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OW sailing can be a drudgery. Often while away from port, our goals or missions change and we wish we were in one of our fleet ships and yet no outpost in sight. One can switch command to a fleet ship in combat, but not in OW. It seems that since in real life, sending the captain over in a dinghy would be more easily accomplished when NOT in combat, why not add this ability to the game? I can think of only positives for all aspects of the game.

I don't know if this is historically appropriate, but from a gamer's perspective I think there should be a "Reverse" command to move a brigade backwards to a given point in an orderly fashion while still facing the enemy. Right now, there's only "Fallback", in which case you don't really control the direction of the fallback, and a normal "March" or "Run" command, where your troops turn their backs to the enemy, when marching back towards your own lines, getting a "Flanked" or "Rear Flanked" malus. Just give it a command like "Shift+RClick" or something like this.

Here is my suggestion for a balanced fleet mechanic... Player may hire various ships of various sizes and various skills for various prices. Players may also build a ship and hire crew, captains, and officers of various skills. The size of ship that may be staffed would be set by some command points, which would increase as player rank increases, based on BR and at a set base amount. Example Ranks and base command points: 1 - 20 (lynx) 2 - 30 (cutter or privateer) 3 - 40 (pickle or 2x lynx) 4 - 50 (brig or snow or lynx and cutter...) 5 - 65 (brig or..) 6 - 80 (navy brig or...) 7 - 100 (niagara or cerebus...) 8 - 120 (renommee...) 9 - 140 (surprise...) 10 - 170 (frigate...) By using ships in battle, where that player wins the battle and where the NPC allies do not sink and where NPC allies stay until battle conclusion, the player *may* earn additional command points (perhaps 1-2, but with low frequency...maybe a formula like BR Destroyed / 50 = % chance per point up to maximum points of BR Destroyed / 25...so if you sank a cerebus you would have 4x 2% chances to earn 1 command point ) allowing them to command larger or more numerous vessels. Ok, so now it sounds like players may have massive fleets! How do we balance it? First, crew must be hired. Player will pay a set amount to convince a captain to join. The *notoriety* (new mechanic) of the player influences the notoriety of the captains that he may hire. The notoriety of the captain influences the notoriety of the officers. The collective notoriety of the captain and officers affects the morale of the crew. Notoriety is gained by fighting in battles, providing it on a sliding scale based on enemy BR compared to your BR...fill up wish ships and sink small fleets you get a reputation for cowardice (trade ships excluded)...solo large ships and others will hear of your skill and bravery. In addition to the hiring of the crew, the captain will take a percentage of all loot, as will the officers and crew, based on notoriety and based on number of crew. Each will have a % determined by the player, the higher % the more they get paid and the more effective they are. For example, a captain may refuse to work for less than 10%, an officer for less than 2%, crew will always work, but may mutiny if not paid enough - see morale (crew and officers are not individually compensated, rather x% to captain, y% to officers, z% to crew, divided equally among standings). Finally, the NPC ships will take experience points for their damage done in battle, increasing their effectiveness but slowing the player's leveling progress. In this way, it is both in a players interest to build or buy good ships, hire good captains and crew, pay their sailors fairly...but then where does the player's money come from to hire these if once hired they are taking a good share of the profits? Competing priorities balance the mechanic. A huge fleet makes a player go broke and not level. No fleet causes the player to lose out on gaining for command points (not necessary, but nice to have). If you allow your vessel to get to 0 durability, it sinks with your captain, officers and crew, severely impacting notoriety (others will hear of your miscalculations). Ok, that's my whole idea for fleets. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.