What do you do with your NPC crew when they're not being used?

[Sasha Mason]

I recently found out that the NPC crew that you can hire takes a cut regardless of whether they have been with you on a mission or not (as well as stealing half your combat rank progression). Since I'm not using them right now I've dismissed them, but it made me wonder what y'all are doing with yours.

I was thinking that it could be a valid strategy of keeping that pilot only for as long as you have a ship to use them with, but then eventually when I'd want to use a different ship, I'd have to dismiss. I could also hire one and dismiss before turning all my rewards in but I would never have a high level pilot doing that, and I'd still pay some money for the re-hire so I'll pay for them one way or another.

I could also just take a harmless, grind them to Elite and just accept that I will always lose out on a percentage of my rewards but I dunno.

[Mazzle Dazzle]

Originally posted by Sasha Mason:

I recently found out that the NPC crew that you can hire takes a cut regardless of whether they have been with you on a mission or not (as well as stealing half your combat rank progression). Since I'm not using them right now I've dismissed them, but it made me wonder what y'all are doing with yours.

I was thinking that it could be a valid strategy of keeping that pilot only for as long as you have a ship to use them with, but then eventually when I'd want to use a different ship, I'd have to dismiss. I could also hire one and dismiss before turning all my rewards in but I would never have a high level pilot doing that, and I'd still pay some money for the re-hire so I'll pay for them one way or another.

I could also just take a harmless, grind them to Elite and just accept that I will always lose out on a percentage of my rewards but I dunno.

I used to take them all the time but its not worth it as you correctly identified. Now I just don't use them. I don't think the inclusion of a fighter adds enough and they make multicrew lag anyway. Its easier just to never use them and use real people.

[ShelLuser]

So... I have a crew member called Elsa Harrison and "she" has been with me way before Odyssey even hit the shelves. I would never even think of dismissing 'her' (meh.. I'm just gonna go into roleplay mode right now ok?, but you get the drift..).

Thing is: if you train a crew member to go from useless to elite (or any other tier some of which you cannot even directly hire) then you'll now have 2 major advantages...

#1 => You pay a lot less. If you "just" hire the best of the best you're looking at a major percentage of your loot that they claim. I hired Elsa when she had just given up her life as a smuggler and she won me over by telling me how she managed to get up ahead in the buckyball races. Having never heard of that before I realized it had to be good ;P (ey, editorial freedom! ;))

Basically I hired Elsa while she was still at a harmless level. I dunno what she asked of me but I agreed. We've been together for years now and here's the thing: when she levels up she only asks for 1% more. No more, no less.

So when she became mostly harmless I paid 3% instead of 2 (I think). Novice? 4% vs. 6. Which is a funny story because at first I specifically started to do combat myself to level her up a bit and we managed to become novices together, awesome (roleplay) times.

But here's the thing.... #2 you can only hire up to Expert level, and it'll take you 12% of your income. Elsa on the other hand is Dangerous right now yet she only asks for 9% of my income. But being dangerous isn't only about her level anymore....

I've been into crew members the very moment I hired Elsa and .. I just love the mechanic. True story: my favorite activity in the game are passenger missions and I love my Saud Krugers. But the only reason I decided to get a Beluga despite being fully satisfied with an Orca... no, not more cabins and more money: the Beluga can be outfitted with a hangar which means... Elsa can actually join my tours.

Now, here is where things get awesome.... #3 when I say I love the mechanics, I'm not just saying. So when Elsa became an expert herself and me realizing that this was "the" level of no return I hired a 2nd (expert) crew member and pitted them against each other.

You can't have 2 crew members active at the same time of course but you can use the same ship, the same conditions (rougly) and spent some time in missions and around NAV beacons to see how things work out. Which is what I did.

Black box recovery.... I sent Elsa out just to be sure and set her to engage at will. The moment hostile blips appeared she was already half way between me and the hostiles. My hired expert otoh took several moments before he put his ass into gear, I actually had to activate a shield battery. NAV beacons... sometimes I get to see a little "b00m" in the distance and a notification that I somehow earned yet another bounty claim while I was actually doing nothing more but collecting the spoils of the previous kill. Turns out Elsa went after yet another hostile and when they fled she refused to give up.

I spent 2 sessions with a hired expert helper and I've never seen them doing anything like that. Making me conclude that training crew members is way better than just hiring them.


Meh, sorry for the long read but... it adds to my answer... I keep Elsa around because she 1) asks for way less than others of the same level 2) you can't even hire anyone of her level and 3) she is also way better in getting things done in comparison.

Fun fact: because of an Odyssey bug I once lost Elsa as my crew member. I died in combat but having plenty of cash to cover for the rebuy the game still refused to revive my crew member. I was fuming, I was livid and I was ready to stop playing ED forever. I slept it over, then asked FDev for help and they didn't only acknowledged the bug.. the next time I logged into the game Elsa was once again getting ready in the crew lounge :)

My most prized ship in the game is my Cutter. I splurged on that critter, an easy 1.5+ billion credits. Guess what? Not only has it tons of storage capacity (I love cargo hauling...), it also has several passenger cabins. As well as... of course: a hanger ;)

I probably take this way more seriously than I should and yah, I'm one of the people rallying for showing our active crew members in the cockpit but meh... this is seriously one of my favorite mechanics in the game. My numeric keypad? Fully dedicated to help me relay crew member orders.

[Capnflag]

Thanks for the posts! I am far enough along to be wondering about NPC crewing and the thread discussions were quite helpful.

[BloodravenD]

I only have one crew member, and while she does take a chunk of profit, I usually make enough that it's not enough to warrant dismissing her. I got her as harmless and trained her up on targets until she was at a decent leve, still quite a wasy to go until she is at Elite however.

