First a major disclaimer, I am like many people extremely frustrated with trying to play a clunky, slow as hell, unmanageable Galleon with 3 people. Especially if even one of them is slightly incompetent or goofing off slightly or falls in the water. The ship was clearly designed for 4 and while it can be managed by 3 it is always disadvantaged mathematically. So I understand the people supporting the 3-4 player sloop. That said...
It is 100% such a horrible idea. But first lets dispel this nonsense "There isn't enough to do on a sloop as it is this will change nothing."
Total jobs needed to be done on a sloop during a fight vs a fort, other players or A.I ship(maybe in the future) are; steer, sails adjust x2 and raise/lower x2, anchor, fire cannon, patch, board/defend ladder and snipe. On a 2 man sloop you can only do 2 of these at a time, you have to abandon the cannon to go patch while your helmsman abandons the wheel to change sails. So no, 2 people cannot do every job on a sloop at once in a fight, and yes it will make a difference. This is important for balancing the ship. If I am some jerk chasing somebody and they put a hole in my hull, I have to stop firing the cannon to go patch. If I want to board I risk leaving 1 person to control my ship alone.
Galeon is similar but much larger to navigate around with more total numbers for each task that take longer to accomplish.
These ships are balanced around their max crew.
Rare talked about and it was leaked just how much went into balancing a 2 man Sloop vs a 4 man Galeon. Down to tiny details like positioning of barrels and where leaks can form or how fast the sails turn. And even said the player caps for each ship were very intentional. Though due to pressure by 3 man crews who don't like manning the Galleon(don't blame them it is a tad clunky in my personal opinion even with 4), they seem to have promised more people on sloop.
As somebody who plays solo a lot, I can escape and sometimes even sink a 4 man Galeon. Or even a 2 man sloop. The problem with a 3 man sloop or more, is this.
Currently if I shoot a sloop a few times while running with my treasure, one of them has to go patch. If one of them boards me that leaves only one to run their whole ship. If they want to grab more cannon balls they have to stop firing a moment or if they want to adjust sails they have to get off while.
Now a three man sloop(not even mentioning four). Now they can keep shooting cannon balls, while patching my holes while steering, once those holes are patched they can anchor turn without the man even leaving the wheel, then have 2 raising the anchor while one is still adjusting sails or shooting or patching.
How people cannot comprehend this I don't understand. But 3 man sloop alone, not 4 but just 3, will 100% kill usage of Galleons and solo Sloops in one swing.
This is just one brief example. I could talk about many more, like that even if they board me with 1 person they still have a full Sloop Crew. While if a Galeon sends one of 3 over they have basically a sloop crew managing that behemoth.
The only people I imagine excusing this are pure PvE people who think this somehow won't make griefing and current issues in PvP worse and the pure PvP trolls who want this so they can be invincible and get free sinks on Galleons and Solo Sloops and free forts.
Not that I won't use it, if they add it I will just server hop with 2-3 friends and get free forts since they will be basically no threat to a 3-4 man sloop. Give me a magic bullet I will use it, any smart gamer will, doesn't mean it won't kill the game experience.
Rant over, the real solution
No lazy bandaid fixes, just add a proper 3 man ship and heck, maybe... maybe we need a 1 man ship too, so we have actually balanced gameplay 1-2-3-4 players.
