[Feedback] Rescue is nice, but...

[LameFox]

1. Why re-invent the wheel? This game already has escape pods, thematically suited to this exact purpose. Now you have us using one thing and everyone else using another.

2. Pure micro with no apparent way to automate it. My current game doesn't take many losses but in more trade-heavy runs ships die much more often as largely defenceless M traders shuffle around the map. It's one thing to manually handle this in some cases, like hostile territory, but in friendlier areas where the rescue ship probably won't die, it would be nice if I could have ships collect and deliver unassigned crew to my stations so they can just kind of make their way back to the personnel list or something. Or if we run with the escape pods idea, if they fly to non-hostile stations where such things exist, and can be collected manually and shuttled to one if none are available nearby.

3. Actually moving crews around is not fun. Whether I rescue them to a ship and have to extract them from it, or they somehow return to my personnel list, the process of then building a new ship, transferring crew over, telling the replaced low skilled captain not to be a marine... it's tedious enough once. Imagine if you tried to preserve the crews of a fighter wing or something. These are the kind of fragile ships which would most benefit from this system in theory but it needs streamlining so badly.

[morful]

Hello, I think the idea of ​​saving the emergency capsules is brilliant, especially since that already existed in X3. Please do another tutorial on this. So far I haven't found any for this.
Can we also save escape pods from other factions in the future and then hire these NPCs? I'm thinking of hiring them for free or if they have a lot of skills, hiring them cheaper?
Please add an error message if the command to rescue is given and there is not enough space in the ship.
Otherwise, I think the implementation is well done, including that the rescued NPCs are displayed as unassigned and can easily be assigned to their functions using the sliders in the ship menu.

A great idea.

Translated into English using Google

Hallo, ich finde die Idee des Rettens der Notfallkapseln genial, zumal es das ja auch schon einmal in X3 gab. Bitte macht dazu noch ein Tutorial. Bisher habe ich dazu keins gefunden.
Können wir in Zukunft auch Rettungskapseln der anderen Fraktionen retten und diese NPC dann einstellen? Ich denke daran, diese kostenlos oder sofern sie viele Fähigkeiten besitzen, kostengünstiger einzustellen?
Bitte eine Fehlermeldung einbauen, wenn der Befehl zum Retten gegeben wird und nicht genügend Platz im Schiff ist.
Die Art der Umsetzung finde ich ansonsten gut gemacht, auch dass die geretteten NPC als nicht zugewiesen angezeigt werden und einfach über die Schieberegler des Schiffsmenüs ihren Funktionen zugewiesen werden können.

Eine tolle Idee.

Übersetzt ins Englische mittels Google

[mr.WHO]

There is some potential for optimization and automatization, but I doubt it could be implemented already for beta or 7.0 release.



This definetly require further improvements in personel management GUI as well as better ability to mass swap/change/assign captains and pilots - otherwise it's clickfest chore.



As for Search & Rescue specific improvements:

1) Create new station and fleet assignment "Search & Rescue" - ships assigned to this would automatically go and rescue ejected crews and ferry them to central (e.g. Fleet Carrier, Auxulary ship, station).

2) Add dedicated passenger storage on ships, that is separated from crew count - some ships would have greater passenger storage than others e.g:
- Carriers and Auxilary ships as mobile hub areas
- Couriers as dedicated Search & Rescue ships.
- Frigates as most robust Medium ships.

3) Add dedicated personell storage to stations, analog to HQ, but without training capability - this is to have option to make stations/outpost with assigned S&R ships near frontline.

[user1679]

Thanks for adding the spacesuit eject for crew when ship is destroyed, I've been using the escape pod mod (until it broke). I was watching this example video and it seems like in large battles it could really overwhelm the UI

Crew ejecting into spacesuits (video)

Is it possible, instead of listing them under the root "unassigned ships", to list them as a collapsible entry using the player's empire name? So for example, if my empire is "Redfin" and my Osprey is destroyed, I would see "+ Redfin (spacesuits)" which would expand to show me all my crew waiting to be rescued.

[moonandstar99]

Hmm, shouldn't they be bailing into escape pods anyway? Considering that is how NPC ships bail. Not a fan of a bunch of tiny space suits flying around....

[FatalKeks]

Love this feature. But there really is need for automation.

Some suggestions:
1. A repeatable order "Rescue all" with a radius. Would help a lot.

2. I think that the bailed crew is killed, when an L-Ship explodes in sector? Not sure about this one, but I think the bailed crew should ignore the explosion, or bail after the explosion.

3. Is it random, who is bailing? IMO the pilot should be prioritized.

I like the suggestions by mr.WHO, but I assume mine are easier to implement and would be a nice step in the right direction.

[user1679]

If you look at the old Escape Pod mod (which doesn't work anymore), it was actually quite effective:

* Who ejected was based on morale and other factors, pilot got higher priority
* Pods would look for the nearest friendly station to dock at
* After docking, if you had any ships with empty crew slots they would be reassigned to those ships. If not, they essentially were lost as new residents of that station

The mod author attempted to make it less exploitable by limiting the number of pods per ship and pepole per pod.

