The Future of Crew

[Thomas Blackwell]

Evening gents. First off I would like to apologize for this long post. As someone who intends to do a lot of boarding in the fully released game for, ehem... reasons, I have taken a big interest in how crew will perform in the future. Things like how your crew are obtained, trained, participate in boarding action and handle the ship are all going to be touched upon in this topic.

 

 

Obtaining Your Crew

 

First things first, there is little point in owning a ship if one does not have a crew to sail her. I would like to think there will be multiple ways to obtain your crew, but for the time being, I will narrow it down to two possibilities. If you are in a navy and are looking for officers and crew to man your kings ship, you may report to the admiralty and they will sort you out with officers who's attributes are selected at random, and a crew who' skills and experiences are ranged. If you are looking for a crew to sail an independent ship, say a privateer or a merchant, you may apply to the NPC Guilds. The larger the NPC Guild, the more men they may have to crew your ship. Again, once you have found a Guild with a crew to spare, your officers will be given to you with randomly selected attributes, and your crew will be a mixture of new hands and experienced sailors.

 

Training Your Officers

 

I would like to think that you may train your officers with a make-shift skill tree. As the officer progresses and gains more experience with your ship, he opens up new paths to gain experience in. Things like 'Crew Management' could shorten the time it takes to swap from 'Survival' to 'Gunnery' or 'Gunnery' to 'Sailing' Other skills may give small bonuses to things like morale, reloading times, and navigation. You cannot buy your officers levels, or use things like free XP. The only way to fully train your officers is over time.

 

Training Your Crew

 

Crew are slightly different from Officers. When you buy your crew, you may get a free 'Basic' crew, or start spending gold to persuade more experienced sailors to join. The rating could go something like this:

 

One quarter skilled sailors, three quarters landsmen = Free

Two quarters skilled sailors, two quarters landsmen = One Hundred Gold

Three quarters skilled sailors, one quarter landsmen = Three Hundred Gold

 

Over time as the crew gets used to their ship, officers, and captain, their skills begin to improve and their morale starts to increase. With better skills, things like 'Sailing' 'Gunnery' and 'Survival' are made slightly more effective.

 

Morale, Effects, And Their Importance in Battle

 

In the fully released game, I would like to think that crew morale is going to be tied in with things like the size, type, quality, and sailing attributes of each ship. If a ship is small, cramped, and built of poor materials, the crew morale will be negatively impacted. Whereas if a ship is large, with more space for crew to live, and is made of quality materials, Their overall morale will be impacted in a positive way. The higher the Morale, the more effective the crew is at their job. 'Sailing' 'Gunnery' and 'Survival' are more (or less) effective depending on a crews morale. Morale will also play a large part in boarding.

 

The Mechanics of Boarding

 

Each ship starts out with x number of sailors and officers, who in turn start out with x amount of morale. As the boarding action begins, total annihilation of the enemy crew is not the only goal of the boarding party. Although crew and officers will die, it is the overall morale of the opposing crew you wish to destroy.

 

A Mock Boarding Action

 

I have pulled up alongside a crippled enemy and intend to board. Slowing my ship, I initiate the action by successfully pulling the enemy vessel. A windowed interface opens. As I was the one to initiate the boarding action, I am automatically the attacker, and my enemy is automatically the defender. I have by default sent 75% of my crew to attack the enemy. You may choose from 25% 50% 75% and 90% before the battle begins. He as the defender gets to use 100% of his crew to defend his ship. I now get to choose where to attack my enemy. I have three options. The fore section, the mid section or waist, and the aft section. I may click on one, two or three of these sections, and my crew will split into equal parties to board at the locations I have indicated. My enemy also gets to decide where he wishes to station his defenses along the same three options I was given. Fore, Mid, and Aft. His crew will split into equal parties to defend the positions he has indicated. I for the sake of this mock battle shall split my boarding party into two and engage at the fore and aft sections. Depending on where my enemy has stationed his defense, my crew may be attacking his entire crew, or meet little to no resistance. As soon as the two parties have chosen their positions, the battle begins. As the battle rages, crew morale begins to fall. Captains may use experienced officers to help boost the morale of their crew. Much like the three repairs given to us during battle to repair parts of our ship, our officers may also 'repair' our crew's morale. If the officers all die or are not experienced enough, they can not boost morale. The more experienced the officer, the bigger the boost, and the more experienced the crew, the better they are in combat. The victor is the crew with morale remaining. The loser is decided once his morale reaches x amount. Probably zero. If my boarding part is unsuccessful and does not take the enemy ship, there is a percentage of crew remaining aboard my vessel. I may disengage and try to escape, or if the enemy is fast enough, he may try to engage with a boarding party of his own.

 

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Let me know what you lads think in the section below, discuss, and put forward any ideas of your own. Cheers!

