Another approach to officers...

[Nukenin]

(Okay, let' s hope that this idea wasn' t posted in any different places around.)

 

So what I was thinking about is an alternate approach to the current system:

 

1. Let each player have more than one officer, maybe up to 6 different ones, or maybe even 10.

 

2. Each officer costs more than the one before, a little bit like the outpost-system.

 

3. Each officer can learn only 1 perk - but this perk will grow with experience, thus for example let an officer with the fisher perk have +2.5% bonus with level 1, +5% bonus with level 2, etc. Maybe even use higher values here, because it will take time to reach higher values, like in this example give 5% bonus per level.

 

4. When gathering officer experience, let the player chose in any port, on whom to assign these xp (alternatively, award the XP to the office who was chosen to be aboard the current ship).

 

5. Each officer has only 1 life. If the player loses a ship, he must chose which officer he lost (alternatively, he will lose the officer that was aboard the ship that sunk).

 

6. Maybe don' t call these guys officers but "specialists".

Edited July 29, 2016 by Nukenin

[Ned Loe]

I would say keep everything as it is, but add officers for each ship class. 

 

-Tiny ships

-Trader Ships

-Frigate Ships

-4th Rate Ships

-3rd Rate Ships

-2nd Rate Ships 

-1st Rate Ships

 

7 Officers each can be set up for whatever ship you are using. Should be Very similar to World of Warships.

[Kiithnaras]

I had a little different idea. Individual officers function as-is. Every 3 player ranks, you should be able to recruit another officer (Max of 4 at rank 9) and order your officers by "rank" on your ship. Each officer gives diminishing returns on perks, though, and some perks do not stack but overlap, and some perks that overlap will always provide their full benefit.

 

First officers provide full benefit, Second officers half, third officers one-third, and fourth officers only a quarter.

 

The advantage of the multiple officer system is that each officer would gain XP at the same rate - useful for training up younger officers for different roles. Additionally, the officers a player can have are the maximum active officers. Officers can be sent on shore leave if they aren't useful, but officers on shore-leave will not provide any benefit or gain any XP and be fixed to the port that they were sent on leave at.

 

For instance, Captain Steve hires 3 officers and designates them to specific roles. He can reorder them however he likes when in port, too, so if he needs a more econ-focused officer for a trip or go fishing, he can set that up for a certain focus.

 

Officer A: Light Ship Master (5), Prepared (1), Area Control (3), Carronade Master (1)

Officer B: Light Ship Master (5), Foreman (2), Overseer (2)

Officer C: Light Ship Master (5); Trimming Expert (1); Fisher (2)

 

In this case, LSM, Carronade Master, Trimming Expert, and Fisher are stacking perks.

Prepared, Foreman, and Overseer are non-stacking full-benefit perks.

 

Because Steve has every officer with LSM, his light ships have a total of +0.9 kts and 9% faster reload (!!), but it's taking quite a chunk of all those officers' training to specialize in that. Furthermore, he has to have all three of them active and at risk in order to get those benefits.

 

Since Area Control is in his first-officer, he can prevent ships within 500m from leaving battles. If Officer A were ranked lower, that area would be reduced accordingly. If he had multiple officers with this perk, only the highest-ranked one would apply.

 

Foreman and Overseer give their full benefit at all times because they're intended to only be taken once, no matter which officer has them. Multiple officers with those perks won't give any additional bonus. Similarly, Prepared would give its full benefit regardless of which officer it was given to.

 

It's clear Steve wasn't the brightest when setting these up, either, or goofed up because Officer C really should be swapped with Officer B since both have LSM. Changing that ordering wouldn't change the benefit to sailing performance, and Foreman and Overseer give their full benefit regardless of officer rank.

 

Suggested perk status:

 

Stacking Perks - Ship Masters, Trimming Expert, Carronade Master, Rigging Specialist, Pump Inventor, Expert Carpenter, Admiralty Connections, Fisher, Royal Shipbuilder

Overlapping Perks - Coward, Determined Defender, Defense Drill, Area Control, Mortar Officer*, Emergency Master, Pirate/Hunter

Full-benefit Perks - Double Charge & Shot, Prepared, Thrifty, Mortar Officer*, Press Gang, Storage Master, Foreman, Overseer, Shipmasters, Gifted, Expert Surgeon

 

(Again, Full-benefit perks do not stack - only the best one applies)

Using this idea, Mortar Officer would be a special case - they would always apply double-shot to mortar charges, but only the best bonus to reload and accuracy would apply.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Kiithnaras

[CaptVonGunn]

I sort of agree... I think Small Frigates and SOLs and traders is all the spread you need... Then maybe 2 officers per class...  with only 6 points of perks instead of 10....  This way you can have a Sailing master and a Crew guy....   Maybe allow a 3rd MArine Officer but that would be something for after they fix boarding and Boarding upgrades

Edited July 29, 2016 by CaptVonGunn