Great - now my crew want to be captains too : /

@sn0kanon said in Great - now my crew want to be captains too : /:

@skal-e-waag A strong leader realizes that his value isn’t diminished by raising up those he leads. Let everyone that wants to captain their own ship either alternately or randomly, but if you feel they’re somehow taking advantage, set the rule that whoever is captain also has to assume all the captain’s duties, whatever those may be, so they’re “earning” their milestones. You may have less success, you may find another member of your crew is a worthy captain in his or her own right, they may love it, they may decide they hate it. IMHO life is way too short and good times few enough and far enough between to get hung up on this kind of stuff. Is it more important to you to be in charge on your own terms or to keep sailing and having fun with a tight crew that works well together?

Dunno, I’d say let it go; it sounds like you’ve built an exceptional team, why not let them spread their wings and show you what they’ve learned? There’s a lot to be proud of there.

There’s been some useful advice in this thread and I’ll chew extra on these nuggets, thanks for taking the time (again) to advise.

I’ve enjoyed helping them get better but not to replace me, lol, so that will be an adjustment. I can go deckhand but when they have all these captain questions it’ll be hard to just give them all the answers when I prepared for this update as I believed my role necessitated.
I still feel like this is “my”crew (in that I recruited and trained it) and it’s being undermined by the shiny new update where everyone’s got a ship name in mind so now they’re captains who want spoon fed info from the one who should just be doing it..
..yeah this’ll take some mental work on my part lol

I guess I’m the captain who, when a captaincy update came, is no longer the captain.

@skal-e-waag

Do you ever run open crew? I don't know anybody who plays, so I am always doing open crew.

I just finished my session.

My first Open Crew Galleon was being run by a Captain who was a tyrant. His ship also had a profane sexual name. Ugh.

Immediately we had a forced "battle" on a reluctant Brigand, which sank pretty quickly. We collected their loot. Then did a Spanish fort.

Everything seemed okay, until we saw maybe the same Brigand. They wanted nothing to do with us, and ran.

We were all like, "Just let them go. They don't want to PVP. We have a lot of loot here. Let's cash in and do another quest".

"I am the Captain! You will obey my orders!" he kept shouting. He wanted to keep chasing that Brigand.

The Brigand kept running. It was so boring. The Captain just wanted to chase. We were flying Gold Hoarders by the way. I decided this session was not for me. So after playing 30 minutes I cut my losses and left without getting any emissary rep or gold for my time. They are probably still chasing that poor Brigand.

My second open Galleon was an un Captained Reapers I. Only two of us had mics.
The other mic user took the role as Captain because he wanted to sink other ships.

We didn't find any, so we did convince him to do a fort.

As we completed the fort, we were attacked by a loot carrying brigand and we did have a fun battle. Both of our ships were completely ablaze. It was a fun chaotic battle between two willing crews. We were the victors and gladly collected the spoils of war.

Then a new crew mate spawned in. He immediately began fire bombing our ship.

The Captain decided to join him and started throwing blunder bombs at me. Our ship sank full of loot. So after a 45 minute session, I left again... with no loot nor emissary reward for my time.

I gave up on open crew Galleon, and did an open crew Sloop.

I arrived on an anchored "Captained" ship with pirate legend Ghost Sails completely down, no emissary, and parked on the "wrong" side of the Spanish fort. Obviously, the actual Captain was gone, and this was some new player.

We had fun clearing the fort. We sailed to the Reaper island, raised that emissary and sold our loot. Hooray, I finally got some money and emissary value.

We talked a bit, and this newer player confirmed to me that this ship was not his.

I asked him if he wanted to have some fun, and we did a level 75 Order of the Souls Haunted fleet. I have to say, my new open crew mate did a terrific job shooting and repairing!

We killed a meg on the way back to the outpost.

So that was my adventure.

Oh, right we are taking about the choice YOU ( @skal-e-waag ) have to make:

1. Trinkets
   or
2. Your loyal crew.

Hmmm.

Difficult decision here...

@lordtaco111

Ha, that was an epic accounting of life on the Open seas!

But No, pugs have no interest for me. That chaos thing, and the likelihood of mismatched goals and ideals make that a non-starter.

I solo slooped almost to PL by the time my friend joined. How we got him and then our 3rd and then the 4th to PL so increasingly fast was crazy by comparison to my due paying.

As for your eventual point, this isn’t about trinkets on my side - if anything they’re picking trinkets*, which is why I’m a salty dog right now..
(*new content that being loyal might have left to me on behalf of us. It may sound entitled but that’s what you call it when it’s earned.)

@strangeness

I’m genuine in my quest for answers and perspectives but after some that didn’t seem to show a consideration for my perspective, I thought I’d ask.

I’m just in the process of coming to terms with the apparent appropriateness of everyone getting to roleplay as captain on a crew that has a captain, thus supplanting said captain that recruited and trained those captains. Savvy?

The captaincy update is simply a tool. Different crews will use it differently. But you seem to be hung up on this idea that the update was for "people like you" when it was really for anyone who wants to roleplay as a captain.

