The lack of men makes sense. Since the game isn't ready yet, the boat is obviously on a trial mission, with a skeleton crew
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If only , I do hope so , but I can't see why the devs would not have all the crew on board even in the beta, it is for testing the game. I can't see them test a beta with a tad over half a crew, say all is well with the beta and they then put in the full crew and ship and get a performance hit! I would think they would want to get a full crewed boat in beta to see if there was a performance hit.. If fear the 20 odd on show is it .. again i hope Im wrong.
as for a slow down in performance ? as in to many crew on show .. The captain "you" are only in one place at a time so having a full crew spilt over all departments of the boat should be no problem.