"Is it me, or does this sound like the basis of a rather sordid SF flick with almost guaranteed financial success? "
we've got a Hoopy Casino, would there be market for a "Wolfie's Brothel and Crew-hire" ship d'you think?
@DH:
"GoCHAOS"
that's much of what i was thinking about : add a bit colour to the game but don't make it too complex. Like i said, i think the crew simply gets a per-trip fee, launch to dock. if you're on a long haul that involves jump-skim-jump-skim etc, i dunno : get an extra x-credits per jump after the first one?
droids is probably the easiest way to implement this, as they could be bought like missiles then the code could do a simple "ship xxx needs z robots, how many are fitted?" and if there's not enough you can't launch until you have the required amount. this would negate the ability to hire pretty girlies tho, so i'm strongly against it
Re: GoCHAOS - sometimes I even make myself smile.
I was going to suggest keeping it even simpler - a piece of equipment that simply states "GoCHAOS Supplied Crew @ 450Cr per month" (or somesuch) - would have to find someway of preventing them from being "damaged" though.
Could then use Snoopers to inject a little atmosphere into the game:
"2nd Rate Engineer Taska Baul has been ill for three days this month with XXX evil disease"
"A representative from the crew says it will be contacting GoCHAOS at the next opportunity to complain about how often you seem to put them into unnecessary combat situations"
For a feline crew: "The crew is unhappy that you seem to think catnip is potentially a narcotic substance and have banned its use during crew rotas"
Crew damaged is perfectly simple, a crew member is killed or injured
Absolutely right - but I was worried how this might "affect" the ship's performance - and if it doesn't - what's the point?
Alternatively - if a crew is "damaged" (members of GoCHAOS are killed/seriously injured) - then the Guild will replace them next time you dock - for an additional fee and possibly an increased overall cost per cycle - i.e. danger money...
Another thought - if we carry on ignoring Ahruman that this is virtually impossible...
An example:
You buy an Anaconda - you happen to be on a rodent world and therefore you get through GoCHAOS a rodent crew. Sometime later - you're attacked - your crew is "damaged" - when you dock you're presented with a replacement cost - problem is - you have to replace the entire crew because you've docked at a "feline" populated world and GoCHAOS has strict rules about mixed rodent/feline crews - you also have to pay additional costs to get your current remaining rodent crew to a rodent based world - as per the agreement you entered when taking on a GoCHAOS crew (even though you can't go anywhere else...)
- when you buy a new ship that requires a crew, a mission screen pops up - it's from the Guild of Crew/Hauliers And Other Spacefarers (GoCHAOS)
Great. I just love this name...
And the general concept is something I like, too. Then the big. big advantage would be that one can fly the good old cobby all by oneself, and for anything bigger, you'll need to hire some biological jetsam
So I've stolen your idea PAG - apologies - and that thread is over a year old - some great ideas - and yet it was never done - for shame.
A combo of good JS-scripting/Random-hits-alike-name-generation/Snoopers-injection-method "we"* could be on to a winner (again)
DH
*by "we" - I of course mean forum members who are infinitely more clever than I.
NP
Also to all re-read the above mentioned thread
On the end of that Thread KZ9999 came up with this:
Here's a quick though on how to code a crew
Crew name generated by the same algorithims that create passengers.
Each crew member is rated on: weapons skills (0 none, 7 average, 15 amazing), engineering skill (0-15 again), merchant skills (0-15), and reliability - how likely they are able to perform under combat conditions (15 unreliable - 0 never fails). Experienced is based on average weapons+engineering+merchant - reliably.
The base wages could be calculated as 50 cr month adjusted by the experience rating (100 per month for highly skilled, 10 per month for poor) with an additional annul bonus based on experienced. If the crew member stays with you for the year, then their skills adjusted by one and their wages increase. The length of the contract could effect the price, longer contract being cheaper per month.
On the day to day basis the the crew total skill is average on each class to effect a beneficial effect for the player less the average total of crew reliability. Weapon skills improve damage of hits by a small percent. Engineering reduce the chance of equipment damage by a percent, merchant improve prices by a small percent. Class average of 8-11 get 5% change, 12-13 gets a 10% change, 14 is 15%, 15 is 20% (etxreamly rare.)
Crew can be hired though a bbs on stations where there should be 20-40 of them, via the F4x2 key. They are managed on the manifests screen: showing when they hired and when the contract will expire, their monthy cost, and their general rating. Through this menu you can chose not to renew a contract or break it with a penalty payment.
An so it could be expanded on from this... Crew members going on strike due to missed wages. Random crew killed during hull strikes. A flu hits the crew and reduces their ability to perform for a while. Someone jumps ship or sneaks on-board. A crew member has a pet trumble that escapes into the hold. ..
"Absolutely right - but I was worried how this might "affect" the ship's performance - and if it doesn't - what's the point? "
i suppose the simplest answer would be that it wouldn't directly (until more enhancements to future versions) ~ if we're using the droid example it would simply mean it would be like other damaged equipment, resulting in you having to spend cash before being able to relaunch.
If we did end up w/ clever code, we could have, eg, the gunner(s) linked to the guns - lose a gunner and the weapons become inactive/glitchy. lose an engineer and you start losing top speed or injection ability. etc etc.
lol - i just thought up a funny : you could stock up your boa, get a crew and hype off on your way. suddenly, en route to the planet you eject. upon landing you're told you got shipjacked by the crew
I think you should be able to fly a freighter without a crew but you have to pay exorbitant stevedore hire costs per tonne at stations. The cost would be higher per tonne at low government and lower productivity worlds but minimum charges would be higher at high government worlds. And probably variations for planet and non-main stations and maybe a Small Trader discount for ships with cargo capacity less than or equal to 40 tonnes so new commanders are not hit so hard.
There would also need to be a way to calculate reduction in stevedore costs for partial crews. Such as each non specialist crew member knocks 2 tonnes off the number used to calculate cost or some such concept.
Loading & unloading at stations is already automated.
Edited to add: The flow of goods is something that planets do not want to disrupt. A system that is uncompetitive will soon find traders deciding to do business elsewhere. High fees and costs are things which traders will avoid. When traders avoid a system, the system either starves for lack of trade or it changes the conditions of its hospitality to regain market share.
As previously stated. Having crew is optional. Having stevedores is also optional and up to individual players discretion.
Oolite is flexible and comes in a variety of flavors.
"I shouldn't have taken off in this crate without more ammo..." Sergeant Knox - Star Blazers
Loading & unloading at stations is already automated.
Somehow, I already noticed this.
Edited to add: The flow of goods is something that planets do not want to disrupt. A system that is uncompetitive will soon find traders deciding to do business elsewhere. High fees and costs are things which traders will avoid. When traders avoid a system, the system either starves for lack of trade or it changes the conditions of its hospitality to regain market share.
As previously stated. Having crew is optional. Having stevedores is also optional and up to individual players discretion.
I was suggesting to change this to a more realistic scenario. And just because it is this way now doesn't mean we can't change it with an OXP. If it is across all systems then your argument fails. It only becomes related to what algorithm is used. Also I never said that they would be that high either. If the average charge per tonne is greater than the average profit per tonne for basic goods there wouldn't be much point setting this up.
Oolite is flexible and comes in a variety of flavors.
Isn't that what I am suggesting a option? 1) Get a crew and all that entails or 2) not get a crew and pay stevedore hire costs. 3) I don't want this so I don't install the OXP/deselect feature (assuming the crew.oxp supports OXP Config).
All I am suggesting is another reason for wanting a crew.