Correct - I thought this was a tool for active captains so their crew could track their careers etc. If you want to roleplay as a Captain, form your own crew - isn't that how captains, crews, and ships actually work? Turning a captained crew into a crew full of captains seems so odd, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills..

I asked my first mate if he couldn’t scratch that itch when he sails (as defacto cap) with his son, which he said he is, but still wants to level his boat with us I guess. (?)

And I don’t care about leveling my ships for me but was looking forward to building our legacy around one ship that we all unlock and contribute to and treat as ours. You know, like how it would really be with a crew and a ship.

So now my crew wants to each choose a size that we’ll use depending on crew count. I see problems with that but whatever at this point right lol
(The fact this update split captaincy into thirds might have been a mistake if buying one name that came with the 3 sizes could have avoided these issues.)

I understand where you're coming from. You had your own expectations and for a good while those were coinciding with your crew's. But expectations change, and now they're at odds. You can resent the patch that made the change quicker but it would have happened anyways.

Now imo you have to chose between your own expectations and the cohesion of the crew you sail with.

If you end up choosing the later : see it as a fleet of ships. They're all part of the same armada but will have different milestones representing the playstyle of each captains. Sure some sessions will be less successful than others but at the end of the day it's just a game. Winning or losing don't matter as much as having fun.
My advice : let your crewmates wanting to be the captain of their ship do just that. They can still ask you question like a captain would do with their old cranky first mate. But don't take the helm from them during those sessions. That would only slow down their growth.
For us there is an imperative rule : the captain calls must be followed even if you disagree with them but you can talk about it after the session when things have cooled down. That's a good way of doing things me think.

@courtingnose1 said in Great - now my crew want to be captains too : /:

@lordtaco111 If you can remember the pirate’s gamertag you can report a profane or inappropriate ship name by raising a support ticket and selecting the inappropriate ship name option.

Thank you for explaining how to help maintain the "family friendliness" of the game. I will be ready next time.

I don’t have to be superior for both to be true but good one.
(Can’t seem to reply cuz half your name hits the filter, go figure)

It should be fine, I leveled mine up in a day got 2 legendary unlocked. People can easily find time to do it on their own.

@vincenttnecniv To be clear, no one has expressed a desire to captain to the extent I have, and again, we rotate the captain role every hour so everyone gets a taste. I'm far from a selfish tyrant but not surprised by the hot takes..peeps be basic what can I say?

Seeings how I brought this game to them and have care-taken our adventures for all this time, if they decided to play without me, that would be more reflective of their character than mine, butI don't see that happening anyhow. We really are close, them just being oblivious to my side has been bothersome.

@tossico94 YOU are part right :) I had my perspective and was looking for confirmation - or to have it torn down - but at the same time that data's only useful if I give a full picture of said perspective cuz I know what it can look like on the surface.

As a soloer I sought to find a crew and have organically filled the role needed to grow and hone it over time. So I DO feel I've earned a position in our group and not just based on seniority, but having done everything necessary to lead our band of happy pirates from the start.

I know their position and saw it coming - the update was going to amp Cpt fomo so the draw was obvious, I was just hoping our crew would allow me the tool it was giving us as a crew and not get caught up in what's happening now. It just feels a little dismissive like they didn't care if they might be stepping on my toes. Maybe I'm a parent and know what being taken for granted looks like too..

It's all good though, I've been listening and have found myself changing without noticing consciously, I'll explain more soon..

@tone-tzu
Part of what I laid out early with them and in this thread, is us rotating 3 brigs dilutes our unlocking of things and splinters our progress.

Say Captain A wants to unlock Order stuff (now our sessions will be more agenda-driven based on who's ship it is and what that captain wants) so we set out on Order missions and as one often does, picks up Hoarder and Merchant stuff along the way. Well Captain B is looking for Hoard and Captain C would like Merch but the collective crew hasn't amassed collective rewards - those have essentially been wasted for those that wanted it. That's why rallying around one crew ship just makes the most sense for this.

And it could be one of their ships for all I care but with that goes all the Captaincy tools. And the kicker - the 1st mate pushing for this is almost always late to our sessions and bails out last minute more than us other 2 put together. We would always be provisioning the boat by the time he gets on but now we'll be waiting to even come online until he shows with his ship? And like most sessions, I saw these divergent pitfalls out on the horizon but now that the update is upon us, they're just now thinking about it.. way to prepare for the Captaincy you wanted so bad I say, have a lash or two I say lol.. /salty rant off

@skal-e-waag One thing to keep in mond

You've commented multiple times about rallying around one ship....

But...

Most cosmetics are locked behind "pirate milestones" and not "ship milestones.

And...

There is incentive (and even an achievement!) for one captain to own multiple ships of the same type. So Rare not only planned on various activities being diluted across multiple ships, they incentivized it.

So this idea that crew's would rally around one ship and only one ship is just not how Rare built captaincy. Sure, you CAN do it. Tools, not rules. But to pretend your vision was Rare's vision is kinda ignoring the design and the various unlocks behind the system.

