I mentioned this idea before on the Mega Feedback, but I figured I would go more into details about something I thought of that I think would encourage a bit of friendship and crew setup options and/or management. Right now, you and up to 3 others (4 people total) can team up and sail a Galleon or 2 people sail a Sloop, but what if you have more crew members? What if you could sail 2 ships, or have a bigger ship than a Galleon? Here's my thinking:
I usually play this game alone, and while doing so, I'm always alert for other people because most people can easily take down a lone Sloop sailer. Only a few times have I come across some nice people who don't want to attack me and much prefer to team up instead, usually with those Skull Clouds if I decide to go after them when I'm bored or have nothing else to do and want to see if I can defeat it. I know I've been a jerk to some people when approaching those clouds and people are there, but a few people have actually wanted to team up with me and help them clear out those clouds and split the loot, and that's when I thought "why can't you team up with others?"
My thoughts on teaming up is kinda like the voyage/brig/scuttle voting thing, both crews/teams vote to team up. Obviously, this would change how you play this game, but I think it would be cool cause now you can make friends and help out one another instead of always fighting. This also means you could have 2 ships. Then I thought about it some more and thought why can't you setup your crews differently? Why do I have to be on a Galleon if I don't want to but still be teamed up with people online? Can't there be more crew members? So I thought some more...
I thought that there should definitely be a Team Up option in the menus, but also some sort of Crew Manager post at all the Outposts so you can switch to either sail 1 ship or 2, that way if you did team up with someone or more then you can trade your ships for 1 Galleon or trade for 2 Sloops. Also, while starting a game, you can choose 1 Galleon or 2 Sloops (basing this on 3 or 4 person crews). If you come across more people (if you have 4 people in the crew already) who want to team up, or want to play with you, then there should be more options. My thoughts on crew setups go like this:
2 people can only sail 1 Sloop, 3 or 4 people can sail either 1 Galleon or 2 Sloops, 5 people can sail either 1 Super Galleon (a bigger Galleon...) or 1 Galleon plus 1 Sloop, 6 people can sail either 1 Super Galleon or 2 Galleons, 7 to 8 people can sail either 1 Super Galleon, 2 Galleons, or 1 Galleons plus 2 Sloops.
Now with this, you can have multiple ships or more people managing a bigger ship. But obviously there has to be a catch when it comes to having multiple ships, but I've thought of that too, and this is just to be fair for the most part.
When multiple people are teamed up (or sailing a Galleon as of now), everyone gets a the same amount of gold from cashing in loot. Now my thinking with having multiple ships, for everyone who is teamed up to get the same amount of gold for cashing in loot, all ships and crew members need to be at the same Outpost to get their share of the gold. This means that just because you are teamed up but are sailing different ships doesn't mean you get credit or gold for another team mate in another ship cashing in on whatever loot they are selling from just being anywhere and doing nothing. My thinking is to get people to stick by each other in their different ships rather than break apart. This doesn't mean you can't go to 2 different islands and get loot from 2 different areas at the same time, but rather makes it so you need a set Outpost for everyone to meet at once everything is done, otherwise certain team mates would get cash while others didn't.
What do you guys think of this idea? If you can think of more to add to this or anything about this idea that's good/bad, write a comment.
