NPC Crew/Companions for single player?

[Krelian]

First of all, congratulations on finishing your early acess phase! (I am GUESSING that this game was early-acess until recently).

According to the game's description on Steam (.. at a first glance), it appears that we get to build(?) and eventually ''commandeer various'' kinds of seafaring ships in this game. The ships can even act as our personal player homes and be customized as such, etcetera.

If that is the case, then as the title suggests; I am curious about whether we can get some NPC crew members (would be especially valuable in single player IMHO) to make those ships not feel so ''empty/lifeless''?
Nonono, I am not talking about having some kind of romantic relationship on a ship with our crewmates like in Mass Effect series or anything like that at all! :D I am just thinking in the lines of being able to get some handful of NPC's and placing them on our ship, maybe they have a few lines of conversation / random chatter when we talk to them, and maybe they fill some very basic functions such as vendors for junk loot or stuff like that?
And if there are sea battles in this game (ship to ship combat), well, hello gunners! :P

If the game has such futures, it would probably be an instant buy for me.
Thank you for your time :)

[Mr. Clean]

There are no NPC crewmembers. Co-op players can raise/lower your sails and I believe shoot the canons you put on your ship.

[stretch]

It doesn't but it would be a good expansion.

Navigator so you can fast travel the map.
Merchants.
Quartermaster - to feed the crew.

Lots of possibilities.

Right now the sea is empty... of anything.

[Krelian]

Originally posted by stretch:

It doesn't but it would be a good expansion.

Navigator so you can fast travel the map.
Merchants.
Quartermaster - to feed the crew.

Lots of possibilities.

Right now the sea is empty... of anything.

Man, I'm right there with you, 100%!
I respect the devs design decisions, it's their game and they can both develop and keep on updating/expanding upon it as they please.
But what you have mentioned above is also in full alingment and wishes for the game, as well. It's so wierd that in some games where the player can control larger ships and vessels, no emphasize is given to an NPC crew.
Sure, it might be a design decision as I mentioned above. The game can be played solo, but it's meant to be played with friends and family. You play it with you your wife and kids. Maybe your brother and a best friend as well. You will have loads of fun in thig game, travelling together, and customizing your home (ship) together to reflect your testes.

But what about solo players? Neither my friends & family members, nor my fiancee seem to have any interest in playing such games :( And I don't just want to be a ''crew member'' on another radom player's ship, while he/she is playing the captain, all this so that maybe some day that other player can return the favor to me if we are still playing the game, and if the rest of the crew is still playing too.
This would also require real-life time planning and schedules etc.
Nah, I ACKNOWLEDGE how fun it can be (from an ''objective'' point of view), but HUMBLY and subjectively; I would much appreciate playing the game solo with my own NPC crew. Coz much less hassle for me that way. Just click the start button! :D

And I know that adding an NPC crew-system can difficult and probably time consuming, as well. That is why I would only dare ask for the bare minumums; just some NPC's as ''decor'' who can say basic random stuff like ''Hello Cap'n!'' and a few other NPC's as basic merchants (this is just to make your ship (a.k.a your floating home) feel more alive, for Roleplaying purposes.
BUT ON TOP OF THAT, it could be even much more fun in the NPC Crew department if we could have things such as a Navigator, a Quarter Master (as Stretch mentioned) and a couple of Sailor NPC's to to raise / lower the sails and an NPC cannoneer (to handle the player-driven duties that Mr. Clean had mentioned in his post.

This would be kind of win-win, for all involved.
Because;
1-You can play online with your friends & family.
2-You can play online with ''random players'', if that's satisfactorily to your liking.
3-You can play offline and SOLO and have your NPC crew on board your ship, instead.
4-You can still play online while having an NPC crew. You would proably loose in Online-PVP encounters in ship to ship battles against other players who have their ships crewed by real players. But in Online-PVE, we can all enjoy the game together, regardless of whether one ship's captain have players as crewmates or NPC's as crew and whatnot :P

Ofcourse it would take effort to implement an NPC crew system into this game, I admit that. And it's the developer's choice. But if they did such a thing, this game would be amazing IMHO :)
Cheers!

[oplawlz]

Originally posted by Krelian:

Sure, it might be a design decision as I mentioned above. The game can be played solo, but it's meant to be played with friends and family. You play it with you your wife and kids. Maybe your brother and a best friend as well. You will have loads of fun in thig game, travelling together, and customizing your home (ship) together to reflect your testes.

I don't know that this is true - they didn't even add co-op until near the end of early access. It seems more like a nice addition than an intended playstyle.

[Darzai]

You might want to check their last articles, because this game is basically finished. Updates are now just bug fixes. Nothing major will be added.