I found the old design letter about Multi Crew. You, the fans, expressed an interest in being able to fly your multi-crew ships solo as well as having the option to invite friends to man the various support stations and turrets. Therefore we decided that you should be able to fly a multi-crew ship solo, having access to the same management system seen on the HUD of any single-pilot ship. However, should you want to invite your friends along to help manage your ship, you could access additional crew support stations, giving you a little more control over the ships’ various systems. In brief, multi-crew ships needed to be entirely more flexible than either single-seat or capital ships. . Capital ships such as the Javelin will require multiple players (or NPCs) to run all the various ships systems, man turrets and even perform tasks such as reloading torpedo bays or repairing power relays. As there are far more weapons and ship components to manage, the station interfaces need to be more complex and therefore require each crew station to be dedicated to a single action, at least for the first iteration. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/transmission/14354-Letter-From-The-Chairman Old tech info from the shipyard. Medium Ships: Can be operated independently, but will flourish most effectively with additional crew. Large Ships these ships can be operated with a skeleton crew, but really require an experienced medium to large crew Capital Ships While these ships are not designed for the casual, individual player, they will offer a unique gameplay experience to the dedicated crew who put in the time and resources. About Min Crew The minimum crew value is what we regard the minimum number of players (or hired NPC’s) to be able to operate the ship in a basic manner while still utilizing its key features, such as a salvage ship being still able to salvage and move/defend itself. About soloing Caps Q: Can I still fly my ship Solo even though the Min Crew is listed as more than 1? A: Yes. While there is no hard and fast rule excluding the solo operation of all Large or Capital ships, some may find themselves at a significant disadvantage trying to perform specific actions in multi-crew ships without a crew, be that player or AI-based. Every ship in the game can be flown by a single player (even a Javelin) but your effectiveness in most scenarios will be limited to varying degrees. The minimum crew number provided is what we deem as a sensible skeleton crew option that allows the ship to be used effectively as intended while performing the role it was designed for. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/engineering/16172-The-Shipyard-Ship-Technical-Information From the 600i Q&A Can the 600i be flown effectively solo? The 600i is, fundamentally, a multi-crew ship. However, for its size is probably one of the most solo-friendly ships out of the box. By utilizing unmanned remote turrets and capable shields, a skilled pilot should be able to effectively pilot the 600i solo in most regards. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/engineering/16093-Q-A-Origin-600i The post isnt to express my opinion about this topic, just to deliver the old statements from CIG about it. EDIT: Here more about NPC Crew: Players will always be able to hire NPC crewmen in the game, contracting computer-controlled crews to help man turrets, run consoles and fly escort. So the old idea was that NPC Crew could also fly additional ships without a player. Can someone remember agent smithing? As an additional bonus, friends can ‘drop in’ to take over these crewmen themselves and to help man your spacecraft when available. Dont forget they sold additional game packages for getting more character slots and therefore more NPC Crew. I think many bought additional packages for more AI tokens. Unused Game Character slots without an associated ship or credits have two roles. They can be used to create additional crewmen or they can be gifted to other players. If you would like the option of customizing your crew, you can create your own NPCs by using a Game Character slot. You will go through the same character creation process as your player character but will then have the option of handing off control to an AI. https://robertsspaceindustries.com/en/comm-link/transmission/13288-Multiple-Package-Clarification