Why can't we hire Pilots and Managers, why just Marines and Service Crew? Crew Roles.

[Scoob]

Hey all,

I use four types of Crew - Pilots, Marines, Managers and Service crew - how come Stations and ships only show Service Crew and Marines? - Only new ship builds actually show a Pilot/Captain.

I have "Marines" I've hired that are JUST destined to be Pilots for ships I force to bail, they'll never do a boarding operation. I might have hired them manually, just for their Piloting skill. I hire other randoms that will be a Manager - or I'll just assign a random Service Crew member from another ship, checking to see who happens to have some points in Management - or use a Seminar to make them one. Why doesn't an Equipment Dock / Wharf / Shipyard show ALL the roles? If a workforce member on a Station has a Manager role skill bias, show them as that. If they're a better Pilot, advertise them as a Pilot! Show these distinct roles when they're aboard our ships. Sure, let us assign anyone in any role if we want to, but when we hire them, let their role reflect their skill bias.

Note: there is a mod that does this, allows us to hire Pilots, Managers, Marines and Service crew. I think, I don't know for sure, that it bumps up the skill for the hired role a little, or perhaps it's simply picking the best available for each role, based on actual workforce compliment.

I'd love to be able to keep my Pilots as Pilots especially those of my own that I've rescued. Keeping them Unassigned is no good - was it a Pilot I rescued, Service Crew, Marines or perhaps a Manager I hired earlier? I don't know. Considering there are four distinct roles (plus Ship Dealer, but I don't think their skill matters) then allow these roles to always be shown.

Ideally, the UI should sort available workforce and categorise them on their best attribute, and show that role. Perhaps they need at least one star to qualify for that role, else they're just a generic (cheap) hire. This would prevent the player from being able to hire a hundred great Pilots for example, as it's unlikely there would be that many. With this, we could assign rescued crew directly to our own stations to be part of the specialised crew. I.e. I'd rescue my Pilots after a major encounter, assign them to my Wharf and they'd then be part of the "Pilots" workforce roster. Doing this would "complete" the rescue feature for me.

Note: I'd consider crew hired via the ship upgrade process still be pretty low level, but even at a low level many will still have a stand-out trait, putting them distinctly in the Pilot, Service, Manager or Marine role.

What do people think? Is there any reason not to have all four main roles showing in the UI?