Officers and Crew expanded

[Aetrion]

I think the game could use an expanded crew system where crew isn't just a number, but you have to actually recruit crews and train your officers. Crew wouldn't simply jump back to 100% after a battle, but you'd have to actually land in port to recruit new crew. 

 

This could also tie in with a more expanded experience system that doesn't just increase the number of people you have, but also lets you train up different officers. That way experience remains relevant even for people who aren't just shooting for the top rate ships, since they can improve their crew by earning more experience just the same.

 

 

Different officers could be:

 

 

Bosun - In charge of the deck crew and ropework on the ship. Could grant bonuses to sail and yard adjustment speed, or rigging durability.

 

Surgeon - In charge of treating injuries and seeing to the health of the crew. Could grant a percentage chance for crew to recover after battle rather than being dead.

 

Purser - In charge of the ships treasure and wages. Could grant a reduction in crew wages or an increase in your ability to recruit while in port.

 

Quartermaster - In charge of manning the ships helm and crewing its watches. - Could increase the speed at which crew move around the ship.

 

Steward - In charge of preparing meals for the crew. Could grant an increase in crew morale and general effectiveness.

 

Gunner - In charge of the ships armaments. Could grant an increase in reload speed.

 

Master at Arms - In charge of the ships small arms and training the crew in close quarters combat. Could increase your crews power while boarding.

 

Carpenter - In charge of the ship's carpentry team. Could increase how much hull your crew can repair with a kit.

 

Sailmaker/Ropemaker - In charge of the ship's sail and ropemaking team, Could increase how much sail your crew can repair with a kit.

 

Cooper - In charge of building the custom crates and barrels for odd cargo. Could increase how much space you have available on your ship through more efficient boxing.

 

 

 

Maybe you could pick up named officers as you play, recruit them from around the map, and they would work sort of like ship upgrades, higher grade officers having better stats.

 

Maybe when you level up you could assign mates to each officer. So, you rank up, and you get to promote, let's say, 5 people. So you could make your crew more specialized in various areas. You'd say "Ok, I want to promote 2 guys to Gunner's Mates, and 2 to Carpenter's mate, and 1 to Surgeon's mate", and so on. Giving your officers more petty officers who serve under them increases their ability even further, and would make it so that as you rank up and get to promote more and more of your crew into mates positions your small ships would gain benefits, so leveling wouldn't just be for crewing huge vessels.

 

 

 

This isn't a fully formed idea, since I'm sure the devs already have some ideas of how they want to do officers and crew when they fully implement the system, just some thoughts on what I would like to see.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Aetrion

[Wilhelm von Bromme]

+1

[Hyperion74]

+1 too

[The Spud]

The first idea about needing to go to port to recrew your ship I like alot, as it seems logic that one could repair a ship at sea if needed. One could not just fish up some fresh crew. So going to port would give you a new crew. It would make port battles (with people defending the port in OW) a bit more tactical instead of just attacking people, until your dura or repair kits run out. Defenders might hold the advantage on this one, so I don't know if that is a good plan.

 

The different types of Crew I like too, but it would have to be balanced out with the upgrades. I am not sure about the stats but an exceptional Powder Monkeys and Magazine Acces would give a big reload bonus. If one would add a gunner with say at its best equal value. One might get an unreal fire rate.

 

A nice addition in more or less the same way you intended, and would also be somewhat realistic. Is now that we might start using allocated crew management. Is that a "guncrew" could gain experience calculated on the amount of hits they make. Or the sailingcrew better with every mile sailed in battle (easy to exploit), and the survivalcrew more experienced with every leak fixed, same for the boarding crew with every succefull boarding, etc. The experience is shipbound, as it would seem logical that a new ship would take time to learn all the above again (well not boarding, but oh well). You could have several levels, with all a small advantage. But it would need to take an absolute gigantic amount to increase all levels to max. So for people just grinding towards their ultimate ship would not bother doing a grind to get the max level, only players who stick to "their" favourite ship would in the end get a nice benefit.

 

But I like your idea just as good... so +1.

[Crosan]

+1

[Wicked Mouse]

I'm convinced that the developers already have an officer system in the works, but any extra ideas may be helping them of course. And you have some good ones

[mandrake]

another thing you could do is if you want to sail in a smaller ship u can use your excess crew to crew another ship into your fleet. (have to own the ship as well) this would promote not rushing to high level ships and allow for escort fleets bigger then a cutter.