Unified Officer/Enlisted Crew Proposal

[Powderhorn]

I think at this point the Argument for Enlisted Ranks thread is sufficiently developed, though I would encourage people to read through it to understand where different ideas and different concerns come from and how they are resolved.  At this point, I would like to propose it unified with a proposal on how to handle officers.  The first part of this post will be a summary of the enlisted ranks, the second a development of officers.

 

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Enlisted crew should consist of landsmen, ordinary seamen, and able seamen.  By having these as a finite quantity that can be retained via surrendering, it encourages people to surrender instead of always fighting to the death.  As such, crew should not be able to be "stored" but should merely follow from one ship to another.  Should you go from a vessel with 100 able seamen to a vessel requiring 200 crew, the 100 crew that needs to be made up should be a mix of able seamen, ordinary seamen, and landsmen.  Each port should have a few of the first two, and the rest should all be landsmen.

 

Crew benefits should be reflected as percentages - faster sails, faster reload time, faster repairs, etc.  Crew should be trained both daily (I suggest one crewman gains one rank every real life day, whether logged in or not) and via actions - each X amount of sail repaired, each X amount of hull repaired, each X number of cannonballs fired, and each X number of cannonballs hitting the enemy will individually gain a crewman a rank.  For example, if you went out into an open ocean and fired broadside after broadside for five hours, your crew would still level up.  This would mean that pacifist traders could still in fact gain experienced crews, but actual fighting would be the fastest way to do this, as all of these things would be happening simultaneously.

 

Crew should also have a "damage" state, important for later.  Unwounded, wounded, severely wounded, and dead.  The dead are (of course) a total loss - no Lazarus in this game.  The severely wounded can be healed up by taking them to a port.  The wounded can be returned to duty at sea.  Each of those states, however, are "out" as far as a fight goes, leaving only the unwounded to man the ship during an actual engagement.

 

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Officers, instead of merely adding percents, should add things.  They should open up options otherwise unavailable.  Some suggestions here, and I would encourage other people to suggest their own as well with their feedback, as I cannot supply them all off hand/off previous suggestions.

 

Surgeon - A surgeon would be able to return the wounded to duty during an action, used much as the repair crew function worked earlier in testing.  On the open ocean, a surgeon could return severely wounded to duty.

 

Business Agent - A business agent (or each business agent, should a player desire multiple), would be left in a port, allowing the player to access the port screen from another port.  This would allow that player to manage their warehouse, manage their sales, or work on their crafting.

 

Carpenter - Right now, stepping masts in battle is a function of the simple "repair sails" command.  However, this is a complicated procedure that is made all the more difficult under fire.  I would propose that sails are not stood back up without a carpenter aboard.

 

Flag Lieutenant - A Flag Lieutenant would allow more and better vessels in your fleet.  This would have to be balanced via playing, however it might perhaps allow you to use player-made vessels in your fleet, rather than simply basic models.

 

Shady Fellow - I'm not really sure what to call this guy, but the idea would be to be able to fly false colors.  Essentially, to sail under another nation's flag.  This would serve multiple benefits - it would allow you to sail into their ports, and go (potentially) undetected by the enemy.  However - you would still sail under your own name.  If a player recognizes you and attacks you, you revert to your own flag for the battle, as was historically the case.  Likewise if you attack another vessel or fleet.  If in range of a port with protection - the weight of the defense fleet falls on your head.

 

Gunner - This officer would allow you to switch cannons out on the open ocean. A second feature of the gunner that may want to be split off into a second officer would be the option to "fire as you bear."

 

Essentially, instead of firing a broadside (sometimes too fast) or firing individually (sometimes too slow), you could order your crew to fire as the guns bear, choosing a point on the enemy vessel, and the guns would fire individually when the center of each firing cone intersected the point of aim. Might be tricky to code, and might be overpowered. (Would definitely make raking more reliable, and thus, more devastating.)

 

Navigator - This officer would show your position on the world map. 

 

Carpenter (2) - This officer would require a few preliminaries: Repairs at sea would only be able to be done with a carpenter aboard. Further, storms at sea would do damage to vessels. The carpenter (2), in turn, would allow a player to repair at sea. 

 

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A few suggestions that have been made in other discussions are valuable here, and will be edited into the top post as well.

 

1.  The surgeon might be better off doing a constant stream of slowly bringing crew back, that way it's not a sudden necromantic type effect.

2.  Many people want officers to be able to level up.  As such, in addition to the "things" that each officer does, a small "percent" increase on what they do might be appropriate for each level.  For example, the surgeon might bring back more people more frequently with each "level," the Gunners Mate might very slightly increase reload speed with each level, the Carpenter repair rate, etc. etc.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Powderhorn

[Powderhorn]

Two more officer suggestions that have come to mind:

<b>Gunner</b> - This officer would allow you to switch cannons out on the open ocean. A second feature of the gunner that may want to be split off into a second officer would be the option to "fire as you bear."

