Marines vs Service Crew - ship performance?

[mr.WHO]

By default when you but ship at shipyard the game set 50:50 between Service Crew and Marines.

Does this impact the ship performance?
Is ship with 50% Marines less effective than same ship with 100% service crew?

[spankahontis]

By default when you but ship at shipyard the game set 50:50 between Service Crew and Marines.

Does this impact the ship performance?
Is ship with 50% Marines less effective than same ship with 100% service crew?

Couldn't Marines just gradually, given time.. Develop better engineering skills like Service Crew?

If that is the case? Why have service crew? When you can have Marines doing all their work for them? And they'd be hard to board; that is.. If the next DLC is adding boarding mechanics to NPC ships?

[jlehtone]

Is ship with 50% Marines less effective than same ship with 100% service crew?

You mean: is ship with half Service Crew less effective than ship with full Service Crew?
But also: How does Merc S with full (14) crew fare compared to Merc V with 14 crew and to Merc V with full (17) crew?

The defense strength of Service Crew against boarding is next to nothing. Are they nothing because they are in engineering duty today, or because crew in that duty rarely have boarding skill?

Same the other way: do the Marines just sleep, even though they were born with 5 star engineering skillz?

[Imperial Good]

Does this impact the ship performance?

Yes it impacts ship performance. Ships perform optimally only with a 5 star captain and full 5 star service crew. If half the crew are marines then at most the service crew can contribute half the optimal value, once 5 star. The player also does not need marines at the moment as the NPCs will never attempt to board them, with marines only being useful for boarding NPCs.

Is ship with 50% Marines less effective than same ship with 100% service crew?

A ship with 100% service crew will be more effective, assuming they are above 0 star which are worth nothing.

Couldn't Marines just gradually, given time.. Develop better engineering skills like Service Crew?

Yes, if you assign them as service crew they will. Nothing stops you changing service crew to marines just for boarding operations, and then changing them back afterwards. Your ships will never be boarded currently, so there is no need to have them as marines to protect from boarding operations like the NPCs uses them to protect from player boarding operations.

If that is the case? Why have service crew? When you can have Marines doing all their work for them? And they'd be hard to board; that is.. If the next DLC is adding boarding mechanics to NPC ships?

I have argued in the past that the separation should be removed. Service crew and marines should be the same since practically they are at the moment. The UI even automatically chooses the best marines and service crew when changing their assigned role, which is done in bulk. This process should be automatic. It would help nerf player boarding NPCs a little (most will not notice) while making crewing player ships a lot more intuitive to new players.

The defense strength of Service Crew against boarding is next to nothing. Are they nothing because they are in engineering duty today, or because crew in that duty rarely have boarding skill?

Service crew have a penalty for defence against boarding operations. Most will not even partake in the battle, and instead will just die once the marines and service crew that did partake lose. Only applies to NPCs as player cannot be boarded...

[Falcrack]

I have done some extensive testing and will post the results when I have time to compile it, but basically converting all service crew to Marines is the same as if you had no service crew at all on the ship. They have to be assigned as service crew to provide a benefit to mining.

[alessandrofavero]

Only applies to NPCs as player cannot be boarded...

For now ... I don't understand English well but it seems to me that I understand that the next DLC is about pirates ... and who knows that the NPCs cannot board the other NPC ships and also those of the players (maybe ... . like the idea)

[spankahontis]

Only thing I would miss is Marines look awesome in their Marine Armour.
Getting rid of them would be a shame.

[oddible]

I have done some extensive testing and will post the results when I have time to compile it, but basically converting all service crew to Marines is the same as if you had no service crew at all on the ship. They have to be assigned as service crew to provide a benefit to mining.

Any results?

[surferx]

Only applies to NPCs as player cannot be boarded...

For now ... I don't understand English well but it seems to me that I understand that the next DLC is about pirates ... and who knows that the NPCs cannot board the other NPC ships and also those of the players (maybe ... . like the idea)

You understand that correctly.
And if the next DLC brings NPC boarding I will have to recrew most of my ships. When I buy ships I trade out the marines with more service crew. Most of my freighter/miners have no marines onboard.
That being said, I would love to see NPC boarding introduced to X4. Currently it makes no sense that player ships are the only ones that hijack other ships.

[Falcrack]

I have done some extensive testing and will post the results when I have time to compile it, but basically converting all service crew to Marines is the same as if you had no service crew at all on the ship. They have to be assigned as service crew to provide a benefit to mining.

Any results?

Yes, but since it was almost completely ignored at the time I posted the results, I won't be bothering with further tests!

viewtopic.php?t=440879

[Falcrack]

In my opinion, the way it should work is that when a ship is being boarded, any crewresent, regardless of their assignment as service crew or marines, should function as marines in the defense of the ship based on their boarding skill level. And any marines on the ship, when not being boarded, should function as service crew based on their engineering skill level. The only reason you would assign crew as marines is to make it easier to choose which crew are available to be sent out for boarding operations.