Recently I’ve heard a streamer who is known by a lot of people for being a very good Solo Arena Slooper (MixelPlx) make a suggestion that I thought was genius. He said that the Sea Dogs Chest should be changed to 500 silver rather than 1000. I think 100 Silver is way too OP and that it allows players who aren’t good at PvP and Naval to get away with just simply getting their hands on a chest and hauling it over to the sell station. This will challenge players to rely on Naval Skill and Overall help players become better considering the chest isn’t as valuable anymore. It’s also annoying when people like me spend time in the arena hitting skilled cannon shots all so one crew can simply sell the chest and be in the league, I feel like arenas become of a “Who ever gets the chest to the sell station first wins” rather than and actual PvP game mode.
Sea Dog’s Chest Nerf
@boogyghost101 if anything it should be the opposite. The chest should be worth more and cannon shots worth less.
I mean seeing as turning in the chest is the main objective of arena, it stands to reason that it should outpace other ways of gaining silver.
Arguably it doesn't outpace the other ways of gaining silver particularly in galleon arena. Sloop arena is a bit more balanced, but it still overwhelmingly favors folks farming shots. Than it does those who chase the objective.
Honestly they should just make more Arena modes. Something to cater to those that like chasing objectives, something that caters to the naval combat crew, and another that caters to the TDM/land combat group.
@captain-coel that doesn’t make any sense, that just makes it so arena isn’t even a PvP game mode anymore
It would still be a pvp mode, players are fighting over a primary objective (the chest) and are rewarded for fulfilling secondary objectives (kills, cannonshots). The crew that does this the most being the winner. Sounds pretty pvp to me.
I mean look, semantics aside, Arena is a pvp mode. Sure it's a condensed version of Adventure, but any competitive environment where players are encouraged to fight over limited resources or a specific objective sounds like a pvp mode to me.
MixelPlx is one of my favorite streamers, but he competed in Sea Of Champions so he is certainly aware of how irrelevant the chest turned out to be in those contests, so it seems strange to me that he would advocate for it being further deminished in significance. Personally I think increasing the value of the chest would enhance the intensity and certainly the strategy involved in arena, with all competitors focused on a single objective. This is doubly true for galleon arena.
Actually this is a great point. I remember watching the video he posted of the tournament and IIRC the only reason he grabbed or even got close to the chest was to bait the other ships into getting within firing range and to deny the comeback opportunity from the other crews while he and his crewmate solidified a lead.
That's a narrow perspective from someone solo slooping in arena. He's complaining about a thing that he's willingly put himself at a disadvantage for; he's not going to be turning in many chests solo slooping because he's got to pilot his ship as well.
Arena has to be balanced around full crews. There could be an argument for a lower chest score in sloop arena, because you can't shoot as many cannonballs, but it's already trivial and usually ignored in galleon arena at 1000 points, if it were 500 literally nobody would waste their time at all with it.
Just because you saw his stream and you think he's good, doesn't mean he knows what he's talking about. The second any of these streamers solo slooping in arena run into competent arena sweats, they just dodge to a new lobby anyway; they don't want a challenge, they just want to shoot cannons at noobs and look like a sloop god to chat, and they think that alone makes them deserving of the win.
Nerfing the chest is a bad idea because then pirates would just ignore it moreso than they already do - if you're going to go that route, than you might as well remove it altogether. Doing that, though is clearly not what Rare wants - what they want is for your crew to make a choice, and often times, turning in a chest early can get you the lead, out of danger, into danger, create denial, etc. All of which makes for a more interesting match because it's no longer about killing or sinking; it becomes about that, as well as sailing and stealing. In that way, it's #bemorepirate.
Personally, I prefer a balance, because that makes for more interesting games. However, as stated earlier, galleon arena is a bit more skewed due to the number of cannonballs you can fire in quick succession. I would think that either increasing the chest's value to dig up and turn in would be a good way to compensate, but then why would anyone ever sail in duo sloop arena if being on a galleon is where the silver's at.
Another option many of you haven't really considered is that instead of buffing or nerfing the crate, how about nerfing the value of hits on other ships? This would cause more pirates to go after the chest and become a true back-and-forth slugfest.
