The current limit for a group of friends to play together is 4 (Unless you try your luck at loading in simultaneously and happen to join the same server)
My suggestion is a multi-ship fleet, where a group of 4-8 friends can join a lobby together, before loading into Adventure, and organise their fleet of ships.
The way it would work is instead of selecting a single ship to deploy with, you can select to setup a Fleet of ships. This creates a lobby for up to 8 people to join (minimum of 4 people for a Fleet to be viable).
Once players have joined the Fleet Setup lobby, the host can select the types of ships depending on the number of players in the lobby. The various options could be as follows:
4 People
- 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop
5 People
- 2 on a Sloop + 3 on a Brigantine
6 People
- 4 on a Galleon + 2 on a Sloop
- 3 on a Brigantine + 3 on a Brigantine
- 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop
7 People
- 4 on a Galleon + 3 on a Brigantine
- 3 on a Brigantine + 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop
8 People
- 4 on a Galleon + 4 on a Galleon
- 4 on a Galleon + 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop
- 3 on a Brigantine + 3 on a Brigantine + 2 on a Sloop
- 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop + 2 on a Sloop
Some examples of how the Fleet Setup menu would change depending on the number of players in the lobby below
Reading this on paper looks & sounds confusing, but once implemented the UI (User Interface) would update to make it clear what options are available to players when the correct number of players have joined the Fleet Setup lobby.
Possible Issues Raised
-
"What if a player disconnects from a ship once in the server?"
As with the current server setup, if you start with a crew of 4 on a Galleon, and 3 of the members disconnect, you are left to man the ship alone - the same premise would work with the fleet; if everyone from a ship disconnects, the ship would scuttle, allowing the remaining ships in the fleet to pickup any loot from onboard. -
"What if a player wants to swap to a different ship crew while remaining a part of the fleet?"
There would be an in-session menu for the Fleet Host to organise the members of the different ship crews. This would allow them to move players around the crews freely meaning when a player respawns they will respawn on their newly allocated ship. Each ship must have at least one member once the rearranging has been applied or else the empty ship(s) would be scuttled. The moved players would have to confirm the reallocation before the host can apply the changes. -
"Would a fleet of ships not be over powered against others?"
In the current version of the game, you are able to form an alliance with up to 6 other ships you meet in the open world. This addition to the game would only mean for larger groups of players to pre-organise their alliances before setting sail in the open world. If anything this is less powerful than the current alliance feature. -
"What would happen to the current alliance feature?"
The current alliance feature would remain, with other ships from the open world able to join the fleet as part of an alliance. The limit for the alliance would remain at 6 ships, however the Fleet host would not be able to move players from the allianced ship crews to the Fleet ship crews. -
"How would this affect the current player limits on the Sea of Thieves servers?"
Currently the server capacity is reportedly around 6-24 players, however the way players are connected to servers works differently in Sea of Thieves with the radius to other players coming into account. Regardless of how it currently works, I would suggest an increase on the player limit on the servers (this unfortunately might not come until a map expansion).
Following on from the current way ships are loaded into the world; currently each outpost is limited to 1 ship when loading in, this would mean in terms of the Fleet loading in, it could take up to 4 different outposts. My suggestion would mean spawning in all 4 ships at one single outpost at a time. Then from the initial loading into the game, should a ship sink and respawn, they respawn as usual at an outpost a fair distance away.
Hopefully this feature suggestion is noticed, and something similar could be implemented!
Any feedback is welcome, thank you!