Female Characters

[Sir Darric Vandhelm]

This image below teaches how to deatroy this amazing game in one action!

Do it like dayz does, Its just a woman, not a damn pornstar

I find the second more offensive...

Far too much ankle showing for the 17-19C....

Edited March 7, 2015 by Sir Darric Vandhelm

[Elysion]

There were examples of females in command of a ship, its rare, and none that im aware of started out in command of the ship, but there are cases which stem from the fact that the captains wife could in many cases come along and do various duties on board, and there are examples where a seasoned wife of the captain who spent a long time at sea with him would temporarily fill in for an otherwise incapacitated captain. Usually with the support of the ships officers backing the decision.

 

I feel like this should be handled like mount and blade. You can play a female character, but there are certain difficulties that arise from it. If there are reputation systems/ranks within a faction for example a female character will start out lower, and need to put more effort into getting into good favor to prove herself, or require a higher reputation before getting a promotion or unlocking some ability within the faction to.. do something. This would still not be historically accurate since there were, as far as i know, no commissioned female officers in this period ever, but it would help represent the issue and draw attention to the peculiarity of the situation.

 

There is also the cosmetic issue. Id be willing to dress up a female captain in all sorts of things, i honestly would probably only go so far as to get a fancy hat for a male captain.

 

I plan on playing a female if its available, and i would actually prefer if there was some added challenge to it such as i describe here.

 

In fact perhaps when starting out a character you can have several background options that serve to modify your starting situation. Perhaps for example you can choose to start as a noble in bad favor who was quietly sent off to some far outpost with a modest commission. You have some wealth, and a better ship, but its hard to form good relationships with important people at first because you are seen as something to keep a distance from. Maybe a female option could be you were married to the owner of a freelance merchant ship, who died and left you everything. Instead of sell out and settling down you kept the ship and what crew would follow you and decided to continue running goods back and forth. You start out with a small amount of money, one of the games smallest merchant ships, and a half crew.

 

I dont know, just some ideas.

[Brigand]

I wouldn't mind a lower start for male players wishing to play a female captain. But if female players want to play a female captain, it is in no way acceptable to welcome them with more difficult starting conditions.

 

Just my two cents,

 

Brigand

[Elysion]

I wouldn't mind a lower start for male players wishing to play a female captain. But if female players want to play a female captain, it is in no way acceptable to welcome them with more difficult starting conditions.

 

Just my two cents,

 

Brigand

Id think it more of an insult to give an unhistorical leg up than to allow realistic adversity to be overcome.

Edited March 7, 2015 by Elysion

[Agin]

Wait a second, will there be Avatars? I thought this game will be without the avcom like in potbs. 

Will we have to walk in the ports like in potbs, or its going to be like in eveonline (before they introduced walking in stations, which no one used)?

[Brigand]

My guess is that, at best, we may have portraits. But no information about this has been released as far as I know.
~Brigand

[Elysion]

A simple avatar system would be too much to pass up for the games payment system. You can have a portrait and maybe if they are ambitious a little captain avatar standing on the ship somewhere (honestly the current crew models of one man per gun, no men in the riggings, and just generally a sevearly understaffed ship kind of makes me wonder what they areplanning in that regard, a full authenticish crew would be nice, and if not, then no crew at all would probably more aesthetic)

 

Anyway the point being. Let people make a portrait and then sell fancy hats for it. Id buy me a fancy hat.

[NorthernWolves]

(honestly the current crew models of one man per gun, no men in the riggings, and just generally a sevearly understaffed ship kind of makes me wonder what they areplanning in that regard

I don't know what they have planned in the long term, but keep in mind this is alpha, not even beta stage. That it is so smooth and well developed at this stage fools us. 

 

I think we will see greater visuals as we go. Right now they are focused on open world and damage model 4. Once that is implemented fully and we get even more ships, they may turn some time to the crew and officers representation in game. Which will be awesome of course.

