If I recall correctly they don't intend to add increased player caps for the current ships. There's been no announcement of a new ship in development at this time.

I think I've seen dev posts hinting that they want to add new ships, but nobody knows for sure if it will happen. And even if it does, there's no guarantee that it'd be accompanied by an increase in max player count. Six is at least a plausible number. I've seen people asking for 16-player battleships and carriers. . .

Originally posted by shadain597:

I think I've seen dev posts hinting that they want to add new ships, but nobody knows for sure if it will happen. And even if it does, there's no guarantee that it'd be accompanied by an increase in max player count. Six is at least a plausible number. I've seen people asking for 16-player battleships and carriers. . .

People ask for that same thing in Sea of Thieves too, even though the servers don't even hold that many players.

6 would be reasonable and it also wouldn't feel nearly as limiting as only 4.
4 is a very common number for coop games and for our group, it is never enough, we always need mods to increase it or hope its a game only some are interested in.

Honestly I could see as many as 8 on the existing Destroyer ship without really stepping on each other's toes. At least once you get rolling enough. Pilot, 4 gunners, 2 Scavengers, and an Engineer.

Gunners would be twiddling their thumbs a bit til you got extra turrets, but long term it would work quite well.

Originally posted by KellyR:

Honestly I could see as many as 8 on the existing Destroyer ship without really stepping on each other's toes. At least once you get rolling enough. Pilot, 4 gunners, 2 Scavengers, and an Engineer.

Gunners would be twiddling their thumbs a bit til you got extra turrets, but long term it would work quite well.

With 8, and the way the game currently plays, I think there'd be a LOT more thumb-twiddling. Scavenger duties in particular have a lot of downtime, and when they're busy the rest of the crew is often idling. It's doable though, because you could have an extra turret or two beyond the broadside and one or both scavs could give the engi a bit of help, like with unloading the scoop.

Balancing the game difficulty could be a bit tricky with those numbers, though I suspect most people wouldn't mind if the auto-balance caps at 4 players and then any additional difficulty came in the form of opt-in modifiers (that the devs have already said they intend to add).

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by KellyR:

Honestly I could see as many as 8 on the existing Destroyer ship without really stepping on each other's toes. At least once you get rolling enough. Pilot, 4 gunners, 2 Scavengers, and an Engineer.

Gunners would be twiddling their thumbs a bit til you got extra turrets, but long term it would work quite well.

With 8, and the way the game currently plays, I think there'd be a LOT more thumb-twiddling. Scavenger duties in particular have a lot of downtime, and when they're busy the rest of the crew is often idling. It's doable though, because you could have an extra turret or two beyond the broadside and one or both scavs could give the engi a bit of help, like with unloading the scoop.

Balancing the game difficulty could be a bit tricky with those numbers, though I suspect most people wouldn't mind if the auto-balance caps at 4 players and then any additional difficulty came in the form of opt-in modifiers (that the devs have already said they intend to add).

What I was thinking was 4 gunners so you have a gun on each side of the ship, 2 scavengers because there are a LOT of EVA mission types that either require or go much faster with 2, and scavengers can easily "subclass" in Engineer, so when they're not out of the ship they can help keep the engine in trim, the boosts charged, the batteries and ammo swapped/topped up, etc. Frees up the gunners to always be firing.

You certainly could put the gunners all on one side of the ship if you really wanted though. Or say, 1 front, 1 back, 2 starboard (or port, whichever) so you have nearly 360 coverage but also a good broadside.

The only point where you'd have people twiddling their thumbs really would be Desecrations, where you have to have the ship completely offline. But even there, with that many people you can turn everything back on a lot faster, so you're less likely to get nuked to oblivion (Desecration is statistically one of the places I get blown up most when playing solo, specifically because it takes so long to get the ship back online when solo). The Destroyer is big enough that even with 4 people it takes quite a while to bring all your systems back online since you have to flip every switch individually.

Originally posted by KellyR:

You certainly could put the gunners all on one side of the ship if you really wanted though. Or say, 1 front, 1 back, 2 starboard (or port, whichever) so you have nearly 360 coverage but also a good broadside.