So technically I ended up listing two things to consider, not one. But pirates can't count. Especially captains. So this too shall be fine.

@strangeness There's lots of ship milestones that aren't cosmetic related too, but I get your point. But it's all the things. Consistent ship log legacy for one - all those stats track for each ship so what could we ever know about the whole of our careers without, what, having each captain report their Ship X stats and add them up manually? Not like anyone's trying to do any of that, but it would be nice to glance at one captain's list of logs and do some simple math.

I know Caps can own multiple versions of the same ship but seems more for name/theme variety and stretch goals than any incentive to Not to use one for progress as described above (and above this).

An earlier assertion (maybe not by you) about Rare giving everyone the ability to be captain precludes the notion that rallying around one ship wasn'their intent, I don't buy that. Naturally it's allowed for all, that would really be an S-storm, but that doesn't mean natural crews with an evident captain wouldn't juse use the tools being introduced for them and their crew.

UPDATE!

All (ok most) of the advice offered was quite helpful so thanks to all who took the time.

I've checked my privilege a bit and proffered this plan to me crew: they choose what ship or ships they want to captain and we'd run them the next two sessions, with them getting us underway (my only request before) and captaining as long as they want (instead of us switching every hour). The 3rd session I'd captain and use whichever ship of mine we wanted.
From there we'd figure out what future sessions look like. Maybe they'll like this new rotation. Maybe they'll appreciate the way they had it.

I've been hesitant to give up the role I've role-played this whole time but if that's what they really want, they should find out for sure. To those ends, I expressed that I would be deferring so they could live their best captain lives and have full control of the boat and our session. If that's how they want to proceed, I guess that's how we'll roll, but I'm hoping the novelty passes and they realize what they got from me that apparently has been going unaccounted for.

I'll keep ye posted.

Thanks me hearties!

~Captain Skal

If I had a regular crew to run with, I would do my best to keep the crew happy and together (as in your case, sharing the Captaincy opportunities), or risk losing them.

. . .

So, I just did an open crew Galleon.

I wake up at the table, and three others join, and then all quit.

Huh.

So I select the Party Boat ship skin (I have all except the cannons), raised the Reaper emissary, and solo sailed the Galleon to the nearest Spanish fort.

New crew members arrived as I parked the ship. Let's name them Angel, Bubba and Drake.

Angel, Drake and I began clearing the fort. Meanwhile, Bubba found a keg, and killed all of us. I guess I should be grateful he didn't do that on the ship.

We resurrected and us three cleared the fort and loaded up our ship, reaching Reaper Emissary III. I don't know what Bubba was doing, maybe he was looking for another keg? Bubba was rocking the newbie clothing, but I have my doubts.

As we sail to Reaper Island, I start seeing messages about treasure being buried?
Sure enough, Bubba and Drake are on an island way behind us? I assume they buried treasure they found there, but maybe they swam with some of ours. I do not know.

Bubba reappeared on the ship, and proceeded to change our course. He is trying to take us to another island, to bury more treasure I assume.

I regained control of the wheel and resumed our course to the Reaper Hideout. At this point, I am worried about the damage Bubba is going to do, so I ask the other crew members to vote Bubba into the brig. I have never asked to brig another player before. Only Angel votes.

Drake starts arguing with somebody in chat. I don't know if it was with me, or Angel, as Angel and I were busy duo sailing the galleon.

As we begin our final approach to the Reaper Hideout, Bubba sets the ship on fire.

In the confusion, I hit a sand berm, and Drake started taunting my steering.

Eventually we get the fire out, and the ship sort of parked, and I start dropping the loot onto the dock.

Everyone, except Bubba helps to sell the loot.

Finally, I ask everyone to lower the emissary, and then Angel and I left.

. . .

So in conclusion, I would rate this open crew session at 61 out of 100. I kept the mission going. The objective was completed. I mostly ignored the hijinks. However, once the emissary was down, I was glad to leave.

In hind sight, I probably should not have initiated the brig vote until the other two requested it. So another unplanned lesson learned.

Remember Taco, "Never feed the trolls".

I only sail with one other person. Luckily neither of us care for leadership. But I will usually take charge as I am more experienced and he doesn't mind doing whatever needs doing.

We usually play on a sloop, so he will be responsible for the lower deck (cooking, charting course, navigation, etc) I'm responsible for the upper deck (steering, sails, cannons) but these aren't set roles, if he wants to grab the wheel he can.

Sometimes it's good to do a bit of role reversal and if you're the most experienced, it's good to take a step back and let your crew learn by doing. You want crewmates that can do everything (at least I do)

For the first few times we set sail, I sat back and let him learn, only stepping in when I needed to. I wish he had his own captained ship at this time as this probably would have made him care more about the ship. Multiple things can go wrong on the ship, you can get knocked off, you can die, you can disconnect, etc. In times like that, it's useful to have someone who can take over.

I don't believe in one person being the captain and that's it for the rest of time. I like being the Captain and I am often the Captain. But I also don't mind taking a step back, letting someone else be captain.