19 mln vs 60 thousand - the cost of crew - moderated

[Balsafer]

This will cut the number of 1st rates in PB's possibly.

 

 

 

People that complain about micromanaging are the same people that probably gave the developers at Sony the idea of dumbing down SWG was a good idea...

[Vaz]

I like the sound of this very much!

Of course there will have to be done a lot of tweaking to get it right, but overall it sounds good!

[Quineloe]

If the main cost of ships comes from crew and provisions, doesn't that mean that a Victory will go from being roughy twice as expensive as a third rate to only being 154% as expensive?

Is it gonna be linear and entirely depend on crew count or will bigger ships also need more expensive crew?

[Ted Nougat]

I think if we can buy ships, we ought to be obliged to provide a crew. Personally, I like the notion of hiring crew from a capitol or a long-held port. It would suck to effectively be stuck in port waiting for crew to regenerate. That's a recipe for logging off and then not coming back for a while.

 

I don't mind paying to crew a ship, but it would be severely frustrating being stuck waiting on crew to show up. When I line up real life such that I can devote some hours to the game, I want to be able to play it right then.

 

That said, I'd like to go a little further. If I hire a fresh crew for a new ship, they don't sail it at 100% efficiency.  If they're been with me and the ship for a while, they get better. The longer that crew is on that ship, the better they get.

 

This has a historical basis in fact, as well. French ships were arguably better built than English ships. The reason the French lost so many engagements (aside from having all their skilled officers killed in the revolution) was that they crewed each ship for a particular mission, whereas the British kept the crew with the ship and typically only officers moved around.

 

This meant that over time, the British sailors knew their ship and simply sailed it better than did their French counterparts, any number of whom might be on a ship for the very first time, for every mission they run.

[Ned Loe]

Suggestion:

 

Crew transport from port to port. If one port doesn't have enough hire NPC/PLayer traders to move more sailors to this region or Crew transport missions can be added to regular missions. All it takes is time and navigation skills. Deliver crew to a port who needs people and get paid. 

 

For example add Hammocks and carry extra crew, unload at needed port and start operating from that port filling it with people and building defenses for future needs. 

[James Roberts]

A quick look at the system used in "Mount & Blade" will depict a solid system where you recruit peasants, train them over time and pick their specialty, spend money to upgrade them, and replace them when they die.  

 

Its almost a game within itself.  It provides value to experienced crew vs a rookie crew and its organically grown.

 

 

[blademage]

Please keep in mind, that this still is a game. It is not a realistic simulation. If it was there wouldn't be any fun left in all this war. Players would die from a grape shot randomly in battle and have a complete wipe and restart...

 

No, please keep it a game. Keep it somewhat simple. Crew management is great. But crew should be ~90%  only wounded in battle and healed in OW, the few that really die should be pressed at low cost at any harbour. Officers may be difficult to get and expensive to keep happy and efficient, Marines may demand upkeep, but sailors may be pressed or hired in every tavern.

 

But as I see, human resources is a topic of great interest here. Maybe there also should be slaves & colonists for cities and a "two class crew" (pressed and volunteers) for the ships.

Btw. - did the captains have to pay the crew or were the sailors paid by the crown?

 

 

[Preserved_Killick]

I think it would work out just fine.  I don't like the idea of total crew being capped per nation.  I'm too worried that larger clans will corner the "crew market" and newer or casual players simply won't ever be able to crew their ships.  Crews should have a really slow standard rate that can be boosted by buildings.  This means if someone wants to focus on PVPing then their 5 building slots should be taken up with barracks and taverns and training academies to allow them to quickly refresh their crew numbers and train them.  This would put a demand on people who craft ships/items to keep those PVPers supplied and those PVPers will have to pay them fair prices.  In turn, the crafters will have to wait longer to crew their ships or pay with their profits to crew them.

[Captain]

I may have missed something in the OP that addressed it, if so I'm sorry. 

 

I think any mechanic where you 'run out of crew for the day' and have to wait until the next day to sail your ship again is obnoxious and absolutely bad. 

[Diggled]

I dont really see what this adds besides more logistics and unfun factors that slow the game down.

 

I was expecting to see some sort of officer hire/train system that would grant bonuses to your ships, ala StarTrek Online.

 

Could you not just add some sort of maintenance upkeep system for how much crew you have or used recently? and deduct weekly

[BallsOfSteel]

Capturing Traders gets replacement crew?

 

Not keen on the nations supply of sailors tied down by players losing ships at a great rate forcing the economy up.