Essentially, instead of firing a broadside (sometimes too fast) or firing individually (sometimes too slow), you could order your crew to fire as the guns bear, choosing a point on the enemy vessel, and the guns would fire individually when the center of each firing cone intersected the point of aim. Might be tricky to code, and might be overpowered. (Would definitely make raking more reliable, and thus, more devastating.)

<b>Navigator</b> - This officer would show your position on the world map.

[Powderhorn]

I'm doing this from my phone, as I am at work, and I seem unable to bold from here, not certain why.

This next one, bringing us to a round 8 suggested officers, might need to be renamed, or would cause the first carpenter to be renamed. (Or they may have to be combined into one, but for first-blush balancing, I keep them separate.)

<b>Carpenter 2</b> - This officer would require a few preliminaries: Repairs at sea would only be able to be done with a carpenter aboard. Further, storms at sea would do damage to vessels. The carpenter (2), in turn, would allow a player to repair at sea.

[cmdrbobcito]

How about a master of Arms...possible attributes, increased/improved boarding skills, for crews.  Possibly limited to ships with larger crew size.  

[Powderhorn]

That would fall under "percents" ratger than "things." Essentially, that is already covered by mods like rum rations and marines.

Is there something entirely different that a Master at Arms would allow a player to do that you can think of?

[cmdrbobcito]

The naval MAA position was originally the weapons trainer, both edged and small arms.  It was only later that the Master Gunner assumed part of these responsibilities (small arms training) and the MAA took over the ship security/policeman duty.  My thought was  to increase proficiency/ efficiency with boarding weapons.  Sorry, I'm new to the development of the system and was looking at the issue from a historical perspective.  Regards 

[Powderhorn]

A few suggestions that have been made in other discussions are valuable here, and will be edited into the top post as well.

 

1.  The surgeon might be better off doing a constant stream of slowly bringing crew back, that way it's not a sudden necromantic type effect.

2.  Many people want officers to be able to level up.  As such, in addition to the "things" that each officer does, a small "percent" increase on what they do might be appropriate for each level.  For example, the surgeon might bring back more people more frequently with each "level," the Gunners Mate might very slightly increase reload speed with each level, the Carpenter repair rate, etc. etc.

[ulysse77]

 

Navigator - This officer would show your position on the world map. 

 

 

 

Well don`t all capitain needed navigation knowledge... but i disgresM

 

My idea was a navigator could show you ports name from further away,

a good one give you your position close  to lands

and a very good one give your locations as soon as he see lands(he`s very good a recongnizing landmarks)

 

other than that they could give you a longitude every at noon anywhere on the map, regardless if he see land or not....

[Powderhorn]

Also an interesting suggestion for the Navigator, but I suspect that at this point, the developers have decided what path they are or are not going to take in regards to officers, making this a bit of a moot point :\

[Heibges]

You also some things to give the officers a level of emotional attachment to the characters.

 

Maybe character could choose officer portrait to be dispayed?

Maybe character could name the officer?

Maybe officers should have the chance of getting killed so you have to replace them?

[Powderhorn]

You also some things to give the officers a level of emotional attachment to the characters.

 

Maybe character could choose officer portrait to be dispayed?

Maybe character could name the officer?

Maybe officers should have the chance of getting killed so you have to replace them?

 

I would, personally, make it so that if your ship blows up, you lose all officers and crew.  If your ship sinks, you lose a random percent of officers and crew.  It'd be an interesting mechanic for officers to be able to be injured or killed as a crew member.  (So if a crew died in a ship of 100 men, there'd be a 1% chance it was an officer.)  It'd be great to be able to name and choose a portrait for officers, though that may well be long, long down the road (if at all).

[Captain Red]

Oh yeah:

[Sea Archer]

I really like the idea that the crew is limited at sea and could only be replaced in ports. That makes it more difficult to for players to stay days in front of enemy town far away from their own and fight everyone coming out with a full crew.

I would also like to add crew as a resource in towns. When the manpower is limited, the players would have to spread over the whole map to man their ships, this would decrease the concentration around the capitals and crewing a first rate would be limiting factor, not the building. This would result in more small ships (frigate class) sailing around and capturing AI 3rds would not give the big benefits of having directly a fully crewed ship to fight.

 

Then maybe it could be a possibility to press men from friendly traders.

 

This added to the experience and learning of your crew should result in thinking twice about bloody battles.

 

The more I think about it, the more I like the idea

[Singularity42]

I like everything suggested.  However, as far as the navigator goes, I think that where you are on the map shouldnt be exact.  It should be a range of where you are, based on the level of the navigator.  Perhaps something like a circle of where you are on the map, and that circle is large (as large as 1/4 of the map) if you have a low level navigator.  That circle will reduce in size based on the level of your navigator.

