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

My crew consists of me and my two kids, so you can imagine how ship-wrangling goes here. I decided to adopt a laid-back attitude about ship milestones; I don’t really care whose boat we sail or what milestones get collected on whose boat as long as we’re having fun.

It may be more “efficient” to put all effort into one ship, but think about it from your crewmates’ viewpoints; you guys are a team and a group of friends, if “leveling” a ship is important to one of your crewmates, you should take turns or otherwise figure out some way to make everyone happy. You might be the de facto captain (hard to vote on a course of action with a Reaper gally bearing down) but it’s not really your crew, it’s your friends.

Not saying you’re being a jerk, the reasoning is thought out and it seems this captaincy/ship ownership thing is changing your group dynamic, but it may be at the point where you gotta decide which is more important: your ship or your crew.

@sn0kanon

Thanks for the feedback Sn0. :)

Luckily we're adults who don't need (much) wrangling like kids - even his 15 yr old has been a seemless addition.

We've always been laid back, basically deferential to the whims of the group, both for boat cosmetics and a night's itinerary, and leveling has always been shared yet tracked on our own pirate.
With the introduction of ship "ownership", it seems to be taking on another level of attachment by some. In my case, I'm not actually attached to any of these as "my" ships - these are "our" ships that we crew together and unlock all related trophies and such - enjoying the cumulative proceeds of - together. Diluting and splintering that among different captain logs doesn't make sense on that level alone - which is why I think my 1st mate should be looking at it this way too.

And again, I don't think this update was meant to juggle multiple captained boats but to let us represent the roles that we are already playing but on a dedicated ship/s for that crew.

At the end of the day, you may view the ships as shared, but they aren't. They're yours. Friends (even adults) fight or end friendships over romance, money, or whatever. And at the end of they day, they lsoe access to the ship and all of its progress if the ships is owned/attached to your account.

I see NO evidence that Rare intended longtine crews to rally to only one ship ever. In fact, I think the de-facto tavern "code" still applies. All crewmates are equal. The captain doesn't have a greater vote count to send someone to the brig. Or to kick someone from the crew. The ONLY extra "power" a captain has is to lock cosmetics (including the name) of the ship they one. Not one extra ounce of power to the crew on that ship.

Some crews will rally to one player's ship because that's their style. But many others will rotate responsibility, just like you already do "driving" (and I've been on plenty of crews where the helmsman is not the de-facto captain at all. Because their "captain" was better at boarding, or cannons, or.... Yeah.

Point being, at the end of the day, all crewmates are equal. And if you try to force your will, they might justvstary sailing without you. And the. You've lost a crew to even help you level a ship albeit more slowly than you prefer. Listen to your crew. Respect their votes. I think you are trying to impose your vision of this update instead of seeing it as just another tool in the toolbox for role-playing. Forcing a specific way to play has never been Rare's approach to this game, so I think you are inferring intent that was not there.

It like golf to me.

Group of friends together. Hitting balls and making holes. At the end of the day, we show our count and see who the better golfer is.

Loser buys dinner for the day. And sometimes we have challenges with rewards we can show off until everyone has earned one.

I can appreciate these arguments and perspectives, thanks mates!

All of us only crew together (except 1st mate and son sail on their own on "off" days sometimes - which would be a great place and time to level up a ship outside our main crew) so that's why it seems nonsensical to me to not rally around a ship for our careers together. Otherwise we won't hit career milestones together like we think we are, not at the same pace at least (see dilution argument).We won't even be able to look at our Ship's Log and see how much of stat X we've accrued in total. (Captains can see stats for all ships at once, not just broken into stats for each ship).

As for all crewmates being equal, that's the theory, but in reality experience and effort matter. Again, we play things pretty egalitarian but we're role playing a crewed ship here - how many captains on a ship? Part of why we take structured helming shifts is we let that person 'play captain' and learn the ropes so they can man the various posts when needed.

Beyond that, I spend more energy and effort (and coin) in leading and managing our play sessions and supplementing our play experiences with offline posts and highlight videos of our escapades..so I guess I'm feeling a little unappreciated for the intangibles my crew are benefiting from - and I guess a little salty that an update comes out for someone like me and their reaction is to discount all that instead of saying Yay, enjoy Captain, continue to provide for us and lead the way to glory as you usually do. /sad pirate face

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

Sounds like you are the Tank, and now one of the Hunters wants to tank with his Pet lol

Omg, this. Especially with this crew, we all had our roles in our WoW parties. Ironic twist, our 1st mate was the tank and I the mage, and since I had more dungeon calling experience, I called pulls from the rear (where the view is better really). So this crew should get it gawsh

@navillicious

"Most people will want to level up their ships to get cosmetics for their ships but after that it doesn't matter as much who's ship you're going to be on"

I get that draw (that's why I called it near-sighed) but like I told them, anything someone wants to unlock, we'll do it faster in one ship and we can flex it on OUR ship just like we do with unlocked cosmetics now - we take a vote and go.

