Let us "commission" the AI to sail our ships between outposts

[Nijis]

First off, I'm really enjoying this game. It's got beautiful graphics and a great combat and sailing system, and I like very much that the emphasis is to keep the mechanics as historical as possible, even if the setting doesn't have much to do with the historical Caribbean. I played PotBS and this already is far superior, in my book.

 

One suggestion -- and apologies if this has already been made. It seems an obvious one but I scanned the forums and did not spot anything that seemed to resemble it.

 

Allow us to have the AI sail our ships between outposts. Such voyages would take place in real-time, even if we are offline, and obviously the ships would run the risk of being intercepted. In that case, the AI would fight the battle, with the ship most likely taken and the cargo lost. But if the economy offered enough of an incentive, merchants would commission new voyages.

 

Why? Firstly, I have only a small amount of time to devote to the game. I do not have time to make lengthy voyages. Right now, I mostly move goods by exploiting the teleport system. This would allow me to go online, commission a few cheap snows to run cargoes, and then log off and do my other work. I'd check back a few hours later to see if they made it through and I made a profit, or if they were snapped up by privateers. Meanwhile, I could devote my precious blocks of time to battles.

 

Secondly, it would make the guerre de course more exciting. You're not just capturing some faceless NPC who will just respawn, you're causing real angst to real enemy players and weakening their nation.

 

Personally, I'd love to see a game in which human beings direct as much of the AI-run environment - not just sending out merchants, but dispatching privateers, pirate-hunters, even running blockades.

 

 

 

[Flob]

Few of us were discussing this yesterday, I would happily pay 5-10k to hire an npc crew to move my ships (without cargo) between ports.  This is a HUGE time sink and extremely unnecessary.  A "send ship" button in ports and having to wait 3-4 hours for it to arrive at the desired destination would be very nice. 

[Tennessee88]

Would like several options regarding this. 

 

For ships in port, the ability to take traders into your fleet or even have them follow you in open world to make it slightly more tactical. Limit the ability for you to escort them with anything higher than a 5th rate.

 

Hire crews to move ships (with or without cargo between ports), however there should be some limits. They must actually be present in the open world, and they should have at most a scratch crew making them vulnerable to attack. 

 

Finally, would like the ability to send prizes into your outposts (travelling via open world) instead of you having to constantly sail trader ships back to outposts. However, you must allocate crew to them and when the officer system is in you must assign an officer to them. 

Edited March 11, 2016 by Tennessee88