Proposal
The main change I’m suggesting is to rework how Deckhands are currently handled by the game so that they are more similar to the Crews and Quartermasters within your Shipyard Tab. For example, it would look like the image below where you are now able to equip them similar to Crews and Quartermasters.
Additionally, you would have more functionality with the space on your ship where you can unequip certain Deckhands you don’t want to use and would be free to use another Deckhand that you may possess while not having to permanently get rid of the Deckhands. Moreover, you can move around the placement of your Deckhands in this menu as well.
Another feature about this rework is that whenever Command Ships in your Fleet, which are being commanded by Ship Captains get dismissed, then the Deckhand would return to your Shipyard Inventory so that they can still be equipped and used.
The only way to permanently remove Deckhands would be to to equip them and dismiss them by talking to them on your ship.
There would obviously be some checks to make sure that certain behaviors don’t arise such as being able to equip Deckhands that have the same profession at the same time on your ship.
Reasoning
With the addition of the Fleet System to the game, Deckhands have seen increased importance due to their role as potential Fleet Captains. However, one issue that I find myself encountering when attempting to engage with this feature is that I don’t want to make my Legendary Deckhands into Fleet Captains since I already spent resources to make them valuable to my ship with their professions and stats.
I would much rather prefer finding new Deckhands and turning them into my Fleet Captains. However, the only way to, somewhat, accomplish this task is to make one of my Ship Deckhands a Fleet Captain and slowly finding new Deckhands to slowly convert into them into Fleet Captains. But this only allows me to get only 3 new Deckhands as Fleet Captains since if I recruit a Deckhand that I intend to have as my 4th Fleet Captain I would have to permanently remove the first Ship Deckhand that I made a Fleet Captain since my Deckhand and Fleet Captain Slots would both be full by this point.
Some reasons to add this feature would be so that other players wouldn’t be forced into a similar dilemma that I have been experiencing where they may have to part with some of the Deckhands that they’ve invested in, in order to fully use the Fleet System.
Additionally, it would give players the ability to have several more Deckhands to test out different ship builds with on their files and add a degree of freedom and customization that is currently locked behind having to permanently dismiss Deckhands to experiment with.
Furthermore, I would there is very small issue where if you want to use a smaller ship (for whatever reason) such as a Caravel which only has 2 Deckhand Slots, then you’re forced to use only your first 2 Deckhands instead of any 2 Deckhands out of the 4 you possess currently. Which would be annoying if your Shipbuilder or Navigator was on your 3rd or 4th slot.
Moreover, there is currently a subtle issue in the game where if you were to max out your Brig and Fleet Captains, then you would also be unable to upgrade your Command Ships. For instance, say you have 4 Command Ships which are Ketches and they’re all being commanded by Fleet Captains. Additionally, you have 4 Deckhands on your Brig that you want to keep. Then there is no possible way for you to upgrade your Command Ships into Brigs without having to remove some Deckhands/Fleet Captains.
Another thing to note is that I understand this issue could be, somewhat, mitigated by the release of a new ship that has more Deckhand slots like the Frigate. However, that goes under the assumption that we will be receiving more Deckhand slots on higher tier ships which we currently don’t know. As well as the fact that higher tier ships could take months/years to release for players to be able to finally fix this issue. As well as the fact that it also leads into the issue that I highlighted in the paragraph above.
Another Small Thing to Note
I think it would also be great if we’re able to receive the ability to Promote Ships like Our Vice Command Ships to Command Ships as well as Fleet Ships into Vice Command Ships since currently within the game if you dismiss a Command Ship/Vice Command Ship it doesn’t automatically get filled up by a ship from the Lower Tier.
I believe a promotion feature would be better than just auto filling if there’s an empty slot since when higher tier ships release, like the Frigate, and people want to swap their command ships into Frigates, then it would be annoying to have to burn through your Vice Command Ships and Fleet Ships if there was an autofill feature instead of a promotion one.
TLDR
Deckhands should be changed so that they’re like Ship Objects like Quartermasters and Crews. They would also be allowed to be equipped and unequipped so that you can more than just 4 Deckhands in your inventory but only use how many slots your Ship Type has. Dismissing Command Ships would return the Deckhands to your inventory so they aren’t permanently lost. Additionally, you would be allowed to have more than just 4 Deckhands in your Ship Inventory so that you don’t lose Fleet Captains and recruit more Deckhands than being limited by your Ship Type.