Consevation of Crew - Capturing Smaller Vessels

[LTCjRet]

There is a serious flaw in the mechanics of boarding & capturing a smaller vessel.  

 

In attempting to transfer from a sinking Trincomalee to a healthy Snow, I found I had lost 90 crewmen between the end of the boarding and capturing.  Assuming I still had my original complement, I grappled another Trin after firing a broadside of grape into her.  Needless to say, it didn't turn out well.

 

I suggest players be given a choice of transferring the entire crew or taking her as a prize and transferring a prize crew, retaining both with reduced operational capability. 

[Prater]

What happens is that the Snow has a max of like 120 crew or so, so your ship filled up the max and the others were left on the Trincomalee. Maybe they could have it so that you can have extra crew aboard, but with a penalty to something as the extras are just going to get in the way.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

What happens is that the Snow has a max of like 120 crew or so, so your ship filled up the max and the others were left on the Trincomalee. Maybe they could have it so that you can have extra crew aboard, but with a penalty to something as the extras are just going to get in the way.

 

That's exactly the problem.  Trying to fight a ship when it's overloaded with men would be a nightmare.  

[LTCjRet]

That's exactly the problem.  Trying to fight a ship when it's overloaded with men would be a nightmare.  

 

But in this case, contrasted with the nightmare of the remaining crew going down with the original ship, not so much.

 

I have to expect the "final" version of the game will have some mechanism for prize crews anyway. As for the game mechanics, the real-time management WOULD be a nightmare and I supose the best option would be to allow one ship to be designated with an AI captain.  Since it would be fighting with a handicap I wouldn't think this would prove to be an unfair approach to other players.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

You could load the ship to the gun'ls with men, but you're going to have a hard time fighting her.  If the old ship was sinking, I'd like to see a "maximum crew" number for a ship.  That number should be broken down into max and can still fight (which will be greater than the maximum it can carry comfortably as a "war loadout"), and flat out pack them cheek to jowl (saving crew from another sinking ship after a boarding).  Any crew remaining on the sinking ship get into the boats to float around until the battle is over (and can optionally attempt to sail to a nearby port with a random percentage lost that goes up exponentially with distance).

 

To say you should be able to board a Lynx from a Trincomalee and take all your crew with you isn't something I want to see.