@BurnBacon @Awyrlas @Captain-Coel @Comrade-Molly @Deckhands @ElderTerdkin @Galactic-Geek @One-Eyed-Curly @Quartermasters
Ok Ok Ok, so I was under the influence that Arena was mainly a PvP gamemode, looks like I was wrong on that so now I see why the chest is 1000 points, it’s the main objective of the Arena. But hear me out here, does anybody think it would be a good idea if rare added a Mainly PvP Gamemode??
@boogyghost101 said in Sea Dog’s Chest Nerf:
Recently I’ve heard a streamer who is known by a lot of people for being a very good Solo Arena Slooper (MixelPlx) make a suggestion that I thought was genius. He said that the Sea Dogs Chest should be changed to 500 silver rather than 1000. I think 100 Silver is way too OP and that it allows players who aren’t good at PvP and Naval to get away with just simply getting their hands on a chest and hauling it over to the sell station. This will challenge players to rely on Naval Skill and Overall help players become better considering the chest isn’t as valuable anymore. It’s also annoying when people like me spend time in the arena hitting skilled cannon shots all so one crew can simply sell the chest and be in the league, I feel like arenas become of a “Who ever gets the chest to the sell station first wins” rather than and actual PvP game mode.
lol a lot of people farm ships for points so this idea is silly in my opinion
@boogyghost101 No, as it would further split the piratebase, and as a desirable mode, would probably eclipse all of the modes we have now, taking away from the core ideas of the game, and particularly Adventure mode.
@boogyghost101 said in Sea Dog’s Chest Nerf:
@BurnBacon @Awyrlas @Captain-Coel @Comrade-Molly @Deckhands @ElderTerdkin @Galactic-Geek @One-Eyed-Curly @Quartermasters
Ok Ok Ok, so I was under the influence that Arena was mainly a PvP gamemode, looks like I was wrong on that so now I see why the chest is 1000 points, it’s the main objective of the Arena. But hear me out here, does anybody think it would be a good idea if rare added a Mainly PvP Gamemode??
nope then it would spilt the playerbase even more so a nope from me
@boogyghost101 nah. this isn't a pvp game. its a pvpve game with 2 game modes designed around an experience with the selection mostly being determined by available play time.
I could see arena having several different types of objectives, adding more ways to score points. Incorporating more elements from the adventure servers: Megan/Karen, Island skeletons and lower value skulls to to hand in. Im not sure how that would fit the lore of the Arena though
@captain-coel @Awyrlas @BurnBacon @ClosingHare208 @Comrade-Molly @Deckhands @ElderTerdkin @Galactic-Geek @One-Eyed-Curly @Quartermasters
I think the Megan and Karen thing is a step too far, that would just make it a luck based gamemode, if you got the chest first, sold it, and now you in first place, it would trigger anyone who where to get Karened afterwards because then ships are just gonna farm you as your trying to escape. It would turn into a game of chance, Megaldon would be annoying too if it where to instant Agro like some megs do during adventure. I can understand the splitting the player base part because now that I think of it, adding a PvP gamemode is just like adding PvE only servers and that’s just a horrible idea. Forget my suggestion lmaoo.I definitely hard disagree with the sentiment that more variety of modes would be detrimental to server population. Arena itself is already an indication that this is not the case and that its seen as more of a side dish to the main course. I for one would play way more Sea of Thieves if I knew I didn't have to dedicate several hours to a session every time i wanted to play. This fact has already basically driven away my entire play group who otherwise enjoyed the game. We just never find time to play together anymore because it requires so much of it. I still get into a session every now and again, but nowhere as much as I used to now that i almost exclusively solo sloop.
IMO the reason Arena has largely failed is because of its lack of variety and the lack of attention. During its last major update there was a huge influx of players excited for the variety a new mode offered that quickly piddled out once people realized that the matchmaking hadn't been fixed and that any issues they had with it would be swept under the rug and ignored just like they were the last time.
1000 silver is far too low for the chests considering there is only one chest at a time. 1000 was fine for the original version of the arena but not the new version.
The problem with the arena is farming points on a ship. Most people target undermanned ships or vacant ships for points. You literally get more points for ship combat. Most people play keep away with the chests to keep new chests from spawning.
