Following a rather unpleasant solo experience with a skalleon in the insider programme, I had a thought... As usual, apologies if this has already been proposed.
How about when you're a crewman down we get the option of an AI crew-mate? Nothing fancy just the same stuff AI dudes already do on a skelly ship, you know, simple deck fighting, cannons and patching (also harmonising your shanties would be awesome). Nothing that's going to be hell to code. It'd sure help the general game along a touch to have a bit of patching help if you get that lucky shot off the ship or are desperately trying to fight off the kraken. Yeah I know if you're good enough you can be a hero and do it solo, but it's not always fun.
If you don't like the idea of a robotic AI pirate, how about a skull set in the wall below decks that you could summon a subservient skeleton with, maybe it glows when one is available / you're left on your own in game. You could change the AI focus to fighty, defensive or peaceful (for diplomacy), which would change the skull colour on the wall. Also if it's a skelleton, it could xylophone its own ribs when you strike up a tune...
Shouldn't be made to be too hard to kill or otherwise unbalanced or more effective than another player, just a helping hand when your regular crew-mate hasn't logged on yet or accidentally kicks their xbox off in the middle of a kraken...
