Starfield Spaceship Crew Breakdown; Crew Stations; Crew Capacity; Max Crew; Skills -- ShadowBadass

This video is a breakdown to understand crew limitations on space ships in Starfield.
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[@shadowbadass]

Wanted to do an updated video about crew limitations on ships, since Starfield has released and we got all the actual info. Basically the smallest number is the one that is limiting you.

[@jasomon2115]

I'm still not understanding crew capacity. You showed us that the skill allows for more crew, but I don't see how crew capacity affects anything.

[@jasomon2115]

The reason you have 3 crew members is because you have ship command lv.0 and once you get to lv 3, then you'll be able to fit 6 crew. The fact that you have a crew capacity of 5 doesn't change the need for the skill.

[@anamynous7]

God. After searching and searching all over the internet, this is the first video that explains how crew capacity actually works. Very brief and to the point to. Thank you.

[@Carpatheon.]

Also Sarah Morgan has crew command skill, so she increases your crew level by 1, which basically means she doesn't take up a slot.

[@simonptaylor79]

Thank you for explaining that crew/skill limit at the end, that was driving me crazy!!!! My ship can hold 8 but I couldn’t assign that many, now I know why, the game does not explain that very well at all.

[@shadowbadass]

Glad to help, enjoy your travels.

[@seb5542]

Tbf, it does actually give you a pop-up the first time you try to assign more crew than your command skill allows. And it tells you that you need to level up your crew command skill to assign more people to your ship than the base amount. I can totally understand missing it though lol, I've done that a few times.

[@forzaflyracer3473]

Yea to think i missed this because I figured it would be in the tech column instead of social. Now I have to spec into social. Fawwwwwk.

[@dave042222]

thanks for this. it probably saved me several hours of frustration trying to figure it out.

[@joshuabarnett88]

Not gonna lie, I feel like the entirety of the ship building and upgrading is way more complicated than they sold it as. I don't have time to dive so deep into every system in this game. I appreciate videos like this that help.

[@zshark365]

Great and straight to the point explanation. Thanks!

[@102GLEN]

Thanks for the video, was so confused on what it meant by my command level. Now I know what to do to add more crew to my ship.

[@SOLCUTTA]

Thank you very much for this, I didn't realize that you start with only three crew slots. Was driving me crazy that I could not assign a forth crew member!

[@michaelbravo6395]

Very helpful! Clear and to the point. Thank you 👍

[@ezrarose5922]

Great video, helped me a ton! Thanks!

[@JoeBob79569]

This is great! There's just so much to do in the game like this, and outposts, upgrades, crafting, etc, not to mention actually playing the game too..

[@runnergo1398]

Be careful with the outposts. If you make them too big/too many, it will slow down your game and also may even make it lock up.

[@bigal1093]

Just found this video and it really helps explain things!

[@SpikeBlighty]

Thanks for the clear explanation.

[@michaelxanny4790]

By far the best vid for this topic yet. All other videos aren’t descriptive enough, or they leave out the ship command perk part.

[@shadowbadass]

Thank you.

[@javierpagan9901]

I found this out by accident when I was in ship building mode different Habs give you more or less crew limits 🤔 good explanation....

[@robertmashburn1553]

Thank you sooo much. Now I understand it. Have a great weekend buddy 🎉

[@shadowbadass]

Don't call me buddy, friend. You have a great weekend also.

[@robertmashburn1553]

@@shadowbadass Sorry did not mean to offend you. 👌

[@glakhmed]

Great explanation! Thanks!!!

[@Theportraitdude]

Very well explained thank you!

[@Achromania]

It was indeed helpful. Thanks!

[@Utubefan687]

This was a perfect explanation.

[@chetranqui]

Awesome guide, tyvm.

[@davidc5191]

I was excited when I got my first ship upgrade that got me 5 crew instead of the starter 2 crew, but then discovered I couldn't add more than 3 crew because of the limit on Ship Command - but command is difficult to level up since I need to sink I believe 8 points into social slots that I really don't need.

[@deebee4575]

Well done and helpful.

[@shadowbadass]

Thank you!

[@douglashalley9469]

I wish your video came out sooner, because I was having a hard time figuring this out and then started reading tech tree, and some of the other trees until I finally figured it out. Lol

[@shadowbadass]

No don't read, school is for fools. Haha

[@RacinJsn]

Passenger slots are for missions like transport X number of traders to Y settlement. If you have enough seats just take it and fast travel to the destination port and bam quick xp and credits

[@UrielsJunkDrawer]

That is some good info. Thanks! New sub.