Crew should be tied to the experience and fame points of its captain

 

There are plenty losing ships at great rates of knots and now we are unable to capture any large warships the crippling crafting hours and ensures we cannot get the ships we need to crew anyway.

[Unsubbed]

To me these changes appear to result into just an additional time sink in a game that is currently already catering towards hardcore play. The more you complicate matters in terms of time consuming activities the more you will end up with a small hardcore playerbase that actually has enough hours in a day to spend online

 

I completely agree, this will just be another aspect of the game that causes people to have to sail around finding crew when and where they can, burning up time for no other reason then its more 'historically accurate' and a way to balance nations. The more content that you add that makes this game more BORING/TIME CONSUMING will only increase the attrition rate of your player base.

 

At some point you guys have to decide if you are making a game for only a few people who have way too much time on their hands(like me), or a larger portion of the gaming community.  I would prefer the latter.  

 

Edit: Apparently just saying something is a bad idea without offering a solution is seen as counter-productive.  My alternate solution would be to leave crew as it is because 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

Edited April 27, 2016 by F4ppinFr3nzy

[Danny Dayne]

Please NO!.

 

Please don't make it so crew is a commodity that has to be replaced - First rates should not be pushed out of the way just because 2nd rates bring less risk. - Don't ruin the game

 

Officers - We should have officers and they should give bonuses much like Modules.

 

Provisions - Personally i think provisions should be a commodity and necessity that all players have to pay close attention to... Run out of Provisions on a long journey and maybe you won't complete that journey. (Provisions production buildings could be a thing)

 

Crew - NO, NO.

[WhoopAss_McGue]

While I like the overall idea of having crew, this system feels like it only serves to punish the player in certain instances by having to sit around waiting for crew. I think if there is a cost to losing a lot of crew, there should be some added benefit to preserving them - E.g. Some sort of crew experience that is gained after every battle, increasing reload/repair/yard speed and such. So if a player loses all dura's and the crew is killed, the main drawback is the loss of a good crew, perhaps even the crew regeneration could be quicker to reduce the frustration of waiting around.

I also really dislike the idea of a nation's population affecting crew per person, I don't want to be held back by low crew just because of the nation I chose when I first started playing.

[CeltiberoCaesar]

I also really dislike the idea of a nation's population affecting crew per person, I don't want to be held back by low crew just because of the nation I chose when I first started playing.

That is basically national balance, what this game need urgent. So the most crowded nations are pulled back and player tends to choose less populated ones and we dont have 10vs1 nations balance....

I really hope Dev read the feedback (do they?) And we get some balance at that point... Maybe not with the crew but with something else but with that aim... Right now is very obvious which nations are over populated and which ones have lack of people... It critical to fix this ASAP and the crew system seems a good idea bad implemented. If I have more people I will conquer more ports so I will get more crew so I will have no special lack of crew.

Edited April 27, 2016 by CeltiberoCaesar

[Lord Vicious]

Failing to see what this is supposed to bring to the game? beside be an annoyng feature that force you to rebuy-replenish crew, limit your capabilities to do pvp, already ppl run imagine if after they die not even they lose a dur but also the ability to use such ship cause the got ganked.

We need things like:

Politics feature, creating factions, make official agreement between nations with rights to dock in each other ports

ability for clan to build up a port, upgrade it and have a warehouse those are feature that we need.

clan taxes, for collect money

A better br system linked to the % of crew and ship hp, that reflect better the in battle situation.

A crew management that have a sense, since the one we have have been dumbed down to irrilevance

Certainly we not need a crew upkeep, before the game have fixed things like this

Edited April 27, 2016 by Lord Vicious

[mikawa]

I don't know if implementing a crew management is a good idea -- the main focus of this game is naval combat and I would neither like to fiddle with crew's mood nor repeatedly have to sail to ports between fleet fights just to fill up my crew again. This might be more realistic, but I think it cuts off the game flow, especially for fleets in front of enemy coast. Imagine that you sail over half an hour to an enemy coast, and you have to sail back after the first fight. This makes no sense at all. And I might be forced to quit the game earlier for a day, because there are no sailors left to hire. I don't like this idea at all. And last not least: it's a great disadvantage for small nations who have less population and less sailors to hire.

[Zargor]

Crew management, yes! It is currently sorely missing and making the game very arcade, even Pirates! had better management. 

[BungeeLemming]

Anyone complaining about 1st rates beeing too expensive:

 

1: you dont have to fully crew them

2: Victory has 850 men.

Pavel has how many? 840? See.. Victory is not really more expensive (in regards of crew)

Buccentaure will have around 860 btw.

