Suggestion: Crew member perks

[Nekose]

As it stands now crew are little more then people with random names. Different races mixes things up a bit, but still leaves your crew somewhat bland.

I think crew should have randomized perks on them to make them more or less useful. Crew can also become veterans by surviving X amount of jumps, earning more positive perks at random. These perks could augment the passive abilities the developers mentioned crew might add to a station when not repairing it.

Positive perks could be:

"Certified polarity reverser" = bonus to repairs.
"It is a good day to die!" = Bonus damage to enemy crew when own health below 50%.

Negative Perks:

"Looks good in red" = Takes extra damage from enemy crew.
"Acute Wesley Syndrome" = reduces all other crew effectiveness sharing compartment.

Everyone knows random good and bad adds to the fun and challenge of a roguelike. Feel free to make suggestions for more perks if you like the idea.

[jocan2003]

I think i heard about character customisation somewhere but i can be wrong tho. Sure thing i would love to see such a thing in the game!

[Darthcaboose]

As it stands now crew are little more then people with random names. Different races mixes things up a bit, but still leaves your crew somewhat bland.

I think crew should have randomized perks on them to make them more or less useful. Crew can also become veterans by surviving X amount of jumps, earning more positive perks at random. These perks could augment the passive abilities the developers mentioned crew might add to a station when not repairing it.

Positive perks could be:

"Certified polarity reverser" = bonus to repairs.
"It is a good day to die!" = Bonus damage to enemy crew when own health below 50%.

Negative Perks:

"Looks good in red" = Takes extra damage from enemy crew.
"Acute Wesley Syndrome" = reduces all other crew effectiveness sharing compartment.

Everyone knows random good and bad adds to the fun and challenge of a roguelike. Feel free to make suggestions for more perks if you like the idea.

I remember seeing in the videos released by the FTL team after the OnLive demo ended that seemed to show potential crew upgrades (well, in the Upgrades menu, it was just a tab with the words "Crew" on it, I think?). But I do like the perks idea.

More ideas!

Positive Perks:

I eat parsecs as part of a nutritionally balanced breakfast.
Increases the evade chance of ship by X% if in the cockpit.

Duck and cover!
Takes X% less damage from enemy ship weaponry.

Iron fist
Deals X% more damage to enemies in melee combat.

The scrap must flow!
While part of your crew, you gain X% more scrap from destroyed enemy ships.

NEP-REP
As a Non-Essential Personnel Repair expert, can repair all non-power subsystems (Cockpit, Doors, Sensors) X% faster.

From the moons of New Nairobi IV
Movement speed increase by X%.

Mixed Perks:

Strong Moral Compass
Moves, repairs and fights X% faster for A ship-jumps after picking a morally "good" decision, but has a Y% chance to desert your ship after picking a morally "bad" decision.

Failed MIT's last exam
Gains experience X% faster, but takes Y% more damage when out of oxygen (Refers to MIT's policy of requiring all students to take a swim test before they can graduate).

OCR (Obsessive Compulsive Repairer)
Repairs X% faster, but cannot be moved and will not participate in fights until the subsystem he is tasked to is completely fixed.

Xenophobic
Deals X% more damage to species that are alien to the owner of this trait, but refuses to do anything when a friendly alien crewmember occupies the same section!

Negative Perks:

Pacifist
Deals no damage to organic life. (Perfectly fine with destroying machinery though!)

Imperial Stormtrooper Marksman Academy graduate
Has a X% chance to miss shots when firing close-combat ranged weaponry.

Rooted in Fear
Unable to move when enemies are in the same ship section.

Hold the... door?
This person has such poor manners regarding door etiquette that when this person passes through a door, other crewmembers cannot pass through that door for X seconds.

Compulsive Gambler
When meeting a Shop/Merchant for the first time, will take X of the ship's scrap to the local gambling den. Has a Y% (i.e. really low) chance of winning Z scrap. If unable to meet his gambling urge due to insufficient scrap, will move and repair A% slower for B ship-jumps; dang withdrawl symptoms!

[jocan2003]

Haha i love some of them!

[Snake Plissken]

Negative Perk:

Deathwish: Will abandon whatever task he/she is currently doing to deal with boarders/ fires (with boarding parties always being highest priority.)

[Lucid]

Good idea. One problem with this is that the crew members are very small and they're not very distinguishable. When they look so similar, you don't want to have a large difference in effectiveness. What you want is to be able to tell at a glace which of your crew members ought to be in the engine room.

It sounds like the FTL team already has a strong solution for this: alien races. When your crew are different colors and shapes, it's much easier to remember which ones are good at what (plus, alien races are consistent from game to game, so easier to learn long-term).

[Snake Plissken]

Good idea. One problem with this is that the crew members are very small and they're not very distinguishable. When they look so similar, you don't want to have a large difference in effectiveness. What you want is to be able to tell at a glace which of your crew members ought to be in the engine room.

It sounds like the FTL team already has a strong solution for this: alien races. When your crew are different colors and shapes, it's much easier to remember which ones are good at what (plus, alien races are consistent from game to game, so easier to learn long-term).

The new crew menu in the latest video seems to have taken care of your issues already.