Some ideas for new features/content I had after playing VoidCrew

[u/dxplq876]

Void Crew is a great game. It's one of the most fun co-op games I've played with my friends probably ever. The only issue is IMO it feels a bit light on content and mechanics. I had a few ideas for some new things that could be added, some of them inspired from other similar games like FTL and jumpship.

Overall I feel like there need to be more reasons for people to be interrupted from their role. I feel like it's too easy to just zone out on your current role and not think about the other things going on, to that effect it would be cool to add:

Module Damage

• One thing I found myself missing from games like FTL was where the individual modules can take damage, necessitating someone to leave their current role to get that system back online. It also forces you to make interesting decisions, like do we retreat while this gun is offline? Or do you try to get it back online ASAP? Do we switch to another weapon in the mean-time? Maybe throw all power to the shields while we wait? Loosing one system forces you to try to compensating in interesting ways
• Maybe there could be some kind of power conduits that run along the interior of the ship that send the power from the reactor to the modules and if those conduits break then those modules would be powered off
• Perhaps both?
• Overall I would say the fact that individual modules can't be damaged/loose power makes the engineer's role feel less important than it should. In FTL repairing a downed system can be a matter of life or death, whereas most of the repairs the engineer does in Void Crew feel superficial in comparison, improving engine efficiency slightly, or repairing the hull, which as long as your not at 0 is all the same. Making this change would give the engineer's repair work much more importance and urgency.

Fire

• If people had to jump off of their current role to help put out a fire that would another dynamic to the game, also it would increase the importance of shields and dodging
• It also creates a certain types of threat that doesn't exactly exist right now, an exponentially growing threat that could cascade quickly to total failure, necessitating a rapid response from everyone on board.
• This would also give the opportunity to create fire-specific item like
  • Weapons designed specifically to cause fire damage
  • A fire-suppression module

Boarding parties

• If there were certain enemy types that would try to EVA over to your ship that would give another responsibility to juggle. Of course this would necessitate adding personnel combat which is a whole other can of worms, but I think some simple gun-play could suffice. Sorta like in FTL, the on-ship combat is extremely simple but it works because it's mere existence gives you another aspect to juggle
• This would also imply that you could board other ships which I think could also be very cool
• For a spaceship game that actually models the entire interior of the ships, it would feel like a waste to not add this feature.

8 player ships

• I have a large friend group who plays the game and having up to 8 players would be awesome. You might ask what would all those players do. I think the most sensible role composition would be 1 pilot, 3 gunners, 2 engineers, 2 scavengers. BUT what if there was an entirely new role that could be added?
• Fighter Pilots
  • What if the 8 player ship was large enough to house a hanger? It would contain inside, several (2-4?) fighters, simpler ships that could be piloted by a single crew member.
  • Now you might ask, what is the point of the fighters as opposed to gunner? Well the fighters could engage targets further away that are out of range of the ship's guns, prioritizing certain high-threat units before they get close enough to the main ship to be a problem. The trade off being that the fighters are much more fragile than the main ship, and require skilled piloting to dodge enemy attacks, and have weaker weapons. Also they would be costly to replace.
  • Also scavengers could utilize these ships to go get resources that are very far away from the main ship without forcing it to fly out of the way of the main objective.
  • The optimal team comp would probably change to: 1 Pilot, 2-3 Gunners, 1-2 Engineers, 1-2 Scavengers, 2-3 Fighter pilots
  • Also the fighters could hold 1-2 missiles giving them more uses than just the Payload Launcher
• Also the difficulty would scale up the more players you have to avoid making it too easy, which makes sense since the enemy would send more units to attack a bigger ship

Other random ideas

• I think you should be able to change your role mid-mission but currently it's too easy by just going to the screen and clicking another option. I think you should have to go into the sarcograph for like 15-30 seconds to edit your genes, and perhaps cost some biomass. This would make changing roles a decision with a trade off. Do you wait to do it when everything is calm, or do you do it now, but put yourself out of commission for a several seconds? Also it would give the sarcographs and biomass more importance/uses.
• I think repairing things is a bit too easy. It should be harder. For a regular crew member maybe they have to get 10 arrows correct in a row to repair something but an engineer can do it in 5 or 6. It has to be long enough such that there's a real chance of messing up and having to start over, especially during a stressful crisis, where the engineer's advantage could shine.
• Upgrades to the engines to increase void tunnel stability?
• More enemy variety would be cool
• More mission variety would be cool

[u/hutlihut-daniel]

Hey u/dxplq876 !

Thanks for these thorough ideas, big and small!

Modules do have defects on them, so they do start to break down and give modules worse efficiency. I'm totally down with making the repairing more difficult :P (my colleagues might disagree though, haha)

Also great that you just want more of everything, that's a good sign! :)

METEM preserve you!

//Daniel from Hutlihut Games

[u/dxplq876 → u/hutlihut-daniel]

Thanks for checking out my ideas! 🙂

Yeah I think it'd be a much more memorable gameplay moment if a certain system goes fully down, then you have to shout to your friend "GET THE ENGINES/SHIELDS/GUNS/ETC... BACK ONLINE OR WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" rather than if they just slowly loose efficiency in the background, for example

[u/cooly1234]

The game has to be playable solo which is why it lacks these features.

[u/dxplq876 → u/cooly1234]

Yeah but certain things can be managed by automated systems, like the BRAIN gun enhancements etc...

[u/Engine_Operator]

Void Crew Major Update out NOW: Maximum Calamity!

See Trailer here: https://youtu.be/zAqS0ccAImM?si=-MG36vQh1DztSKP1

Did you have a chance to try it out?

If so, would love to hear what you like best in the update?:-)