Broadsides are objectively superior. Concentrate as much firepower on targets as possible. Spreading the gunners out evenly would only make sense if you've already gotten the upgrades to min/max their DPS up to the point of instantly deleting targets. Okay, maybe not 4 turrets on one side, but 3, especially early on, makes sense. As an added bonus, concentrating the damage the ship takes on one side should slightly increase the rate at which major hull breaches occur--which, counter-intuitively, is a good thing, as long as you have access to the sanctified repair plates.

Originally posted by KellyR:

The only point where you'd have people twiddling their thumbs really would be Desecrations, where you have to have the ship completely offline.

Disagree. Most of the time the gunners are busy, the scavengers can't be doing their official job. Not a problem with a crew of 4, might be more of a problem with 8 on a destroyer. More importantly, when the scavengers are doing their thing everyone else is sitting around waiting. Do you just skip the majority of EVA opportunities? Or intentionally trigger the reclaimer countdown before the scavs can complete an EVA?

Originally posted by KellyR:

But even there, with that many people you can turn everything back on a lot faster, so you're less likely to get nuked to oblivion (Desecration is statistically one of the places I get blown up most when playing solo, specifically because it takes so long to get the ship back online when solo). The Destroyer is big enough that even with 4 people it takes quite a while to bring all your systems back online since you have to flip every switch individually.

Nah, it's only an issue solo, or maybe with just 2 players. More than that, and Desecration isn't too bad. Regardless of player count, I think it is easier than Raids of the same difficulty level. With 3-4 players I can't understand your issue.

Maneuver the ship as close as possible. Optionally, deploy a minefield. They don't do a lot, but they're better than nothing. Get 2 players to EVA, at least one with the scav's grapple, but both is better. Look over the relic options, figure out which one you want. Power up, select the relic, have one player grab it while the other player grabs the homunculus. If you only have one grapple, make sure that player is the one who grabs the homunculus. Have both players rush to get into the ship ASAP--if the relic-bearer is slower than the other guy, don't wait in the airlock for him. Disabling the safety on the airlock ahead of time can save a precious few seconds, but if you mess up you'll vent the whole dang ship.

From there, just start up the ship. Pilot should be sitting at their station, ready to flip it on and start maneuvering as soon as power is on (and the relic-bearer has boots on the ship, which should have happened by this point). With 4 players, a gunner should similarly be standing by and ready to shoot within a few seconds of power coming online. Sure, there's a mad scramble for the engineer to ready some boosts and turn on the shield, but with basic maneuvering and at least one gun you shouldn't take much damage.

As a solo player, Desecration with the destroyer is definitely a pain. Actually, the destroyer in general is a pain for solo play. I love the extra baseline power and equipment slots, but general upkeep is awful. Frigate is much more manageable, especially on a mission like Desecration. Also, if you haven't already done so, try solo running with a hybrid pilot/scav build (+ the engi repair plate). The grapple is a great movement tool, which is quite valuable on a run where you have to constantly dash around the ship or EVAs. You definitely miss the pilot's extra shield, but the trade-off is worth it, IMO.

Originally posted by shadain597:

Originally posted by KellyR:

You certainly could put the gunners all on one side of the ship if you really wanted though. Or say, 1 front, 1 back, 2 starboard (or port, whichever) so you have nearly 360 coverage but also a good broadside.

Broadsides are objectively superior. Concentrate as much firepower on targets as possible. Spreading the gunners out evenly would only make sense if you've already gotten the upgrades to min/max their DPS up to the point of instantly deleting targets. Okay, maybe not 4 turrets on one side, but 3, especially early on, makes sense. As an added bonus, concentrating the damage the ship takes on one side should slightly increase the rate at which major hull breaches occur--which, counter-intuitively, is a good thing, as long as you have access to the sanctified repair plates.

Originally posted by KellyR:

The only point where you'd have people twiddling their thumbs really would be Desecrations, where you have to have the ship completely offline.

Disagree. Most of the time the gunners are busy, the scavengers can't be doing their official job. Not a problem with a crew of 4, might be more of a problem with 8 on a destroyer. More importantly, when the scavengers are doing their thing everyone else is sitting around waiting. Do you just skip the majority of EVA opportunities? Or intentionally trigger the reclaimer countdown before the scavs can complete an EVA?

