Officer Perk Suggestions

[Peiper]

Forgive me if I'm late to the party.  

I am going to predict that there will be multiple officer types, and maybe we won't be able to have all of them aboard.  For ease of reading I will break these perks down by officer type.  (added several more new perk ideas on 7/8, so read carefully if you're returning to this thread!  

 

Purser 
 
Treasure Hunter = a bonus percentage to all loot taken from captured ships.
 
Meticulous Purser = Reduction in crew hire costs, food needed for crew, etc...

 

Petty Thief = Find random exotic goods in your hold each time you visit a port.

 

Press Ganger = Increases available crew (not crew size per ship, crew available to crew extra ships)

 

Persuasive Purser = convince surviving crew of boarded ship to join own crew.

 

 

1st Officer  

 

Observant/Officer and Gentleman = increased experience for officers and/or captain.

 

Royalty = increased rewards for fleet and individual missions.
 

Navigator = Shows a blip on the mini-map of your general location.

 

Pennant master = Increases friendly AI skill by one level

 

Towmaster = increased speed sailing against the wind in open world and battle.
 
Lifeguard = increased crew retention when sunk

 

Teetotaler = increases crew efficiency overall (sail/yard turn rate, cannon reload time)

 

Blockaid Runner = Speed boost in open world.

 
Adventurer/Explorer
 
Explorer = See what a port sells without having to enter the port.  (Must be within a certain proximity)

 

Monster Hunter = bonus when using boarding axes, sword fighting handbooks (you never know when you have to cut off the Kraken's tenticles)

 

Calico Cat/Foxy Lady = Confusion bonus.  Lowers moral of enemies while defending on boarding by 5% per round of boarding.  

 

Swashbuckler/Dread Pirate = Swashbuckling bonus like sword fighting handbooks

 

Duelist = Like gunnery handbooks, bonus to shooting accuracy in boarding offense/defense.

 

Sharpshooter = Kills enemy crew whenever close to enemy ship.  1 per 30 seconds within 50 meters, something like that.

 

Zealous Preacher = base morale bonus 

 

Carpenter

 
Non-Swimmer = Faster leak repair.

 

Master Fiddler = increases repair rate in battle and increases quality of repairs after battle.
 
Master Carpenter = increases quality of repairs in battle and after.

 

Cautiously Pessimistic = Shutter the stern windows (increased stern armor/planking)
 
Bullnose/Rhino/Beakhead = decreased damage when ramming.

 

Sail Mender = causes a small regeneration rate for sails during combat and at sea (consumes "sailcloth" in ship stores, to be made by crafters)

 

Carpenter's Party = causes a small regeneration rate for sails during combat and sea (consumes "repair parts" in ship hold, to be made by crafters)

 

More with Less = 25% more hull/sail restoration from repair kits in open world.
 
Marine

 

Crusader/Righteous Fury = Boarding Prep bonus

 

Gunny/Gunnery Sergeant = bonuses to muskets and pistols, gunnery handbooks
 

Ready axes = gives a bonus to prevent boarding action (cut ropes and ladders to prevent boarding before it begins
 
Grapple masters = increased boarding activation distance and/or speed.

 

Sharpshooters = Kills crew of nearby enemy ships.  1 kill per 50 marines aboard at 100 yards per 30 seconds.

 

Scarred/Grizzled Veterans = Marines have 5% less loss from melee combat.

 

Helmsman/Master Sailor
 
Master Sailor = increased speed and turn rate in open world and maybe turn through irons in battle.
 
Master Fisherman = increased fish hauls.
 
Eagle Eyes = audio/visual warning about nearby enemy ships in open world.

 

Rigging Master/Coxswain = Increased turn rate through irons.
 
Boatswain = (replaces charismatic boatswain, or maybe stack the bonuses?)

 

Fire Drill Master = Put out fires right away.

 

Cannoneer 
 
Israel Hands = reduces overall cannon spread (the big cone of fire, not individual cannons.)
 
Veteran Cannoneer  = (like pellew sights)
 
Drillmaster = decreased cannon reload time

 
Trunnion Expert = Allows cannons to be raised/lowered.
 

Chef

 

Exotic Chef = trickleback bonus to crew in combat (they are healthy enough to recover)

More with Less = 25% more crew restoration per medkit
 

Doctor

 

Patch him up! = (in battle) fast crew regeneration up to 10% of lost crew returns to duty.

 

Triage = (in battle) slow crew regeneration in battle up to 25% of lost crew.

 

Trauma Surgeon = (upon battle exit) 25% of crew lives lost saved instantly.

 

Holistic Doctor = (open world/after battle) restore up to 50% lost crew over a period of 15 minutes.

 

Pirate Doctors --- skills different from national doctors listed above.
 