I do like having a crew and fighter, I would have multiple if I could, as I primarily play solo or with a few friends. Having even something as simple as a SLF to take a bit of the aggro off can help, not to mention at their max combat level a SLF in their hands is about as good as a Large or Huge Hardpoint(forgot which of the two it is) in terms of damage.

To build on what ShelLuser said, how he has two crew at the same level but react differently to the same situations, their background matters in terms of their effeciveness as well. A crew with a background in combat, being a fighter pilot for example, will be more effective at the same level another crew would be if they had just a background in hauling goods.

[Laekenois]

Credits have not been a big enough deal to worry about it.

I've had two elite pilots, but got tired of the female's voice and haven't done that since.

If you're leaning on the SLF having an Elite pilot is a big difference.
Especially if in a fragile guardian fighter.
Sub elite just go poof.

There are several voices, and some fit different ships to me better than others.
I often check the crew pages, and hire a second or third from time to time to see if I want to keep them and potentially replace my existing pilot(s).

[Laekenois]

I'd be a more than a little surprised if the young "Harmless" pilot bragging about winning a 10 vs 1 in the bakaar system wasn't telling a tall tail.

Originally posted by BloodravenD:

To build on what ShelLuser said, how he has two crew at the same level but react differently to the same situations, their background matters in terms of their effeciveness as well. A crew with a background in combat, being a fighter pilot for example, will be more effective at the same level another crew would be if they had just a background in hauling goods.

[Sighman]

They only steal rank if they're involved in the kill, and the quickest way to progress combat rank (if that's your thing) is to do ground CZ on foot where they can't steal your rank anyway.

As for credits, if you train up an Elite NPC from scratch they take 10% but I don't even notice. My NPC has earned something like 12-16 billion off me over the years, which means I've earned ten times that.

[Agony_Aunt]

I hired a harmless years ago and trained her up to Elite. She takes 10% of my income.

I'm sure by now she could outright buy a planet.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Sighman:

They only steal rank if they're involved in the kill, and the quickest way to progress combat rank (if that's your thing) is to do ground CZ on foot where they can't steal your rank anyway.

As for credits, if you train up an Elite NPC from scratch they take 10% but I don't even notice. My NPC has earned something like 12-16 billion off me over the years, which means I've earned ten times that.

Umm... don't ground CZs increase you other combat rank... the gunslinger rank or whatever its called? The one that unlocks suits.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Sighman:

They only steal rank if they're involved in the kill, and the quickest way to progress combat rank (if that's your thing) is to do ground CZ on foot where they can't steal your rank anyway.

As for credits, if you train up an Elite NPC from scratch they take 10% but I don't even notice. My NPC has earned something like 12-16 billion off me over the years, which means I've earned ten times that.

Umm... don't ground CZs increase you other combat rank... the gunslinger rank or whatever its called? The one that unlocks suits.

They're also the quickest way to raise your combat rank. (Combat = fighting, not just ship combat). It may not be intended, but that's how it works. I just got my fourth Alt up to Expert combat rank in Colonia so I could unlock Petra Olmanova out there.

The other rank is Mercenary, which is on foot only.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Sighman:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Umm... don't ground CZs increase you other combat rank... the gunslinger rank or whatever its called? The one that unlocks suits.

They're also the quickest way to raise your combat rank. (Combat = fighting, not just ship combat). It may not be intended, but that's how it works. I just got my fourth Alt up to Expert combat rank in Colonia so I could unlock Petra Olmanova out there.

The other rank is Mercenary, which is on foot only.

Sounds like a bug then. Ground CZs should raise Merc rank surely?

[Sighman]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Sighman:

They're also the quickest way to raise your combat rank. (Combat = fighting, not just ship combat). It may not be intended, but that's how it works. I just got my fourth Alt up to Expert combat rank in Colonia so I could unlock Petra Olmanova out there.

The other rank is Mercenary, which is on foot only.

Sounds like a bug then. Ground CZs should raise Merc rank surely?

They raise both.

I guess NPCs are NPCs whether they're in a ship or a combat suit.

[Foxwalker]

Honestly I like having one of my crew when mining hanging out watching my back as I mine. My first is Romeo Becker. He has an Aussie accent. Somehow, it makes me feel a bit less lonely while touring the Galaxy. I got him as harmless and have watched him grow to Dangerous. Sometimes when I am attacked by NPC bad guys, he kills the attacking ships before I get a chance to turn my Mining Cutter around to the fight. "No more hostiles, Captain"

I wish he had more dialog and could come up and hang with me in the second seat of my ship bridge when not in his GU-97.

Once you have been playing for a while, his percentage seems like a drop in the bucket relative to your Carrier upkeep costs.

To sum up. they add flavor to the game, I am glad they are available. I wish more ships had the capacity for a fighter bay.

[Sighman]

Originally posted by Foxwalker:

Once you have been playing for a while, his percentage seems like a drop in the bucket relative to your Carrier upkeep costs.

To sum up. they add flavor to the game, I am glad they are available. I wish more ships had the capacity for a fighter bay.

When I'm doing massacre missions in Mainani, I just sit there in my Krait/Corvette and send my Elite npc pilot off to kill wings of low-level bad guys while I deal with people closer to my ship.

Sometimes I take the helm of the fighter and watch my NPC slaughtering everyone in the mothership.

As with carrier upkeep, I don't begrudge paying a minuscule amount - comparative to earnings - for a useful service.

[funkynutz]

Pay them to sit in the corner and look pretty. I'm not getting my moneys worth...