How to recruit crew members?

[Shark]

I read that to recruit members you need to make a colony. How do I make one? Has any of you made one and recruited someone?
And I heard when you recruit people you can make your ship bigger? My ship is really small since I just started playing (just retrieved the first artifact) and I'd like to add more floors, how can I do that?

[TheSuit]

In the outpost you will see a furniture store near the very top.
Buy a colony deed from there.

Go to any planet you like or even your ship and build a room. What you use to fill that room will determine the type of colonist you get. For example if you place a "Weapons crate" you are likely to get a soldier colonist. The more specific furniture you place the more likely chance you will get a specific colonist. Once you are done placing all your furniture - place the colony deed and wait.

Just keep in mind it will be very difficult to recrut colonists on your ship, so it is better to build it on a planet. for merchant colonists the level of equipment they carry depends on the difficulty of planet they are on. So building a colony on dangerous planets means better gear from merchants.

[Shark]

Originally posted by Swat | Elite:

In the outpost you will see a furniture store near the very top.
Buy a colony deed from there.

Go to any planet you like or even your ship and build a room. What you use to fill that room will determine the type of colonist you get. For example if you place a "Weapons crate" you are likely to get a soldier colonist. The more specific furniture you place the more likely chance you will get a specific colonist. Once you are done placing all your furniture - place the colony deed and wait.

Just keep in mind it will be very difficult to recrut colonists on your ship, so it is better to build it on a planet. for merchant colonists the level of equipment they carry depends on the difficulty of planet they are on. So building a colony on dangerous planets means better gear from merchants.

Thank you very much for all those useful info!
I have some other questions though!
I saw you can have many type of colonists but my questions are:
- Do colonists have to be of a specific type to be recruited or even, say, gatherer colonists can ask to become crew?
-How much chance do I have that a colonist will ask to become a crew member? Can I do something to improve the chances?
- If a colonist becomes a crew member will I be able to give him equipment? Or he has to be already strong? And if he dies will he respawn?
-Can I make a colony with houses that all have different furniture from each other? Like, different populations living together?

I don't know if you can answer all these questions but I'd be happy if you can tell me more about colonies and crew members!

[Jakrhovir]

Originally posted by artsycat:

Thank you very much for all those useful info!
I have some other questions though!
I saw you can have many type of colonists but my questions are:
- Do colonists have to be of a specific type to be recruited or even, say, gatherer colonists can ask to become crew?

Basic tenants and guards have asked to join my crew.

Originally posted by artsycat:

-How much chance do I have that a colonist will ask to become a crew member? Can I do something to improve the chances?

Roughly 4/10 of the colonists I did quests for asked to join my crew. These were colonists on a T6 Scorched planet without any particular furnishings or special properties.

Originally posted by artsycat:

- If a colonist becomes a crew member will I be able to give him equipment? Or he has to be already strong? And if he dies will he respawn?

Crew members are weak as kittens and I don't know any way to upgrade their specs, but some of them are meant to stay in the ship permanenetly anyway, like the uniform tailor and the engineers. Any crew member that dies respawns in your ship.

Originally posted by artsycat:

-Can I make a colony with houses that all have different furniture from each other? Like, different populations living together?

Yes.

[Shark]

Originally posted by Alice Of The Twist:

Originally posted by artsycat:

Thank you very much for all those useful info!
I have some other questions though!
I saw you can have many type of colonists but my questions are:
- Do colonists have to be of a specific type to be recruited or even, say, gatherer colonists can ask to become crew?

Basic tenants and guards have asked to join my crew.

Originally posted by artsycat:

-How much chance do I have that a colonist will ask to become a crew member? Can I do something to improve the chances?

Roughly 4/10 of the colonists I did quests for asked to join my crew. These were colonists on a T6 Scorched planet without any particular furnishings or special properties.

Originally posted by artsycat:

- If a colonist becomes a crew member will I be able to give him equipment? Or he has to be already strong? And if he dies will he respawn?

