Synthetic Entity Core - An option for crew-light or crewless ships

[Neceros (OP)]

Synthetic Entity Core

A ship technology which reduces the amount of crew needed to operate other ship components, effectively removing the need for portions of the crew.     The benefit is the reduction (or removal if you proceed far enough into the technology line) of the usual crew annoyances like deployment time, crew quarters, recreation requirements, and life support, in addition to very likely reducing the amount of weight the ship requires.   

The simulated entities would embody both the mental-only computers taking over logistics, as well as specialized and generalized synthetic

No lost lives when a ship is lost, though the monetary cost would likely be pretty high for these types of components.

Boarding parties would be defended by the synthetics, perhaps with installed automatic weapon turrets inside, and wouldn't be at risk of being captured.  In fact, if the whole ship was remote, there'd be no need for life support at all, so a boarding party would either have to deal with this.  It's also possible boarding parties are assumed to wear protective suits, or not to need them at all.

The kick is you have to research it all, the research should be available only after a certain minimum reactor power efficiency becomes available, and the ship would require a lot more power than normal.     

Research Paths

• Synthetic Entity Core: Unlocks the ability to build cores on ships.   
• Synthetic Efficiency: Related to the amount of synthetic entities offered per core.   
• Synthetic Aptitude: Related to Fleet Training for synthetics, since synthetics wouldn't get the benefit from normal training.     All synthetics would get this level of aptitude from creation, and it should update automatically when further research into aptitude is done.    (think binary flashing)
• Synthetic Defense: Related to the ability of synthetics to defend their station.   IE: defend against boarding crews and ECM 

[Nyvis]

I had this idea too for a while, but I think allowing crewless ships right away with only a tech is too abrupt.
A possibility would be to have a tech dictating a maximum crew replacement rate.  AI space would then replace a percent of crew quarters, capped to the value indicated by said tech.  Doing it this way would make the change to AI more gradual as the player develops the technologies.

[Neceros (OP)]

This is a great idea, too.  I want the option of making unmanned ships eventually.  I think it's a little strange they aren't in game already, to be honest, but it's understandable.  Steve is just one fella.

[xeryon]

As one of the included computer controlled races is a machine race this might be something fun to include that can be unlocked only through salvaging their wrecks or finding something in a ruin.

[Mor]

I had this idea too for a while, but I think allowing crewless ships right away with only a tech is too abrupt.
A possibility would be to have a tech dictating a maximum crew replacement rate.  AI space would then replace a percent of crew quarters, capped to the value indicated by said tech.  Doing it this way would make the change to AI more gradual as the player develops the technologies.

It can be a spoiler tech, which you had to recover. But I am not sure how crew less ships will be handled by the boarding and prisoner mechanics.

[Neceros (OP)]

It can be a spoiler tech, which you had to recover.   But I am not sure how crew less ships will be handled by the boarding and prisoner mechanics. 

As one of the included computer controlled races is a machine race this might be something fun to include that can be unlocked only through salvaging their wrecks or finding something in a ruin. 

I just don't like the idea of it being back-shelved to a tech you might eventually get, maybe.   I hope what I'm proposing isn't too difficult of a change, code-wise, because it makes just too much sense for this to be a late-tech, and should be a standard path humans could follow.   We do it already today in this age, and it's all too apparent we will need more and more unmanned vessels and command as space exploration continues. 


Thanks for your responses!

[Mor]

Personally, I have no problem with some sort crew requirement "efficiency" tech, but I would prefer if it was tied into some Racial trait. So while we might try to cut down on crew with automation, some other bug race would be able to support larger crew and try to board ships often.

As for crew less ships. They would gain HUGE benefit over crewed ones. For your proposal to be valid you need to address the issue of crew mechanics like boarding and prisoner mechanics, training see http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Ship_Crew

[Neceros (OP)]

I figured Steve would flesh out all those little things I don't know about.  But sure.  I've edited the main posted to address this.

[Iranon]

It circumvents several game mechanics, so the question arises: "why bother adding tech that makes the game shallower rather than deeper?".
The absence might be conspiculous, but can be explained away (see "Dune". Maybe we have to thank an overzealous AI for starting only with 500m by default).

[Sheb]

Well, I could see it in if the cost was high enouh that it wouldn't be worth it except for ships that have to stay a very longtime on station, or for RP reason when designing suicide ships.

[Nyvis]

Agreed. Making it costly enough would solve some of the problems with the large advantage it provides. Instead of an initial cost, it could use a high failure rate, though. The maintenance cost would balance the absence of crew morale. Boarding could be replaced with hacking.

Since spoilers can do it, having a way for humans to do so would be consistent. I don't mind if it's hard or not really efficient to do so in most cases though.

[Sheb]

Not sure high maintainance would be the way to go, as it would remove the advantage of using it for long-deployment vessels. I think costs and some kind of fleet training rating limitations (so that a crack crew would beat an AI) could be nice. Although I'm not sure how to manage fleet rating for partially automated vessels. They should also be sensitive to microwaves.

[filippe999]

Nice, this will greatly complement pacifists playstyle where they don't need loss of life to man ships

[ChildServices]

I wouldn't mind this if only because it would allow me to make my cargo containers unmanned.

[TCD]

Of course there would need to be a non-trivial chance of the AI going rouge (its pretty much the most enduring meme in the whole of sf).  Maybe every 30 days a % chance of the ship becoming an NPR, same behavior code as the spoilers? The chance could depend on tech level, and how much of the crew is replaced.  So you could, say, safely replace 25% of the crew, replace 50% at a small risk but have a high chance of a fully automated ship turning against you.