 

Tom

[Robert de Keith]

Very interesting ideas,  crew training does seem the way to enhance the game .

[Crankey]

I am definitely in favour of crew and officer options for both recruitment and training, it will add a level of detail and give slight rewards to those who spend their time investing in training and optional recruitment endeavers.

 

If we have a 'Fame' attribute gained through in game endeavers, this may also reflect on our success at attracting more experienced officers and crew to our cause.

[MarcoRossolini]

One of my favourite scenes in Master and Commander is when they're doing the gunnery practise and slowly counting down the time they manage between broadsides, something like what's above I'd love. My (admittedly limitted) reading of the period suggests a Man of War lived and died by its crew...

[blokzeil1]

Today  i was sailing near my enemy shoot my cannons and turn.

But i was thinking what if you are beside your enemey and you can let your crew shoot with rifles and trow fire sticks?

[Cannonball]

Fancy Tom,

 

Wonderfully written. Nearly every mechanic you typed is how I recommend Naval Action move forward with crew. 

I like the:

 

Crew xp gain

Officer xp gain

Even the training of crew and officers. These are brilliant and I can only hope they are implemented into the game. 

 

Well done sir.

 

-Cannonball

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Mr....umm....Tom?  Please don't forget the option of counter attacking during a Boarding action.  I shouldn't be locked into Defense just because the other guy grappled me.

[Thomas Blackwell]

Mr....umm....Tom?  Please don't forget the option of counter attacking during a Boarding action.  I shouldn't be locked into Defense just because the other guy grappled me.

 

 

 If my boarding party is unsuccessful and does not take the enemy ship, there is a percentage of crew remaining aboard my vessel. I may disengage and try to escape, or if the enemy is fast enough, he may try to engage with a boarding party of his own. In the real world it would take a defending crew some time to regroup and swap to the offensive. In this time the enemy ship may cut the grappling lines and maneuver out of range. In game, this should also (in my opinion) be the case.

 

You are right. Each player should be given the chance to be the attacker. However to keep things both simple for the developers and semi-realistic, I think that simply re-initiating the boarding would suffice.

[Don Alvarez]

Very nice ideas. I'd like to add one to crew training: Instead of investing money or waiting over time for your crew to develop, another option might be to invest game time in performing gunnery, small arms or sail handling drills that would increase their efficiency faster but at reduced cost (shot and powder), perhaps to a degree based on your officer's skills or ratings. In essence, to train able seamen at an accelerated rate than would happen by just having them work the ship over time.  In addition, too much drilling could make your crew's morale take a hit.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

 If my boarding party is unsuccessful and does not take the enemy ship, there is a percentage of crew remaining aboard my vessel. I may disengage and try to escape, or if the enemy is fast enough, he may try to engage with a boarding party of his own. In the real world it would take a defending crew some time to regroup and swap to the offensive. In this time the enemy ship may cut the grappling lines and maneuver out of range. In game, this should also (in my opinion) be the case.

 

You are right. Each player should be given the chance to be the attacker. However to keep things both simple for the developers and semi-realistic, I think that simply re-initiating the boarding would suffice.

 

I disagree.  If a Cutter boards my Snow, or my Bellona, and I can't just instantly counterboard, you've created a cheesy delaying tactic.  They can tie me up for a cycle or two, and then I have to spend even more time counterboarding once I've crushed them (whereas currently, their ship is immediately lost to them if they fail a Boarding).   If you're going to have a system such as you described, I should be able to dedicate 10% of my crew to defense and 80% to going straight across to the other guy's ship.  There's a lot of complexity involved in your scenario, and the simple way you've approached it doesn't do the job in my opinion.  There is using people to attempt to cut loose during the boarding action, using people to attack the other guy's ship if there's an opening, people to prevent the other crew from cutting loose, etc.

[William the Drake]

I very much like this post: the more we can individualize a player's experience, the better. I do have a few responses, though most simply expand upon what you have presented.

 

On Obtaining Your Crew:

I do enjoy the idea of having different methods of acquiring crew based on your profession. If you requisition the crown for a crew, the officers should be stout and well experienced, with a few skills/perks of their own. However, the standard crew will be sub-par (seeing as much of the king's navy was a mix of experienced sailors and press-gang whom have never sailed before). Or perhaps you wan't true seaman to sail your ship, so head to the docks and look for the more experienced sailors, at the price of inexperienced officers and a good deal of extra coin. Or perhaps you like to work with a wide range of skills, so head to the tavern, where you can recruit any able-bodied man willing to sign on, for a small fee. (The tavern will present a truly random skillset selection) 

 

On Training Officers/Crew:

I'd like to think that your crew, no matter how skilled, will need to adapt to a new setting, so every time you acquire a new ship, there will be a small penalty until such time the crew is acquainted with their new setting. Each crew member can have a set proficiency with sailing either small, medium, or large (or etc.) sized ships as well (or a percentage of the whole crew) also factoring in to skill perks and penalties. 