It's kind of funny because when it was just the 2 of us, I had more ship stuff unlocked, so would mix the Ashen hull with Kraken stuff and named it the AshKrak (no way that would pass Rare's wild sensitivity filter) in our minds so we've been down this road of rallying around a ship and role playing its legacy..

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

@skal-e-waag Are you talking about shared cosmetics on a ship or shared progression? Personally I'm not against shared progression as it would promote players not having to worry about grinding their own ships to unlock new cosmetics, but as far as shared cosmetics go the captain of the ship can set it to allow the crew to also update the ship's appearance, so you could still do what you did on your old ship but still work on ship milestones for that specific ship.

Both from what I can tell. Cosmetics from various alignment milestones.
But true, I’d make it so anyone can update the appearance, but we decide as a crew anyhow, plus the unlocks would be centralized on our captain (in this case, me).

Someone has latent control issues 😆

I have my boats. They're for shenanigans. My legend child has his boats. For srs bzns. My troll child... has a boat? He's gonna make it a team kill death match and probably get another ban for language.

Share. multi-player boats are easier to grind because you get more points from each player.

@skal-e-waag

As someone who helms and generally has the most hours in the group that I play with, I can see there is a difference between us (you and me) in how we approach our crews. I'm not going to persuade you on who's style is preferable as it's entirely subjective and very influenced on play style / in game goals.

1. I view my captained ship as my captained ship. I decided on the name, and the cosmetics. I purchase all of the meats, fruit etc before sailing. My crew has their own ships and we basically select who's ship we're sailing on based on who gets the most favourable server.

2. None of us really care about any of the Milestones, Alignments and/or their associated Trophies. Our general mode of operation is to get to Reaper Grade V via PvE if no PvP is available and sink whatever we can find afterwards. Any Milestones or Alignments that we want to get personally are probably going to be done on our own time. I've never expressed any desire to acquire any Milestones or Alignments with my crew.

3. Regardless of who's ship we play on, I'm almost always helming. Nobody has ever stated they want to helm, and if they did, I'd have absolutely no problem taking orders from them. That being said, I think the general consensus is if you want your ship to stay afloat during battle, you listen to the guy who's behind the wheel.

We've changed very little from how we used to operate before season 7 and I'm refraining from letting those trinkets and trophies be a variable in my decision making. Luckily my crew also seems to be pretty un-phased by them as well.

My group just rotates whose ship we're on.

The majority of the cosmetics are for pirate milestones, so it doesn't matter whose ship it is.

Our roles are the same no matter whose name is listed as Captain, but we mix them up too from time to time, coz a change is as good as a rest and we're mostly reasonably good at most roles on an individual level at this stage.

It's better to have a crew who works well together than a boat with your own name on it.

@jumbie7311

Thanks for sharing your approaches, helps widen my perspective (on what makes Reapers tick😜).

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

Someone has latent control issues 😆

I have my boats. They're for shenanigans. My legend child has his boats. For srs bzns. My troll child... has a boat? He's gonna make it a team kill death match and probably get another ban for language.

Share. multi-player boats are easier to grind because you get more points from each player.

Some might say control keeps chaos from having it so easy. 😇

Not sure about the rest of what you said but loved reading it for some reason. Will you talk more like that about something and I’ll try to guess what it is?😊

@boxcar-squidy

Thanks for giving me more to chew on 🤔

@skal-e-waag said in Great - now my crew want to be captains too : /:

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

Someone has latent control issues 😆

I have my boats. They're for shenanigans. My legend child has his boats. For srs bzns. My troll child... has a boat? He's gonna make it a team kill death match and probably get another ban for language.

Share. multi-player boats are easier to grind because you get more points from each player.

Some might say control keeps chaos from having it so easy. 😇

Not sure about the rest of what you said but loved reading it for some reason. Will you talk more like that about something and I’ll try to guess what it is?😊

I was talking about how my crew shares the captain privileges and our inherent play styles:
My older son likes to play hard-core.
My youngest gets bored and starts throwing blunderbombs. (team kill death match)

@skal-e-waag

After reviewing the responses here. I'm going to answer your question:

am I the crasswhole captain who has this all wrong?

I think so, unfortunately.

Initially I thought that your expectations might be considered realistic amongst your crew members but the developers gave everyone the ability to purchase their own ship. As much as you'd like to think it's shared, it truly isn't, and your attitude towards your crew members is probably going to come off as gaslighting.

Here are some things that will cause confusion:

In it's runup to launch, I suggested a name for our ship with no pushback, and when it launched I bought and named the 3 sizes of our ship - but my 1st mate says I did that "unilaterally and without discussion".

...we can all have input on how the ship looks, even though I surprised them with a look for the new ships, something we've liked in the past but now with the other half of the set, of course asking for objections).

I highly doubt these players think your ships belong to them. You proactively named them, and proactively set their cosmetics. It doesn't matter whether you call it "ours" or "shared" in their mind, it's yours, because you are inherently taking charge of them.

The reply with the most upvotes in this thread comes from @strangeness who has a very pragmatic approach as to why this "shared" attitude is flawed. It's a risk for the crew members who may feel like the rewards for their participation may be taken away if their relationship with you fails. It's already clear that there is some discontent so I don't think it's the right call to double down and say "hey this is for all of us". If they don't feel that way, then you shouldn't force that upon them.

