Have you ever crewed with a stranger(s) to get crew points?

[Joseph]

Ive made a lot of friends being crewed up with random people

[Harukantos]

Some reason, I feel my best of friends are people I meet in random spots and ask them if they need assistance.

[davy redflint]

done it in king head when g-nadin also give u a way to tp f ammo plus the extra reps. work well we took turns

[fire monkey]

i only crew and judge ppl that i crew by their health that shows on the crew list if they have under 1500 health i leave the crew

[QoTL]

I crew up with random people all the time. Only had one bad experience so far (partly my fault.. partly not. Had to leave computer for a minute, came back and the capt'n was a jerk to me.. I jumped ship because I was mad, and he threw me off the crew lol!). Otherwise, it's been wonderful. I have found that I tend to crew up with people who are obviously over 18, although it's not really deliberate (at least not conciously lol). I am honest about my cannon skills (stink but getting much better with practice). I've had people do a goto and come on my boat- in one instance that rocked, because the girl was terrific. Usually, though, it's a mixed blessing.

I have noticed onboard ship that either the captain completely understands what it means to have a crew (as in.. try not to lose cannon time by switching sides) or he/she doesn't get it at ALL which has me running back and forth practically foaming at the mouth (not so bad if there is a larger crew, but stinks if it's just me or even me and one other on the cannons). It's all fun, though.

As far as in a random fight- I will if they seem like a nice person, who is also fighting. I won't crew up with people who ask if I'm just running by through town though, since it usually seems like they expect me to follow them around on their errands like a puppy.. which I'm not.

I can't say I've ever joined a crew just to get extra points while leveling though. Great idea!

Meghan

[Scottish]

This is how i met 2 of my best friends in the game. Met both in El Surdaron leveling weapons on the stumps. Played with both ppl for several months together now. Both ended up coming into my guild.

I don't do it as often as I used to, but sometimes you take a chance and they turn out to be great playing partners and great friends.

[Edward Edgemenace]

The whole crew matching thing is an important part of the game. I almost always have it turned on. For privateering, that is disastrous, as most "randoms" are actually Spanish spies that rejoin one second after being kicked (even if ignored or reported.) I think the new style of excluding all newcomers from experienced crews, is a cruel mistake. I was once level 1. So were you.

Before privateering, it was rare to have a complete lunatic join by crew matching. (The day they released the new islands was a notable exception to that.) Usually, a clueless noob would be just that - clueless (but willing to learn.) You used to be able to TALK to someone shooting grappling hooks, to explain the green circles concept. Before ship-vs-ship, people would listen if you took the time to explain it.

While the crew matching thing is better than it was with manual crews only, there are serious defects that make it increasingly hazardous. People kicked don't STAY kicked. People ignored or reported can still join crew. SvS flag affiliation is ignored - you can become a "spy" accidentally.

For sailing, the concept of a crew is quite different than the POTCO concept of a crew. What might work a lot better, would be if a new "crew" was started every time you launch a ship. If you had a way of connecting with people from your last three (or four or five) crews, there would be the needed continuity. (Without it, we'd need larger friend lists.) With crew matching turned on by default with each launch, you'd never be waiting around to find a ship to board, to level up cannons. Problematic people could be kicked (or keel hauled, or made to walk the plank) and crew matching could be left on, if only the crew matching would KEEP them out of crew, once kicked.