Hire NPC Crew

To be honest as cool as that would be, I don't think it's possible actually.

The only one that could work, would be the bilge to patch holes. You would still need to bucket yourself.

@rustybeanyard I meant more the roles of cannons/sails/raising anchor/steering and collision in general.

Jack sparrow in the last PotC is a good example. He was basically a ghost on your ship, that had aimbot. But if you took over the cannon it took him a while to go back on them.

Another thing I would be worried about, would they be acting as skeletons(cannons,guns,repairs)? Would they be acting like Jack Sparrow?

If it's the first one. I think they would be a bit overpowered. If it's the second one, it could work, but they would not be able to help with anchor, sails, steering, bucketing and their aim on cannons would need to be nerfed a lot. Which kind of make's it pointless.

Obviously you would refer to your video once again regarding pathing, but what about decision making? Would you be happy if your npcs raised all sails/dropped anchor each time you got a little bit too close to an island? Would you be happy if they just started shooting anyone within range? What if you are carrying athena kegs and they engage a skeleton galleon or something? I think it gets even more complicated when you think about it.

Having some sort of repair buddy would be cool tho.

@zig-zag-ltu It would really help with solo players like myself that have our larger ships completely abandoned as i don't have a crew anymore.
I do enjoy playing solo just miss the other ships and anything even if AI was slow and inaccurate, but it would be functional and better than nothing.

So you want an npc to sail your ship, dig up your treasure and fight skeletons for you?

Just asking…seems you don’t really wanna play without npc doing majority of the work first.

@burnbacon Well he did only mention repair and gunner, these aren't things you do off of your ship.
I could be wrong but i think we should be able to tell what he means he just didn't elaborate on it.

Well i think this will happen eventually.

I can't see how this would work to be honest. Too many variables to make it workable

@iceman-d18 I think the community overthinks these things and shut down ideas when some of them are already in the game to some extent.
For example Jack Sparrow helps you firing cannons on that one Pirates of the Caribbean mission, skellies already do more than firing cannons on their ships. So if we were to somehow be allowed to take over their ships we would basically have this in game with no complex or fancy changes needed.

One of the reasons i do think it will be implemented eventually is because when the game was released i would see multiple Galleons on every session, every day, but as time progressed you see less and less to a point where they are a rarity. So my belief is when the game starts it's end of life (if it does) it would make sense to allow the few players an option to sail the bigger ships just to keep the game going for a while longer.

Also before we had Skellie ships, everyone was shutting down that idea because they said it was not possible due to AI being very simple in SOT, sure enough some time latter they were brought in.

I think the community overthinks these things and shut down ideas

Nah. It because it drives for players to be solo more often. The game ideal design was to 'find' a crew and become pirates. Take away that and you basically playing a pirate simulator with robots on a ship against actual players.

Thing with skeleton AI, it changes. Sometimes they miss a lot and often they never miss a shot. So why would anyone wanna face against a solo Galleon player with a crew of 3 Npc for hire, who do all the major dirt work by repairing ship and firing the cannons, while the solo player can do the whole "board ship" tactic.

Unless they make it so, the Npc disappear when the player leaves the ship or they stop moving because "Captain left the ship" I dont see it being added. & if another crew attacks on board a ship, do they fight back? I hope not. You think cheaters with mods are bad, AI npc that defend a ship in close quarters.
(much like normal combat, defend and attack or keep repairing/attacking) AI can't do much thinking.

Also before we had Skellie ships, everyone was shutting down that idea because they said it was not possible due to AI being very simple in SOT

I never saw a single person claim this. Saw it in the trailer, we lived past the Event and people wanted it. Never anyone say it couldnt be done due to Ai being simple in SoT

@burnbacon well i did see that as an argument back then and just as it is now players seem to think it's impossible due to it being to complex for whatever reasons when in reality it's already in the game.

I do understand people want the full experience of playing with and against other players and not AI but as you mentioned AI can be unreliable but for solo players with no option of gathering a crew it is better than nothing at all.

@foambreaker but the problem would still be there should they add galleon specific content as the problem lies in either players unable to find a proper set of friends or those who choose to play this way. Which i think amounts to a convenience in online gaming for many reasons.

@eva1977

How many times has Jack, on your ship, hit his shots? Basing it's in the game on Jack, I'd be better off not spending the gold lol.

Not for it.

@pithyrumble Well Skellies used to hit their mark every time they fired a shot so they toned them down and now are less than average foes, but this means their accuracy can be toned up or down.
I wouldn't necessarily focus on HG battles with a Galleon full of AI in their current inaccurate state but sailing around with them doing missions would be fun.

@flavio5404 said in Hire NPC Crew:

I would like to be able to hire npc crew to help, like one that does repairs or a gunner would already help

I sense someone who hasn't earned themselves a power fantasy through inspiring friendship and cooperation on a Brigantine/Galleon, but now wants to take the easy route to fulfill that dream.

Can't say people are going to wholeheartedly agree here. Even if Jack Sparrow is the only example of an active AI crewmate on your boat, they're very limited and are borderline aimbot.

The complexities and specifications in usage of the different parts of the ship are why human players are essential to the experience. To cover that with an NPC just because you aren't looking to cooperate with some random stranger that could have been a friend is preposterous to the intentional design of the game.

And it probably wouldn't be fair on anyone's end lol

The game just needs a proper open crew matchmaking system with optional filters and this whole solo players problem will go away.

@alienmagi said in Hire NPC Crew:

The game just needs a proper open crew matchmaking system with optional filters and this whole solo players problem will go away.

solo players aren't going away...

@flavio5404 solo sloop is meant to be challenging, and honestly once you get some experience under your belt no pve is really a threat anymore.
This can't really be done because the interaction with pvp would have too many variables, you get skellies on forts who can shoot you from far off with wicked accuracy then the sea forts that just shoot cannons in random angles. It would never feel good if the ai was a deciding factor in a pvp battle.
Can't see this ever being considered personally