Originally posted by KellyR:

But even there, with that many people you can turn everything back on a lot faster, so you're less likely to get nuked to oblivion (Desecration is statistically one of the places I get blown up most when playing solo, specifically because it takes so long to get the ship back online when solo). The Destroyer is big enough that even with 4 people it takes quite a while to bring all your systems back online since you have to flip every switch individually.

Nah, it's only an issue solo, or maybe with just 2 players. More than that, and Desecration isn't too bad. Regardless of player count, I think it is easier than Raids of the same difficulty level. With 3-4 players I can't understand your issue.

Maneuver the ship as close as possible. Optionally, deploy a minefield. They don't do a lot, but they're better than nothing. Get 2 players to EVA, at least one with the scav's grapple, but both is better. Look over the relic options, figure out which one you want. Power up, select the relic, have one player grab it while the other player grabs the homunculus. If you only have one grapple, make sure that player is the one who grabs the homunculus. Have both players rush to get into the ship ASAP--if the relic-bearer is slower than the other guy, don't wait in the airlock for him. Disabling the safety on the airlock ahead of time can save a precious few seconds, but if you mess up you'll vent the whole dang ship.

From there, just start up the ship. Pilot should be sitting at their station, ready to flip it on and start maneuvering as soon as power is on (and the relic-bearer has boots on the ship, which should have happened by this point). With 4 players, a gunner should similarly be standing by and ready to shoot within a few seconds of power coming online. Sure, there's a mad scramble for the engineer to ready some boosts and turn on the shield, but with basic maneuvering and at least one gun you shouldn't take much damage.

As a solo player, Desecration with the destroyer is definitely a pain. Actually, the destroyer in general is a pain for solo play. I love the extra baseline power and equipment slots, but general upkeep is awful. Frigate is much more manageable, especially on a mission like Desecration. Also, if you haven't already done so, try solo running with a hybrid pilot/scav build (+ the engi repair plate). The grapple is a great movement tool, which is quite valuable on a run where you have to constantly dash around the ship or EVAs. You definitely miss the pilot's extra shield, but the trade-off is worth it, IMO.

My pilot concentrates on dodging shots rather than keeping one side facing the target, so it would be--and is, when we can manage it--handy to have coverage on all sides. Also we're rarely facing just one target. Usually it's like 3 fighter wings and 3 frigates and a destroyer and and and, so keeping everything on the same side is impractical.

If I had 4 gunners I'd probably go with front, back, and two on one side, as the front and rear can cover the other side reasonably. Anti-fighter/mine/etc weapons at front and back, and the two broadside guns would be for big targets, so either heavy autocannon, or beam caster, with a decided preference for the latter, obviously.

But I only either play solo with the lone survivor destroyer, or in a group of 3 where we always take a Frigate, because my pilot refuses to even consider the destroyer, ever, basically. So we generally end up with a Confessor/Litany at the rear (Or shuriken, but that's not my preference) and a bigger gun on each side, if we last long enough. Or a big gun on one side and a Brain Confessor on the other if we're lucky enough to find one, so the brain can engage targets on that side. But that's sort of iffy because like I said, my pilot focuses mostly on evasion, so I prefer being able to jump out and cross to the other side gun when needed.

And yeah, when I run solo I play with the Scavenger's active ability and a mix of Pilot and Scav skills (Plus the sanctified repair plate, and one level of gravity boots just because I hate not having that). TBH I wanna convince our Engineer to switch to Scavenger for his active ability, but eh.

I do think the Scavengers would have things to do on a Destroyer, because there's always ammo or batteries to swap, trims to fix, grav scoop to empty, etc. Or at least that's what I've found to be true with my small group, since we try to loot in combat so we can get out faster. The scoop is just chronically needing emptying.

As for everyone being bored while the scavengers are working, well we often find it's impossible to avoid triggering the reclaimer countdown before the EVA portion of many mission types. And of course you have Raid and Download which literally set off alarms. So either the pilot and engineer are looting while I stay on the guns to cover them and keep the ship in one piece, or, in the case of Raid and Download, we often drop off the engineer and then engage all the waves in combat while the Engineer plays Scaenger, and pick them up at the end before we jump out. So like I said, the only mission type I can see where everyone would truly have nothing to do, would be Desecration.