[@shadowbadass]

You are welcome, and thank you.

[@kuppakeep]

Much of a thanks ❤

[@johnmckown1267]

Great explanation

[@shadowbadass]

Glad it was helpful. And thank you.

[@chief664]

It really sucks that ship command is all the way at the bottom of the skill tree besides persuade its the only thing im interested in leveling up so I'd have to spend so many points on skills i don't want to get it

[@pauloantoniolyons8171]

Thank you

[@user-ix5ww5hk8i]

Great work ✅

[@shadowbadass]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@TheBamaChad-W4CHD]

Super hint. Cora always counts as the. 5 crew. She gives a bump in sensor power. It helps READING things around you. Obviously a joke everyone lol

[@kahawainz5869]

thnx bro

[@justinchauvin8167]

Great video!

[@shadowbadass]

Thank you. Cheers.

[@Thetacomaninnit]

Heck yeah it is

[@Merwanor]

So freaking stupid having Ship Command all the way down at master level. Some of these master level skill as so essential it is just puzzling to me.

[@joshuahoward1997]

Thank you for explaining this. Have you made a ship building explanation video? I am having difficulty with the whole concept.

[@shadowbadass]

I've had several ask for it. I'll try to make that my next video.

[@Thetacomaninnit]

@@shadowbadasscan you include a smallest ship possible? For me 👉👈?

[@zondor8123]

It's easy, as a ship they need engine + grav + reactor + shield. Other than that is not a requirement

[@Thetacomaninnit]

@@zondor8123 and of course a cockpit and landing gear and a landing bay, and the shield isn’t necessary you should have it anyway but it won’t stop you

[@panpiper]

Where did you get that 'Conduction Grid' and 'Com Spike'? I've been to every ship vendor and spent hours scouring their equipment lists and have never seen those two pieces of gear! D'oh. Gotta follow through on the Crimson Fleet quest line.

[@shadowbadass]

Your edited comment is correct. Fun quest line.

[@KillingSpreeXLWDGNG]

Make sure you save during the pen-ultimate mission. My game decided to not quicksave during one of the most annoying backtracking missions of all time and I dropped the quest line because I absolutely was not redoing that mission.

[@SoLCollectR]

Can you recruit unlimited amount of members but can only have a certain number active at a time?

[@GBugden]

Ive never seen that Comm Spike or the one for shield regen; what are those kind of items from? Just specific ship merchants?

[@shadowbadass]

Check out my recent video, it's for your comment on the ComSpike.

[@danjal87nl]

It really worries me that this is stuff people miss. Really speaks to the fact that unless something is handed to someone, ideally in video or spoken format? People just won't process it. Reading? What's that?

[@davewills6121]

You won't live long with all that unnecessary worrying, lighten up, far too many suicides.

[@zengrath]

for me. i didn't realize there was a skill for it. and being all the way at the bottom of that list is going to take me time to unlock. I am on new game plus and 50 hours in and still go so many things to still unlock it's crazy. I'm about level 50

[@shadowbadass]

Yeah I was surprised by it being at the bottom as well

[@Splincirtoo]

Thanks for this. I'm almost 70 hours in and couldn't find what was adding crew capacity for ships. I saw the modules and the crew stations. I thought that was it, but then I would add modules with stations, and the crew number wouldn't change. It wasn't until I started to add other components that the crew capacity increased to meet the available stations. This clears that up. Even adding weapons adds crew capacity. It's a strange system. I just wish ship components weren't so tied to the character level. From what I've heard, there are components that require over level 60. Im not trying to rush a game process just so I can do the part I'm having the most fun with.... which is ship building right now. I've probably spent more time setting up my outpost and getting some income rolling so I can build ships than I've done anything else. Unfortunately, that hasn't gotten me a ton of levels. I'm only level 18. Just build the "Meridian Eagle" as a B tier ship. It actually turned out pretty decent. Closest I could get to the falcon without mods that change how ship parts mate up. Some of the ships you run into in game look really cool. It's a shame we can't build them the way they are put together. They're clearly using custom parts and don't adhere to the same ship part snapping system.

