Crew in TEP will have a variety of strengths and weaknesses. Raw recruits may have a steady aim but chances are this will go haywire as the ship in which they are riding is blown slowly to bits. The hardened pro just sees this as another day at the office.
Crew members can be deployed in strategic locations, such as manning the guns or the engineering centre.
Your reputation as the bane of the trade lanes or whatever is sure to effect many things, not least the ease with which you attract crew members.
Reputation is split into different categories and will not be quoted to the player in any but the most broad sense.
Crew can be skilled in a variety of areas:
`A man makes his own luck'and this is true of TEP crew too. A high skill in this area will make those rare but fortutious occurances that just happen to save the ship a bit more common. Generally, the chance of a crewmember doing something extra-ordinary will depend upon their skill in their deployed area and this statistic. Humans have a funny way of performing well under high tension and desperate situations may call for a luck-test on your crew, for instance if you're down to 5% hull your engineer would probably get a luck-test to flip some EPS relays and get the structural integrity field back up a bit :p This wouldn't happen too often though.
Some typical lucky events:
As time passes, crew skills develop, raw recruits mature into hardened pros, cadet engineers begin to learn the tricks of the trade and so on. This is represented by increases in skills, especially those which have been used recently (ie. 6 months in the engine room ain't going to do a lot for your aim).
The crew can then be deployed to:
Your crew don't work for nothing, unlike us here on TEP. As well as demanding a wage (based on abilities) more highly skilled crew members may require an escape capsule. Furthermore, if many crew have been killed or sacked unjustly by you, your reputation will decrease and it will be harder to find good crew members and when you do, you will have to pay over the odds for their services. On the other hand, if your crew survive consistently and you give them good payoffs when you replace them, chances are fine crewmen and women will be flocking to your access hatch.
As crew grow in experience it's entirely possible that other ship captains will attempt to headhunt for their own ships. Don't be surprised if your best gunner demands a higher wage to remain in your employ. Some unscrupulous crewmembers may even pretend to have received a higher offer from another ship but mutter a pathetic excuse and stay around when you turn them down. A captain who never gives payrises is sure to get a bad a reputation; on the other hand a captain known for paying outrageous wage will attract many `no-hoper' candidates and may well attract suspicion (why exactly is he paying so high?).
To summarize: when you are in port there is a chance that a crew member will approach you for hire, the chance adjusted by your reputation and the size of the spaceport. Some crew advertise on BBSes. Crew require a weekly wage and possible other criteria. You can sack crewmen or give them a payoff to leave. Crewmen may occasionally demand higher pay or better conditions, if you don't choose to accept their demands they may leave and your reputation may suffer.
When your ship blows and you don't have a crew escape capsule your crew has basically had it, even if you escape in a pod. However, even during the rough and tumble of everyday combat your crew may pick up injuries and be unable to work until these are fixed up at the nearest port (for a fee, doubtless).
I'll leave this one to your imagination.
The number and type of crew which approach you at a port will depend upon:
In addition to the randomly generated crewmen which will be the norm I suggest we have `special' characters who rarely appear. Obviously, if one of these was to be killed, they wouldn't be generated again in that game. Possibly these crewmen could have unique abilities.
I suggest we have lots of slight variations on fictional characters turning up too :)
Henchmen are great :) People who'll watch your back and fly by your side. However, henchmen may be your friends but they are not your servants so don't expect them to blindly follow suicidal orders!
Henchmen will act as wingmen for the player and accept wingmen orders (see below). They might also order the player around a bit too :) The relationship is very much mutual gain with friendship so whereas henchmen don't ask for payment if you both take on a mission they will expect half the reward (eg. take a package to Sol, you both go). Henchmen are quite loyal, but if you mistreat them (ie. don't pay them or help them out) they may well leave you and your reputation will suffer. Henchmen may occasionally want to go off by themselves for a month or two and will look kindly upon the player doing the same. If the player joins a military power and the henchman disagrees chances are he'll go off by himself.
It obviously helps to have similar ships to your henchmen, especially the drives, otherwise you will be traveling at the lowest common speed (your navigational computer can do this automatically).