In the same spirit of the cat recommendation (hopefully this will post), 
I think we should look at a future mod involving an additional officer and additional attributes.
Cooks were a mainstay and history and literature are full of great material concerning both good and bad ships cooks.
I know this would likely be very difficult to implement, but it sure would be cool. A cook with high attributes could cause morale for both crew and officers to go up based on the cooks talents. In turn a good cook could make the ships stores last longer causing food consuption rates to slow in the game.
Another consideration is additional foodstuffs. Just like rum boosts moral, we could cause fruit to do the same and reduce the number of deaths when food gets low. Hardtack, buns (hotcross buns baked on Good Friday were considered very good luck), beef, (eggs were considered bad luck). Turtles could be a rarety or something you find on beaches. Turtle flesh was considered both good luck and life lengthening. A piece of turtleshell was a fairly common luck charm for sailors that were on long voyages.
An ordinary seaman's food ration for the week:
4 pounds of salt beef
2 pounds of salt pork
2 pints of pease
3 pints of oatmeal
6 ounces of butter
12 ounces of cheese
There was also a daily allotment of a pound of bread and a gallon of beer (or some other type of alcohol depending on the availability).
All of these things could be bought at the markets, but without a good cook their (modifiers)benefits would not be enjoyed by the crew or officers. Additionally possible fires could result that will damage the ship if you have no cook or a bad cook. A bad cook might also embezzle money for victuals and get poor food that causes food conumption rates and sickness to go up while cost of operation goes up possibly even effecting your ability modifier so that unless you take that guy out of position you are sailing on a ship beyond your abilities again.
Thoughts???
Here's a great article on the subject. This article also got me thinking about the transitioning of the treasurer officers position to a ship's purser and give him more responsibilities/effects on more things. http://www.history.uk.com/articles/index.php?archive=66
MK
I think we should look at a future mod involving an additional officer and additional attributes.Cooks were a mainstay and history and literature are full of great material concerning both good and bad ships cooks.
I know this would likely be very difficult to implement, but it sure would be cool. A cook with high attributes could cause morale for both crew and officers to go up based on the cooks talents. In turn a good cook could make the ships stores last longer causing food consuption rates to slow in the game.
Another consideration is additional foodstuffs. Just like rum boosts moral, we could cause fruit to do the same and reduce the number of deaths when food gets low. Hardtack, buns (hotcross buns baked on Good Friday were considered very good luck), beef, (eggs were considered bad luck). Turtles could be a rarety or something you find on beaches. Turtle flesh was considered both good luck and life lengthening. A piece of turtleshell was a fairly common luck charm for sailors that were on long voyages.
An ordinary seaman's food ration for the week:
4 pounds of salt beef
2 pounds of salt pork
2 pints of pease
3 pints of oatmeal
6 ounces of butter
12 ounces of cheese
There was also a daily allotment of a pound of bread and a gallon of beer (or some other type of alcohol depending on the availability).
All of these things could be bought at the markets, but without a good cook their (modifiers)benefits would not be enjoyed by the crew or officers. Additionally possible fires could result that will damage the ship if you have no cook or a bad cook. A bad cook might also embezzle money for victuals and get poor food that causes food conumption rates and sickness to go up while cost of operation goes up possibly even effecting your ability modifier so that unless you take that guy out of position you are sailing on a ship beyond your abilities again.
Thoughts???
Here's a great article on the subject. This article also got me thinking about the transitioning of the treasurer officers position to a ship's purser and give him more responsibilities/effects on more things. http://www.history.uk.com/articles/index.php?archive=66
MK