I also think a navigator should allow you to plot courses, so you can plot a course and get up and leave if you wanted.  Or plot a course to your next destination, let the auto skipper/navigator get you there as you work on crafting on the way. 

 

ie; I really like the idea of having to use a compass, sextant and maps to figure out where you are vs. just telling you where you are.  Adds immersion and I wouldnt want a navigator to completely remove that.

[Diggled]

Your ideas are basically kinda what I expected from the crew system, some officers or special function individuals that you can keep and develop over time.  I like the ideas, but also want more options to specialize my ship, akin to mods.

 

 

Sgt. McGregor - improves reload of long guns by 2%

Engineer Bob - Increases armor repairs by 3%

etc etc yadda

[jw62]

officers can captain captures home with full cargo

 

officers can captain a "consort" made of a capture? I'm not sure

 

This would allow some capture the ship missions, etc; 1.rescue gov's daughter (so old it's his grandaughter)

                                                                                       2.bring that bad pirate to justice (even older, but what the hey)

                                                                                       3.stolen cargo and ship

It would allow the devs to trigger a different mechanic in the game if a skipper was appointed, other ships just some generic midshipman takes them home then gets lost in the flop houses and bars.

[Jean Ribault]

I apologize if someone else has remarked on this before, I looked but did not see it anywhere...

 

Should there be a diminishing number of available "slots" to fill as you increase in rank?  With competition to fill those slots?  In today's navy how many admirals or if named fleet admirals can there be at once, for example?  They are limited in real life.  Perhaps forming an Officers pool (or, Captains Pool) with a diminishing number of available slots the higher up you go could bring some additional realism.

 

The pool could be assigned based upon who is logged on at any one moment, to add some real-time flavor.  Your rank level when you log on would be assigned based upon your available game rank level that you've earned with XP, but also what's available to you from the current officers pool.  The quantity of slots could be as liberal as makes it fair and so as not to hamper people's gameplay.  But in theory if a set number of people took their captain's role all at the same time, they wouldn't all be promoted to the same rank after accomplishing similar things.

 

The difference in actual gameplay could be anywhere from mere vanity (having the senior ranking officers online listed somewhere in the UI), up to assigning decision-making and/or command priviledges to those online ranking captains based upon seniority...this might also be a way to enhance the diplomacy portion of the game once developed.

 

Just an idea that may have some small merit; I realize some may disagree that it could limit gameplay.

[xAzDKr]

no. This would limit gameplay and very quickly ruin the game for many. In game ranks have no merit, all they do is provide a system of progression (always good) that allows you to crew bigger ships. I see no enjoyable way for your suggestion to be implemented.

[Rosebud]

I saw very few posts pertaining to officers. Some say that they are simply place holders for future add-ons. I like the idea of officers myself and would like to forward some ideas as to their being added.

 

Acquiring officers;

 

1) Buying them; You play money for their services. The better the officer the more money. In addition you may sell them.

2) They are acquired at random after battles. i.e.. They distinguished themselves in battle.

3) You are given them for ranking up. The higher the rank the better the chance for a good officer.

4) You impress them or steal them from boarded ships.

 

Types of officers; I believe officers should be limited to one or two specialties.

 

1) Gunnery; Improved gunnery speed and or accuracy or angle shift.

2) Rigging; Improves ships speed and or sail changes or upwind performance.

3) Navigation; Improves rudder turn and or turn or rudder toughness.

4) Quartermaster; Improves ships planking and or toughness or leak repair.

5) Trade: Increases loot from prizes and or gives better price for buying/selling non-player goods.

6) Press officer: Improved the amount of crew you can impress at port and or adds hammock space.

7) Repair Officer; Improves the amount and speed of ship repair and or sail repair in battle.

8) Boarding officer; Adds bonuses in ship melee and or speed of preparation.

 

 

[OTMatt]

Good examples, I think you got all the parts covered. The only one I can think of is maybe Merchant officer that can increase cargo space.

 

Maybe Marines officer bonus of some kind too.

[Ruthless4u]

Good examples, I think you got all the parts covered. The only one I can think of is maybe Merchant officer that can increase cargo space.

Don't see how an officer could add cargo space, maybe a merchant officer could organize the load to be more efficient to reduce speed or handling penalties for a full cargo load if those are added at some point.

[Nalyd]

Don't see how an officer could add cargo space, maybe a merchant officer could organize the load to be more efficient to reduce speed or handling penalties for a full cargo load if those are added at some point.

 

The same reason why some people struggle to put all their stuff in a luggage and need an extra suitcase while other can put the triple of that in a single luggage.

Because they know how to (play tetris) arrange and pack their stuff to take profit of every bit of space available instead of just tossing their goods left and right in the cargo.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Nalyd

[Barberouge]

Merged the new topics with an old one so that the ideas are gathered in the same place. Thanks.