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Officers Traits in depth


  

14 members have voted

  1. 1. Thoughts?

    • Like the whole idea. I'm on board! [Forgive the pun]
      8
    • Like the Officer idea, disagree with officer trading.
      4
    • Don't like the idea.
      2


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So my idea is to give Officers personalities that affect ship morale, your decisions and ship performance. 

 

Essentially if anyone has played football manager, you are always on the lookout for fresh talent and historically captains always loved having experienced, easy to work with, reliable officers.

So why not give Officers traits, personalities and make them tradeable.  

 

For example, 1st Lts usually gave their opinion /input to the captan in regards to tactics, so when you check in with your own ship to monitor morale/repairs/supplies/best locations to press gang, having a good 1st Lt can make the difference between getting accurate information and doing well, or making bad decisions and causing mutinies, starvation etc. The other Lt's were usually assigned to each gun deck, and sometimes the masts which again could provide small bonuses similar to the modules.  Having officers with extremely different personalities or traits could sometimes however lead to conflict, and having officer bullies could spark mutiny! Introducing demand! Make it so you can swap officers with other players, or even trade an officer for a favour, maybe information, trade goods whatever it may be. That means players are constantly fighting to finding and acquiring the very best for their ship. This must also be slightly restricted within reason. Hiring 5 new 1st Lt.s in the space of a few days is slightly ridiculous, make it so an officer has to have served a minimum amount of time before he can be traded, maybe 5 days.

 

Here are some examples of Traits

- Discpline               [bully ]            [strict]             [Fair ]                    [Honorable] 

 

- Personality           [Hostile]           [indifferent]    [Eager]                  [Reliable]

 

- Port Knowledge   [ignorant]        [Average]       [Well traveled]      [Adventurer]

 

- Leadership skills [Non-existent] [Good]           [inspiring ]            [Hero]

 

- Experience           [Landlubber]   [sailor]           [Professional]       [Old Salt]

 

 

Where would said officers spawn from? In war promotions come swiftly.  If you lose a couple of officers in a fight, get the midshipman promoted, and get yourself looking for some more midshipmen in the next press gang.

 

 

 

Historically depending on the size of a ship you'd have:

[the ages are an educated guess]

 

Captain

1st Lt. [usually aged 20 -32] [speaks directly to the Captain regarding tactics + plans]

2nd Lt. [usally aged 19 -26]

3rd Lt. [usually aged 18-23]

4th Lt. [usually aged 17-20]

5th Lt. [usually aged 16-19]

6th Lt. [usually aged 15-18]

and about 4-8 Midshipman [usually young boys aged 12-15 of medium-high class whose next step in the promotion ladder would be Lt.]

 

Thoughts?

Edited by Richard Bolitho
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I like your thinking, I'm just not sure how easy it would be to include in the game in a meaningful way.

 

If you had a Bully for a 3rd Lt. would it adversely affect the load times of your guns?

 

----

 

It would be cool if we had slots where we could "assign" Lt.s - then you could trim your ship better for combat by assigning your best Lt. to the Gun crew and your worst to managing "stores" or something.

 

Say slot 1: Gun Crews - slot 2: Deck Crew (sailing) - slot 3: Boarding teams Slot 4: Helm -------- It could be sort of like upgrade modules. ;)

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Hi,

All for it, but it needs 2 items that are currently not implemented: crew xp and morale.

IMHO this could easily be combined with my suggestions about those 2 items:

 

Sure! What about:

 

Win a battle =                    Bonus to Crew XP and Morale [Keep all your crew]

Escape a conflict =            Bonus to Crew XP [Keep all your crew]

Lose and get captured  =  Bonus to Crew XP, Decrease to Crew moral [Keep all Crew]

Lose and sink =                 Lose all crew except 1 or 2 random officer(s), depending on size of ship.

 

This ALSO increases the sense of loss, decreases the rewards of stupidly aggressive play + encourages people to play smart 

 

 

I like your thinking, I'm just not sure how easy it would be to include in the game in a meaningful way.

 

If you had a Bully for a 3rd Lt. would it adversely affect the load times of your guns?

 

 

Also, absolutely!!!

 

Officers and crew should NOT work in the same way as modules.  If you have rubbish officers and a ship full of kids and landlubbers you should recieve an initial, rather large decrease to ALL your ships stats. Which is why it is imperative you win as many battles as possible, play smart, press gang and lead your crew well!!

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