[Is there any big shot to come and save me? I'm locked up by pirates in the West River Sea Region, they're planning to snatch my kidneys and even stick me in the hide...]
[Team up at Reef Coast, there's an extraordinary creature. Any captains willing to team up with me to kill it? Requirements: at least Level 50.]
[Is there anyone employed at the Ocean Court who can help me revoke a ticket?]
Fang Yu casually browsed the forum and found that the information was pretty much the same as what he'd seen before, no difference.
Most of the information isn't very practical for beginners.
After scanning around, Fang Yu turned his gaze to the newcomer posts.
[Newcomer Guide]: The captain's upgrade methods and planning choices.
This was the experience summarized by veteran navigators, very helpful for every lord.
Fang Yu quickly focused on this post and read it carefully.
Eternal's Captain: Hello everyone, I am among the second batch of people who entered this world. I've survived here for over four years now, so I consider myself a veteran, and I have some experience to share with those who have just become navigators.
"About upgrade methods."
"Captains are different from crew members."
"Every time a captain upgrades, aside from increasing basic attributes, they also gain one Lord Point."
"Lord Points have three uses."
"First, upgrade any one attribute in the Extraordinary Ability/Modification Ability. For example, I modified a cannon on the sea ship, and upgrading the cannon can enhance its power and range."
"Second, upgrade the lord itself, which allows the basic attributes gained from upgrades to double. However, one Lord Point can only double a basic attribute once."
"Third, select a crew member and transform them into an elite, greatly enhancing their abilities and generating leadership skills, which can be enhanced multiple times."
All the newbies below kept posting to worship and thank him.
Someone asked, "Big shot, are we supposed to choose a direction?"
Eternal's Captain: No! Quite the opposite, the countless lessons of blood and tears tell us, never just choose one direction to enhance, you must spread it evenly.
"Without enhancing extraordinary/modification abilities, you're just a stat monster, a super infantry."
"Without enhancing personal attributes, you'll be weak and brittle in the later stages."
"Without developing elite crew members, your sea ship management will have issues, and you might even face crew betrayal, leaving you as a commander without troops, unable to move an inch."
"The best direction is... to choose a main development direction and take the other two as secondary directions, enhancing them at a 2:1:1 ratio every 4 levels."
"But in the early stages, when there are still few crew members, you can temporarily not consider the third direction."
Eternal's Captain patiently explained the captain's upgrade directions and points of note one by one.
Fang Yu read through it carefully, then closed the forum, appearing thoughtful.
Three directions, huh?
First of all, it's confirmed that all three directions indeed need to be boosted simultaneously.
But as a captain, Fang Yu needs to consider... which direction he should choose as the main enhancement point.
Commonly referred to as... the main attribute...
Actually, as a modern youth heavily influenced by fantasy novels, Fang Yu always harbored a sense of personal heroism.
Rely on crew members?
It's better to rely on oneself, sweep across all directions, become overpowering and invincible, be one's own Fang Aotian.
But obviously...
The path of a Fang Aotian may not be suitable for this world.
This involves a matter of... cost performance!
Investing Lord Points in himself can indeed increase Fang Yu's personal capabilities, reaching a very strong level individually.
However... cultivating an elite crew member and letting their leadership skills boost the rest of the crew offers a significantly higher improvement.
In simple terms, spending one Lord Point.
Investing in himself results in an improvement of 1.
But investing in an elite crew member who generates leadership skills like [Increase all attack power by 15%], [Increase all speed by 15%], boosting hundreds of crew members, the improvement might be 3-10.
The key is... the boost from elite crew members also applies to Fang Yu as the lord.
Sounds very enticing...
But there's actually a risk point here.
And that is... the issue of loyalty.
After all, elite crew members are also Blue Star visitors, with their own thoughts and ideas. If they betray, not only would the investment in Lord Points be wasted, but it might even endanger the captain's life.
Although this probability is infinitely small.
Once they betray, they would at least face a penalty period, where gains are halved for months or even years.
At worst, if they were to kill the captain, the panel would change, turning hostile against the captains' alliance...
This usually only happens when pressed to the extreme, under heavy oppression.
But... it's not unheard of.
Therefore, balance is needed!
A gleam of insight flashed in Fang Yu's eyes. He shook his head, intending to temporarily enhance himself and start gradually investing in elite crew members after confirming the loyalty of his initial three crew members.
...
"Sailing 10 nautical miles, experience +1."
"Sailing 10 nautical miles, experience +1."
...
The speed of the sea ship, with Luu Yuan, the Ocean Affinity Talent crew member on board, increased from the original 15-20 nautical miles/hour to 20-25 nautical miles/hour.
As the sea ship broke through the wind and waves and continued sailing, it brought Fang Yu and the others about 2 experience points per hour.
And going from Level 1 to Level 2 requires 100 experience points, so everyone watched as their experience bars on their status panels slowly rose.
Alright then...
Even though it's only two points per hour, it's still an increase, much better than the download speeds during the 2G era 20 years ago.
"It's not just sailing that can earn experience. Any sailing activities can also earn experience!"
Fang Yu suddenly remembered a tip he saw while wandering the forum yesterday.
Remembering this, Fang Yu hurriedly chased his crew out of the crew quarters.
"Come, come, come, everyone gets a fishing rod, and become fishing buddies for me!"
Fang Yu rummaged for a bit, then found four fishing rods in the sea ship's hold.
Well... these things were bought after recruiting Ma, the management-type talent, and after crew members successively acquired fishing skills.
Just in case...
If there's nothing to eat, at least you won't starve, right?
But now, Fang Yu felt these fishing rods could probably be put to great use.
Don't just sit around, fish, complete naval activities, gain experience!
Having hired management-type crew members, they have to shine somehow, right?
It's time to become fishing buddies and walk the starlit path of leveling up!
Fang Yu handed the three fishing rods to the bewildered three, then excitedly took his three crew members to the merchant ship's side, casually grabbed some minced meat from the granary.
Bait, cast, wait for fish!