[@shadowbadass]

Yeah I definitely ain't rushing this game either. I'm enjoying so much to this game. Crew Capacity is a really bad label, think of it as Crew Required. This helped me think of this number. There are ship components all over this game. Every ship station, landing pad, or star yard has their own components; some shared I'm sure. So some ships in the game might be made from components from different places.

[@Kr1msonKing]

I focus a ton on my two Outposts & messing with my ship. Broke 100 hrs yesterday & I'm lvl 23 lol

[@seb5542]

​@@Kr1msonKingoutposts are so good for leveling in this game and making tons of money. I've basically been doing the same thing. Farmed for loads of aluminium and iron. And because of it I'm level 63. I'm about 80ish hours into the game too.

[@Rowgue51]

Every ship in the game is made from the same parts the player has access to. You can easily verify this by capturing such a ship and going into the shipbuilder with it. I have yet to run into a ship that I can't capture or that I can't modify after capturing or that is using some kind of unique part(s) not available as stock parts from the ship part vendors. You can make really cool looking ships in this game, and you can make ships that are super functional. It's incredibly difficult to make a ship that is reasonably functional that still looks really cool. You'll notice this if you watch people that do videos of them building different ships. They're usually either building one that maxes out every performance related stat and is super effective for combat and travelling around; or they're building one that looks really badass or has a really nice internal layout or whatever. They're not doing both because it's near impossible.

[@tonyelliott5045]

what is the expectation from Bethesda for knowing this information? I can only assume they have a highly detailed players guide somewhere on the interwebs. gone are the days that games come with a packaged guide. i petition that whether PC or console game downloads come with a pdf guide.

[@Jimvenice2008]

Soooooo many things to learn. Ship building is fun damn fun

[@shadowbadass]

It really is.

[@captainmorgan9399]

So the key to having more crew is to get your capacity and your available stations up?

[@shadowbadass]

Yes one of those is limiting your ships crew number.

[@dilsoncamacho4100]

The only problem I have is that I still don't know what each crew skill actually does... doesn't seem to be the same as for the player character.

[@nickdutton6218]

I'm confused about it. If I get a fusion specialist or a ballistics specialt. Does their skill bolster the ships performance, and in what way, does it add onto my own skills, or do my skills supercedes theirs? If I got three payload specialists, will I have much better missile performance in terms of DPS?

[@TrickyJebus]

what about crew skills????

[@Amomferatus]

My problem is my ship is massive and can have 17 crew, based on the ship crew stations and component needs. So I'm now limited to 8, but can have more according to the ship. My question why have a limit at all?

[@michaelmccandless1280]

If someone hasn't done it already, I'm pretty sure there will be a mod just for this.

[@ShebanFPV]

So what is the difference between crew capacity and crew stations? Do you really need more crew stations if you have enough crew capacity? 🤔🤔🤔

[@bugnazbinnyking1198]

Ship Crew Size (3, and up to 8 with the Ship Command perk) is how many people you are able to Command. Crew Capacity is the space required for people on the ship. Crew Stations is a station they can operate and provide a benefit for. (the overall amount of people you can have performing functions on your ship is the lowest of these three)

[@9791mij]

If you put all weapons to 3 and with Habs to match it will increase the Crew Max to 9 without the perk

[@bugnazbinnyking1198]

I believe that is information on how many crew the ship could facilitate - but you are still restricted by the default 3 that you can assign, and more with (levels in) the perk.

[@dropkick79]

I can't seem to rank up my Ship Command skill, that is my major problem. I destroyed several Crimson Fleet ships (small and large), but nothing has counted. I did read it HAS TO BE with the Frontier. I'll have to try that tonight. However, if that is the case, has to be a glitch I would think. Why would the skill be that far down and make you resort to going back to your initial ship?

[@shadowbadass]

Your entire comment is, great points.

[@vincer7824]

Apparently it will not work with any stolen and pirate ship (even after being registered). Your last point is exactly right. Double check you have the max number of crew members assigned to the ship. Make sure they are crew and not passengers. Vasco doesn’t count.

[@mynameisnobody928]

U can join the vanguards in Atlantic…then u have access to the flight simulator (via elevator)everything you do there counts for skills too

[@dropkick79]

I just powered through with the Frontier, the reverted it back to default and swapped back to my custom.