Witch Doctor = (like grog rations, increases boarding moral, decreases small arms skill) 
 
Witch's brew = increases boarding moral, but drops steadily over time (quick high/quick withdrawl).
 
Voodoo Doctor = small crew regeneration out of battle/open world 10 % of crew every 10 minutes. (zombies!)
 

 

 

 
Pirate Only Perks (for when they finally segregate pirates from nations)
  
Cursed = increased speed in open world, decreased speed in battle
 
Improvised carriages = reduced crew necessary for cannons, decreased cannon health

 

Sabateur - You'd think this wouldn't be a good guy to have on your crew, but it's great when you want to scuttle a ship.  (water intake from fire x2)

 

Arsonist - Another possibly bad guy to have on your ship.  (Increases fire chance x2)

 

 

 
New Game Mechanics:

 

(Purser skill)
 
Parley Master = a special ability offering to steal the goods in the hold of a national ship, but letting that ship escape with full crew and unable to be targetted for 15 minutes (no dura loss)
 

(Carpenter Skill)

 

Salvage master = retain non-permanent upgrades upon sinking of a ship with a single durability.  

 

 

Guild drydocks, to be built by guilds.

 

If a ship loses a durability and/or sinks, you can restore one durability.  The price of restoring a durability to a ship is the total store price of all the raw materials needed to craft a new ship - or, the sum total of half the raw materials or parts necessary to make a new ship.  This could have a timer attached too. So, maybe 12 hours per rating of a ship while it is being fixed.  12 hours for 6th rate, 3 days for 1st rate.  

Edited July 9, 2016 by Peiper
request

[Peiper]

More ideas:

 

Sabateur - You'd think this wouldn't be a good guy to have on your crew, but it's great when you want to scuttle a ship.  (water intake from fire x2)

 

Arsonist - Another possibly bad guy to have on your ship.  (Increases fire chance x2)

 

Game mechanic for nationals vs. pirates

 

Master Bargainer - Pay tribute to a pursuing pirate in exchange for release and immunity from being targetted for 15 minutes.  The tribute would be the sell value of all goods in your hold - or simply all the goods in your hold.

 

Game mechanic:

 

Salvage master: retain non-permanent upgrades upon sinking of a ship with a single durability.  

 

Guild drydocks, to be built by guilds.

 

If a ship loses a durability and/or sinks, you can restore one durability.  The price of restoring a durability to a ship is the total store price of all the raw materials needed to craft a new ship - or, the sum total of half the raw materials or parts necessary to make a new ship.  This could have a timer attached too. So, maybe 12 hours per rating of a ship while it is being fixed.  12 hours for 6th rate, 3 days for 1st rate.  

[Clarion Call]

So,

 

I like all of these perks, but I just thought of another:

 

Officer and Gentleman: Increased XP rate for all officers assigned to the ship

[Grundgemunkey]

good thread you have some good ideas

 

some more

 

armourer  maintains persoanl weapons bonus for boarding

 

purser reduces cost of trading by 10% by haggling

 

optics specialist crafts telescopes to increase range of vision

 

linguist can speak several languages and lets you escape battle quicker by fooling enemy

[Pagan Pete]

Ginger Cabin boy perk… Make you ship 10% more evil.

[Reverendo]

Rodrigo de Triana/Spotter officer:  Every time a ship/land is on sight for first time the game advise with a sound the new event and keep a list of the ships on range. (Lets read some books while sailing and let our officers do their jobs) Already proposed as eagle eyes

 

Engineer officer: You can see the upgrades installed in other ships.

 

Intelligence officer: You can see the office perks of other players. (No more 45 minutes chasing a player to find that he has the defender perk. )

Edited July 8, 2016 by Reverendo

[Tief N Tote]

how about first aid or medic ?

[Peiper]

Reverendo: I have a problem with your engineer and intell officer.  

 

1.  Engineer can see some things, logically, but not others.  Example. how do they know what tool kit is on another ship?  Can they tell if a ship is a faster or steadier sailor (stiffness/speed) by looking at the ship?  I don't think even the people who build ships can tell you that until the ship is finished and undergoes trials.  How does an engineer know if the opponent ship has optimized pumps?

 

2.  Intell officer: you could say that the intell officer might know some of the above information through a spy network, better than an engineer would know.  However, if you're at sea and you see a dozen Belle Poule's, how do you know which one is which to know what is on board any given ship?  They're identical.  Also, for example, how do you know how much crew each ship has, which is very important information.  If I'm sailing along and I see another ship that's just left port, how do I know how many souls are on board unless I was in port with him when they shipped out?  I wouldn't.  We shouldn't, in game see how many crew a ship has, how many pistols they have, or if they have 'exceptional' boarding axes.  I would actually prefer that when coming upon ships, we don't know the information until we board them, in which case, woe to the one who walks into an ambush!  

