[SERIOUS] A Properly Working MultiCrew Would Improve E:D Gameplay and Retention Rates Dramatically

Title. Especially (and particularly) as concerns combat. It seems to me that MultiCrew (MC here on out) contains the largest untapped core of potential for E:D. To an extent that it's a massive blight on the game at large. For a game that's massively multiplayer spanning a galaxy, there's really not a whole lot to do with friends. Particularly friends that I want to introduce to the game and give a real positive experience on day 1, rather than make them buy the game (or gift it myself) and then ask for 100+ hours of grinding before they can actually do much of anything with me.

In 2020 we've seen some small indie games smash their way into the spotlight largely due to their ease of accessibility and thereby the ease in which you can play and have fun with friends right off the bat (See Among Us, Phasmophobia). Features which I'm sure we can all agree that E:D lacks.

This is where I believe MC fits in perfectly. Fleshing out MC and hammering out the random bugs would provide a fun way for existing members of the E:D community, like you and I, who've spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours playing a game we've fell in love with and want to share with others.

I've tried MC combat with some friends a few times and the most enjoyment we could get out of it was launching them from my kitted out, near min-maxed Federal Corvette in an F63 Condor in an Haz Res. Which, while enjoyable for a time, seemed underwhelming. Imagine then, being able to assign my friend a role such as "First Officer", where he'd control things such as targeting ships as well as their sub-systems perhaps even just the entire left-hand panel, so's he can navigate me through a system or out of it while I out-maneuver an enemy bearing down on us.

Further imagine then, that I bring along a third friend and I give her the role of "Engineer", where she'd control all of the ships main pips, handle the crafting of more ammunition for my multi cannons, the popping of my shield cell banks, chaff, etc.

2 seated ships are, to be fair, a lot more common, (18 of them to the 8 of the 3-seated ones) but this would simply result in a lot of the engineer's responsibilities to stay with the Captain, with a select number (perhaps the pips or the SCBs/Chaff/ECM triggers) moving over to the First Officer.

Now, I personally think the loss of control of parts of the ship by the captain, while undoubtedly troublesome, is almost paramount to these changes. They create ways for people to actually be a part of a crew and truly engage with Elite and their friends rather than some random passenger just along for the ride. You could also theoretically create tiers of control for these positions, from beginner to advanced, to allow for a sort of transition for newer players just getting their feet wet.

It'd be truly incredible and immersive if, when you're playing with two of your friends, both of which are at this advanced level of control, all of these systems and UI's are taken away from the Captain of the ship to where you're essentially stripped down to having the role of pilot/gunner/captain, requiring a good amount of communication and teamwork to properly utilize your ship. All this without putting your crew at any financial danger of their own, since you'll be shelling out for those rebuys! 😀

It occurs to me that it'd add some additional nuance to allow one of these crew members to have a special ability they'd be able to trigger, that would have a decent cooldown, that'd boost the recharge rate of the selected systems, but possibly something that would only be present in fully crewed 3 seated ships, due to the further dilution of responsibilities? Just a thought, but I think it has some merit to it. Now it could be argued that this is too much of an advantage I suppose, but to that end, you could restrict it so that it's only present when all members of the MC session are in advanced control mode.

Lastly, I'd like to touch on the "actually firing the guns" aspect of MC and to that, I'd say I think it might actually be best if the crew members didn't touch the guns whatsoever. Maybe still allow for members to shoot themselves out in fighters, but other than that, don't think there's a reason. I've got a notion it'll also put some incentive into the minds of the people I play with: that they'll need to grind and get their own ship if they want to shoot some big guns. We all know people who "only really want to do the shoot-shoot boom-boom" and nothing else, but if they're that type of person then let's be real here, E:D isn't the game for them at ALL.

Now of course all this is solely within combat and doesn't touch the other more mundane and grind-heavy parts of E:D but I imagine a certain amount of control can still be given away to the crew in these situations. I'd even go so far as to suggest that the roles largely stay the same as far as control goes. Mining: I'd do the shooty-shooty and let my First Officer pulse wave and direct me to a nice juicy core. Exploration: The First Officer could chart our route through the stars while I try not to die to the White Dwarf star he just told me was a neutron star or he can direct me to the closest scoopable star along our route.