Suggetion - NPC Crew

I look at the potential for npc crewing through a view of companionship with a side effect of low skill assistance

as a solo that sees a lot of random combat it doesn't bother me if people have an NPC crewmate if it is designed well

I fight larger crews nearly all of the time and it's not gonna change anything about that, a player is more dangerous than an NPC companion (assuming it doesn't go full terminator and John Connor me)

What interests me is looking at it as social support, companionship, confidence building, piratical psychological benefit.

A lot of people that play this game are never going to crew up in reality, either they don't want to or don't feel comfortable, or lack the current confidence to go through the process, this can offer support and within that quality of life and experience.

In general I find it interesting and is something I would support if designed well to support people rather than just become another cheese feature.

No to all points. You might as well not play the game. NPC doing your horizon watching for you. NPC firing the cannons for you. NPC operating your sails. NPC repairing your ship. Why not have them sail the ship too? Why not have them go find, collect and return treasure to your ship? Then you can just stay in the bar all game.

Absolutely no! Thumbs down.

I like the idea of an NPC crew, but without the levelling feature you mentioned. And probably it wouldnt even be that much work to implement.

Initially they could just have the NPC use the same AI as skeletons defending their ship. He can:

• Shoot cannons
• Repair
• Attack people who board.

No orders necessary, he just does whatever the AI indicates.

Then they can build the system on top of that to add more functionality, and give the ability to give it commands to have it focus on X task.

I would like it even MORE if it could be your PET doing that. My cat patching up holes and stuff. And would give even more of a reason for people to buy cool pet skins.

You could direct your pet by picking it up and placing it wherever there's work to be done. If you drop it next to a hole, it will focus repairing holes. If you drop it next to a cannon it tries to shoot nearby vessels...etc.

But I acknowledge that would likely be fairly harder to accomplish than a skeleton.

AND if its a skeleton, they could sell "Assistant skins".

Tho I rather HATE the idea of leveling them up. Keep your WoW off my SoT. In SoT you can start today, and go fight someone with 400 hours, and you have the same tools he does. Its about skill and tactics, not about who has less of a life than the others. Its so refreshing, we have very few games that do this. Lets not ruin it by adding leveling up of anything.

@gallerine5582 sagte in Suggetion - NPC Crew:

Being on a larger ship doesn't immediately start generating more gold

I meant spending gold, not generating it. sorry :D

@pumpa-cat
It's not about the crew being able to do everything, but rather that it's more fun for the solo player. Of course, NPCs shouldn't take on all tasks, but only certain ones, and the option to sail larger ships alone should be available to solo players. Additionally, I think many players get frustrated when they complete an event but can't see the enemy ship, so they can't react and then become upset. That's why I had the idea of an NPC sitting on the mast who could sound the alarm if someone goes overboard, so players are warned and can prepare for battle. Not everyone likes losing, but it's a better feeling to lose your ship after being able to face the enemy, rather than running to your ship and suddenly being attacked from a blind spot and before you can defend yourself, your ship is already on the ocean floor. Best regards!

@x-nightscore-x said in Suggetion - NPC Crew:

@pumpa-cat
It's not about the crew being able to do everything, but rather that it's more fun for the solo player. Of course, NPCs shouldn't take on all tasks, but only certain ones, and the option to sail larger ships alone should be available to solo players. Additionally, I think many players get frustrated when they complete an event but can't see the enemy ship, so they can't react and then become upset. That's why I had the idea of an NPC sitting on the mast who could sound the alarm if someone goes overboard, so players are warned and can prepare for battle. Not everyone likes losing, but it's a better feeling to lose your ship after being able to face the enemy, rather than running to your ship and suddenly being attacked from a blind spot and before you can defend yourself, your ship is already on the ocean floor. Best regards!

Well yeah. Things like the underwater shrines are currently all but closed off to solos unless you dont care about letting your ship sink and/or all its resources syphoned by some passing ship.

The mermaid functionality keeps your loot safe, but not your ship, resources or flag. And ALL you would need to help somewhat in that scenario is a "PING, someone is on your ship/shot your ship"

HELL NO.

Picture yourself, 18th century. A sailor on the seas. Too much work, let's get some AI controlled bot to do everything for you.

HELL NO

Too much work for you as a solo? Then become a duo? Or crew a brig or galleon

@eldritchbear said in Suggetion - NPC Crew:

@kakaroto9766 said in Suggetion - NPC Crew:

Well yeah. Things like the underwater shrines are currently all but closed off to solos unless you dont care about letting your ship sink and/or all its resources syphoned by some passing ship.

First of all, you have workarounds available. The ship itself is free and replaceable, so that's a non-issue. If you're worried about supplies, then shove them in a crate and hide them. No, seriously.

Shrines are in the middle of the ocean. Do tell me what spot in the ship is a good hiding spot for it where no one will find it? X) None? of course none, thanks for participating.

Drop the box in some random island in a bush? Man are you a genius...they are so safe there. And totally not a useless waste of time for a solo to do that. And totally not at risk of despawning or being picked up.

Oh wait, lets bury it, because wasting more time as a solo is what solos should be doing right?

The only real risk is emissary flags, and that's something you're supposed to defend. The pop-up when you raise a flag even tells you that this will make you a target. That said, I do treasuries and shrines solo very nearly every session, often with a flag up, and I've had my ship attacked twice in total. Don't do them when there are too many reapers around, or if there are sails in sight. It's really not as bad as you might expect.

Justifying dumb/bad choices by random luck. Yeah...makes sense.

Also in case you do not know, empirical evidence is naught but useless. There are dozens if not hundreds of factors which can affect the outcome of what you say. Maybe you play at time without many people, maybe your region doesnt have many people, maybe that time/region doesnt have much competitive/pvp players.

If we are throwing useless empirical evidence out there: 70%+ of the time I do shrines as solo I come out to a sunken ship, people on my ship, people cannoning my ship, people siphoning/ or having siphoned my resources, or a ship arriving ready to cannon me.

I like defending my flag. But I cant defend my flag if I dont know anybody is attacking. And of course you need to check your map and horizon...but...guess what. Islands and other things block sight. Servers get merged, new players join, new reapers raise flags, and ships....MOVE o.o!. As surprising as that might be.

Shrines and treasuries can take some time to complete, enough for other ships to travel half way across the map if not more.

By the way, when my ship has been attacked while I was in shrines, I could hear the cannon fire from down there.

Uh.....What? X). I mean. MAYBE SOME shrine is in shallow waters (emphasis on maybe). But most shrines are so deep you would not hear a megakeg popping in your ship from within the shrine.

I TESTED at least 3 shrines with friends, one of us going down and one shooting a cannon, and you stop hearing the cannon less than half way thorough swimming down to the shrine X).