Cruisers need crew. You have the choice between several modules
Crew Module V2: 120 gold, 268 crew
And other crew modules
Crew Module 1 : 80 gold, 160 crew ==> usually not enough, unless you “waste” slots
Micro module : 50g, 80 crew .
Note that 1 MicroModule + 1 Crew 1 ==> less crew, more gold and more slots than 1 crew2
And even other crew modules
Crew Module 3 : 139 gold, 290 crew ==> the 22 extra crewmen almost cost 1 gold each.
ZeroG crew : 141 gold, 273 crew ==> slightly more expensive than crew2, just gains 40 weight wich have very little importance for 99.9% of cruisers designed by Laeamdor’s Elite Starfleets
Droid Bay 120 gold for 150 crew ==> An hybrid betewwen crew 1 and 2, the price of crew 2 for the performance of crew 1 (and even less)
Reinforced Crew : 148 gold, 260 crew ==> You pay 68g for 80 hitpoints, better than cruiser minimal armor but worse than CM2 unless playing Tribe or trying to build a tank ship despite restrictive scenario limitations. For Tribe, you get 80 extra hitpoints out of it wich sounds like a better deal.
End result is that unless I play Tribes 95% of my cruisers end up using the same out of 7 crew modules ? Shouldn’t CM2 be nerfed (248 guys instead o 268 ?) and some other be slightly buffed (ZeroG being the worst, CM3 being quite sucky in comparison of CM2 ?)
As you guess, my next thread will be about cruiser armors
CM3: great when you need more than 273 but no more than 290 crew.
CM1: great in the rare case that you don’t need more than 160 crew, or the even rarer case that you need between 291 and 320 crew
MCM: Ok, I’ve never used that one, I don’t know. Maybe for an all-in armor tank cruiser on a requires-engines map. Draws zero power!
ZGCM/droid: If you don’t care about weight (and sometimes, weight matters a lot), there’s not much point. Occasionally, the extra 5 guys in the ZGCM at lower power draw than CM3 is important, but usually not.
RCM: A lot of ships need more than 160 but less than 250 crew. At that point, 28 cost, no slots, 0.6 power, and 18 crew you weren’t using anyway isn’t a bad trade-off for 55 HP in my opinion. And it weighs less than a CM2 too.
I have found that for a lot of my ships, using the ZGCM provides juuuuust enough of a weight loss that I can gain a point of speed. That’s really handy if I’m trying to keep several designs at a constant speed so they all arrive together.
Similarly, I often find myself in awkward situations where I need to save just a little bit of power or have just a couple more crew members. So in the end, I use nearly all the different types of crew modules at one point or another.
ZGCM: For when you want MOAR POWAR and five more crew but not the Crew Module 3, or when you just want to cut out some weight. I use it on a rushdown cruiser I have with 3 shield modules plus powered armor and weapons and engines that still needs to be fast enough to close with the enemy.
Droids: When you want 150 crew per module for less weight than the MCM. Generally though, I don’t fall into the 290-300 window where dual droids are most convenient. I use them occasionally though.
Crew 2: When you need more than the RCM can provide or just barely can’t afford a RCM
RCM: The mainstay for my fleets 'cause 55 extra HP is that much longer with the enemy ships focused on it, and if I’m lucky, 55 more HP worth of time it spends firing its guns at full capacity before getting those knocked out.
I pretty much use all of them since crew modules are more than just crew and cost. They are weight, power draw, hit points, and an extra slot.
It depends on what aspect of your cruiser to you want to balance around. Do you want max 1-2 power generators, 1-2 crew modules, 1-3 engines, and so on.