[@SusannaSaunders]

My Ship Command level is not recognising when I take over a ship. It's just not registering when I try to advance this skill and is stuck at rank 1. Is there anything I can do to fix this please? Are others experiencing this bug?

[@shadowbadass]

I would love to be a help on that, but haven't heard of that issue before. Most bugs I've encountered have been fixed by closing and relaunching the game. Good luck.

[@SusannaSaunders]

Thanks for your reply@@shadowbadass Unfortunately, relaunching doesn't fix this one. 😬

[@wesleygibson5546]

My game somehow started ignoring my lack of ship command skill and let me assign up to 7 crew...and then all my crew disappeared

[@SpaceMike3]

Big ship + large skilled crew = op in space? I'm in

[@Yangy_Young]

You should open the next video with "Hey Peter!"

[@shadowbadass]

Will be there for tomorrow's video.

[@delindsay]

The game pretty much requires you have a 2x1 Control Station until you can build a quite large Ship, otherwise you'll be stuck to however many Crew your Cockpit has (2-8). It also requires you have a bunch of Weapons. For example, you'll need 7 Weapons to maintain the 6 Crew you have for a 2-Cockpit + 4-Control Station; 6 Weapons = 5 Crew.

[@austinm5630]

If you're using most cockpits, yes. However there are 2 good alternative options. First, you can use the Stroud cockpit to provide 4 crew capacity by itself. Combined with the 2x1 Control Station this lets you hit the cap of 8, and the Stroud cockpit can be acquired very early at Neon. I actually recommend running this without the 2x1 Control Station at the beginning because 4 is all you really need until you actually recruit additional crew outside Constellation. (Lin and the miner guy should be sent to outposts due to their skills, not kept on a ship.) It also has the maximum number of weapon mounts of any cockpit at 4. The second is the Deimos Bridge. Despite being labeled a bridge (which normally requires taking a ladder up into it and therefore sucks) the Deimos bridge mounts to the front of another compartment, like a regular cockpit. It's a bit wider than a normal cockpit, but provides a full 8 crew capacity all by itself. You can get a low-tier version of this immediately on Mars and actually mount it to the front of the Frontier, though it'll look weird as hell. If you use this one, you never need a Control Station hab or Battle Station at all, because it'll already put you at the max of 8 by itself. The downsides of the Deimos one - and why I recommend the Stroud one at first - are that it's much harder to fit into many ship designs due to its shape, and it has 1 less weapon mount than the Stroud cockpit, at only 3. This is still as good as your starting cockpit on the Frontier, though, so if you're looking to gradually upgrade your starting ship over time, it could make sense to skip directly to this one, transferring all your guns over to it and never needing to worry about an alternative model. It also has an absolutely fantastic field of view - the Stroud cockpit's view is very constricted by comparison. The Deimos cockpit is, however, off centered, meaning the pilots seat is to the left of center. You likely won't notice this in combat but it may annoy you otherwise.

[@MageJiro]

crew stations and crew capacity are different?? weird okay then. Why did ship command have to be so far down?

[@shadowbadass]

Also, think of crew capacity as crew required. Yeah they really make you work for that ship command.

[@BQUNTY]

Now can you tell me how many companion story can you do.😅😅😅😅😅😅 I'm try to do as much as possible in 1 play through

[@shadowbadass]

There are 4. I can make a recap video of them.

[@Thetacomaninnit]

Which ship yard is this?

[@shadowbadass]

Was at New Atlantis.

[@556to762]

what is crew capcity actually mean?

[@shadowbadass]

Think of crew capacity as crew required. Crew required to run the ship at the most efficient level. As that number raises then you need crew stations, for your crew to work the modules.

[@kaikonjer6964]

Every weapon has 0.5 Crew Capacity. So adding more weapons will lead you fast to a maximum of 8 Crew Members. The problem you get then is the maximum energie level. So I disabled one complet and gives the Rockets minimum energie to solve this problem. Depending on your skills and level later you get better reactors and ship parts.

[@TheAgent0060]

My ship has a max crew limit of 10

[@Mr_Waffle.]

Great guide, too bad the skill is buried all the way at the bottom so it forces big party boats alllll the way to the very end game!

[@Badpak.]

Very helpfull video! Thank you! I do wonder, if you are using 3 crew members, but you have a capacity of 5. Does that mean there is a loss of some sort where this unused capacity gives a certain penalty or something?

