Crew Experience, Points of Interest, Morale At Sea.

[Lady Athena]

When I come up with idea's, they tend to be in bunches, so pardon my suggestion thread of several.

 

1) Crew Experience.

 

Crew experience was a vital importance in this time, just as it is today. I think each ship you have would have its own crew with it's own experience, as you fight, at the end of each battle, your crew gains experience, this experience boosts the Ship crew levels. The levels would be 1-10. This is a reflection of the synergy, and skill/knowledge level of the crew. The things this would effect are: 

 

-Repair Speed/amount (boost to the repair skill in battle)

-Reload Time

- Accuracy

- Speed of changing focus (Guns, Sails, etc.)

 

The crew exp is a slight buffer, but nothing else, a small % boost all around, however losing crew, etc. is still very serious. 

 

Losing crew drops your crew Ship level, by a certain % of how many % of crew you lost, since replacing crew you would be bringing on new sailors.

 

 

2) Points of Interest

 

Points of interest can be instances that are either randomly generated, or spawned for a period of time based on player actions. They would be instances you go into, but you don't know what they are until you actually enter them. They are NOT battle instances. A few idea's could be.

 

- Stranded Crew: Either some life boats, or sailors floating in the sea hanging to drift wood. Going into this instance and rescuing them by pulling up to them and stopping, can net you 1 of 2 things. New crew to your ship which will give you less of a Crew level drop than if you just recruited fresh sailors from port, or you put them in your hold and can bring them to the nearest port for a very small payout.

 

- Wreckage: Floating debris and wreckage that can be salvaged and brought on board.  Again, floating pieces of wood, barrels, etc, coming up to it and stopping would open the inventory screen of your ship and the debris, allowing you to take any of it if you wish.

 

- Abandoned wreck: Casualties of war don't always necessarily sink, rare instance, but helpful. If you find one of these wrecks you get the ability to strip the stricken ship netting you crafting supplies specific to creating ships through crafting, (riggings, etc.)

 

These could also be Points of Interest on the coast of islands, or in shallow inland sea area's or coves of ship wrecks that had beached themselves during storms which could be stripped for crafting parts.

 

3) Morale at Sea.

 

Coinciding with my 1), I think morale should have an impact as well.

 

The longer you're at sea, the morale of your ship slowly dwindles. If you're at sea for an extremely long time, your crew are going to become very agitated and restless. This drops their fighting ability somewhat.

 

 

 

 

 

[Powderhorn]

As far as crew experience goes, I have a suggestion that I've tweaked and peeked over the last few months on that very subject, which is linked in my signature.