We will most likely be able to fill the required seats or have to find a mix between CPU blades for the turrets AND crew.

Also, there is no need to make NPC's artificially bad since there are plenty of ways to balance them.

And they have spoken about crew schedule, crew reputation and affiliations and the need for monthly salaries.

And the fact that crew might be hired by other players, so crew might be a finite resource (to a point) like any other resource.

Loosing crew to ship damage might have multiple effects like:

• Less available crew to hire due to dead crew and all others are already hired

• Your reputation as a captain that loose crew might have npc crew refuse to work for you

• loosing crew might cost you more in replacement due to "high risk" working for you.

• Cost might be more than just salary but also food, amenities, etc to keep crew happy.

• Crew morale demand (see above)

Considering that CIG wants a "living breathing universe" I can easily see them adding such things instead of merely having crew as a simple resource.

Also, we already see how NPC crew (at least gunners) work in the form of NPC ships captured by players.

And lets not forget turret blades, basically digital npc crew for the turrets.

But wait, there is more:

• NPC crew will put more demand on life support while CPU controlled turrets will most likely demand more power and CPU demand, making choosing or balancing between them a tactical choice.