 

I would offer a compromise, though.  Over time during a battle, the intel officer and engineer could gather information revealing it as he notices this or that about an enemy ship.  That would make more sense.  Until the shutters open and the cannons rolled out, a person can't even count the guns on an enemy ship, let alone the type of guns.  That's how it should be in this game.  However, I like your thinking, your idea!

 

Tief N Tote:

 

First aid or medic: yes, I agree.  They will add a doctor, carpenter, purser, etc... to the officers available over time, we believe.  So, they TYPE of doctor we have on board could be very important.

 

Let's say we have an EMT type: he does first aid, provides a fast but small resistance to crew loss in range combat.  

Maybe we have a trauma surgeon.  He provides a larger but slower trickleback over a fight (the faster he works, the faster crew are freed up from the hospital to fight).  

Then we have the steady practitioner who provides the largest crew trickleback/return but it only happens out of combat/after the fight.  

 

I will add your ideas up top when I'm back from searching for some good Chicago pizza!

[DarkLord51]

Hey these are some sound ideas hope to see them in game.

[Peiper]

Added several new ones to the list, and incorporated suggestions from the thread where I agreed. Thanks for the feedback!

[Reverendo]

Well... there are just names and I was just thinking in interesting game mechanics. It can be tuned by time to find out the information and limit it to some perks/upgrades.

 

Another one.

 

Snatcher: After you participated on a boarding, even if you failed, if you survived the battle, you will still get some bounty in the form of modules/cargo from the other ship. Also disengage has a reduced cost (50% in cost and only 2 turns could be) 

[pugtm]

firstly, I want to say I sincerely hope the officer implementation is at an early stage... 

to be honest I was hoping for a more in depth system rather than just an extra perk. something like having all the officer slots that would normally appear and random officers with strengths and personality similar maybe to total war systems in Rome and have the possibility of them getting shot in battle. Nevertheless the system we have now i have a few perks to suggest as well.

 

crafting officer perk

require 1 less note per level or even better yet make another level above exceptional only accessible via this perk. make this cost all 10 lvls

 

independent commander

can ship a ship back to port immediately after capture, you still need to pick him and the crew back up from the port you shipped it to.

 

fire as you bear

(this would be amazing for large port battles when you are trying to fight at the same time as not slamming into 50 other ships...)

have an option to turn on fire as you bear so the ai officer controls when the guns fire off.

[squedage]

i really like the idea of marine officer but i think with it being put in to pay they would need to make marines an auto include in ships 5th rate and up. They can still have the upgrade for you to have them in smaller ships or more of them in your bigger ships with the upgrade. that way your free up a slot and can still us the marine officer without having to include marine upgrades with all our ships that you sail.

[Commodore Clay]

Got a few suggestions for officer perks, hope they find a good home. These suggestions are designed to bring new elements of the game into action, such as land, costly crew, and fishing.  

 

Possible perks: 

 

Landlubber - All factions, provides captain's ship with general bonuses (roughly equivalent to green rum rations) when land is rendered into a battle instance.

• Would make battle location a (more) strategic choice

 

Pirate Hater - Sovereign nations only (not for Pirates), 50-80% (rng) of enemy crew destroyed when a Pirate surrenders to owning captain.

• Punishes the surrender option
• Historically relevant 

 

Privateer - Pirate faction only, 20-50% (rng) of enemy crew added to owning captain's crew, or ransomed, when capturing National vessels.

• Rewards obtaining a surrender
• Historically relevant

 

Fearless - All factions, provides owning captain with general bonuses (roughly equivalent to green rum rations), when facing an enemy fleet >50% superior in BR. 

• Cuts the effectiveness of ganking
• Encourages more fighting and less running

 

Skilled Navigator - All factions, able to move deep-drafting ships through shallow regions, at 10% normal speed (speed cuts are maintained in battle instances). 

• Increases strategic value of shallow ports
• Speed cuts will still prevent any shallow-water PB screening by large ships
• Historically relevant

 

Treasure Hunter - All factions, increases chances of obtaining sealed bottles via fishing, and increases loot from shipwrecks. 

 

Hope some of these workout. Happy sailing, unless you're Brittish!

 

[Keez]

I had a similar idea...

Intelligence officer: can see the players while they are docked in a nearby port (making it more difficult to pop out and gank players unaware). And or allows the captain to see the officer perks on ships that are nearby (knows the reputations of enemy officers).

Boom! I think the ability to see docked ships would greatly enhance strategy and tactics!

[Anne Wildcat]

Just thought of an officer perk

 

Eagle Eye -- gives a more powerful spyglass allowing you to see 1.5x the distance on the open world through the spyglass.