 

On Morale:

I do not think the size of the ship should matter, but rather the number of men stationed on her (Fewer men= more space. If over crewed, morale takes a hit). I do think that morale should be based on any number of variables, included, but not limited to: Time aboard (last time since in dock), recent actions (if recently lost a battle: morale low, if successful battle: boost in morale), cargo (type/supply of rations, possession of any alcohol/ grog, gold, battle trophies, etc.) and even the attributes of the officer and yourself (the captain). There are so many things that could be made to affect morale, these are just a few concerning the ship at sea.

 

On Boarding:

The only note I have on this is that the opportunities and options that you have to board an enemy vessel should be limited to the orientation of both ships. Should they be parallel to each other, then you have the full spread of your deck in which to deploy sailors across to theirs. However, should you be perpendicular to the enemy (i.e. after a ramming maneuver) then you will be limited to deploying only off the bow, wherever it may have landed on the other ship. This will limit the amount you can deploy (because everyone would have to wait as they slowly stream across the bow, instead of all deploying at once off the side)

 

Very good ideas, Captain Tom. I especially like being able to choose how much of my crew I can send in a boarding action, so as to not leave myself at the mercy of the opposing ship should things go awry.

[Tagera]

On morale, it should have an effect on how the ship works. Lower morale means crew fighting, work not getting done, drunk on duties, all the way to possible mutiny when it comes down to it. Give us something to sink our teeth into in the between times when we're not fighting.

[Cannonball]

Well said again between William the Drake and Fancy Tom both of you have grand ideas. Ideas are great but how they're executed will determine if it's; fun, intuitive, challenging. I like the Morale insight, and Crew training abilities. Again well said I second both their post's I hope the devs are reading.

 

 

 

-Cannonball

[Morashtak]

Along with morale would like to see a mechanic for loyalty - The idea would be that if you are a French flagged ship with a French majority crew then their moral would be higher fighting against a ship that is flying the flag of a nation the French are currently in a state of war. They would be more willing to attack the enemy as well as defend "their" ship to the last man.

 

Should the ship you are facing be a merchant vessel with a mixed crew whose only goal is to get to the next port then they have very little loyalty to the ship's captain and would be willing to surrender should the be facing overwhelming odds regardless of the captain's intentions (ex. coastal goods hauler with small, mixed crew versus a flagged warship with a highly loyal, well trained crew).

 

Mixing well trained crew members of differing nationalities could result in a number of desertions at the next port should war be declared between nations.

 

This would allow more variety in the crew in terms of cost, training, and fighting spirit.

[Robert Danforth]

I rather like the way the Total War series does "officers" as retainers, with bonuses, &c., based on their strengths (and sometimes weaknesses).

[Karl]

What's particularly important to me is that crew should be able to be injured and killed in action. A complex, in-depth crew system will feel incredibly game-y if the crew can't die as a result of battle. This could be used to incentivise surrender and escape from battles - if you escape, you save your crew. If you surrender, your crew can be paroled so you can take them on your next ship. You sink? Goodbye to all your well-trained officers! I think it'd do an awful lot to reduce the suicidal nature of combat as it stands currently.

 

I like the crew system from Silent Hunter 3, where crew have randomised names, and the player is able to purchase passive skills (Navigation, gunnery, repair) which add efficiency to the applicable action) with the universal "renown" currency. This currency is earned by sinking enemy ships, reaching assigned patrol areas, etc. Crew are assigned to compartments, and damage to those compartments has a chance of injuring or killing crew outright.

 

A neat management system could also be implemented - you have x number of men and officers, and maybe could drag their icons around to fill out a watch rota to maximise efficiency in areas which are most important to each player.

 

The SH3 crew management screen:

 

[Tagera]

It would be nice. Easy to work with really for small ships, Lynx, Cutter, Yacht. Ships with fourty to fifty crew would work fine. Having to do all that management with a crew of several hundred or more up to the thousand or so for the 1st Rates would be a nightmare for both the player and the devs.

[Karl]

It needn't be as in-depth as that for the non-officers. They could be abstracted as blocks of 5 or ten men, or even ignored entirely (assuming the officers do that work). But I definitely think the upper ranked officers should be distinct individuals whom can acquire skills and be injured and killed. Nurturing a well-trained officer crew would add a lot to the game.

[Theuerdank]

And warships get also some naval-infantry/marines. But thats far future,..... if..... ^^. Anyway first some ship-officers would be fine. Perhaps later not only as statistics, also as 'animated' models.