[SUGGESTION] Veteran Crew Roster and Captains

[Old Uncle Midwinter]

I will say this - I already babysit my crew, and it's easy save for the whole random events that randomly kill one without an option to prevent otherwise. So for someone like me, who only gets enjoyment out of games like this when they feel like they have a story, this would be fantastic. I highly recommend pursuing the idea as a mod if it doesn't catch official eye.

[Marioking9]

Preface, I love and am satisfied with this game just the way it is and I think the devs deserve a break. I'm very grateful to them for putting out a patch already so soon after release. These suggestions are just things I think would be awesome; free ideas with no strings attached.

So here are my suggestions:

1.) The veteran crew roster.
This is a list of survivors from previous games. This would be unlocked the first time you beat the game. When you win a game, the whole surviving crew goes here. When setting up a new ship in the hanger, you can swap out some of the ship's default crew for crew from the veterans roster. This means you could give yourself a leg-up by swapping in veterans of your favorite races who already have good skills, but in doing so you'd also be risking their lives a second time.
The most basic form of the veteran crew roster would be super simple to implement as well - just have a place in the profile to keep a list of crew member stats, and add the GUI needed to allow swapping them in.
If you wanted to get fancy, you could add more ways of sending crew members to the veteran's roster without beating the game - an escape pod that lets a single, beloved crew member escape a doomed ship, for instance, or the option to "chicken out" if you should limp into sector 8, but know full well that your ship is in no shape to face the boss.
Why is this Awesome?
It is an incredibly simple way to add a lot of depth and replayability - just by allowing crew and their stories and statistics to transcend a single play-through. It allows that attachment to grow between the player and the

2.) Captains.
The only way to get a captain should be to win the game - when that happens you should get to pick one crew member to be promoted to captain. Captains would have a little something extra compared to normal crew. They might have some other small personal advantages - a bit more HP than usual for their race, or an ability to get just a bit better at normal crew tasks - but the main advantage of a captain should be a unique special ability determined by their race.
Of course you can only take one captain on your ship when you start a new mission.
Why is this Awesome?
Every ship needs a captain! And truly iconic Starship's all have an equally iconic man or woman in command. Not only does this provide more progression for your veteran crew, but it gives the game more variety and replayability because of all the cool combinations of ship and captain that there are to try.

Here are some ideas of special abilities for captains of different races - of course they could be anything; this is just what I was able to come up with:
Human Captain - Charisma: +50% exp gain for all crew in all areas of experience.
Zoltan Captain - Contributes 2 power instead of one to systems in his room. If he is piloting the ship, this power is added directly to the reactor.
Rockman Captain - 35% Chance to prevent system damage to the room in which he is stationed(hull damage still gets through).
Mantis Captain - You can teleport through enemy Zoltan shields. Your teleporters can retrieve your crew from an enemy ship even if it is cloaked.
Android Race Captain - Can remotely repair any ship system (at half speed) from the bridge. (this could be an active ability button, like the crystal crew power, that is only active when in the pilot room).
Slug Captain - Your ship's sensors are immune to nebula interference. Slowly regenerates his own health no matter what he's doing?
Crystal Captain - Wasn't sure on this one. Maybe he always knows the way to the secret sector.

Thanks for reading!

Wow, those two suggestions seem AMAZING. I'd love to see it added to the game.

[Kencyr]

I also would love to see this added to the game.
One thing though for veteran crew is that when you add them to the ship, they come off your roster.
If you complete or use an escape pod to save, only 1 member comes back. That way there is a definite downside to filling your ship with all vets.

[Kestral B]

I also would love to see this added to the game.
One thing though for veteran crew is that when you add them to the ship, they come off your roster.
If you complete or use an escape pod to save, only 1 member comes back. That way there is a definite downside to filling your ship with all vets.

Absolutely; that was my intention in the OP. A crew member who completes 10 missions and dies during the 11th is dead forever. He is remembered only in the obituary/stats and records section. Probably a update that added veteran crew would also expand the statistics kept on crew members a bit and maybe add a "wall of honor" for the names/stats of veterans who have died protecting the federation. It could even let the player write a short obituary when they died which would be included on their memorial stats page.

"Laura - a loyal weapons officer who helped to save the federation twice. She died heroically while attempting to repair a breach in the medical bay while the rest of the crew repelled slug boarders. RIP"

[SushaBrancaleone]

love this idea !

(also love my idea of unlocking hero units)

i just saw an article on pc gamer about some amazing mods for FTL
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/10/18/ftl-m ... d-firefly/

i remember a post refering that matthew and justin are intentioned on adding any content in the near future, but that the modding community is pulling up its sleaves.

from what i saw on the pc gamer article this is happening, maybe you should post this thread in the modding forum and see if anyone can make it happen

gl

[Kencyr]

Another thing I would like to see is a hit point bonus for gaining levels of experience.
Say +1 per level for zoltans, +3 for crystal and rockmen, and +2 for everyone else.
Such a thing would encourage people to cross train for that little bit and you would be able to tell at a glance how good enemy boarding parties are.

[Harachai]

This sounds like ti would a really cool idea!

[Mataza]

This would make any "lose a random crew" option in the game a big no no.
Right now, the game works quite well with crew being disposable. If there were captains as suggested, they would become a key part of a ship, like a Mantis Captain for the Mantis Cruisers.
Imagine you lose your only Mantis Captain and suddenly have to beat the game with another ship only so you can retry with the mantis ship you actually want to play? Sounds more like a chore than a goodie.

Crew experience is also ridiculously easy to level, aside from boarding and repairing. The only viable part would be the name gallery.

Also thread necromancy harachai. Ever heard of that?

[CrashSanders]

Absolutely lovely idea! If there would be a voting for new features and the list would include your idea, I will support you!

[Kencyr]

necromancy harachai?

Never heard of it and Googleing it was no help either.

As for how easy it is to level right now, you could tweak that a bit with this kind of upgrade.
Say the first 3 levels are available always but you need another run to free up an additional level which requires twice the exp to complete. If they don't max out that level, the next run has the level started over again. Also limit rewards to a +2%/level improvement. That way only serious grinders will ever reach levels that completely bust the game.