I need some advice mateys - I fear the captaincy update is disrupting our crew dynamic - what to do??

Submit to the approach that involves less risk for everyone. Let them select their boats, name them, outfit them with whatever they like. By the rules of the game they have to pay for the maintenance and captain supplies, trinkets, ornaments and quests and I'm sure they're happy to do all of those. Remember, this is a feature that was advertised to them and if they want to be in charge of their own ship then they should have every right to it.

Part of why we take structured helming shifts is we let that person 'play captain' and learn the ropes so they can man the various posts when needed.

The fact that you're putting 'playing captain' in quotes is diminutive and implies that you view this as a less significant contribution during the course of the session.

Beyond that, I spend more energy and effort (and coin) in leading and managing our play sessions and supplementing our play experiences with offline posts and highlight videos of our escapades..so I guess I'm feeling a little unappreciated for the intangibles my crew are benefiting from - and I guess a little salty that an update comes out for someone like me and their reaction is to discount all that instead of saying Yay, enjoy Captain, continue to provide for us and lead the way to glory as you usually do. /sad pirate face

The update was advertised to everyone, not just you. I would re-assess what your crew appreciates you for and focus on those things; overstepping is going to cause them to feel uncomfortable.

@da-german420 all are unlocked except for the two achievements related to your captained boats. Once those are completed by everyone I feel less OG crews will care.

My mates all had their favourite shipsets. We would roll the d6 emote to decide which one to use for that session.

We decided to keep doing that with our own captained ships to keep it fair so we all get a go.

Seems to work ok so far.

@skal-e-waag said in Great - now my crew want to be captains too : /:

...wanting to level up his own ship with what is essentially my crew - not to mention in denial about my defacto captain status this whole time

This really stuck out to me. I'm part of a four man crew that plays weekly. It's our crew. Not my crew. Not the one who drive's crew, etc. It's our crew. I would have to think that the folks you regularly play with probably assume the same. It's all their crew, not your crew. This seems reasonable since your post even alludes to the fact that you brought in your good friend, but then he brought in the other two members.

So if you're looking for advice here's what I would say... stop viewing it as your crew. Even if you know more about the game. Even if you are the one who sets the course of action for the play session. Even if you are the one giving direction in battle, etc. It's (collectively) all your crew. And if it's everyone's crew, respect how they want to spend their time in game - whether on your ship or one of theirs.

Just my thoughts. Happy sailing! :-)

Alright internet, let me have it! lol

To set the record straight, we really are pretty tight and only play with each other so don't see me leveling up my ships and leaving them progress-less as a real concern. Again, our dynamic has been great and our sessions are riddled with successes and everyone has the best time - but if I weren't leading us how I am, I don't think that would be the case. So now it's a Have cake+Eat cake situation where they get to be led to glory but also want to be captain of their own ship at the same time. Pick one way or the other, not sure how both work at the same time.

Back to the WoW analogy. If there was a tank update, would we all vie to be tanks once a week? Would we random roll for it each night? Or if there was a raid caller update, do we go "Ok who wants to raid call tonight?" We're all still enjoying the same game but we also have our roles where experience and aptitude matter.

Is anyone imagining themselves in my boots? Where you've groomed a crew and molded them into what they are but when an update comes out to enhance your role you're asked to be relegated to another deck hand as others take turns playing captain?

Ah the classic 'Captain having to watch over his shoulder as his crew is groomed with enough confidence that they can do it too' situation if you ask me. Those used to be solved by plank walkings or barnacle scrapings iirc..hmm [this is tongue in cheek but trying to express a point of view here - how would you feel in my position?]

@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.

@danbeardluff This is true but when I’m taking orders as we rotate at the helm, if I don’t speak up, we aren’t as efficient or effective, especially when the stakes are higher.
Captaining is a real responsibility and a constant role but I also enjoy providing that service for our crew.

I think the key takeaway here is that you ended your original post with a valid question, but aren't really open to the answers you are getting. Even the "have any of you thought about what it's like to be in my shoes" paraphrase carries the sound of wanting your feelings validated than wanting actual opinions.

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.

I find myself reminiscing I'd the original Pirates of the Carribean movie where one of the runnning gags was "he is the best/worst pirate I've ever seen."

If your crew wants you as captain, that's fine. But if they want shared responsibility, you have to decide if this odd line in the sand is worth the disruption that you pushing will cause amongst your crew.

All crew are equal. Even in captaincy. So when you talk about how crews that got too big for their britches and those were resolved by the plank or keel hauling, it is worth pointing out that this game gives the captain NO EXTRA POWER over the crew. Over ther ship, yes, but not their crew. You can't unilaterally send someone to the brig. Or keelhaul them.

All. Crew. Are. Equal. This update didn't change toe core dynamic of that aspect of the game, and it's pretty clearly by design. It is up to the various crews to decide how they use captaincy to roleplay. You have to decide if your approach is worth the dissonance among your crew. But if you're looking for validation that there was one true answer and you found it, I suspect the replies here prove the contrary.