An idea I had

[Jeava]

Hello all

I was thinking about this earlier today and wondered what you thought of this as a way to expand the game a bit. My idea was to give players access to a special NPC/Mercenary unit that would be available to hire in the different inns. the NPCs would be non-combatant members of your boat crew that could preform different jobs and with different lengths of service. a few ideas I had running around my noggin were:

Lookout - hiring a lookout would allow any member of the crew manning cannons to have access to a special targeting recticle to assist them.

Engineer: Engineers on board the ship would gradually repair the ship while underway. (this process would/should take considerable time)

Cook: Hiring a cook for the ship adds Voodoo to any crew member on board.

Physician: Hiring a Physician adds Health to any crew member on board.

First Mate: First mate will automatically pilot the ship should you decide to use cannons

Each of the Mercenary would be available for a tour dependent on how much you pay for them. For example lvl 1 might be 500 gold, level 2 would be 1000, 3 would be 5000 and so on. Also the higher levels could give specific additional benefits. (I could see the highest level would possibly cost maybe 25000).

Level 1 (500 gold) - Merc stays only for one cruise and is counted against your crew size.
Level 2 (1000 Gold) - Merc stays only for one cruise and is not counted against your crew size.
Level 3 - (5000 Gold) - Merc stays for only one cruise, is not counted against your crew size and will join you on board any ship you join.
Level 4 - (1000 gold) - Merc stays with your crew permanently and is counted against your crew size.
Level 5 - (15000 - gold) Merc stays with your crew permanently and is not counted against your crew size.
Level 6 - (25000 Gold) Merc stays with your crew permanently, isn't counted against your crew size, and will join you on any other ship you join as a crew member.

Also, having different mercs in different ports might open up reasons to go to some of the islands that are less used (cooks are found in Cuba, Engineers in Port Royal, etc)

One issue I can see with this is what happens when someone joins the crew of another with their mercs and that ship already has one? (I.e. two 25K cooks on the same cruise?)

Please feel free to critique away!