can gain experience like in Auto-Train?

Also, you don't need to reach the Cap for each Crewman, you can still run the ship with just half the Engineers, Gunners, Officers.

But stats of the ship are effected, Aim, Recharge rates, Speed Etc. More crew the better, and maybe tied down to the quality of the superior officer?

I'd like something like this too.
It's funny that a ship that's over a kilometer in length would only have3 officers onboard.

Even Elite II in the 90s had more crew working onboard your ship for the larger ships.

[ajime]

I really hope that crews gain experience or traits depending on what happens to them. And my main reason for wanting this is not just to make things more convienient. Having your pilots/crew/station managers gain experience gives them value and personality, hoping that I'll have my favourite capital ship captain that I train from a rookie that just performs better in capital battles, and even gets his ship from A to B faster than everyone else (this is in rebirth i think but its so hard to judge) for example - or even my favourite marine that always gets the job done.

Theres a lot of things that could be tied to individual npc skills - for example a fighter pilot could know a specific evasive manouver at a certain skill level that help him survive more, or a capital ship captain might know a manouver that brings more guns to bare on a target.

It would add a huge amount of believability and emergent gameplay, and consequence when you lose them - thats what makes games interesting.

Glad to hear you are working on it at least Egosoft, it was a big missed opportunity in Rebirth.

PS: Im not asking for an xcom-esk skill tree or something, it should be much more nuanced and subtle in its implimentation to give the npcs a bit of mystery and personality, but it would be huge in regards to gameplay.

That be cool, if they had their own trait system, or even the potential for a Captain to betray you, giving you a unique personal mission to hunt the rogue Captain down and give him a swift exit.

But in all, NPC'S develop positive/negative traits would give them some life.

I always assumed that each employee was just a "direct report" and that they each had their own staff under them that the player didn't really need to deal with. But it would be nice to see more NPCs about, even if the player can't give them direct commands.

In one of the streams they show a bit of capital ship bridge, and I noticed several more NPCs there. I think they had the "pilot" icon, so maybe they were just the folks from docked ships? In any case it was nice to see more NPCs on the bridge.

Even just Crew with a 50/50 Cap that offered boosts to your ships performance the more Crew you hired up to the 50 Crew Cap.

There could even be like the Marine Officer Barracks in X3 TC, like a Naval Academy that requires Food, Water, Spacefuel Etc. And produces Naval Crew as a resource that you deliver to Shipyards, or even buy them from the Academy, Equip them like a Missile or store them in your Hold to trade.
Heck that would even give you a good Slave element, flog them to a Pirate Base, they'll become crew for Pirate Galleys.

well that's pretty much what i usually do in the endgame. once i have too many 5 stars i sell them off to stations to get few recruits replacement to join the boarding party.
It was a fun option for some chump change.

[spankahontis]

I'd like something like this too.
It's funny that a ship that's over a kilometer in length would only have3 officers onboard.

Even Elite II in the 90s had more crew working onboard your ship for the larger ships.

That was one of my favourite Elements in Frontier: Elite 2, you'd buy your larger ship and sit there at the Station eating up Credits waiting for the Bulletin Board to update with someone wanting to join a crew.

If I remember as well, they wouldn't always join your crew?
Some required that you have high experience or good reputation with the Federation or the Empire in order for them to join your crew?
Which again I though was a cool angle, the thought of NPC's that wanted to climb the ladder and serve a reputable Captain made a good storyline.