Level/Rank and Fleet NPCs

[LittleJP]

Quick idea. What if the total number of men you could command effectively was spread out over any NPC ships you hire?

 

It becomes viable for a say, Rank 4 at 120 men, sailing a trader's snow to hire a privateer at 60 men to escort, or for someone commanding 650 men, to crew a constitution and have 200 men to command a NPC cerberus. 

 

In PVP, it is nearly always better to crew the best ship possible since NPCs aren't amazing, so most people wouldn't be bringing NPC ships if it means they need to sail a class lower ship to spare the men available.

 

This gives the Belle Poule and Frigate a class by themselves, since someone at 350 men can spare 70 to crew say, two cutters or something. This also lets traders sail with larger escorts since trader ships generally have fewer men required.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

I am personally against having NPC "Pets".  People always travel with them, battles tend to turn into who can bring the most/best combination of pets, instead of a test of skills between two players.  This age was most often marked by small one on one battles.  Most warships that were not on blockade duty just didn't normally sail around with two or three other ships with them.  We've had the ability to have higher level pets in the past and it simply was not fun in my opinion.

[LittleJP]

y'see, you can't though. Any NPC you bring are taken away from the ship you're currently commanding, since I'm suggesting that you crew them from your crew command total. If you try to bring two snows, you better be at least be able to have 650 men, and only have a a bellepoule, which is a vast reduction in power compared to simply sailing a third rate.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

So at top rank I sail a cutter and have a Santissima pet (yes, this happened).  I sail around out of range while my Santi pummels you.  It's just not a great thing for the game.  With the exception of the PvE server, this game is supposed to be PvP oriented.  Having a mechanic that encourages PvE fighting just doesn't make sense.  

[xAzDKr]

I support this suggestion on PVE servers only.