NPC crews to hire

... or use Discord or a similar platform to find some real pirates to play with. SoT is at its core a very social game, where you do things together with others, in a crew or against another crew.

And a big no for any "auto docking" ideas. We all (sometimes slowly) learn how to park a ship properly. Either for fast loading and unloading or by lining the ladder with the pier. Its a skill most pirates develop.

Perhaps. I see this as a useful thing only for a solo sloop, but they already play alone precisely to have difficulties and not have things easier. Now imagine a solo player having to control multiple AI in a gally:
set sails,
fix the Wheel,
take out the water
Put out the fire
This would require a high level of extremely fast reasoning
One way of this to work would be pre-selected, or priority, options that each AI should do.
But would you fill your boat with all these AI? How many of these AI would be allowed on the boats? How much would it cost? How would they behave in combat? Just like skeletons? Would they have the same amount of life they have
Would you trust their loot on them? I don't think so. Maybe his loss was even greater, as he lost gold by hiring The AI, and time with a loot that didn't sell.
Unless your goal is just to sail and explore, just for fun. So I guess that would do just fine

@maironds88

I think its something that you know you will have to undertake as a captain. But we are not in the early 2000's that you even have to tell them how to use the toilet properly. Artificial intelligence really improved in our lifetime. I think an adaptable AI would be certainly fitting. The AI knows what to do when to do and how. It would be broken first as all-new features are but a bit of time, patience, feedback would do well.

It's just a tiny idea that our alliance came up within a minor discussion. If the idea does not stand, we can still talk about it. We can always speculate. I think no more than the "required" crew should do well..4 npc's for a galleon + players.

The game itself needs some quality of life changes in my opinion. If you're not hanging out with your friends or any crew, the game feels like a desolate setpiece. Outposts and islands are static, occasional animals and skeletons/ghosts/sea dwellers, and that's about it.

I would go even further and add normal AI ships that are roaming around doing various things like trading/pirating/hunting.

Just use a skeleton ship wich is a normal ship with a normal crew being non-hostile in some cases.

@ghostfire1981

I wouldn't put it as "autodocking" Mooring a ship is a serious part of docking, requires a lot of attention.
Not mentioning the ropework you have to do. Its just a small idea anyway, as a sailor its kinda "weird" that i have to harpoon a ship so that the nose can stay still while i attend to my business at the docks.

I understand that SoT is a social game, but what if you don't want to deal with people after work but still want to command a crew and just relax while playing? No problem, hire an NPC crew and do the things you would do with a normal crew.
NPC crews+players could even come with a rank system that you can set up. You can assign the NPC's to tasks to help your friends out and such. It's still just an idea, I'm not saying that it should be in the game by tomorrow.

BUT we have seen what skelly crews are doing. Reloading guns, repairing the ship, managing sails.

For starters. They are a crew so you might wanna get one :p
Second. Managing sails? What smelly ships you fighting :o

NPC crew votes you into the brig.

Now what?

@pithyrumble
If the AI rises against the player that means the end of humanity is in sight.
Go back in time and eliminate the person responsible for this.

Or just allow that to NOT happen you know..:)

@faceyourdemon
Well its something like "sea dogs" back in the day..Well in that case pve should be fine but pvp would be a tad bit weirder.
I have no problem with an actual naval battle with ship formations tho. I would be glad to do that. Even tough im more of a trader-pve player then a pvp one.

@faceyourdemon

But any kind of "free roaming" AI ship could be attacked-boarded-sunk. Would be a great thing to do, you see a merchant AI ship, you get close and..engagement starts, your crew roars saying "raise the black flag" ..The hunt begins. Either you board the ship to get that precious cargo, or you sink the ship to scoop out some of the cargo. Up to you.

@faceyourdemon
Aye, i can agree with that.

cool idea. Buy bot ships, wait till they spawn, and just waiting till he succesfully sell merchant stuff, or it'll sunk for any reason. Would be like default bots, but not aggressive.

@ghostfire1981 bro I think u got the idea very wrong. I do play 24/7 with ppl in discord, but I do want that feature added in game too.

I sometimes put one of the pirates life tall tales up just so I don't feel alone while solo slooping.. 👉🥺👈