Making Crew Matter: a Suggestion

theodrim · May 2013

Since crew, especially after the LoR patch, has an effect on hull repair rate that's trivial in and out of combat, I have a suggestion to make crew much more important in STO. Add performance degradation by crew loss.

This is easily accomplished by tying available power levels to the number of able, and live, crew. Starting with a base power level of 100 (60 for RRF ships), each percent of able crew adds 1 to ship's power and each percent of live, but disabled, crew adds 0.5. Power loss by lost crew is subtracted proportionally from power according to how it is set.

So, for example, a ship with 50% live and able crew at full weapons power (100/50/25/25) will have available 75/38/19/19, before efficiency, performance, and gear/battery/ability bonuses.

snoggymack22 · May 2013

Due to how easily crew are killed in the combat mechanics your idea will cause a gamewide nerf to everyone's ships. And the nerf will be bigger for the bigger crewed ships due to how crew regenerates.

I don't know about the rest of the people who stumble across this thread, but I'm not keen on this idea.

hasukurobi · May 2013

snoggymack22 wrote: »

Due to how easily crew are killed in the combat mechanics your idea will cause a gamewide nerf to everyone's ships. And the nerf will be bigger for the bigger crewed ships due to how crew regenerates.

I don't know about the rest of the people who stumble across this thread, but I'm not keen on this idea.

I agree 100%. I already gave a good idea for how Crew could really help make a difference and matter BUT the first thing that HAS to happen is to stop basing Crew Death on Percentile and start basing it on Number. So that big crews do not vanish just as fast as tiny ones.

decronia · May 2013

I am going to have to agree with Snoggymack too. Until the crew system is fixed it should not have much of an effect on things.

grtiggy · May 2013

yea it would be nice if the crew did not die in the first volley or so and the crew actually did something other than increased hull repair

theodrim · May 2013

snoggymack22 wrote: »

Due to how easily crew are killed in the combat mechanics your idea will cause a gamewide nerf to everyone's ships. And the nerf will be bigger for the bigger crewed ships due to how crew regenerates.

I don't know about the rest of the people who stumble across this thread, but I'm not keen on this idea.

Crew are adequately resilient, when players use the proper consoles to preserve and restore crew.

I guess if my suggestion were to be worked into the game in some form, players might find cause to actually use them, especially when taking into consideration cruisers and ships with larger crews would find themselves at a significant, much-needed, comparative advantage in preserving power levels. Moreover, the addition of warp and singularity cores, in addition to common set equipments' innate power bonuses and the variety of skills in a player's toolbox to even out and spike power levels, would nicely counterbalance any potential power loss from crew.

tsurutafan01 · May 2013

Until crew has been changed so that my Odyssey doesn't take THREE MINUTES to return to fully functional status after fighting the Crystaline Entitiy, I'm not interested in any other tweaks.

Cruisers: Flying graveyards.

theodrim · May 2013

tsurutafan01 wrote: »

Until crew has been changed so that my Odyssey doesn't take THREE MINUTES to return to fully functional status after fighting the Crystaline Entitiy, I'm not interested in any other tweaks.

Cruisers: Flying graveyards.

Funny story, I did CE a few times in my mirror star cruiser for kicks, at the time it was equipped with the Jem'Hadar set (out of necessity as I lacked a better equipment set for an alternate ship). My crew didn't "evaporate within seconds of red alert" as some would claim happens -- I usually finished out the fight with about 60% crew, if I remember right. Of course, I didn't foolishly fly into crystalline shards either looking to get my crew killed. Didn't have any problems when I switched out the JH set for my Borg Mk X set, and equipped emergency force fields, either.

Crew resistance/regeneration consoles do have meaningful impact. There just happens to be no incentive to keep crew alive in combat, therefore no one runs them to protect their crew. My suggestion adds that incentive.

zachverant · May 2013

I want the Crew to matter...REALLY I do...then the crew consoles would be...useful.

However as another poster stated, our crew dies toooooo easily and fast...after the first few seconds your crew is down to 1 or 2 guys, and they really do not effect the operation of your ship.

NOW with that said, you "may" see effects of crew loss and console +'s in long drawn out space battles in PvE, but in PvP, battles do not last long enough for the justification of using the crew consoles in place of more important consoles.

In closing, Cryptic needs to do a top to bottom re-evaluation of...crew...and they may be very well doing that, it is just on the back burner in priorities.

just my 2 ec's worth...:P

squatsauce · May 2013

I think crew would matter more if we convert them into some sort of offensive projectile.

guilli88 · May 2013

Torpedo should kill Random(1-10) crew per hit. NOT 10% crew per hit.

That way, ships with 2000 crew can take a damn well pounding!

+1 to all powerlevels per 100 alive crew. (pretty please)

pyryck · May 2013

Way back in the days of beta, there was a vendor on SB39 that sold "crew" for EC. That was there with the intention of being able to replace "crew" that was "killed".

The idea kinda, sorta died out, but the NPC is still there scanning items on a grav-sled.

Making Crew Matter: a Suggestion

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