[LameFox]

Don't know what the priorities are like right now, but I didn't seem to be recovering many pilots. I honestly stopped bothering with it pretty quickly, it was more micro than it was worth. I'd generally just get some service crews back and then fire them rather than find places to transfer them.

[LameFox]

If this did get automated somehow, maybe the pool of rescued crew could just go into the next player built ship(s)? That could be kind of interesting, it would be worth setting up then for the slight boost it would give you and the minimal finicky UI stuff it would take.

[user1679]

If this did get automated somehow, maybe the pool of rescued crew could just go into the next player built ship(s)? That could be kind of interesting, it would be worth setting up then for the slight boost it would give you and the minimal finicky UI stuff it would take.

I think one interesting way of handling this would be to:

1. Add a tab to the personnel screen called "Marooned Crew"
2. Escape pod docks at nearest station (for immersion)
3. Crew from pod is added to your "Marooned Crew" tab
4. After building a new ship (with only a pilot) you can use your "Marooned Crew" tab to "transfer crew" onto the empty ship
5. (Optional) The empty ship flies to the station where the crew is to perform the transfer

#5 could be a "game setting" that can be toggled for people who want the immersion of flying to pick up crew.

[LameFox]

I think crew being transferred already fly there in pods so they could most likely just do that.

[Darkhan]

Or have a station module (Infirmary) that can receive bailed crew to "store" them.
Then have ships assigned to station with search and rescue assignment.

My personal issue with it is the new mechanic creates a lot of clutter in the player interface. Since everything is manual currently.
Don't get me started on re-assigning them one by one.

[user1679]

Or have a station module (Infirmary) that can receive bailed crew to "store" them.
Then have ships assigned to station with search and rescue assignment.

My personal issue with it is the new mechanic creates a lot of clutter in the player interface. Since everything is manual currently.
Don't get me started on re-assigning them one by one.

I like this idea.

[Darkhan]

So been playing around with the idea of rescue a bit.

Currently I see a couple of issues.
1- Rescue is not repeatable order (Manual only apparently)
2- Mimic order for subordinates does not work

Example: Built a fleet of 5 Cobra's for the crew capacity (25 with 5 service crewmembers) and speed (705 cruise). 4 subordinates are on mimic behaviour.
if I tell the main ship to rescue in area. Other 4 just sit there and wait.
Defeats the purpose of having a small fleet of fast rescue ships to recover peeps.

[Paladin1]

The repeat command only affects the default behavior. Don't give "normal" commands. That's why it doesn't work that way. I also have a squadron of 5 Kobars ready to rescue. I always have to select all of them and select the individual capsules directly to save them.

[Darkhan]

The repeat command only affects the default behavior. Don't give "normal" commands. That's why it doesn't work that way. I also have a squadron of 5 Kobars ready to rescue. I always have to select all of them and select the individual capsules directly to save them.

I know, but was still worth trying. The intention was to test if I could create a fleet of small / fast ships to do rescues at least as a fleet instead of individually. Obviously that didn't work.

[Scoob]

This new mechanic highlights the need for "TP" Class ships, aka the passenger ship. Same size as an M-Class Transporter, less cargo but substantially more Crew space. Having a dedicated "Rescue" ship for the aftermath of a Fight would be really useful.

However, where should rescued crew be delivered to? Is it only another ship or can we deliver crew to a central Station that we own, and re-assign them from there? I.e. if the Player has a Wharf, we can assign rescued crew directly to new ships? So, we have some rescued Pilots and Service Crew aboard, so the next ship we build will pick the best of both available.

This is an interesting feature, and I've love to see it developed further.

Also, Spacesuits vs. Escape Pods... ESCAPE PODS!

[LameFox]

Delivery to a station makes the most sense IMO. Realistically if I have ships dedicated to storing loads of crew I would just have them docked all the time anyway, while smaller faster ships do the actual recovery. What would they even fly around doing?

And yeah, it would be nice to have the old TP or something back, or just non-crew passenger space in general. Even with marines, it's always been kind of weird that they compete for space with functional crew, but it's mostly just ignored since the player never needs any permanent marines anyway. Would be interesting if military ships actually had dedicated passenger space for their marines, and a few select transports existed to move personnel around, while common civilian ships could remain as now with space intended mostly for active crew.

[FatalKeks]

Is the pilot ever ejected? I only see the service crew bailing, but I think I've never seen a pilot. Can somebody confirm, that pilots are also bailing?

[LameFox]

I did pick up someone who was nearly 2 stars once and may have been a new pilot. Not entirely sure though as it may have been within the range they can spawn as, plus some morale raising it. Generally though I am pretty sure they've all been service crew. Maybe just bad luck? I have basically stopped bothering at this point because it has never really felt worth the micro. I send a ship out to rescue what I think might be a decent captain levelled up from weeks of selling ore only to get some service crews who level up in days.

I guess if you don't mind a lot of reloading, you could theoretically send the same ship to die a few dozen times and see if the pilot ever survives. Maybe in some free time over the weekend I might try it.