Over the last few weeks, I've made a few observations of how the ships are currently crewed, and I've noticed a slight imbalance in how crew sizes are actually able to cover the duties of each ship. I'll go over each ship individually, and then end with my thoughts on overall adjustments.
First, the trusty Sloop, currently crewed by 2. The sloop isn't in a bad place, really; a single player can keep bailing and repairing during a battle without too much trouble, and a skilled crew of 2 can split their duties between cannons and helms/bilge. An additional crew member wouldn't hurt, though, as it would allow a dedicated cannoneer and helmsman with the third floating between cannons and bilge. But at the end of the day, the sloop is still the smallest and intentionally the weakest ship, and while you could see a skilled crew able to take down a brig without too much trouble, or a galleon with a little more work, those encounters shouldn't be expected.
Second, the speedy Brigantine, currently crewed by 3. To me, the brig is in the best shape as far as crew sizes go. As I said above, a crew of 3 allows the fairly stable combo of cannoneer, helmsman, and bilge/cannons floater. Currently, you can see brigs take down pretty much any ship they encounter as long as they're prepared, which I'll mention later as the symptom of that imbalance I mentioned. Now, if you were to add another crew member to bring the brig up to a crew of 4, you'd be able to more easily cover the extended below-decks as compared to the brig, and more effectively use the two cannons on each side for some nice barrages.
Lastly, the "mighty" Galleon, currently crewed by 4. I say "mighty" because although 4 people might be able to "fully" crew a galleon, I don't believe they can effectively do so, and that is because of the two levels below-decks. With a crew of 4, you typically fall into the rhythm of a helmsman, 2 cannoneers, and a bilge rat, which works pretty well... until you run into a brig or galleon who knows what they're doing and hits you with a nice broadside at the water line. Then, your bilge rat calls for more hands below-decks, a cannoneer leaves to help, and the other ship can bombard you even more because they're taking less fire. But why is the bilge rat having trouble? If they need to bail, that means running up two levels to the deck, which takes long enough that two good-sized holes can let in almost a bucket-full of water by the time they get back down. But if a second person joins them? One to bail, one to repair, and the water's gone fairly quickly. So where am I going with this? Well, with the previous ships I suggested an increase of a single crew member, but I think the galleon deserves something special. At least to me, the galleon seems like a ship that should be feared, not just a larger target. So let's say the galleon gets bumped up to a whopping crew of 6: a helmsman, 3 cannoneers, 2 bilge rats, and a floater, which is where things can get fun! Ever had your cannonball crate on deck run out? Not an issue if you have a crew member dedicated to restocking supply crates on deck! Need someone to harpoon supplies from the water during a Veil voyage, but you really need to thin out the ranks of those ghost ships? Now you've got a floater who can hop up to do just that!
Basically, this suggestion stems from galleons needing an extra hand or two to be effective, which led to the realization that an extra hand on the other ships wouldn't hurt either. It also means that crews would have to give a little more thought to the ship they pull out - 3 people might be able to crew a galleon, but if you come across a galleon of 6? Might want to think about sailing the brig! Now, I also realize that this may not be something the dev teams are looking to do in the near future, as they're currently working on server stability and jacking up the number of players per server might not help their headaches! But I figured that this might put the idea on their radar, and hopefully come into consideration once stability is less of a worry.
TDLR; 3 people to a sloop, 4 to a brig, 6 to a galleon. more cannoneers + dedicated bilge = win. devs can maybe consider it when servers are more stable!
