Best "ship and crew" genre games

[JasonPratt]

It is definitely a finished game, even though it doesn't have all the content the developer originally planned. Very stable for me, too.

I've gotten plenty of value out of it for my money, 33 hours, and I could do a lot more with it except there are other shiny things to do. I've covered MAYBE 20 percent of the game area.

[JasonPratt]

When I say it doesn't have all the planned content, the main example I'm thinking of it this: it has a good number of human factions from Warhammer (from Kislev in the north down to those Spanish types allied with the Empire in the south, I forget who they're called), plus dwarves and orcs, plus four flavors of Chaos, plus the undead -- I'm not sure elves are in the game -- and some of the factions have unique ship designs. You can capture and sail practically any ship type in the game, too. But you can only start as a pretty generic male or female Bretonia captain (because they have the eponymous Corsair), and toward the end of development they added a (male only?) Chaos captain start. That's all. Now, your captain will be decked out eventually in the gear you buy or find or win for him/her. But the original plan was to allow players a start in any available faction on the map, and to add more of the exotic factions over time, probably as paid expansions.

The special weapons and gear were going to be expanded a lot, and the missions and mission types and special monsters. The ports were going to get some more artistic love, and the shoreline art. (You can walk around the ports to do your shopping and trading and missions, and they're complete but look somewhat spare and rather rough on the art. Certainly not like walking around in Vermintide for example.)

It really is a Sea Dogs-style 3D Sid-Meir's-Pirates game with Warhammer fantasy material, and runs better than most (or all?) of the Sea Dogs games.

[Gusington]

Kislev, you say...dammit all to Hell, Pratt...*runs to GOG*

[Gusington]

^Corsair is currently 2.99 on GOG!! Add another dollar for the DLC.

[Sigwolf]

There's also a surprising amount of crew management in Warhammer: Man-o-War: Corsair! -- which I really like. Isn't sold on Steam anymore, but I discovered it's still sold on GoG! At a hefty discount this past week, too, although I'm not where I can check at the moment.

Still on sale for $2.99.

https://www.gog.com/en/game/man_o_war_corsair

Can't say for how long, though, because GoG is absolutely horrendous at actually telling you when a sale price ends.  The product pages indicate nothing, so if you want to know you have to figure out which of the dozen or so current sales it falls under, which go anywhere from 2 to 10 days from now. 

[Gusington]

Just installed it and sent Pratt the receipt.

[W8taminute]

This looks pretty cool but it's only available on EPIC. 

[JasonPratt]

You'll start your career near Kislev (if not actually there), Gus: it's at the border coast between Bretonnia and Kislev.

The pet baby gryphon from the DLC is nice as a morale boost to add to your ship(s) if you can get it. Though naturally the adult gryphon does more damage to the enemy! 

[JasonPratt]

I also recommend you save the game with a clear name before taking on any obviously 'special' missions: each port has at least one. You can get yourself into a lot of trouble fast if multiple missions trigger on top of each other, especially early in the game.

Don't feel like you need to buy up to a better ship asap: the Corsair class you start with is a killer, especially with all upgrades, and carries a fair amount of cargo.

[Gusington]

^This is what Warhammer weekend dreams are made of. If only Cathay were in the game too. 

[JasonPratt]

Despite the game's rough edges (and its UI can be a bit finicky at times, too), there's a lot to be felt, for me, in breezing along (or trying to) out in the coastal waters with a corsair or one of those huge watchtower-like ships (I picked one up for free thanks to a zombie mission -- so take that mission if you find its port and have a lot of spare crew), in the weather and wind and sea effects. Handing off control to the 1st mate so I can stretch my legs walking the deck for a minute. The towns, as might be expected, can be a mixture of homey and oppressive (even with their minimal art and lots of reused assets), then off to the sea for another burst of travel.

Gameplay loop is as satisfying as from any Pirates-like game.

[JasonPratt]

As long as we're talking about ship-and-crew games, here's Wolfpack345 demonstrating the current state of the U-boat release, starting a tour in the Med in 1941:

(Note that he does have quite a few mods installed from the workshop, but those are easy to do.)

[Boggit]

Star Trader: Frontiers is a space combat/trading game with a plot that you can follow if and when you care to. I've had a lot of fun with it.

The ship is highly customizable, and you can also save up and buy a bigger ship or a ship of another class.

You have a large crew, 20 or more, that you assign to particular jobs. Each one is an individual with skill ratings in a number of skills and the ratings can improve.

https://startraders.fandom.com/wiki/Ship_Combat_Strategies

https://startraders.fandom.com/wiki/Starting_Crew_Guide

I agree. A very good game. The RPG element is very good too.

[JasonPratt]

By the way, Gus, did you foray with the Corsair yet?

[Gusington]

Not yet - I'm still in sci-fi mode playing Terminator but I have Corsair loaded and ready for bear, so to speak. Going to make a shift from sci-fi to fantasy soon.