How do you hire people (and ships)?

[Charlemagne]

OK I built the exocraft room on the freighter. There is this Vykeen on a station that's always pestering me to be my Exocraft technician. So when I finally try to hire him, the option is grayed out?
Then squadrons, all four positions are locked. I have to build bays? But I don't see a bay in the construction tree.
Can you buy more freighters? I mean I know you can buy them, because I have seen the offers, but can you have more than one freighter?
And how/where do you get more frigates? I have the one that came with my freighter.

[Captain Brendig]

The technicians need base specific terminals to work from, such as overseer, farmer, exocraft, science, etc. These should be part of the tutorial for planet side base building. The exocraft room for the freighter is something very different. If you have that and your BP's then you should be able to ignore him.

Never messed with squadrons, can't answer that.

Just one freighter.

You can buy frigates from NPC fleets. Wait for a fleet to warp into the system, then casually fly through and you may get alerts for frigates that are up for sale. That is a whole different thread as to what class/model is best to balance your fleet.

GL Traveler!

[Yxklyx]

For the the squadrons just hover a slot and press the appropriate key to spend nanites to unlock an opening. Then ask a pilot at a space station or trading port etc to join.

[chipmonk]

The exocraft materializer room on the freighter is unmanned and is used to call in your exocraft when on a planet. The Freighter must be in the same system as the planet you're calling the exocraft to appear on. The technician is hired for the exocraft station/terminal that you build in a ground base. To do so you must first complete the base expansion missions that will be given to you after you build the base construction terminal with the directive to hire a base overseer. You follow these missions by building a science terminal and hiring a specialist for it, then a weapons terminal and specialist, then a agricultural terminal and specialist and then finally the exocraft terminal and specialist. Each one will give you the tasks, blueprints and directions to build the next one.

You need to unlock each of the slots for the squad by paying for them with nanites with each slot getting more expensive than the previous slot. To do so hover over the slot and press the left mouse button to bring up the purchase option. If I recall the first is 800 nanites then the second is 3,500 nanites the third is 7,500 nanites and the last is 10,000 nanites. You can hire any npc ship to be a part of your squad.

You can trade in your freighter for a new one but you cannot have more than on freighter at a time. To get frigates you can approach other freighters with their frigates that enter the system and when you get close enough to them, the frigates you can hire will have a green icon above them that states they are recruitable. As you approach the one you wish to hire you will receive a incoming message notification. Answer it and you will be given the opportunity to purchase the frigate.

[The Cog (O.T.H.G.)]

Originally posted by chipmonk:

....
You need to unlock each of the slots for the squad by paying for them with nanites with each slot getting more expensive than the previous slot. To do so hover over the slot and press the left mouse button to bring up the purchase option. If I recall the first is 800 nanites then the second is 3,500 nanites the third is 7,500 nanites and the last is 10,000 nanites. You can hire any npc ship to be a part of your squad.
......

In case you are unsure of where to go for this, on the bridge of your freighter, there is a terminal where you "Manage Fleet". "Manage Squadron" is also an option in there. If I remember correctly, you buy the slots for your squadron there (4 max).