Also NPC Crew were used in the trailer in addition to players. NPC Crew can follow you around on and off your ship and take orders, so if you're rolling around with 20+ NPC AI you might have them stand around, have a seat and wait, or ride along with you in town. Hopefully some enterprising Companies set up their own trading ports similar to the trailer towns on Official servers one day!
This thread was added on December 26, 2018, with posts from Jesse Rapczak.
Crew can be obtained in the Freeports from the Crew Merchant, or you can rescue them from Army of the Damned ships that you destroy at sea.