It's gonna be alright, I don't say that to dismiss concerns or to offer false hope.

I have solo'd through everything this environment has gone through. This won't make it worse.

We are currently in an environment where brigs just use plaid speed to ram, camp, and rodl anyway.

This will be more fun, this isn't creating new pressure on the environment. Just new ways to play.

I sink , you sink, we all sink.

The changes won't make this game worse for adventure solos, we all just have to hope that performance truly improves.

and guess what? if performance doesn't improve that just makes it easier for solos because pvpers get frustrated and play other games. I mean that genuinely, worst case scenario is you sink a few times in a game where you were always going to sink anyway.

It will be alright. I believe that as a long time solo player.

I'll take any new metas over the current metas as a solo, lol.

@captain-fob4141 said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:

@shaixys it's OK, you have safer seas

Players telling people to safer seas all the time got old about a day after safer seas.

It's turned from people saying "deal with it" to "safer seas"

The truth is that this game has long gone casual leaning which means they will balance in favor of casual players which will benefit solos as well.

So even if things start out tough it's going to lean casual play in the end.

Everyone can and will do just fine on high seas, it's just something to work through, that's all it is. The game favors casual play now, that won't change in high seas in 2024.

If it gets bumpy just hold on, it'll be temporary.

It's not easy to win fights these days as a solo (unless they don't repair their boat) it's far more realistic to make progress in adventure as a solo though. Getting sunk is just a part of solo but it doesn't need to be a harmful or discouraging part of being a solo.

Nothing I have ever accomplished in SoT as a solo was because of being some hotshot pvper, it was all from being an adventurer that didn't a loss stop me. That's all it takes, time, effort, and not letting loss be in control.

All you gotta keep in mind as a solo going forward is that nothing we were shown today changes your outcome as a defending adventure solo.

Not for the most experienced solo and not for the solos that struggle and not for anyone in between.

The same ships you can and can't sink will not change with these changes.

That's important to keep in mind, it's just a different style to adapt to, you won't lose more because of it.

Nobody capitalizes better because of these changes. Capitalizing in a fight is winning a fight.

You might lose in a different way but you aren't going to long term lose more on the defending side of adventure. It'll still be random and lots of quiet time and lots of opportunity to outplay and out-luck bigger ships.

@shaixys i am a solo player too and i am in this game not for doing pvp, i avoid it everytime is possible, you can call it skill issue, i don't care, i play a lot of PVP games, and SoT for me is not one of them, i play it for relax, completing a mission, levelling emissaries, doing events, there's a world above the miserable surface of the PvP of this game.

the entire short video that i have seen yesterday from the instagram of SoT causes me a lot of fears, we can talk about the ball that makes more than 1 damage, the throwable bomb that spawns skelly, that....thing that works like the TLoZ wind waker baton/thundergun that can set wind on sails, the harpoons, a double barrel gun like Doom, are all things that worries me, imagine a gally of skilled players vs a same level skill player in solo sloop, what can he do? nothing.

we have a lot of problems in the game regarding some ferocius players, that cannot let you do nothing, some of them do server hopping for attacking without any reason, AND DON'T START WITH THE "GNEGNEGNE IT'S A PIRATE GAME, SEA OF THIEVES NOT FRIENDS", GNEGNEGNE GIT GUT, GO IN SAFER SEAS", we all know how is neutered the Safer seas, and we all know how many things we have to do for accomendations that doesn't require stealing or attacking others.

i am really worried for the dudes from ps5 that came here, in a game with 6 years on his shoulders, with skilled player, hungry, looking for blood, that have mastered the game, how the game can be for them? do you really think that they will come back after that?

in Fallout 76, that is a multiplayer game, exist a sort of non-belligerence structure, if you attack me, and i don't response to your attack, i can't be damaged, but if i will, i can attack and kill you, and viceversa. just for giving a hint, Rare

if you attack me, and i don't response to your attack, i can't be damaged, but if i will, i can attack and kill you, and viceversa
Players should upvote this (Fallout 76) feature into SoT. Makes shipping so much more enjoyable. Think about the lengthy voyages, for instance...

