Food Supplies as Open World Crew Repairs

[Wesreidau]

Food supplies are presently a rather low-utility commodity, while rum is very important for players both for in-combat and out-of-combat crew repairs through the surgeon.

As players can literally fish for food supplies, time spent in the open world and a little crafting can alleviate crew replacement costs by using food supplies to replace crew at sea. The player pulls into a harbor to convert their fish meat and salt into food, sets out, has a string of battles, and then uses up the stored food supplies to maintain his crew levels after the fight is over.

Since rum is used as the combat crew restoration it maintains a crucial role in battle.

This will move food supplies from being a useless 1 gold dump commodity to being a useful economic good, although very accessible by players. This also keeps rum as a useful good for healing a ship's crew in combat.

This adds meaningful choices for the captain. If you take fifty casualties in a fight, do you use the surgeon and replace those casualties with fifty expensive units of rum now, or do you hope to win the battle and use fifty inexpensive food supplies in the open world? Do you load up with mostly rum, or mostly food supplies? What about weight? What amount of speed do you want to sacrifice for endurance when you get out fighting the enemy?

 

Counter Argument: It isn't realistic.

Neither is rum healing in battle or replacing a mast while trading broadsides. The utility of a game decision is how much fun is created by giving  up some simulation, and this makes provisioning part of play.

 

Counter Argument: Its cheaper or easier to just pull into port.

The point is to make players plan out how long they'll keep their ship at sea and store enough food supplies and repairs to keep their vessel active.

 

Counter Argument: You're just saying this because rum is too expensive.

And food supplies are worthless, so... yes?

 

Edited June 7, 2017 by Wesreidau

[Remus]

If we had money to buy ships and labour hours to make them, then significant quantities of food supplies would be needed. The devs even added a farm building in case we found ourselves short.

I don't know about other players, but I've been carefully preserving my ships since the wipe, shit-scared to lose them because of the cost, in total contrast to the reckless abandon with which I played before the wipe. I haven't bought a player-made ship yet. The money imbalance is the problem; when this is sorted I dare say quite a few other problems will go away.

Edit: Rum weighs 0.05. Food supplies weigh 0.58. I know which I'd rather carry.

Edited June 7, 2017 by Remus

[Guruthos]

Rum was used as anesthetic for crew who needed the surgon. 

I as a crafter am struggleing to get enough food supplies/provisions and buying it from my clanmates because i am not even able to catch a quarter of the fish i need.

[shaeberle84]

Provisions need to go from ship blueprints. Why were they introduces in the first place? Lets use them to make open world repair kits. 1 Food Supply for 1 Crew, lower their weight as well.

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

This changes nothing, provisions are now used for ship crafting, and now rum crafting have a meaning. What you are asking is free crew % per sailing time. Sell your provisions to crafters, it will be the same.

[Wesreidau]

No, it changes things. Provisions require iron, planks and tar in addition to food. The question is free fish meat versus sugar when we talk about provisions and rum. However, the price of rum is iron, planks, tar, and sugar. The price of food supplies themselves are just fish meat and salt, both of which are "free" from open-world sailing and can be farmed from certain ports.

It is also interesting to think food supply ports may become valuable as a source of crew replenishment. As we start moving and losing 10,000 crew members in lineship port battles, there could be some strategic value to food supplies. Doubly so if the crew replacement cost from ports rises.

Its expensive rum for the premium ability to return crew mid-battle, or inexpensive food supplies for the less urgent crew replenishment after the battle. Rum crafting will still have meaning, but food supply harvesting will have meaning to everyone too.