Multi-Ship Fleets

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    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.

    Example of Fleet Setup menu with 4 Sloops

    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

    Example of Fleet Setup menu with 2 Sloops and 1 Galleon

    Example of Fleet Setup menu with 2 Galleons

    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!

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  • I like the idea of the fleets, but the way it would be implemented would be the problem, I think. If someone created a fleet with their friends, all the ships would be allied, making this a makeshift alliance server. With the ship cap being reduced to five recently, I think that fleets should be postponed until server size is increased. Additionally, having a ship fleet would make you overpowered in PvP combat. But, I think that the 2 sloops and one sloop and a brigantine idea is very good. This is an innovative idea, and I think that they could replace the arena (or add another section to it) with a place to battle out with your fleets so that Arena could have a less generic feel. The map would be made smaller based on the number of ships in each fleet. Such as 3 sloops in the Devil's Roar, 4 sloops on each side would be the wilds and the Ancient Isles, so on and so forth.

  • @gameknight7383 Ah! I didn't realise they had reduced the alliance ship cap to 5. Of course the idea would need a lot of fine tuning to make sure everything works smoothly, but I do like your idea of using it to rework the Arena gamemode.

    Agreed, the ship fleet would make you overpowered when it comes to PvP, if you were going up against a single ship for example, however in the current state of the game you can still form an alliance of up to 5 ships which could coordinate in a similar (overpowered) PvP way.

    I also agree that this addition would have to wait until the server size is increased (I did also mention in the original post that this would likely only happen if a map expansion was released).

    Nonetheless I appreciate the feedback, thank you!

  • Damn Qilt, nice idea

  • @oqilt

    Alliances are not extensions of your crew, unlike what you are suggesting here. The fact is that a pre-organized group as this has no element of betrayal or weariness within the premise. They are no opposing forces at play. You already know and trust each other.

    Ship counts are already a meager 5 crews out on the seas at any point, the fact that a group like this will take up multiple slots makes them extremely overpowered both in defensive and aggressive angles. These type of groups will simply dominate the servers they join. Once the capacity increases to have more ships, I for one would simply want additional crews to join them for more player interactions between different crews.

    The ships and their crew sizes are made to be balanced, having multiple ships in a single crew is far from balanced. We already have people complain about larger ships versus smaller ones and this simply creates even bigger groups to face.

    Multiple ships have a huge advantage when it comes to efficiency and battle potential. Approaching on targets at multiple angles, tag teaming to relief pressure, man power, risk management with a single ship being the combatant on a disposable ship and one the loot hoarder and the ability to pincer people in a chase. You suggest to take up 2, 3 or even 4 out of the 5 slots on the servers... how would this ever be balanced. A duo or solo versus 8 man crew on 4 ships...

  • This is a very good idea. I feel like the implementation of more friends being able to play together will bring more to the community and bring fun and joy in these tough times.

  • @oqilt Aye my friend! Sorry I missed that note in the original post!

  • We're no strangers to this cove
    You know the pirate code and so do I
    A pile of treasure's what I'm thinking of
    You won't get this from any other pirate!
    Never gonna brig you up!
    Never gonna let you drown!
    Never gonna sail around
    And maroon you!
    Never gonna steal your eye!
    Never gonna not say aye!
    Never gonna sell you booty
    For a doubloon!

    -Merrick of the Hungering Deep

  • I would love to see fleet servers and the ability to do this. Excellent idea!

  • @oqilt great idea but I think it should only ever let you have 2 ships so you cant own a server. So 8 people have to use 2 galleons not allowed to use 4 ship slots on the server.

  • @bronzeinquiztor Ive seen this suggested elsewhere too, good idea!

    I think if they were to implement any more ships, they'd have to increase the server player cap - which they might end up doing further down the line - but as of now, maybe capping the fleet to two ships is a fair compromise.

  • @cotu42 You make some valid points I hadn't considered which do raise some concerns with balancing the game, and ensuring the fleets do not dominate the currently limiting player cap.

    Some suggested compromises could be; reducing the number of ships available in a fleet; fleet only servers (where it only connects people sailing with multiple ships together); limiting fleets to smaller ships; or quite simply increasing the player cap by a significant amount.

    Of course all of these come with their own advantages & disadvantages, and a lot of fine tuning would have to take place, but I think a way to encorporate larger friend groups to play together (in an easier way than the current alliance system) is a feature worth adding in some fashion.

  • @oqilt Wow! You are surprisingly cool about all the holes people are pointing out in your plan! When people give feedback, most people just get offended! :D

  • I'm not against the idea of joining as a fleet, but it is quite a drastic change. If they were to make a fleet option, additional changes must occur. The big one is that this must be its own mode where all the people you face would also be in a fleet of their own. Here are side changes that also would need to be looked at.

    First, loot distribution needs to be looked at. It becomes extremely easy to game the system through Alliances. Joining in a server as a premade removes any and all risks in setting up an Alliance. This game already has a problem with gold being over-inflated, so creating safe-guards is a must. Removing the option to Alliance in this mode might be a must. Also make that pre-made group share voyages. This ensures both ships have to cooperate in some manner, not just go venture off never to speak to each other again. It might even be necessary to split loot distribution 50/50. Trading the ability to game the loot system for a larger party seems fairer.

    Second, the ships per fleet need to be limited. Having half the server as your group isn't really good for everyone involved except your own group. The limit should be only two ships per fleet. This way, the server can be comprised of multiple different groups instead of only one or two.

