Now forgive my ignorance if this has been previously answered but I'm becoming more and more interested in this game - however I can't seem to find an answer to the major deciding factor if I would get this game or not...

Does everyone just get a ship, or do you have to serve under a captain for whichever faction to eventually work up to the point where you can get a ship to captain yourself, and have players be your crew?

The reason for this is... if everyone just gets NPC's on their ship or 'Ship Life' doesn't even enter into the equation, well that's kind of lame... weak really.  HOWEVER if I can have a ship and my friends are all my crew - when it's time for combat I have to steer and my friends have to arm the cannons and fire themselves and it takes every single member of a crew working together to win a fight - then I'm SO INTERESTED.  Imagine the duels especially once the ships are close enough for boarding - and the two crews must go head to head in PvP.

I love a lot of the approach that Flying Labs is doing for this game, but this is fairly crucial to my decision.

Originally posted by DeaconX
Oh... well thanks for the reply.  But I see that as extremely unfortunate and unwise to allow everyone their own ships right away and really takes away from having to REALLY work up to having your own ship and living the life as part of a crew first... if everyone is automatically a captain of their vessel it's like 'Yay work done'.  You didn't pay your dues and such... I'd really have gone the other way with this for so many reasons.  Ah well, thanks again for the reply :)

Originally posted by DeaconX 
HOWEVER if I can have a ship and my friends are all my crew - when it's time for combat I have to steer and my friends have to arm the cannons and fire themselves and it takes every single member of a crew working together to win a fight

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This right here is one of the best reasons to go with single player ships. Just about everytime sombebody brings up multiplayer ships it's THEM who's captaining the ship and they're FRIENDS who stand around waiting to fire a cannon or pull on a rope. It does sound fun in theory, but I'm afraid the reality is that very few people want to pay money to virtually stand around waiting for the command to fire a cannon. Keep in mind that you don't just leave port and enter a battle, it's a large gameworld that takes time to traverse. The majority of peoples time would be spent not really doing anything at all. Some have suggested various mini-games to fill the vast periods of boredom, but mini-games earn't what people are ultimately paying to play, it's ship combat they want. This is of course only one of many good reasons for not having multiplayer ships, there are many, many more.

 

Originally posted by questionhead

Originally posted by DeaconX 
HOWEVER if I can have a ship and my friends are all my crew - when it's time for combat I have to steer and my friends have to arm the cannons and fire themselves and it takes every single member of a crew working together to win a fight

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This right here is one of the best reasons to go with single player ships. Just about everytime sombebody brings up multiplayer ships it's THEM who's captaining the ship and they're FRIENDS who stand around waiting to fire a cannon or pull on a rope. It does sound fun in theory, but I'm afraid the reality is that very few people want to pay money to virtually stand around waiting for the command to fire a cannon. Keep in mind that you don't just leave port and enter a battle, it's a large gameworld that takes time to traverse. The majority of peoples time would be spent not really doing anything at all. Some have suggested various mini-games to fill the vast periods of boredom, but mini-games earn't what people are ultimately paying to play, it's ship combat they want. This is of course only one of many good reasons for not having multiplayer ships, there are many, many more.

/agree.  Its sorta funny, everytime I see one of these posts I always have to click on it and find the spot in their post where they talk about themselves being the captain.  Its there everytime.  Its sort of like 'wheres waldo', where you know they give away their true intentions of being the ships captain somewhere in the post, and you just have to find it.

Well guess what DeaconX?  YOU DONT GET TO BE CAPTAIN!  I AM GOING TO BE.  Now scrub the decks you scurvey dog I aint paying you to sit around talking, I be payin yer to pull the ropes and scrub the floors.   

Originally posted by questionhead

This right here is one of the best reasons to go with single player ships. Just about everytime sombebody brings up multiplayer ships it's THEM who's captaining the ship and they're FRIENDS who stand around waiting to fire a cannon or pull on a rope. It does sound fun in theory, but I'm afraid the reality is that very few people want to pay money to virtually stand around waiting for the command to fire a cannon. Keep in mind that you don't just leave port and enter a battle, it's a large gameworld that takes time to traverse. The majority of peoples time would be spent not really doing anything at all. Some have suggested various mini-games to fill the vast periods of boredom, but mini-games earn't what people are ultimately paying to play, it's ship combat they want. This is of course only one of many good reasons for not having multiplayer ships, there are many, many more.

Originally posted by wrkeech

Originally posted by questionhead

This right here is one of the best reasons to go with single player ships. Just about everytime sombebody brings up multiplayer ships it's THEM who's captaining the ship and they're FRIENDS who stand around waiting to fire a cannon or pull on a rope. It does sound fun in theory, but I'm afraid the reality is that very few people want to pay money to virtually stand around waiting for the command to fire a cannon. Keep in mind that you don't just leave port and enter a battle, it's a large gameworld that takes time to traverse. The majority of peoples time would be spent not really doing anything at all. Some have suggested various mini-games to fill the vast periods of boredom, but mini-games earn't what people are ultimately paying to play, it's ship combat they want. This is of course only one of many good reasons for not having multiplayer ships, there are many, many more.

I have to disagree with the following part of your post,
" I'm afraid the reality is that very few people want to pay money to virtually stand around waiting for the command to fire a cannon"
Back before SWG took a hard left turn, my friends and I had a blast crewing the multiplayer spaceships.  Whether I was manning the guns, running around putting out fires or piloting I always had a blast.  Not to say a fleet of player piloted Tie fighters wasn't fun either, but the option to crew a large vessel did have its moments.

Originally posted by DeaconX
Oh... well thanks for the reply.  But I see that as extremely unfortunate and unwise to allow everyone their own ships right away and really takes away from having to REALLY work up to having your own ship and living the life as part of a crew first... if everyone is automatically a captain of their vessel it's like 'Yay work done'.  You didn't pay your dues and such... I'd really have gone the other way with this for so many reasons.  Ah well, thanks again for the reply :)

Originally posted by jsw40

Originally posted by DeaconX
Oh... well thanks for the reply.  But I see that as extremely unfortunate and unwise to allow everyone their own ships right away and really takes away from having to REALLY work up to having your own ship and living the life as part of a crew first... if everyone is automatically a captain of their vessel it's like 'Yay work done'.  You didn't pay your dues and such... I'd really have gone the other way with this for so many reasons.  Ah well, thanks again for the reply :)

I completely agree... I didn't know this - it just broke the game for me. I figured I'd be able to get with a group of friends and sail around on a ship we all worked to get, living the life of pirates as our own clan. Apparently we get to pull an 'EVE on Water' experience and go everywhere in fleets.

Hmm...

Well, when I think about it, the ability to board other ships and swordfight would totally redeem this game.

Also, if I had 10 people in my Captains Cabin and I wanted to raid another ship, could they board that ship with me?