At this point Pilot NPCs are not fully implimented, and as such you do not need a pilot on a ship to have it as an NPC controlled ship.
My understanding is that an NPC pilot or droid will prevent you from being knocked out of Hyper if you enter another ship in your hanger bay, but have not tried it my self, so I could be remembering incorrectly.
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Warning this is strictly Orions McPhees Opinion, it may or may not have any bearing on events true or imagined
I'm going to piggy-back on this one with a question:
a long time ago, in a sector far away (2 years ago in Orus) I strung some fighters together with NPCs and flew them around. Now, i'm in a Delta-Class JV-7 Escort Shuttle, so should be able to do the same thing. BUT, either it has changed, or I have forgotten how to make them 'NPC controlled.' I am the commander and pilot, but now the owner, is that causing an issue? How do I go about this?
Edited By: Zao Nephalem on Year 9 Day 146 12:52 ____________
You have to be in the same location with all the ships, you have to be assigned pilot of all the mentioned ship, you can then give the order from the manage piloted ships screen.
I recently did it successfully as commander and pilot of a group of Delta-Class JV-7s. Just don't try and do it with PLY3000's (They don't squadron, and I forgot for a while). Rather a bit of an embarrassment.
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Warning this is strictly Orions McPhees Opinion, it may or may not have any bearing on events true or imagined