VERY basic Crew guide.

[IronSides]

I made an art to help a little bit with people getting more out of their crew.
The game says this ship should have 104 crew, It runs FINE with 47!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891860268

Having the crew in the places they need to be and having a good job setup will DEFINITELY help you to get more done with less crew and be able to have that fleet or that mega ship running like a well oiled machine.

Redshirts will only get you so far.... usually dead.

[Don Vincenzoo 57]

amazing ! thanks a lot sir !

[IronSides]

Here is a ship the game Suggests 237 crew!! I have it running with 95 crew.
3 deck guns, 12 missile silos, 4 large cannon turrets. 4 shields. Sensors. all with 95 crew.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891903866
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891903875

It can sustain the rate of fire until empty.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891905674

[umop-apisdn]

Originally posted by IronSides:

It can sustain the rate of fire until empty.

Why stop there? Add some storages full of the makings for ammo and missiles; the materials required to make ammo/missiles are themselves inert, and won't explode until they're made into ammo. Wrap your factories in factory supplies (and wrap the storages in armor, of course).

Add a few more crew to transport materials to the factories, while you're at it... and add moving walkways to speed your crew from place to place.

The "suggested" numbers for crew and power are (to quote a few captains) "more like guidelines". With a good design (utilizing proper pathing), you can get away with many fewer crew (as you have just discovered).

[IronSides]

Everyone has a good strategy I see the walkways as taking up space where the bedrooms could just be, plus no matter what they have to cross a section and get slowed a moment. If you have specialized jobs no crew should be running far at all.

I love factories I make all of my ships money free but they are heavy and do require a decent crew plus mining/ and having guys able to space walk. a factory ship on its own is the way I go.

[a small rabbit]

The placement is fine, but your crew numbers only work for those ship because of mods. A normal deck cannon with only 4 crew reloading it for example will run out of ammo after 12 shots and need to wait between refills

Of course the game suggested crew is going to be way off with mods.

[IronSides]

it works equally as well vanilla honestly these battles are far from long the deck guns 4 slot vanilla hold more than enough rounds and if another cargo bay is right outside, even easier I give my deck guns.... (MY fav weapon obviously) the least amount of re-loaders of any weapon. I was surprised the missile silos were staying so well loaded during the tests actually.

[IronSides]

Originally posted by a small rabbit:

The placement is fine, but your crew numbers only work for those ship because of mods. A normal deck cannon with only 4 crew reloading it for example will run out of ammo after 12 shots and need to wait between refills

Of course the game suggested crew is going to be way off with mods.

the crew who reload the deck guns bring the ammo to the four slots of the guns the guns pull from all four slots it takes longer for a gun to run out than you think, I always put them on stagger fire mode which doesnt make much of a difference

vanilla is far from balanced, I tweak all facets of the game daily. I encourage it.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by a small rabbit:

The placement is fine, but your crew numbers only work for those ship because of mods. A normal deck cannon with only 4 crew reloading it for example will run out of ammo after 12 shots and need to wait between refills

Of course the game suggested crew is going to be way off with mods.

^-- This.

Though, well-designed roles are necessary for efficiency no matter the mods, unless they're like... totally busted OP ones. :)

Originally posted by a small rabbit:

...
Having the crew in the places they need to be and having a good job setup will DEFINITELY help you to get more done with less crew and be able to have that fleet or that mega ship running like a well oiled machine.

Redshirts will only get you so far.... usually dead.

:bigship:

Very true.

((Edit: Add - I mistook your post for the OP's 'cause I'm dumb... :) Sorry.

I meant to respond to the OP, so:

Originally posted by Ironsides:

I made an art to help a little bit with people getting more out of their crew.
The game says this ship should have 104 crew, It runs FINE with 47!

There: :) Sorry for the Oops.)

I don't micro-assign my Roles as much as you may, but as long as you're within the limits it's fine.


Operators are used where there's anything that has Crew that must operate it, constantly, and should never leave it. Those get an "Operator" that does nothing else but that. Well, pretty much "nothing else" but it has all its other Roles at very low values and ALL roles applicable to loading or providing Batteries to what they're "operating" set at null/zero. (Operators operating Parts WILL, unless instructed not to do so by selecting "0" in priority for that role, will seek to provide ammo/energy for that Part if there is no other Crew currently filling the entire que'd joblist to supply that ammo/batteries to do so. That's not necessarily a good thing for Parts that have relatively long reload/re-use times, like Missile systems and other large-use ammo consumers.)

