Mostly fun but frustrating experience

[Csupasz Pisztoly]

After 9 missions, I started to like the game. But than this happend:

I had to send out my engineer to repaire the right engine. In the mean time, the enemy attacked with full force. Of corse, I left her in space because of manuvering. Then after the fight I was unable to pick her up, she just floated 28m away from my ship.
While I tried to do something for her, the radiation killed half of my crew. I repaired the engine with an other crew, but a couple seconds later the mission got finished for some reason, resulting the total loss of my ship and crew.

I will not start again with a green crew... I think this is good bye for me.

[floatstarpx]

Hello!
You can use the tractor beam to retrieve crew that are floating in space.
New recruits start at higher levels as you progress through the game- you won't get a Lv1 Crew. Replacement ships also improve as you progress, so your ship upgrades won't be rolled all the way back to the start, either.
Hope this helps! :)

[Malidictus]

Stuff like this is bound to happen as you're learning the ins and outs of the game, unfortunately. Space Crew seems the hardest and most unforgiving right out the gate before you're aware of the pitfalls, but it does get better, especially as your crew level up. Of particular note is note is not doing hard manoeuvres when you have crew outside the ship. It also helps to equip your engineer with gravity boots - they move around faster outside the ship that way. There are a whole bunch of little things like that.

As floatstarpx said - you're going to get better crew replacements as you progress through the game. I'm not sure what exactly tracks "progress" (I would guess science), but you shouldn't be sent TOO far back. I'm also reptty sure you can still save-scum, as well :) I played the majority of Bomber Crew by Alt+F4 evety time I got killed or shot down, and I'm pretty sure that works here, as well. Haven't really needed to use it, though - again, the game gets easier once you figure it out.

[Csupasz Pisztoly]

Ahh, tractor beam. Good to know. :)

I'm planning a save-scum, I have a second PC with a bit older save file... Btw, a quick-load function would be a nice quality of life improvement for the game.

[Malidictus]

I think you can just go back to the Main Menu and Load Game from there. I've done it a grand total of one time (missed a pick-up side mission, though it was important) and it seemed to work just fine. The game will explicitly tell you that "Your progress will be saved." when it's saving, and it doesn't seem to save when just dumping back down to the menu mid-mission.

Additionally, I have a couple of possible theories for why you lost the ship. Losing your O2 generator starts a countdown which I believe leads to total ship loss if you let it run down, even if your people have their own independent air supply. I don't know if the same applies to the reactor, as well.

And yeah, you can pick people up who drop out into space. Do note that they die pretty quickly unless they have a separate air source. If your Engineer was out on the wing, chances are they had a space suit which may or may not mean infinite survivability. However, I've vented my engineer and my gunner out several times trying to get rid of fires or boarders, and they're not too happy when you pull them back :)

I eventually started putting separate air source helmets on everyone for that reason. It's to the point where my engineer doesn't even need a space suit to repair the engines. She has a 30-second air supply, which is plenty for engine repairs. Bit risky, of course, but it's there. I did accidentally vent a scientist I was saving into a black hole, though. No recovering him. Friend of mine remarked that "It's how he would have wanted to go." :)

[Csupasz Pisztoly]

Well, I get my old crew back with some save scumming and now I'm happy. They already survived some more missions, so I may not leave this game. :) - sorry, I just don't want an other crew... I have my crew and they will save the planet! :)

Btw, a quick-reload option would be nice instead of Alt + F4 rage quite.

Malidictus: O2 was fine. I seriously don't know what happend.

[Asphe]

Probably radiation. Without some form of anti-rad gear, it'll add up fast yet slow enough you may not notice their HP bars going down.

Don't save scum... try to role play a bit for the new crew (I always grab the extra crewman in the Mess Hall... but I also just put him in the rear compartment with a phase rifle and a red shirt). You'll like the survivors more that way ^_^.

[Helikos]

@floatstarpx can you answer my question please.

[Silvertomb]

I am playing on steam deck and can't seem to activate the tractor beam. Which crew has those controls?

[Mike]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.