... making crew *more* interesting.
... Other mechanics could likewise follow.
If that is indeed the goal I am 100% on board.
Just consider that there is more to crew than just the core
game mechanics. It is also about progress / accomplishment / rewards.
Mainly officers fill this role now but there might still be potential to involve
the crew in a meaningful way - in a way so that the player actually cares about them (immersion).
Right now, losing a good ship/hull is much more painful than losing its elite crew,
maybe there is a way to up the stakes in the future.
At the same time you have to balance micro vs. macro management.
Especially when fleets get bigger it is hard to keep track of every individual ship.
Replacing losses can take a long time if you decide to maximize every
replacement (given the weapons / hulls, available) and it becomes rather
tedious instead of fun. (I am aware of the 'variants'-feature and I am using it quite a bit
but especially in the endgame I spend a considerable amount of time refitting my fleet in comparison to fighting actual battles.
With outposts in mind, maybe give the player a way to get easier / faster replacements (at a cost).
Also, consider that marines already only have one level and that's not an issue
While that is true from a game mechanics standpoint I would like to have some kind of customizability (experience, weapons, gear).
Especially when thinking about outposts / planets I would imagine that we will see (boarding / invasion) troops much more often.
crew levels are a thing that made sense way back but it just doesn't anymore, to me. The time-cost of maintaining it going forward is a bit much.
If you feel that this mechanic is hurting the game more (= costing unnecessary dev-time) than it is worth, scrap it or rework it.
If the development process of Starsector has taught me anything - it would be to have faith in you as a developer.
You haven't let me down once :-) Even some changes that I initially rejected (while reading the patch notes) turned out to be ok or even were an improvement (e.g. ballistics without ammo cap / officer portraits in battle).
I get it, it is really important to look at the game mechanics but don't overlook the immersion factor. If done right both supplement and strengthen each other.
Let the player make meaningful choices while keeping the core mechanics simple.
Keep up the good work, excellent release btw (as always)!