Back in earlier days there was talk of multiple game packages being able to be turned into NPCs that you could use as crew. There was mention in the Town Hall that there will not be permanently hireable NPC. Does this mean that things have changed or am I still going to be able to have my NPC crew without having to pay their wages all the time?asked by Mandulis

Multiple game packages are absolutely going to be able to be played as different game characters. You can define those characters and their roles etc. If you're not playing your character, and it's appropriate for that character to be crew for you, say I'm a pilot and I've got my Han Solo character and my Chewie character, both defined and they both live on Terra, then when I got into the Millennium Falcon as Han, Chewbacca could very well be my co-pilot. Now I could log on next time and play as Chewbacca and Han would be my NPC, but in the case where you have NPCs play roles on your ship, there will be costs involved. Maybe we'll have some kind of change where they might not need as much for the player owned ones, but we haven't worked that out yet. The advantage of the player owned NPCs is that you might have the whole crew of your ship customised to however you want them to be, looks, character traits etc etc, and you can play any one of those that you want. Generally NPCs you will pay a wage, with potential exceptions for players that you own, but you've got to appreciate that Chewie still wants a share of the spoils!