Wanted to suggest the idea of hiring NPC Quatermasters for your ships, possibly as a feature available as a perk of Captaincy. There’s so many wonderful characters in Sea, and Kate Capsize was the straw that broke the camels back for me of wanting to share my voyages with them.
If you’ve played Black Flag, you’d likely agree Adewale and Anne Bonny made fantastic presences’ and really enriched long voyages and combat encounters. They don’t serve a gameplay function, but they can serve as a fantastic narrative tool. Imagine Belle, Lesedi, Merrick (when the Brethren are defeated) or any hallmark character calling out barrels and shipwrecks, cheering you in on combat, or having narrative triggers like Belle singing if you play ‘We Shall Sail Together’.
The only downside I can imagine is them becoming an obstacle or distraction in combat, which feels incredibly easy to solve by adding a ‘toggle quartermaster’ option the same as pets, which would have them disapparate the same way Jack Sparrow does in open conflict. Of course, I’d much rather have them in the heat of the battle for the fun. Alternatively they could end up talking too much, but this could also be managed with a dialogue option like High on Life’s to adjust the frequency of phrases.