A "Loader" in my ship loads anything that can be loaded except Capacitors. That's because they will also serve Capacitors to load PD and nearby elements like Shields, etc. They can load anything, but do not always specialize in the loading of "projectile" weapons. (They mainly load "Batteries," but can be used in a dual role if necessary.)

Engineers specialize in moving Batteries to ship's critical systems, like Engine Rooms, Capacitors, Sensors, Bridge, etc.

"Command" commands. Why not Operators? Because I like having a Command Role... :)

Ordinance - Moves Ammo from storage or factory to a weapon. That's all they really do. Since they're frequently paired with projectile factories and moving any excess to storage to deeper in the ship, if necessary, I can afford to have them doing little else. Those that directly serve Weapons don't get assigned to draw from any Storage unless it can't be helped.

Production: These only ever operate Factories and have priorities in those associated Roles. That includes operating Ammo Factories servicing Flak/Cannons, but they have serving the weapon as a Loader at a secondary role.

Redshirts - Are fill-ins. They have very low priorities in critical systems and are never Assigned to any specific part/room.

Dual-Roles: Crew die during combat. If it's an Engineer running batteries to a nearby capacitor that may also serve other critical systems, then someone has to take over or that critical system will be without power since Engineers are usually the only ones that operator Reactors and service Capacitors. For that reason, I may have some Loaders assigned to a Reactor alongside Engineers if those Crew will be frequently going in harm's way and there's a use for that Loader nearby. They'll have the Engineer's priorities in their role, but at much lower levels. If an Engineer dies, like while traveling to supply a more distant Capacitor near the hull, they will fill the role in an emergency if they can.

PS: I don't know how Crew die... As in, I do not know the specific mechanics, how much damage is required, whether or not its a binary solution (in range of damage, is dead, etc.) I don't think they can be "partially" damaged, so it's some other mechanic there. (In destroyed tile-space? Dunno.)

PS: Aside from pure practical concerns with efficiency and gameplay/mechanics, creating "Roles" is a fun RPG'ish/story-telling experience. :) This is one of the things that "Management" game genre fans love. :)

[a small rabbit]

Originally posted by IronSides:

it works equally as well vanilla honestly these battles are far from long the deck guns 4 slot vanilla hold more than enough rounds and if another cargo bay is right outside, even easier I give my deck guns.... (MY fav weapon obviously) the least amount of re-loaders of any weapon. I was surprised the missile silos were staying so well loaded during the tests actually.

It doesn't though, that is just flat out wrong. Yes you can absolutely get away with less crew then the game suggests, but your numbers are nowhere close to vanilla which is why i said it only works for you because you have mods, and most people probably aren't tweaking everything.

A deck cannon with only 4 crew resupplying ammo literally runs out in about 10-12 seconds with only 4 crew normally.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2891986262

and yes i checked with just nearby ammo storage as well, it made maybe a 1 or 2 shot difference. Both times using staggered fire.

[umop-apisdn]

Just wanted to add to the "how to crew" discussion; you can leave everyone as redshirts and simply assign them to a "module", ignoring priorities entirely.

To restate and clarify this "hands off" approach: if you build your ships out of "modules" (eg, a "module" might consist of an airlock, a crew quarters, a reactor, and a cockpit, control room, or bridge; another "module" might consist of an airlock, a crew quarters, a reactor, and as many lasers as that reactor can run), then assign crew to that quarters... then they can't do anything else but run that specific station.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by umop-apisdn:

Just wanted to add to the "how to crew" discussion; you can leave everyone as redshirts and simply assign them to a "module", ignoring priorities entirely...

One thing that can demonstrate whether or not one has come up with a workable set of Roles for Crew is the difference in performance between a ship built in Creative Mode that only has default-role Redshirtshas Crew and then importing one's Crew Roles from a previously built ship and properly assigning them.

The overall performance difference can be pretty dramatic. The same goes with any other workable, proper, assignment for rooms, storage, etc.

In some ways, "Creative" is truly a "game mode" here instead of just a "builder" side-mode. The player is rewarded for seeing how well they've crafted Roles according to the game-mechanics they know and how creatively efficient they can implement those.