...GNEGNEGNE IT'S A PIRATE GAME, SEA OF THIEVES...:
I agree 100% (against the excuse, yes).
I think it went wrong here, somehow, in the Early Access dev. of SoT. :((

the entire short video that i have seen yesterday from the instagram of SoT:
I felt something like that when I watched SoT and its upcoming new things on Twitch:
the ropes they use to board: untill here I stopped watching, afraid of seeing more OP PvPish stuff.

i am really worried for the dudes from ps5 that came here, in a game with 6 years on his shoulders:
Yes! They take advantage of new players: heck they even use noobs - like me - as slaves then dump and keelhaul afterwards.

I quote:
@fedted998 said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:
...i am a solo player too and i am in this game not for doing pvp, i avoid it everytime is possible, you can call it skill issue, i don't care, i play a lot of PVP games, and SoT for me is not one of them, i play it for relax, completing a mission, levelling emissaries, doing events, there's a world above the miserable surface of the PvP of this game.

the entire short video that i have seen yesterday from the instagram of SoT causes me a lot of fears, we can talk about the ball that makes more than 1 damage, the throwable bomb that spawns skelly, that....thing that works like the TLoZ wind waker baton/thundergun that can set wind on sails, the harpoons, a double barrel gun like Doom, are all things that worries me, imagine a gally of skilled players vs a same level skill player in solo sloop, what can he do? nothing.

we have a lot of problems in the game regarding some ferocius players, that cannot let you do nothing, some of them do server hopping for attacking without any reason, AND DON'T START WITH THE "GNEGNEGNE IT'S A PIRATE GAME, SEA OF THIEVES NOT FRIENDS", GNEGNEGNE GIT GUT, GO IN SAFER SEAS", we all know how is neutered the Safer seas, and we all know how many things we have to do for accomendations that doesn't require stealing or attacking others.

i am really worried for the dudes from ps5 that came here, in a game with 6 years on his shoulders, with skilled player, hungry, looking for blood, that have mastered the game, how the game can be for them? do you really think that they will come back after that?

in Fallout 76, that is a multiplayer game, exist a sort of non-belligerence structure, if you attack me, and i don't response to your attack, i can't be damaged, but if i will, i can attack and kill you, and viceversa. just for giving a hint, Rare

@shaixys said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:

Hello, the 2024 presentation video has just finished and 2 of the new features worry me greatly...

First with Season 12 you add the Harpoon which allows you to move from boat to boat, a solo player who must manage his entire sloop (Hole/Navigation/Cannon) will not be able to manage in addition someone who try to board your boat.

Season 14 with the Portable Harpoon will just take the final blow to finish off solo players...

I don't know if Rare realizes the difficulty of playing Solo against Multicrew every day, adding this kind of tool will make it even easier to attack solo players.

React now and make servers only for solo players otherwise you will lose a major part of solo player with this 2 season.

And as for what asks if I play at least PvP and not full Escape, I generally play PvP currently in the defensive I very rarely attack in 1st, and many of my PvP against Multicrew generally end badly despite the fact that I often the upper hand on them, except that the number allows them to carry out more tasks than I can do alone.

Solo Vs Solo PvP is much more pleasant for me because we are equal.

The rare times when I have a friend with me opens up a lot of possibilities that I don't have when I'm solo and attacking Brigantine and Galion even in a Duo sloop is doable just because I have a teammate who I can entrust the boat while I board, or someone who repairs while I fire the cannon.

However, my friends very rarely play the game and for me, Sea Of Thieves is one of my main games. I very often find myself solo over a long period of the year.

I hope that some will understand my fears regarding these 2 new tools, I want to continue enjoying the aspect of the PvE and PvP of the game but I don't want to be just a Free Farm for all the multicrew and just end up uninstalling because I can't do anything anymore.

$%
You are right, through and through. Believe me ;))
Players don't have to play more then 5 hrs to see the damage PvP makes. This EMO stuff makes them quit playing.

I only have 25 hrs or so. Though I learned solo sailing the Brig (my first time, after some session with random crews on Galleons and Brigs) then I got killed off by a PvP Sloop.
Maybe this says something about the gameplay, earlier on in SoT.

A way (there are countless ways though) to fix newcomers to stay is let them fly under a flag that prevents PvP for their first 10-15 hrs IG: or implement this with a Solo option of choise.

Hmm, not sure about all the things coming up...Let's see:
I'm sailing in my sloop with best friend,
Ship full of bloodthirsty pirates sail in and
throws skelly-bombs and fire bombs in while ship puts in a few Grapeshots that turn my hull to swiss cheese.

