Ship crew loadouts

[Raven_ipb2_import227]

OK me and my mates in GEO were having a funny discussion last night... how many space crew to a ship?

Haha well it brings up many many questions.... for example is the FL universe comparable to say... the StarTrek world... which tells us almost everything is automated and so something like a large train can be run by a crew of 4 or 5. But we could also look at it in terms of the Babylon 5 universe where things feel more "industrial" and you'd say to yourself well maybe something like a large train needs more like 30 crew to run it (mostly a larger engineering crew for all the "on going" repairs:))

Anyway.. our discussion went on for hours (nice way to fix those boring hours of trade), in the end we came up with 28 or so for a large train. Now I should also add at this point that space crew are just a RP tool, like someone last night was asking if they have to load out space crew, but as I told them... there is no need, it's only if you want too (correct me if I'm wrong here btw).

So what do you guys think? is Freelancer the "everything is easy" "high tech" "no humans needed" type of universe, or is it "need every man we can get" "this things falling apart" "not everything is automated for better safety records" type of universe? Or is it a mix of the two... as in, a brand new Large train might only need 15 crew to run it.. but as she ages, and has more problems, the engineering/repair crew would need to be increased some what. Or maybe the older tech ships *like the transport and train classes* need larger crew but the newer tech ships *like the container transport.. the whale* needs less crew because they are brand new designs.



Anyway.... just for RP uses, we came up with these numbers for the main transport class ships

Transport ---------- Min: 8 Normal: 11 Max: 15
Miner --------------- Min: 16 Normal: 38 Max: 46 (Extra crew because extra manpower is needed for mining)
Large Transport --- Min: 10 Normal: 12 Max: 18
Luxury Liner ------- Min: 50 Normal: 62 Max: 70 (Including Cabin crew)
Train ---------------- Min: 18 Normal: 22 Max: 26
Whale --------------- Min: 6 Normal: 8 Max: 16 (low requirements because she is unarmed and new tech)
Container Transport Min: 14 Normal: 16 Max: 26 (new tech and so crew needs are low)
Large Train --------- Min: 22 Normal: 28 Max: 36


Feel free to comment and give ideas:)
We at GEO are still discussing this interesting issue.

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Raven

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RavenZahadoom

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Raven Corvus

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[Eppy]

Nice! I like that. It might be interesting to add a "Crew" Hardpoint to the larger ships, and make us buy them fo RP purposes.

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Quick comment - we thought that Panzer was the Leader, Swift. -Agmen

Which Dreadnought was that?

One of your nine.

[Qunitinius~Verginix]

Igiss needs to include spaceship crew for ssale as a buyable commodity so that we can use them as raven said himself 'an RP tool'

I agree wtih your Limits there, and if you look at the original Vannila ships, they look like they need a fair amout of manpower to run them all smoothly. ON the terms of the WArships too, You will ahve to put about how many people you think it would take to run a GB, Cruiser, BAttlecruiser and Battleship as well.

Overall, very good Job.

Verginix Out

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[Raven_ipb2_import227]

Igiss needs to include spaceship crew for ssale as a buyable commodity so that we can use them as raven said himself 'an RP tool'

Verginix Out

Hehe they are.. and GEO carry spaceship crew, we are just discussing how much we should carry:)

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Raven

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RavenZahadoom

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[Qunitinius~Verginix]

Interesting. Where Can I buy the spaceship crew? I need to outfit some of my ships now hehehe.

Verginix Out

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[Raven_ipb2_import227]

"most populated planets" I think this means planets with a high enough population... and it also says
"Some space stations and bases" this is true.. you can find them at some HQ bases on the outer systems... and also on some battleships.

Hope that helps... but I'd like to hear what others think about all this:)plus are we going with a "need quite a few crew" universe for disco/freelancer? Again not to make so everyone has to do it, but those of us that are going to do, we should try and stay consistent.

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Raven

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Raven Corvus

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[Qunitinius~Verginix]

I could guess that for maybe the Bigger ships like the Battleships and Cruisers, you could expect around 200-300 crew. Even so, thats not much compared to the ships in the Warhammer 40,000 Battle Fleet Gothic cruisers. The Average Imperial Cruiser has 10,000 - 12,000 people, this DOES NOT include the pilots for fighters, or the conscripted laborers. This only includes the trained professionals.

Verginix Out

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[Panzer]

Perhaps the Starlancer pattern would apply here most as for capships.

The biggest had no more than 600 crewmwmbers, including pilots.

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[Firebird]

Looking at how robots are used in place of people for automation (not to mention their level of sophistication or lack there of), I'd think along the lines of Freelancer being more of Babylon 5 style in needing larger number of crew members and not like Star Trek. Don't know about player craft but having the larger NPC ships drop them would be an nice element to add.

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[Koolmo]

I've gone with 5 for one of my GB, but about 20 for the other. The first is a combat ship, small and heavily armoured, wheras the other is for intelligence, so it needs more analysis folks and techs. Ship USE needs to be taken into account, as well as class.


I'm personally working a little from starlancer, a little from Babylon 5, A little from SW, and a little from my own impressions of the FL universe. All works out rather nicely, as far as I'm concerned.

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