Crew Recruiting

One of the key tasks of a Star Traders is maintaining sufficient crew to operate the ship. Finding well trained and skillful crew will make the Captain's life much easier. Generally, at the beginning of a game you are going to recruit as needed without too much concern for quality but as the game progresses and you are replacing more seasoned losses, the source of your recruits may be more important.

Sources of Recruits
There are three main ways to bring in new crew: recruiting generic junior crew from spice halls, specialized crew from contacts and pressing crew into service after ship combat victory. Minor crew additions include story or event recruits, but those can't be relied upon as a constant stream of fresh bodies.

Spice Hall Recruits
Basic early game recruiting is done mostly in spice halls. Certain Rumors as well as Talents can vastly improve recruited crew level and quality, among other Factors.

Contact Recruits
Depending on the Contact Type and Contact Traits, a Contact may offer specialized Officer and Crew recruits. Available level will scale with contact's influence and accrued favor, while Military and Edict ranks will provide level bonus to crew types specific to them.

Pressed Enemy Crew
After a victory in ship combat, victory may press defeated crew in his or her service as per ancient Star Trader law, if any crew actually survives the defeat. Generally, recruits obtained this way will gain a negative trait and take a sizable hit to morale. Although Talents, like Quartermaster's Welcoming Conscription, can negate this flaw, making press ganging defeated crews a lucrative source of high level recruits, as high as 3 levels above your captains level, depending on the Difficulty.

Basic Recruits
Crew can be obtained from planets, pressing, and contacts. They can be promoted into officers for a small fee if there is an open officer cabin. Crew can also be recruited directly from Contacts for a fee. Crew recruited via Contacts gain a boost to Attributes.

Officer Recruits
Officers can be recruited directly from Contacts for slightly more money than normal crew members if there is an open officer cabin. Those officers recruited from a Contact gain a significant boost to Attributes (even higher than the boost to normal crew member attributes). Similar to promotion, only the first rank of their job remains, with the rest able to be spent as desired.

Recruiting Talents
The base attributes of recruits will be higher (average of 10) if you have a recruiting talent on hand when you perform the hiring. These talents will also reveal one trait immediately, which can be helpful.

Recruiting Level
The level at which recruits join your crew will dictate additional bonus attributes points in their attribute point total:

Recruiting Zone
The statistics of the zone on which a recruit was born and raised are some of the most impactful numbers when determining Traits, Attributes and Skill Bonuses. Scores like Military Rating, Economic Rating, Spice Rating, Government Rating and the zone type all impact the recruit's potential.

Higher values are always better, so hiring crew from backwater worlds with mediocre statistics is likely to net recruits with mediocre statistics.

Some random observations for finding fine crew combat recruits:


 * Device Freak trait is more frequent to be seen from a zone type=High Tech Industrial and from Spy main Captain profession.
 * The base line recruitment from an average rating zone (6-7 to be more precise) without using recruitment talents it's nice for non combat-crew or if one is in dire need of combat crew.
 * Planet Sizes should have an impact on recruit attributes. Higher Gravity higher Strength Fortitude(as planet Density is not available to calculate the mass we assume the larger the planet the greater the gravity).
 * Same logic can be applied to Planet Atmosphere and Planet Danger (harsh dangerous planet better traits for recruits).
 * We'll define a bonus multiplier along with Planet Danger, Planet Atmosphere, Planet Type => Bonus Multiplier = Planet Size*Type*Atmo*Danger (look at this as a desirability rating/metric that doesn't exist in the game but can signal to the player "You might want to recruit from those planets" => it influences traits for hardened crew combat recruits)
 * The Random Number Generator (RNG) plays a factor in attribute spread but averages stay the same between certain limits depending on these confirmed factors; these Zone Ratings weight a lot more in determining recruit attributes than the bonus multiplier
 * Recruitment talents boost stats a lot between +(2-4) on every attribute on average from base line (if recruitment is done in almost optimal conditions).
 * Hiring crew from contacts with influence and using Recruitment talents boost stats even further (4-6) on every attribute on average from base line (if recruitment is done in almost optimal conditions and your personal reputation and influence with the Contact are high).
 * There are 2 max bonus skills that can show up on every recruit with a 0-6 skill range. Evasion, Doctor, Blades, Rifles, Pistols, Tactics bonus skill points can influence the potential of a new crew combat recruit.

Captain's Job
The captain's job affects which traits starting crew members have. For instance Spy is known to cause more device freak crew members when starting.

Merchant: Rigidly Lawful

Spy: Sly

Xeno hunter: discreet

Recruiting Faction
The faction in which a recruit was born and raised is perhaps the most powerful factor within their life before taking to the stars. Members of factions are more likely to have certain Traits and recruits from specific factions may be the only characters to start with certain traits.

The following lists are some of the Traits that are associated with each of the Factions, but not all Traits are listed.

Mercenaries
During a Mercenaries Rumor, there are plenty of fighting men and women available for recruiting in the spice hall. Swordsman, Pistoleers and Soldiers are always available.

All recruits from the spice hall or from Contacts gain +2 Levels during this Rumor.

Academy Graduation
During this rumor, all recruited crew members, whether from the spice hall or from contacts, will have +1 level.

Tariffs
All recruits from the spice hall or from Contacts gain +1 Levels during this Rumor, as trained gravs are looking to leave the bad economic climate.

Starport Booming
During a Starport Boom Rumor, Engineers will be available in the spicehall for recruitment

Spice Festival
During a Spice Festival Rumor, Smugglers are available to be recruited directly from the spice hall as crew.

All recruits from the spice hall or from Contacts gain +1 Levels during this Rumor