Me and my friend are franticly trying to fix holes, fight skellies, and put out fires while trying to get away, then we hear the boarding harpoon lines, double-gun pistols receiving knives thrown at us as if the skellies didn't succeed...
Sigh. life span 1-2 minutes maximum
Yea, sounds real fun.
"Yo ho, Yo ho, it's safer seas for me"

"Yea, but Gipperseadog, you can do the same to them, adapt!"
"Ok. i think i have a skelly-bomb...now where did i put that thing?"
LOL

Gunpowder kegs is still the way.
Euh, Davy Jones

Now we got High Seas and Safer Seas (ahem...).
Maybe add A third mode: Stormy Seas.

Stormy Seas:
-More PvE ships.
-Only PvE ships can sink your ship.
-PvP ships can only board your ship.
(they can't sink your ship)
(they can't kill players)
-More storms, more waves and extra thunder with rain
🧜

@gipperseadog said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:

Hmm, not sure about all the things coming up...Let's see:
I'm sailing in my sloop with best friend,
Ship full of bloodthirsty pirates sail in and
throws skelly-bombs and fire bombs in while ship puts in a few Grapeshots that turn my hull to swiss cheese.

Me and my friend are franticly trying to fix holes, fight skellies, and put out fires while trying to get away, then we hear the boarding harpoon lines, double-gun pistols receiving knives thrown at us as if the skellies didn't succeed...
Sigh. life span 1-2 minutes maximum
Yea, sounds real fun.
"Yo ho, Yo ho, it's safer seas for me"

A time consuming adventure game being a live service game tends to lead us all to exaggeration and over-reaction.

All of us are passionate about the experience and our individual styles. Change often is concerning and we often burn ourselves out with focusing on the worst case outcomes.

The intention for all of this is to add more fun to the environment, more options, more unique fights and interesting gameplay. The game goes through a lot of frustrating patches so I get concern but this is going to work out fine.

As far as power in the game goes they have an alright record, chain shots are the only thing that really went off course and that was just a quantity and access issue, not really a design issue as much. I'm more confident that they will not go wild with quantity now than I would have been in the past.

It'll work out alright.

Imagine a galleon crew all attacking a solosloop, each throws/cannons over a skeleton spawn ball, that's 20 of them to deal with whilst trying to repair ship, repel boarders, which will be almost impossible with the cannon shot and harpoon to board meta. Been through many changes as a solo player. But 2024 could be the year i finally say enough. Don't want to be forced to sail with others. I guess we'll see how things go.

@needsmokes It wouldn't surprise me if the number of skellies them spawn depends on the ship/crewsize. It would surprise me if it would be 3 for a solo sloop, 4 for a duo sloop, 5 for a brig and 6 for a galleon or something like that.

@sailorlon said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:

All the new features seem heavily focused on PvP encounters, which sucks for everyone who is not into PvP. A huge disappointment, really.

If they choose to go down this heavily PvP-oriented route, I hope they also implement some balancing system that pairs crews of approximately equal PvP skill on the same server. Otherwise, the overall experience will suck completely for new players. Good luck with that, Rare.

8 was pvp

9 was big time pve
10 pve
11 massively pve

I would consider all the preview event stuff to be " stuff to tinker with for pve or pvp"

It's all just sandbox stuff

Even though I think they over-nerfed the tridents twice it's still fun to have tridents

the 2 skulls are cool

cannon rowboat never really became much of a thing so it didn't harm anything

it's all just fun stuff to mess with in the adventure game

@sailorlon said in Season 12 and 14 will probably kill off solo players for good.:

@wolfmanbush

Perhaps. But how will they ensure that all these new players are not destroyed by PvP veterans?

They already are and that's alright in a sustainable environment.

Getting attacked and losing in the pirate game is fine, as long as it's not constantly to where people can't get things done. For a few seasons Rare has added massive opportunity to get things done without the pvp pressure of the past.

A mix of Rare really doubling down on QoL and the fact that it's a 6 year old game without the same intensity of pvp interest combined to make this all much more sustainable for high seas.

Nobody should be overly concerned right now, it'll all get worked on and by time people are in the game adapting to it it's not gonna be causing any mass damage to the game.

It is highly unlikely that solos will ever face the harshness that once existed, the seas have evolved, better prepared, more experienced. It'll improve over time, even when it's frustrating for a week or a month here or there.