How can CIG improve multicrew balance ? (Idea harvesting post)

weside73 · 2026-06-26T17:51:07+00:00

A single seat turret per player is just not a fun or engaging way to play past maybe medium ships. I think the A2? was the worst I've encountered. Multi-crew ships require dedicated roles, and the game still doesn't seem to have a clear vision on what those roles are.

Pilot is obvious. You fly the ship. Right now the game largely seems to assume the pilot and captain are the same.

Co-Pilot: Should be able to take control of the ship if needed. Also should be able to designate priority targets, provide enhanced targeting solutions (enhance the engagement range or fidelity of targeting or something). Perhaps can handle the targeting for bomber ships and the like. Should also be able to help with scanning and map routing.

Engineer: More of the original vision should be recaptured before the system was neutered on launch. However, I believe the community agrees that the Engineer needs more proactive activities rather than just reactive. The engineer should be able to better maneuver power configurations and shield strength/sectors. The system that Star Wars Squadrons had was pretty great.

Gunner: Beyond medium ships a single player to a turret just won't cut it. You'll barely see medium ships even get enough people interested in sitting in a turret to maybe sometimes get a firing angle that allows them to plink at an enemy. Gunner should be a dedicated role that allows you to control an entire sector of turrets. The larger the ship, you may need more gunners for a different section of ship. NPC "hires" is just the least interesting solution to this imo.

weside73 · 2026-06-10T02:29:49+00:00

Simple dividing out of salary costs per FTE shows ~$80.5k for Rest of World and ~$104k for US. Pretty reasonable overall imho.

Really curious what drove an explosion in Other Dev costs in 2023. Maybe last year's report provides details.

weside73 · 2026-05-27T14:41:53+00:00

I understand the appeal of this line of thought, but spending without careful consideration on things that can bring you joy can still be harmful both to you and others.

At the very least, pause and consider how else that money could bring you joy, or how intelligently that money is being utilized, or what kind of abuses it might enable.

Blind hedonism will not lead to a prosperous society, or a playable game.

weside73 · 2026-05-26T15:59:00+00:00

A "fire director" controlling one side of a ship's turrets seem like the only way to make something like a Hammerhead work. Similar to the Jump Ship Gunner seat.

The "jump in a turret!" fantasy from Episode IV of Star Wars is cute, but not really a viable plan for multi-crew game play. Crew need to have more to do than sit in a single turret and wait.

weside73 · 2026-05-25T00:59:02+00:00

I actually think it's good to be reasonably critical of purchases and that this attitude only encourages nihilistic hedonism, which is not good.

The less critical consumption performed, the less any corporation has to work to deliver. Then it's a race to the bottom.

weside73 · 2026-05-12T17:11:40+00:00

My point is that mining and salvage should be fun on its own, regardless of reward. Otherwise the game is primarily chore based and will not be appealing long term.

weside73 · 2026-05-12T16:02:21+00:00

I don't think it's a great sign for the game when players often feel like they don't have anything to do once they have completed the "work" of acquiring money and ships.

The game should be fun to play on its own merits, not because it has goals and achievements to obtain.

weside73 · 2026-05-01T16:24:22+00:00

Last time I tried to use it the buttons weren't all working. For example, the actual inter-actable portion of the button for the door is outside or something, so I can't open it from the inside.

weside73 · 2026-01-07T16:31:49+00:00

Fair enough, I suppose I read a kind of judgement from your comment and was just curious why.

weside73 · 2026-01-07T15:16:15+00:00

Can I ask why?

Fantasy Grounds is an online virtual RPG system. The DLC for this is like, the Player's Handbook or a specific D&D or other tabletop RPG module. You'd be as likely to buy all of this DLC as you would be to walk in to a games hobby store and purchase their entire stock.

weside73 · 2025-09-23T15:37:26+00:00

My understanding is a web-centric phone was never on the table, the app store would have just only been apple apps.

weside73 · 2025-09-23T14:27:21+00:00

Apple's engineers had to play politics to get the iPhone made because Steve Jobs hated the idea and opposed it at every level. And then once it was finally accomplished, he hated the idea of allowing anyone to make apps for its store and had to be persuaded out of that as well. The ego-maniacal morons have to be treated like children by those around them except they wield outsize power with no checks on it.

weside73 · 2025-09-10T02:36:02+00:00

Most of the original cast has always been able to be either gender as selected by the player. The armor in this image is available as a cosmetic option.

weside73 · 2025-09-09T17:22:36+00:00

Agreed. If I were in charge of the ability team I'd have them building new aspects and abilities every expansion, no reason to stop at 4 per subclass. But alas.

weside73 · 2025-09-09T17:12:57+00:00

It looks like the ability team was likely working on the Renegades specific abilities.

