My take on fighters is that LF's have 1 pilot, HF's have one pilot, VHF's have 1-2 pilots, and bombers have 2-3 pilots.
As for capital ships, I had to look around to see what they are like now.
I believe that gunboats would have a small crew of about 50 people. Main reason I believe this is that a gunboat is more or less a fishing boat or raft with lots of guns. The gunboats in FL seem to be MUCH larger, hence the number.
As for cruisers and destroyers, I'd say a crew of 350-750. Many destroyers have this large of a crew, thus I think that this would be adequate. In real life, I've seen ships in this range, and they're still considered surface assault ships.
Finally, I believe that battleships probably have huge crews of 1000+. I view them as similar to aircraft carriers since they seem to be the "commanding vessels" of a fleet, which is very much like aircraft carriers.
I feel this is adequate enough to simulate a crew of a destroyer. However, this may differfrom a house batleship, cause many of the crew are not specialists, but good at several things. A house crusier might have more crewmembers.
Hmm some interesting views, and yes I did ignore the NPC loadouts, as they just don't seem right... I mean think of it this way... a large train has 4500 space.. yet a NPC one is carrying like 100000000 units:)
Anyway looking at Hyperwave's post;
' Wrote:I believe that gunboats would have a small crew of about 50 people. Main reason I believe this is that a gunboat is more or less a fishing boat or raft with lots of guns. The gunboats in FL seem to be MUCH larger, hence the number.
I do agree with you on the fact that gunboats look much bigger in FL then you'd expect.... but I don't think that's a reason to go with a crew of 50 or more... I still see them as being a mix between a real world gunboat and a frigate so not 10 people like a current real world gunboat but not 50 like a real world corvette, so I'd say more like 25 to 35 (similar to some of the larger transports) but I do think we can go much higher with the destroyers.. simply because FL does miss out the Frigate and Corvette classes. But maybe your numbers are a little too high. I'd would personally say Destroyers and Cruisers are more like 150 to 400 (depending on the actual model, some houses may go with larger crews for example RH and Bertonia) with Battlecruisers and "assault frigates" (I don't understand where this class of ship fits... it's new since I've come back) ranging in the 350 to 750 ballpark and Battleships/Carries can be over 1000:)
Btw to X-lancer you said;
"if is like this.....why don't just minus some cargo space for holding crews...."
Actually that is what GEO has been doing, we hold space ship crews onboard at all times (unless the ship just came out of dry dock, then you'll probably see a very small crew (just to get the ship back to base), also.. if you pirate us, and manage to destroy us, we will attempt to get all crews to lifepods so they can launch away before the ship goes down (yes we'll eject the crews if we have enough time.. if we don't, well then the ship went down with all hands:(then an attempt at a rescue of the crews will usually start (unless the rats we are fighting are non rp, pvp heads then we just say good bye:)
Ohh yeah and another RP bonus for holding space ship crew is.. the extra money your missing out from because your using that space for space crews.. well that is their payment... so really you ARE making that extra money.. but it goes to your crew and not to you:)
Quote:I do agree with you on the fact that gunboats look much bigger in FL then you'd expect.... but I don't think that's a reason to go with a crew of 50 or more... I still see them as being a mix between a real world gunboat and a frigate so not 10 people like a current real world gunboat but not 50 like a real world corvette, so I'd say more like 25 to 35 (similar to some of the larger transports) but I do think we can go much higher with the destroyers.. simply because FL does miss out the Frigate and Corvette classes. But maybe your numbers are a little too high. I'd would personally say Destroyers and Cruisers are more like 150 to 400 (depending on the actual model, some houses may go with larger crews for example RH and Bertonia) with Battlecruisers and "assault frigates" (I don't understand where this class of ship fits... it's new since I've come back) ranging in the 350 to 750 ballpark and Battleships/Carries can be over 1000
Well, the gunboats would probably be lower, and battleships would probably have about 750-1000.
With the cruisers and things, though, here is my reasoning. After looking at some ships, the U.S.S. California has a crew of ~580, with a length of ~600' (181.1m).
So, this would probably make it possible for cruisers to have a smaller crew, and battleships with a more varied size. For example, large battleships like battlestars, and the RH and KU battleships would be at 1000 crew. Medium sized ones like the Bretonian would be 650-750, and smaller ones like the Osiris and LI dread. would be 500-650.
As for cruisers, I'll drop it to 400-650 since there are some interesting models out on our seas that can fit in there. For example, at 600 feet, the U.S.S. Iwo Jima (present day) has a crew of ~600, in addition to a large amphibious detachment with storage and medical facilities for 600. Aircraft carriers are generally in the thousands for length. However, this ship is considered a "light" aircraft carrier, so I'm not sure where it would fit in. It would probably fit in around the larger frigates or something like that.
After looking at these things, ships seem to have larger crews than you would initially expect, but I'm not sure how all this compares to Freelancer. It may just not work to switch them around.
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