Renown/Bounty Hunting based Deckhands

[Vratien]

Deckhands are honestly a great feature, the only things holding them back are:

1. The professions they can take are limited
2. Some (like the navigator) are a right pain in the ass to level up.
3. If you want to swap them out you have to level them all the way up again.

This suggestion (should) help with some of those problems

Part 1
A Reserve section for Deckhands.

Say deckhands could be equipped like cannons or ship armour can.
In essence, you could equip deckhands and unequip them for whatever task you’re doing. The Deckhands would keep their level and artefacts, etc.
This would eliminate problem no.3

Part 2
The resources needed to level up deckhands are more easily collected.

For example, to level up the shipbuilder you buy a bunch of repair hammers and get metal scrap from chests. Ship builders are quite easily levelled up, if you have gals and time.

However, notebooks which are required to level up enchanters and navigators are really annoying to acquire as no shops sell them and they are generally annoying to get.

Just make it so some shop sells notebooks and pepper, etc. It can’t be that hard to code.
This would solve problem no.2

Part 3
Deckhand professions. For a large amount of professions, go here: Deckhand expansions

Marine Deckhand
This Deckhand would provide a live feed about the person you are trying to hunt, and would only be accessible if you have a Positive renown. They would only be able to be recruited at Silverhold or other Gravy bases. (Passive buff)

The Deckhand would also have an ability that, when used would increase damage dealt to Negative renown ships like assassin or pirate ships. This buff would scale with their level. (Active buff)

Assassin deckhand
This Deckhand would provide a live feed about the person you are trying to hunt, and would only be accessible if you have a Negative renown. They would only be able to be recruited at Whitesummit or other Assassin syndicate bases.

The Deckhand would also have an ability that, when used would increase damage dealt to Positive renown ships like Navy or Samerian ships. This buff would scale with their level. (Active buff)

The two deckhands before mentioned are polar opposites, and cannot be put on the same boat less they start trying to kill each other. They would be levelled up with each successful bounty/assassination. (this would also give a good reason to actually bounty hunt.)

[SoifonFan74473727720]

@Vratien

However, notebooks which are required to level up enchanters and navigators are really annoying to acquire as no shops sell them and they are generally annoying to get.

Just make it so some shop sells notebooks and pepper, etc. It can’t be that hard to code.
This would solve problem no.2

Notebooks are already sold by merchant ships so it isn’t that hard to find.

Also it makes no sense to make 2 deckhands that function the same but with different bounties, it would be better if it was just a regular hunting deckhand like the other ones in the game rather than just splitting it into 2 for no reason.

Only thing I really like is part 1 but all your other ides are mid.

[DarkMage]

This is a very good idea, and if done well, it can increase the immersion of the game or break it

[hanmbi]

@Vratien

no shops sell them

merchant ships have left the chat

@Vratien

Positive renown ships like assassin or pirate ships.

ah yes, assassin ships and pirate ships have positive renown

@Vratien

The two deckhands before mentioned are polar opposites, and cannot be put on the same boat less they start trying to kill each other. They would be levelled up with each successful bounty/assassination. (this would also give a good reason to actually bounty hunt.)

what about those with neutral renown

[vorf]

@SoifonFan74473727720

Notebooks are already sold by merchant ships so it isn’t that hard to find

good luck finding an merchant ship that actually sells notebooks

[Vratien]

Whoops

[vorf]

yes.

[Vratien]

I have never found a merchant ship that sells notebooks
and I’ve looked at loads of m. ships. My point is that I want a reliable way of getting notebooks

[Vratien]

The entire point of having two is for opposite renowns to have different deckhands, and to have to go to a unique place to get them.

[Vratien]

if you are neutral renown then you don’t need these bois anyway. Besides, no one is neutral for long.

[SoifonFan74473727720]

@Vratien

I have never found a merchant ship that sells notebooks
and I’ve looked at loads of m. ships. My point is that I want a reliable way of getting notebooks

@vorf

good luck finding an merchant ship that actually sells notebooks

I assure you they exist and are plenty common too, I find plenty of them. Other people do too so you can just trade with them. You guys vastly overestimate how hard it is to get

@Vratien

The entire point of having two is for opposite renowns to have different deckhands, and to have to go to a unique place to get them.

But that’s a bad system because what if someone decides to reset their bounty? does their deckhand no longer work and they have to go out and level and upgrade another deckhand just because they wanted to change it? It’s bad game design for that kind of system to exist. In this case them being for different renown paths makes no sense when you could just have 1 that isn’t tied to renown but works the exact same.

[Tr0xic]

@Vratien

Part 1
A Reserve section for Deckhands.

This is good. It’s also already a suggestion.

Deckhand Reserve Slots

Proposal As the name suggests, add reserve slots for deckhands. These reserve slots would be purchaseable with Galleons, and enable you to have more deckhands than there are slots on your ship. Only deckhands placed into ship slots give you their buffs, including their stats, profession, and any artifacts they’re carrying. Details/background on your proposal The specifics to reserve slots are as follows: you always have a single reserve slot for free. You can purchase additional reserve slots f…

@Vratien

Part 2
The resources needed to level up deckhands are more easily collected.

I guess this would be a fine bandaid fix. But I think the method of upgrading deckhands just needs to be changed as a whole. Collecting 20 clearstones or however many repair hammers isn’t hard at all and it isn’t fun as a challenge either; it’s just a random grind that you have to do for mostly minimal PvE benefit.

@Vratien

Marine Deckhand

@Vratien

Assassin deckhand

The theming is fine but only if you’re actually in the clan since joining either of the NPC clans already changes your ship’s crew and colors.

The issue is that their effect is basically ganking QoL that might be too op… which I don’t think is a good idea for the game (and especially not as a deckhand profession).

[Vratien]

If they change their renown then they will stop being useable, and go into the reserve section I also suggested.

[Vratien]

Haha, yeah I worked that out 5 minutes after I posted it.

[Tineh]

Change the assassin and gravy NPC to a Hunter NPC which changes if you’re in the gravy or the AS. Also, a live feed to where they are is horrible. It’s a literal tracker. So to build on that, we should have a disguise item, similar to the one in Ravenna. It’s one time usable and what it does is it stops the NPC from knowing where you are ( could also apply to bounty boards ). It has a cooldown of course and a limited time for using it.

OR…

If you also have the hunter NPC, he can do the same thing as the disguise but it also applies to your ship’s clan logo and alerts you if anyone not in your party comes to your boat.

[SoifonFan74473727720]

I know how it works. I’m saying that it’s god awful.

[Vratien]

You try making a suggestion instead of shitting on everyone else’s.

[SoifonFan74473727720]

bruh there’s literally no reason for it to tied be tied to renown, it only makes it all the more obnoxious than deckhand leveling already is. You guys suggest stuff so I give criticism as needed to make it better; the moment you post something is the moment it’s up for criticism.

[Vratien]

my point is make constructive criticism.

[SoifonFan74473727720]

THAT’S LITERALLY WHAT I’M DOING. Everything I’ve said has been constructive so far.