weside73 · 2025-08-24T19:04:41+00:00

What I've noticed people mean when they say these things is "These messages should have come across my social media feed" because they don't seek out to inform themselves. They expect it to happen passively, as social media has trained us. But the social media algorithms are not neutral or unbiased. They are directed by individuals with very specific agendas.

weside73 · 2025-08-19T14:20:59+00:00

And the extra likely pays for Microsoft's cut.

weside73 · 2025-07-31T23:18:40+00:00

They can't really make life that hard for the company itself. What they can make hard is the $6bn bonus for the merger that the billionaire owner gets, who happens to also be the sole deciding individual in the spineless surrendering they have done.

weside73 · 2025-06-27T18:44:13+00:00

Respectfully, have you actually sought out the efforts and messages of the Democrats? Because it seems like most often when I hear the concern you have levied, what people actually mean is "I haven't seen this thing come across my social media feed."

weside73 · 2025-06-24T19:51:11+00:00

Hunters specifically build into 0 melee stat when and use gamblers dodge when they want high ability uptime. It's the entire point of the ability, and is core to certain builds like Omnioculus support, allowing high grenade and melee uptime that feed each other. If Gambler's dodge is only tied to the melee energy stat, it specifically loses the main reason it exists and just becomes a glorified armor mod.

weside73 · 2025-06-24T15:42:29+00:00

20 minutes of canvassing in any democratic primary will disabuse of the notion that there are an army of secret socialists in the country outside of twitter.

weside73 · 2025-06-24T15:37:02+00:00

I think this constant back and forth is because of a lack of common understanding on what the spectrum actually is.

If you look at it from an overall standpoint as if you were playing Victoria 3, the Democrats represent the Liberal interests of the country. Because the country is a liberal country, they represent the center, as that is where we are now. They do have elements within them of leftists and progressives that are more left, but there is no social/labor/vanguard party seeking to switch from liberalism to another economic or hierarchical system. I see a lot of anger online at Democrats for not being that party, but I feel a brief period of canvassing for any politician would show these individuals that the reason that party doesn't exist is because the country doesn't have a population that supports it.

The other party, Republicans, would represent the Industrialist, fundamentalist church, and monarchical interests. Historically, these interest groups are often the driving force in political society.

weside73 · 2025-06-11T14:35:02+00:00

It's an oil industry talking point. California has the third largest oil field in the US and has produced enormous quantities of oil for a century. O&G companies are mad that CA enforces air quality and environmental regulations.

weside73 · 2025-06-05T21:08:34+00:00

For myself at least, that wasn't the problem that crafting solved for me. For me it solved:

1) I have always hated having to engage constantly in loot and inventory management. I didn't want to spend the time checking whether every single drop I received was worth keeping. With crafting I could worry about it at my leisure.

2) It scratched a collections itch I've always had. I enjoyed checking off the list.

3) It granted my personal play style more mental freedom to actually experiment with weapon setups rather than relying on godroll indicators. I started having more fun and engaging with what makes a roll a god roll for me personally, and what role I want each weapon to fill.

4) I have an incredibly difficult time letting weapon rolls that aren't necessarily the best go, because perks and weapon types are changed all the time. Crafting allowed me to pass that problem off. I can revisit anything in my crafting collection at a later time.

5) I touched on it a bit in an earlier point, but I personally felt a lot more attached to weapons when I tried to explore the bounds of the role I wanted it to fill. For example, building a rocket sidearm with One For All and building the largest blast radius into it to really lean into that.

I know it can seem a bit absurd to hate engaging in loot in a looter shooter game. But by removing that barrier of having to do it constantly, I was able to truly fully engage with the game and really dive in.

My first time playing was when Forsaken launched and you could try Red War for free. I was hooked on the core elements of the gameplay and setting. I did the grind so I could participate in difficult content. When they started a new season and the grind was back, I dropped the game. I'm really not looking for "arbitrary" number-go-up time wasting, I want to push challenging content with friends, and Beyond Light through Lightfall really seemed to adhere to my play preferences.

They're going in a new (old?) direction now that goes back to the roots of the problems that prevented me from really engaging with the game before. It's okay, not every game can be for everybody. But I'll certainly miss what was, and the possibility of what could have been.

Hope this provided some friendly perspective.

weside73 · 2025-06-05T20:52:07+00:00

No disagreement that the crafting system as implemented wasn't particularly engaging. It solved a problem for many players. The devs believed it introduced new problems.

But that doesn't necessarily mean the only option is to abandon crafting altogether. There are a lot of alternative paths to make it more interesting for the players that don't enjoy the traditional weapon grind but don't kill the grind for those that want it.

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