[Joe]

Ok so I was doing some reading an according to the book "Broadsides" some ships did allow women on board it was up to the Captain and indeed a few women even applied for the special Trafalgar medal the sailors who took part in the action recieved.

[Agin]

Joe is right. in fact there were even several female pirate captains:)

[maturin]

I've always toyed with the idea of leaving out characters entirely (since we are unlikely to get quality avatars or any related features) and just focus on the life of the ship. That would sidestep any questions of how exactly your Naval captain gets to own five different vessels, and go joyriding in them with no regard for duty. Or why your pirate captain hasn't been hung by the neck three times over since last Tuesday.

[Tief N Tote]

easy solution each captain can choose weather our not he hires female sailors. there were female captains perhaps not in the navy but they did exist  

[admin]

there are no avatars (yet) and even no portraits.. you can give your character a female name if you wish. 

[Theuerdank]

In Italy 'Andrea' is male, in german female, so its a good name for 'all' fellows

[Osseon]

Thinking about Avatars I started to wonder if there are going to be micro transactions in this game, cosmetics and what not, or is it going to be a flat-buy- subless-no-microtransaction?

I don't want to encourage scummy practices on the devs parts, but typically cosmetics for your character are a big cash flow.

[Destraex]

I believe there will be some ships on sale for real money. I "assume" cosmetics will also be for sale but have no idea about that or how it will work.

[Panzergraf]

I don't think this game needs female avatars. Keep it historical. I think anyone playing this would want it as close to historically correct as possible, male or female.

Don't make the mistake of thinking no female gamer would ever play a game without female characters, chicks aren't all that superficial.

[SeaDog]

On 3/11/2015 at 1:43 PM, Theuerdank said:

In Italy 'Andrea' is male, in german female, so its a good name for 'all' fellows

Andrea is a completely male name,  the rest of the world construe the greek incorrectly .

Edited April 22, 2019 by SeaDog

[Jeremiah O'Brien]

After reading through this thread, I sincerely hope that avatars play no part in this game. They are entirely unnecessary and clearly cause far too much controversy than they are worth. Just look at this thread- ten pages of arguing over a topic thats inclusion has never been stated by the devs, and for all we know, never will be. This game is about the Age Of Sail, it's not a "Pirate Dress Up Simulator." I believe it is best to let this topic go and focus on the many more important aspects of the game.

[William the Drake]

there are no avatars (yet)

I think this shows that, while not in the immediate future, it is being planned.

Edited March 16, 2015 by William the Drake

[Jeremiah O'Brien]

Even so, it should not be a major concern. I respect your idea, but there will always be players who cannot use such a feature in a mature fashion. It would bring out undesirable situations with certain types of players (Yes, I'm talking about bronies. No need to be "PC")

Also, my previous post was not directed towards you personally William, and I don't think it was necessarily a bad idea, just difficult to implement properly. It just isn't worth the trouble, at least not now.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Jeremiah O'Brien

[Kilo]

After reading through this thread, I sincerely hope that avatars play no part in this game. They are entirely unnecessary and clearly cause far too much controversy than they are worth. Just look at this thread- ten pages of arguing over a topic thats inclusion has never been stated by the devs, and for all we know, never will be. This game is about the Age Of Sail, it's not a "Pirate Dress Up Simulator." I believe it is best to let this topic go and focus on the many more important aspects of the game.

 

So well said I had to quote in agreement. They have PoTBS for their avatar fun, leave this to the naval combat and sailing crowd. There were no female Naval Captains in the Organised Navies of the era.Make belief disney pirates are that way! =====>>

[Elysion]

Is it really going to bother you if you inspect another players profile or something and they have a portrait with boobs?

Alright fine whatever, no boobs. But i still want to be able to wear a pretty dress ~_^

[BlouBulle]

Let the women decide? Also it is against my nudist rights to have an avatar that is weari.... okay I think I better stop right now .

[Theuerdank]

I have a fine compromise : Let ships and figureheads female and avatars and 'seamen' male ^^.