 

It means that ships such as the Santi will either sail undercrewed on porpose or just become more costy. Which I like a lot.

 

 

You will be able to use marines to fill up the stock of your ship. Which should be seperated from able seaman recruitment.

[mikawa]

 

Crew management, yes! It is currently sorely missing and making the game very arcade, even Pirates! had better management.

And yes, it's the somewhat arcade style I like very much! Combat should focus on the *player's* sailing and fighting skills, not on the fact whether I had visited a port to fill up crew. I like to play a soccer game where soccer is the focus and not the player management, so I like naval action's system as simple as it is: higher rank, more crew, bigger ship. That's great. In my opinion we do not need any micro crew management. And in Pirates! you never have to sail over an hour to get to any enemy. That's a completely other approach.

Edited April 27, 2016 by mikawa

[BungeeLemming]

You did not read the OP careful enough..

 

You loose your crew only if you loose your last dura

 

When you sail in your 5 dura frigate you can sink 5 times until you have to recruit new men

[Reod]

You need to remember that its a game not simulator.It will not help gain new players , rather otherwise...its too hardcore.

[NoShipSailsForever]

Changes to crew

 

• Crew has to be hired in ports or impressed from enemies by means of boarding

Crew is attached to Captain (like officers) not to ships. You don't need to move crew from ship to ship. It transfers with you - the rest stay (wait) in barracks.

 

• Boarding players will be more important - (impress from enemies). 

 

Well if that's the case that if i e.g. lose a santi and my crew is gone...and when it should be such a hassle to regain crew over time...

i just build like 5 ships...like a snow, surprise, essex, bellona and vic / santi...(different crew levels depending on how much i have at that time)

and just fit them for boarding and get all the crew i need by boarding NPC ships as players will just try to evade being boarded anyway...

[sarcasm] hooray...another grind aspect and / or time sink[/sarcasm]

Edited April 27, 2016 by NoShipSailsForever

[ITFHunter]

Discuss and propose changes/improvements/alternatives

Ok, I will be straight. Do you want to make a game that is fun to Play or is your Goal to make a game that someone has to sail (and do nothing) for several ours?

Now I'll explain my question.

IF you make that Change, what you proposed here, you will have no real oppertunity to have fun within the game since currently you have to travel nearly 50% of your time and do nothing. with that Change you increase that time to more than 80%. Here a example.

you made an outpost in a free habor near an enemy and have some ships there (Basic which are port there, or some other wie "send to outpost"). Then you port to that habour to make some PvP. You go into your first battle, los your ship and more than 50% of your Crew is gone (or maybe all) Then you sitting in that stupid habour and can'T do anything anymore. So you have to buy a cutter and drive home to the nearest port of your Nation and hope that you can refill your Crew. you'll find no Crew there, so you drive to the next, there is still nothing (yeah, ist near a combat Zone) and so on. So for one fight (30 min) you need more than 2 hours to refill your Crew to make the enxt fight. If your Goal is that your playerbase should die because they are bored like hell, that's the way to go. But you could also disable every teleport possibility, that would increase the waste of time for every player. they will travel for 5-6h for a fight and refill. Naval ACTION would then be only Naval sailing.

What you could do is following. If you lose Crew, the Crew is lost and will only be refilled if you go to a habour. In a habour of your Nation you will pay 100% for one Crew (define your price), in a antoher Nation habour (allied) you pay 150% and in a free habour you pay 200%. But the crew can be refilled every time, as Long as you have Money.

Antoher Option. Look at Potbs. you can buy crew in any habour (or was it only where you have an outpost?), make OW Speed faster that you need max 2h to drive from east of the map to the west. It doesnt matter if it's realsitic. Most of the played time in NA is driving on OW and that is boring, since driving on OW doesnt have anything to do with "ACTION"

[BungeeLemming]

we should be unable to get crew from the AI.

 

Cause if thats the case it is indeed just another burden to PvP and RvR.

 

But if they implement it the way I understand it, the main PB ship may once again be a 3rd rate and just a few 1st rate.

At least the opposing nation has the option to exhaust another nation's 1st rate fleet.

 

That way crew becomes a strategic factor.

_______-

 

edit:

 

READ THE OP CAREFULLY!

 

The crew will only be gone if you lost all of your ship's duras.

You can not loose any % of your crew. Its all or nothing

 

Which means that after a battle you will again have 100% crew.

Just as we do now.

 

 

potbs had no crew buy system (not the 5 years I played ) you had them. It regenerated during battle