Crew members are weak as kittens and I don't know any way to upgrade their specs, but some of them are meant to stay in the ship permanenetly anyway, like the uniform tailor and the engineers.

Originally posted by artsycat:

-Can I make a colony with houses that all have different furniture from each other? Like, different populations living together?

Yes.

Thanks a lot, now I have a better understanding of things!
I will now try things out for myself and see how it goes!
I have only these other questions: if my ship is small will I be able to recruit more than 1 colonist? Do they require things like bed and a light source? Or will they just wander?

[Jakrhovir]

Crew members require nothing, but they will use chairs and beds if they are available.
Your ship license will automatically upgrade as you find crew members, so space won't be a problem, but you will have to have Penguin Pete upgrade the ship, and for that you need Upgrade Modules.

Also, for some reason crew members like to gather basically on top of the ship teleporter for no reason. The only thing that got some of them away from it for some of the time were beds and chairs in the next room, but they really like that teleporter.

[TheSuit]

Colonists them selves don't need to be a specific type - but only certain types will actually have a special function. You can create your colony how ever you like - but the furniture well define the type of colonist that spawns in that deed. You need 1 deed for each colonist. So you could put 4 colonists in 1 hour, but you will need 4 deeds and 4 defined rrooms. The deed will only scan for furniture in that room.

[Shark]

Originally posted by Alice Of The Twist:

Crew members require nothing, but they will use chairs and beds if they are available.
Your ship license will automatically upgrade as you find crew members, so space won't be a problem, but you will have to have Penguin Pete upgrade the ship, and for that you need Upgrade Modules.

Also, for some reason crew members like to gather basically on top of the ship teleporter for no reason. The only thing that got some of them away from it for some of the time were beds and chairs in the next room, but they really like that teleporter.

Oh, that's great to know! I have some modules so it shouldn't be a problem at least at the beginning!
Hahaha, I shall build some rooms with stuff they can use then!
Thanks for all the info, you helped me a lot! :)

[Shark]

Originally posted by Swat | Elite:

Colonists them selves don't need to be a specific type - but only certain types will actually have a special function. You can create your colony how ever you like - but the furniture well define the type of colonist that spawns in that deed. You need 1 deed for each colonist. So you could put 4 colonists in 1 hour, but you will need 4 deeds and 4 defined rrooms. The deed will only scan for furniture in that room.

All right! I will go and find some furniture to build decent rooms then! :)
My only concern is that since I'm still at the beginning I won't be able to spawn particularly strong colonists since I don't have rare furniture but I'll try and see what I get haha
Thanks a lot!

[Mavor]

Yeah they do tend to all bunch up around the teleporter - can be annoying at times...

[Mavor]

Also, why are soldiers so damn weak? Heat planet creatures just wreck them. I can understand it with the rest of the crew, as they have passives that can offset low damage output - but soldiers do nothing but eh, die. They aggro things they cant possibly kill - and the only way to save them is haul ass and get them to teleport to you. Course, then they go do something stupid like stand in lava and die anyway... xO

[Shark]

Originally posted by Mavor:

Also, why are soldiers so damn weak? Heat planet creatures just wreck them. I can understand it with the rest of the crew, as they have passives that can offset low damage output - but soldiers do nothing but eh, die. They aggro things they cant possibly kill - and the only way to save them is haul ass and get them to teleport to you. Course, then they go do something stupid like stand in lava and die anyway... xO

Now that I have 6 crew members I understand why you said they all gather on the teleporter hahaha
I still haven't landed on a Lava planet but my soldiers are fine enough for now? They've only died twice and I brought them with me on risky planets. I'll have to try and see how it goes!
The only complaint I have is that their damage is kinda low but I don't mind too much after all cuz they're basically meat shields while I finish off the enemies with a sniper rifle haha
In the latest patch they said they made the crew members scale with the player but I didn't really see much of a difference...I need to investigate more!