Thursday, January 4, 2018

Ship Crew

Current development for Broadside now is on managing the fittings and cargo on your ship, instantiating the correct ship model for the ship the player is sailing, and syncing all this between the database and all the servers and clients.  Part of that will be the crew on your ship and how the player chooses to allocate their crew to various tasks on the ship.  So here I thought it would be interesting to discuss how crew work in Broadside.

So, again ships can be assigned crew, and crew can be allocated towards different tasks needed to operate the ship or keep it afloat.  Crew require food and water on board the ship to survive, if they do not have either they have a chance of becoming "injured."  Injured crew will eventually die if not given medical attention, but medical attention has no effect if still missing either food or water.

You as the player character also count as 1 crew on the ship, but won't be injured or die.  This means when sailing a ship you always have at least 1 crew on board, though nearly all ships are virtually useless without additional crew.

Crew can be assigned to various tasks, but can also be unallocated.  When crew are injured or killed, either from combat, sickness, or lack of necessities, they are drawn initially from the unallocated pool (in reality injured crew can be any of the crew, but unallocated crew are assigned to take their place if the injured crew was assigned to some work, so the game represents this by taking them from the unallocated pool).  When your ship has exhausted unallocated crew, then injured or dead crew are taken from any of the assignments.

Crew cannot be assigned to a task beyond the optimal number of crew for a given task, but can be reduced to below optimal.  The effects of a task assignment being assigned a below optimal number of crew is detailed below, as well as all the possible tasks.  During combat it is normal to be reallocating crew to various tasks as needed.  Many ships cannot support enough crew to optimally man all tasks of the ship at the same time, so expect to reallocate as your ship takes damage, etc.

Sailing and Navigation

Ships have an optimal number of crew that are assigned to operate the sails and navigate the ship.  Reducing the number of assigned crew decreases the maximum velocity of the ship and turning speed to a minimum of 50% of optimal.  (A ship with 10 optimal crew, but 0 assigned would be at 50%.  1 assigned would be 55%, 2 would be 60%, 8 would be 90%, etc)

Cannon

Cannons have an optimal number of crew.  Assigning crew to man the cannons at the optimal number will bring the cannons up to the optimal loading and firing rate.  Decreasing the number of crew will drop the loading and firing rate proportionally, to a minimum of 0%. The number of optimal crew assigned to man cannons depends on the number and type of cannons fit to the ship. 

Repair

Ships have an optimal number of crew that can be assigned to repair the ship.  Decreasing the number of crew will drop the repair rate proportionally, to a minimum of 0%.  The effectiveness of repairs can be improved by repair materials in the cargo hold.

Bailing Water

Ships have an optimal number of crew that can be assigned to bail water from the ship.  The optimal number of crew and effectiveness of bailing changes depending on any bilge pump equipment added to the ship.  Decreasing the number of crew assigned to bailing water decreases the rate of bailing proportionally to a minimum of 0%.

Fire Fighting

Ships have an optimal number of crew that can be assigned to fire fighting.  The optimal number of crew and the effectiveness of fire fighting changes depending on any fire fighting equipment added to the ship.  Decreasing the number of crew assigned to fire fighting decreases the effectiveness of fire fighting to a minimum of 0%.


Medical

Ships have an optimal number of crew that can be assigned to give medical attention.  During battle a crew member can be injured.  Injured crew cannot be assigned any task and have a random chance of dying.  Decreasing the number of crew assigned to give medical attention decreases the healing rate of crew proportionally, down to a minimum of 0%.  Assigning medical at the optimal number of crew decreases the chance of injured crew dying down to 0%.  When entering a port all injured crew are automatically healed (while at port, crew also do not use food or water on board the ship).  Crew assigned to medical have no effect if the ship is out of either food, water, or medical supplies.

Rowing

Some ships, such as a galley, have ores in addition to sails.  The optimal number of crew is set by the type of ship equipped with ores.  Decreasing the number of crew assigned to rowing decreases the effectiveness of rowing to a minimum of 0%.

Gathering

It is possible to gather various items or materials with your ship, such as fishing, harvesting trees, mining for stone or iron, etc.  Decreasing the number of crew assigned to gathering below optimal will reduce the rate or chance of the gathering activity to a minimum of 0%.