    Third, the quantity of ships would have to be increased. If this is going to be a mode in of itself, then let that be the primary focus of it. Let the groups be the primary content. Relax a bit on the PvE related stuff to release asset allocation to bump up the ship count. This would mean less active Server events. Make them rarer if you have to, but player driven content should be the focus of fleets rather then PvE content. This would also give PvP an avenue to shine as well. Large scale fights can be quite appealing to a lot of people.

    Edit: I believe that the ability to join a fleet as a solo ship (as in one ship, not solo player) should remain on the table. Don't make it a requirement and ensure the players are warned, but I would love the ability to test my crews mettle against groups of players. No better way to demonstrate ship superiority like taking on teams as one crew. I feel that there is plenty of crews who would love to do this.

  • @nabberwar I agree fully that if this feature would be implemented, that a lot of other changes would have to be made.

    You make some valid points that would definitely need to be looked at. I doubt if anything similar to my suggestion was added, it would be any time soon - but rather moving forward, it would be good to have something available for larger groups of people to sail together at some point, when the game is at a stage where it would be feasible.

    I do really like the idea of having multi-ship only servers, so it doesnt put solo sailors at a disadvantage (but still giving people the option to sail alone on those servers if they wanted to)!

  • To me only makes Sense if it is
    3x two ship Alliances that cannot ally with the others!
    That only possible with 6 ship per Server.
    This Server you can only join with a premade 2 ship Alliance of any kind but cannot join the other two alliances in the Server.
    This would be somewhat balanced like the todays balance.

    Why 3 alliances and not 2 with 4 ships in total to match the total ship count restrictions.
    Simple , to keep the non allied crews more unpredictable and have a higher chance for beeing attacked than having a 2x "Alliance" Server for guaranteed peace.

    Thing is they will be rare, preserved slots will be less and it would make creating full alliances way easier.

    Tbh i dont see this will or can work, it will only split up playergroups.

    And it will finally kill all sort of Alliance in the normal Mode that gets negotiated by strangers .

    It takes a socializing aspect away , even if not many do it, it will distract a lot of people willing to ally from normal Servers.

    I have split feelings about this.

  • @stundorn Understandable mixed feelings, the points you raised are some valid concerns.

    Perhaps they could implement some new gamemode where fleets are involved. I just feel as though a way of sailing with friends on multiple ships would be a fun addition in some capacity.

  • sounds like glorified pve servers

  • i think this is a great idea, but it would have some balancing issues allong with it. i thing the idea of adding a new server type like arena would be cool. something where two to 3 fleets go head to head against eachother. we would have to keep the amount of players in each server low though, i would say a max of 10 people due to the Xbox one not being able to handle the game.
    This would be so PoTC stuff!! i think this would be really cool to add a whole seperate mode for Fleets.

  • @oqilt said in Multi-Ship Fleets:

    ![Title Bar with Sea of Thieves logo and name of Forum]

    • "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).

    Currently, the server capacity revolves at the amount of Ships in a server. Only 5 ships can exist in a server at a time, meaning the total player capacity lies around 5 to 20. 6 - 24 implies it's a 6-ship capacity, which in its current state, isn't true.

    The big issue this suggestion brings, is that utilizing the fleet, you can literally hoard a lot of server capacity all to your own team. Alliance cooperation is already one of the most exploited and disgusting aspects of the game, and this way, you can do that in a predetermined, organized manner. Also, 2 2-man Sloops is stronger than 1 4-man galleon, so rallying a server/event as 4 2-man sloops all belonging to the same team, is utter hell for anyone trying to PvP them.

  • From what I’ve seen on Twitch, custom servers will do the exact same thing. You generate a server code and change the number/type of ships. Then anybody with the code can join. Unfortunately there’s no way to earn gold and rep from this, but that balances out the no-risk side of it.

  • @uri5718 said in Multi-Ship Fleets:

    @oqilt said in Multi-Ship Fleets:

    ![Title Bar with Sea of Thieves logo and name of Forum]

    • "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).

    Currently, the server capacity revolves at the amount of Ships in a server. Only 5 ships can exist in a server at a time, meaning the total player capacity lies around 5 to 20. 6 - 24 implies it's a 6-ship capacity, which in its current state, isn't true.

    The big issue this suggestion brings, is that utilizing the fleet, you can literally hoard a lot of server capacity all to your own team. Alliance cooperation is already one of the most exploited and disgusting aspects of the game, and this way, you can do that in a predetermined, organized manner. Also, 2 2-man Sloops is stronger than 1 4-man galleon, so rallying a server/event as 4 2-man sloops all belonging to the same team, is utter hell for anyone trying to PvP them.

    I have to admit, when I came up with the suggestion I wasn't aware of how the server capacity was determined. Having since learned of what issues the fleets would cause, I think this feature would have to come alongside an overhaul of how servers are determined and how players connect to one another.

    I appreciate the feedback nonetheless.

  • @oqilt

    Awesome presentation, bad idea.

  • @hydrofriend5687 said in Multi-Ship Fleets:

    This is a very good idea. I feel like the implementation of more friends being able to play together will bring more to the community and bring fun and joy in these tough times.

    🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

    You would think, but no - this is a very bad idea (though, admittedly presented well with the images provided). More of your friends would be able to sail together, yes, but they would grow bored quickly as there would be little to no competition that would be able to stand up to your fleet. So, eventually, they'll quit. Furthermore, those that choose not to fleet up, or that can't, will quit as well after numerous beat downs. So community? What community would be left once everybody stops sailing?

    No, the way it is now is good and balanced. You still get up to 3 other crew (and even that is hard for some to pull together), and the tension of not really knowing what might happen adds to the excitement of your adventure.

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