Personally, I feel there should be a MINIMUM of 2 chests in a match at the same time.
@boogyghost101 yeah seems to me that when I go for chest someone gets farmed and puts me in 2nd instead of 1st and when I dont go for chest someone sells the chest and I get bumped to second. Either way the chest existing in a PvP mode shouldn't give a lot of points. Also sinking ships should give you 500 silver instead of cannon balls just giving you 40 that way we lose the AFK farmers. Nothing better than losing because someone is taking turns farming each other
The best types of game - for example, many of the best board games - offer players a variety of ways to play and win. Consider Carcassonne for example. You may focus on building cities or you may focus on roads and fields. You may play a defensive game, not allowing other players to steal things you are building, or may play aggressively, trying to steal from your opponents at every opportunity. Or you can mix it up, taking advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves.
Any post that wants changes to Arena is always seems to be written from the point-of-view of someone that does not win Arena as often as they would like, because all the other players are choosing to play in ways different from the writer's preferred style. A player that likes winning by selling chests wants chests worth more; and farming defenceless ships outlawed. A player that prefers ship to ship combat wants cannon hits and "sinking ships" to earn them points. Yet others feel that one-on-one combat and kills with pistol and sword should be emphasised.
Arena would be BEST if it perfectly balanced many different ways to play and win: Reading maps; solving puzzles; digging and handing in chests; better ship control; ship-to-ship combat; one-on-one combat; etc... while preventing ways in which any of these styles of play could be "cheesed". If it were possible for any player, regardless of their preferred style of play, to play Arena with an fair chance of defeating others, regardless of the play style the others prefer; then it would be much more successful.
It would also help to fix the interminable wait in the lobby, and "Greybeard" errors that many of us are getting now.
@boogyghost101 said in Sea Dog’s Chest Nerf:
@BurnBacon @Awyrlas @Captain-Coel @Comrade-Molly @Deckhands @ElderTerdkin @Galactic-Geek @One-Eyed-Curly @Quartermasters
Ok Ok Ok, so I was under the influence that Arena was mainly a PvP gamemode, looks like I was wrong on that so now I see why the chest is 1000 points, it’s the main objective of the Arena. But hear me out here, does anybody think it would be a good idea if rare added a Mainly PvP Gamemode??
Arena is a mainly PVP game mode. There's no (official) alliances, every crew has a score, and the ways you score are to do damage to other ships, or fight over the chest.
In sloop arena, the chest is more relevant, because you can only shoot 1 cannon at a time (except for some special circumstances where you can have angles on both port and starboard). That's 40 points every couple seconds. The streamer you mentioned is handicapping himself by playing sloop arena alone, both making it harder for him to get and turn in a chest, and making it harder for him to have consistent cannon angles. He was likely complaining about the chest being worth so much because...well he's just not that good and couldn't hit 1k worth of cannon shots apparently.
In galleon arena, the chest is all but pointless already at 1k points. In galleon arena you can shoot 4 cannons at once, that's 160 points every other second accounting for reloads, and 1600 points for your team before you even have to go below for more cannonballs. In top-level play like the NAL, literally nobody even tries to deliver the chest, because it makes you a target, it's incredibly hard to get it turned in uncontested, and it's simply not worth the time maneuvering your ship to get the chest when you're already extremely unlikely to run out of all 594 cannonballs if you aren't all constantly shooting them. 594 cannonballs is a potential 23760 points. 1k just does not matter.
The reason Arena is a failure is because the new mode is too focused on nothing but naval, and open crews get absolutely destroyed in naval. There's no way to carry your team, no matter how good you are, if they don't know what they're doing. On top of that, the queues are just entirely random, so it's hard to find anyone who poses a challenge if you're any good, and most sloop lobbies don't even get full before they start.
Old arena was better, because naval, hand to hand PVP, and navigation/planning were all essential components. You could de-emphesize one and focus on another, but you couldnt ignore everything and just do the 1 thing. Now it's all just spam cannons, stay on the outside and don't get pinched, and ladder camp the hell out of your boat as soon as there's any hint of a boarder. People aren't forced to make any tactical choices anymore, the only choice is to spam long range cannons.
