keelhauling

[Sherlockzor]

so you are short on dough or you are saving up for ya new ship
and ya crewmates want their pay but you can't pay them and in a while they are threating with mutiny
there used to be only one option pay or be dead

well the evil captain in me says we need a new option
keelhauling so when the crew threats with mutiny you gotta show who is tha man!!! (or woman)
so ya take one of your laddies and pull em all the way under the ship
though offcourse there is a cost:
crew morale gets down too terrible say 5-15?
you lose one crewmember (what did you expect)
and maybe some crew members desert when u reach shore because they are scared

though maybe an extra bonus besides you don't need to pay them for a week
the ship goes a bit faster because its is more uhm.. hydrodanamic because the hull is more clean because of the keelhauling

what do you say? and is this possible?

 

[Kazen Dukzom]

Haha... Nice idea.

 

[Captain Maggee]

I say NO...

Keelhauld is for when one crewmember does something...

When they mutiny in game they all hate you so if you went to keelhauld someone they would all attack you anyway...

The only way we could put keelhauld in game is for officers who you are not happy with, and then if you did keelhauld them there would be a morale drop with the possibility of mutiny IMO

 

[morgan terror]

it might be something to use in combination with the idea of the loyalty mod for officers. otherwise, i don't see that much use for it.

 

[carmenara]

Such is a part of seafaring culture and may be referenced in in-game dialogues, fanfictions etc but a keelhauling scene? I don't think it adds to "realism" or gameplay value. There are ethical concerns as well, which may result in an astounding "NO" from people like above. That's because such practises were outlawed a long time ago.
But, thank you for bringing it up, anyway.

God knows we have been very short of ideas this winter. I don't believe that's such thing as a "stupid" suggestion, since a suggestion would be written in good faith anyway, but there's a difference between spurring further creativity, and scaring all the hopeful contributors away.

 

[Captain Maggee]

Like I went on to explain I think its a good idea, just not the way you explained it being used, as the whole crew is against you in a mutiny.

I think Morgan has it right in how loyal the officers are to you and definantly if you did keelhauld someone other people would jump ship or even attack you (which could lead to a mutiny). So I agree with the entire suggestion of the above just not for mutiny. But definantly the morale drop and crew jumping ship (unless no one likes the officer in which case the morale will raise )

Others are of course intilled to their opinion this is just mine

 

[carmenara]

To make discipline a feature we must have infractions to go with them.

Crew stealing supplies, misuse of weapons, bringing on stowaways, harassing the captain's daughter

Do we really need that much detail in game, I wonder! Too realistic - too much time spent micromanaging the ship!

Or perhaps make them once-in-a-blue-moon events; player encounters a crew "issue" and the action taken affects morale and ship performance. Turn rate, top speed, even some manual skills require crew labour and thus would be logically, morale-dependent. Poorly drilled ships of course have a tendency in RL to be slow to handle, have sails collapse, miss ordered maneuvers etc. And have a critical hit blow up the magazine because someone didn't know about flash protection.

One can tolerate a certain level of misdemeanor and have high morale / low dread leading to certain people wanting to just get on your good side and take advantage (as it happens in RL), giving average but not spectacular ship performance. Since you don't discipline the men they just take "creative liberties" at every turn. Penalty to ship endurance.

Or be a cruel Anne Bonney and rule by fear, having high ship performance and increased endurance (tight control over ship supplies and rations) but little in the way of true loyalty.

Or would you just spoil the crew with tons and tons of rum, be happy, and forget how to defend the ship against a boarding action?

 

[mjh623]

We could borrow a concept from Sid Meiers' Pirates. There were two items in there that improved crew morale- the Three Stringed Fiddle and the Concertina. Not particularly original, but I've noticed there is a lute in COAS that could probably be borrowed and made to function as a crew morale booster. As for addressing the original post, does New Horizins have ration setting, like going down to half rations and quarter rations to stretch the food further in a pinch? Could be done for short periods of time without affecting morale.

Edit- After reading back through the original post, guess these don't get you around being a cheapskate! If you can't manage your finances well enough to support your crew, who is going to want to sail with ya anyhow, mate?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Build Mod DOES have different ration settings for food and rum, which have effects on morale.
Normal food level: nothing happens with morale - half food level: food lasts longer, but morale drops.
Rum normal level: morale slowly increases - Rum double level: morale quickly increases, but sometimes suddenly drops (drunken brawl!)
When you run out of rum, morale drops slowly. When you're out of food, it decreased quickly.

A mutiny occurs when morale is really low. So if you keelhaul one of the men upon a mutiny,
that would have the opposite effect of what you want. You need to RAISE morale, not lower it further!
You CAN raise morale by just plain giving the crew some money and rum to keep them happy.

As for all the other things mentioned above, this makes me remember my wish for an "officer and crew personality mod".
At the moment, there's is no real player-officer and player-crew interaction.
I would like to see this added, but that'd require a lot of complicated coding stuff,
so that's not something we can do at this time while trying to finalize Build 14.
Still, there's in incredible amount of options in that direction.
And it doesn't need to be annoying, just add some variety, realism and interaction in events encountered at sea.

And for the really annoying things, it'd be cool if you could hire an officer eventually to take care of the micro-management.
Micro-management can be fun early in the game, but it shouldn't last or be required too often.

 

[Sherlockzor]

well at least i did get some brainstorming going on,better then nothing
and thanks snow white for the support

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Brainstorming is always good. Though currently we're moving from Alpha to Beta stage on Build 14,
which basically means that we're trying to move away from developing new things and trying to move onto finishing,
fixing and balancing the content that we currently already have.

 

[Sherlockzor]

Brainstorming is always good. Though currently we're moving from Alpha to Beta stage on Build 14,
which basically means that we're trying to move away from developing new things and trying to move onto finishing,
fixing and balancing the content that we currently already have.

well then i'll put my futher idea's in the freezer till build 15

 

[Pieter Boelen]

No, by all means feel free to post them and discuss them.
I just figured I'd mention that so you are at least aware of it.

 

[carmenara]

Another idea based on the morale system is ship condition, which can be made to play a part in certain types of quest ideas... such as a passenger transport service for high ranking diplomats and smuggling "high value" personnel (possible governors' and/or pirates mission) between islands.

In such missions I envision player pay can not only be calculated from how long the player took to deliver the passenger(s) to possibly hostile territory, but also the condition of the ship and morale as well, with random events affecting playing some role in deciding how good or bad the voyage turns out. Do you think its a good idea to transport women and children in a ship with... 20 morale