[@shadowbadass]

I prefer to think of it as no crew is base, and as you assign crew you get enhancements and better performance.

[@Badpak.]

@@shadowbadass Are you talking about crew skills? Or you mean it actually filling up the capacity? I wonder if it is possible to test this reliably, pity you cant find a standard enemy/ spot to test this

[@Hangman1]

Just crew is BUGGED , crew members disappear from crew menu and from the ship randomly, right now I got 1 crew member and I should have 6

[@spike178]

The crew hate you then 😂

[@Hangman1]

@@spike178 I hate them to , bland , one dimensional with broken AI . Don't play this trash from day CP 2.0 launched

[@SWATOPR8R1]

"Sorry John, we only have a crew capacity of 5.5, we will have to cut some of your limbs to make it fit".

[@bakaAL07]

So as I understand 'crew capacity' means nothing. And if you want to increase crew members size you need to install 'crew stations' and learn the perk

[@shadowbadass]

I like to think of crew capacity as crew required; just a better way to think about that labelling. You can have 8 crew stations, but if your crew capacity/required is 3 then you will only be able to assign, get the benefit of, 3.

[@Duncan275]

Im still not clear on the benefits of crew lol

[@shadowbadass]

The skills of your crew member will become your skills, basically. Looking on the crew screen, the crew skills that are highlighted white are benefitting you. If that have good ship skills, assign them to your ship. If they have good outpost skills, assign them to your outpost. Same thing for combat.

[@user-lg8mr9kt3g]

So is 8 max then?

[@shadowbadass]

That is what I am assuming, but can't say for sure.

[@andreasheinze9685]

Not a 100% sure on this but as long as you have sarah you should be able to have 9 companions on your ship because she basically is a free crew member and doesn't use a crew slot. My max crew at the moment is 3 beause I haven't leveled up that skill but I have for crew members assigned to my ship.

[@cyanide7270]

8 is the normal max, but Sarah gives herself a free slot on your crew, so that makes 9. Which is funny because ive got 12 slots on my ship XD

[@user-lg8mr9kt3g]

@@cyanide7270 what I dislike the most is role playing and building a battle ship but we can only have 8 crew lol in all the shows like star trek for instance there would be way more than 8, it should be based on the actual habs and be your only draw back imo

[@prauwnsauce]

Now do it with outposts

[@shadowbadass]

Trying to get there, hold your damn horses! Haha. Want an overview for outposts and how they work? Places to put them? Got a video coming for 2 sleeper skills that are really good for outposts.

[@prauwnsauce]

@@shadowbadass thank Christ, I’m 30 hours in and struggling hard, my main issue is I just never have any of the materials despite mining and picking up nearly all I can.

[@Assassino275]

​@@prauwnsauceit doesn't have a universal storage system like FO4 had. You have to keep all the resources on you or in the same space

[@Kr1msonKing]

@@prauwnsauce If you're ever in need of materials, the shops are usually well stocked. I got my 1st few Aluminum Extractors, Solar Panels, and Mineral Storage built by just buying the needed resources. Initially I bought them in New Atlantis, next to the Coffee Shop just ahead of the landing pad. But since you have to wait ~48 hrs for their stock to reset, just go to Titan and buy there from the shop in the Earth Museum. You want to buy on Titan because you only have to wait for 4 hrs for stock refresh, due to time dilation. Not 48hrs. Massive difference. *ALSO, of you pull out the Outpost Marker like you're going to set it down, it'll show all the available resources in it's radius, in the top-left corner of the screen. That way you don't have to jump around with your scanner for an hour, looking for multiple minerals to extract in one location.

[@Kr1msonKing]

@@Assassino275 But you can build storage for your minerals at multiple Outposts & link them to one Outpost if they're in the same Solar System. Later, beyond one Solar System with high lvl perks. Universal Storage is something you have to work towards.

[@dh8203]

The only thing you're missing here is discussion of who you would want on your ship crew, and why.

[@TheAgent0060]

Sarah, Barret, Gideon and Sam for sure. Optional is Hadrion and that one black dude in Akila City,

[@DocOrtmeyer]

How could I have a 3 floor ship with only 4 😡 this sucks 😡😡😡😡

[@ihatenuggets]

Another cool feature locked behind a tree i dont want to level. Bad choice bethesda.

[@BQUNTY]

Thank you