How to balance mermaid meta game? Disposable ships? Infinite lives?

@drbullhammer said in How to balance mermaid meta game? Disposable ships? Infinite lives?:

@jackwestburg2 If I have to pay to get a new ship each time mine sinks, it would pretty much ruin the game for me.

Yeah and how would this work if you go out on your first voyage before earning any coins and are sunk? Can't afford a new ship. No one would buy cosmetics either because you need to save them to get your ship back.

@theecoachlee your right, given the choice between a meaningful purchase or pointless cosmetics most would choose the meaningful purchase... does nobody else want more from this game? If your only point is “i like it how it is” then you shouldnt be giving feedback. The OP likes the game too he’s just suggesting a change that would make the perception of intended gameplay feel better. If you think it feels better to use magic scuttling and teleporting that itself is enough for me to wonder why rare would listen other than it not requiring more work from them.

I know your not just saying that quote but the fact is these things mentioned in the OP need to change, im sure more problems will arise from that, which will need fixing. Dosnt mean we just dont fix what we should all clearly be able to see does need fixing.

@jackwestburg2, I feel like this game is more geared towards casual players; those who only game for 2 or less hours a day or maybe even less. In that time those players will likely never run out of supply's and will likely never resort to scuttling the ship. I feel like systems like the ones described would take away from the casual experience that RARE is trying to provide.

What I would find odd is if they did have a system like this and you ran out of "souls" what is the person to due while waiting to be picked up if they are on a spawn island that has no enemy's?

Has stated above I do not think the casual players will be scuttling ships, I think there are enough supplys on islands and containers afloat in the ocean to provide with enough; with that being said I think there should be an option to max out supplys at an outpost for a 500 Coins or so.

Well if you want to be realistic about it no single person would be able to raise and anchor on a galleon, additional no single person could possible sail a sloop by themselves; that is what I find odd about your scenario.

The reason why there is no long distance fast travel is because the map is not that big to begin with and adding in fast travel will only make the world smaller.

I think if they fix the problems like people you kill spawning in very close even after you sink thier ship then some of these problems will not exist.

@A-Cranky-Eskimo

I do like what you said about having the persons spawn across the map I think this needs to be fixed, too many times I sink a ship just to have them come right back into combat with me. I think the ship scuttle should come with an hour cool down, so those who play for extend periods can not abuse the system, with free limited supply's. Truth be told though if you can not out shoot or repair a ship with such limited supplys you should be the one to sink any how.

I think time spent on the ferry of the dammned should be longer, I think if all players are killed you should not spawn on your ship and it should be destroyed. I think if there is one left then you should spawn on the player and not the ship. If no players are left on the ship while not at port or within range of an island or other objective it should sink.

@oldmansutii agreed about the sunken respawn, i guess my point is if you disagree with his idea post your own, but we cant disagree that a lot of these things atleast need some minor changes. I like the scuttle timer idea. Some people will shoot others down on here like Rare needs protection from in depth ideas. Then post barely any feedback besides affirmations to rare for whatever they show us, And then go post pug memes. I get that this is a social place and i have no issues with that, just dosnt add up to actually constructive discussions most times. Adds up to “well i guess those are some ideas! Lets wait and see from rare! But i think the game is supposed to be casual” which is a useless post imo, i wish rare would be/had been more positively active in these discussions.

@clarkalii Yes and some people will hop on and only play one voyage and then hop off. Of those who buy this game there will likely be small percentage of people that play for more then 3 in any given session.

If it takes you 45 minutes to complete a level 25 voyage then you are struggling in my opinion, with a good sailing system, being adept at map reading and completing many of the riddles you learn that there are only so many of them and will have repeats especially if you play in the same area of the map, as the quests do not send you to the other side of the map with a few exceptions. End Game at most one of those quests will take a minimum of 25 minutes with a crew that knows what they are doing.

Not all of the high tier voyages give you all the maps at once, I actually liked when they did because then I could complete them even faster, as I could map out the quickest path.

In my opinion those who choose to race to the "end game" and those who play games 4+ hours a day and perhaps even longer on the weekends, will grow very tired of this game and will have completed all the game has to offer within few weeks.

This is my solution:
• Give each player 3 charges of soul or whatever it is.
• Each charge is gained every 20 minutes, you can stock up to 3 charges.
• Each mermaid use costs one charge. (Both summoning a new ship and returning to the ship when on the water)
• If your ship sinks it will respawn in a different location far away.
• Dying and respawning on the ship is fine. If your ship is sunk and you die, you respawn where your new ship is.

I feel this would solve most of the issues mentioned above.

@iiv3n0mzz-uk said in How to balance mermaid meta game? Disposable ships? Infinite lives?:

Ok i see both sides to this and i agree some of these issues need a good fix to the face but, I haven't seen anything that i agree with yet apart from the scuttle cooldown and the fact that if your ship sinks, you should respawn far away with a new ship instead of just spawning where your ship went down. Im not sure the best way of fixing these issues so you can go ahead and rip my head off for not posting anything useful.

Its not about ripping anyones head off, but we should atleast flesh ideas like this out fully before shooting them down in fear that this will make worse an already imperfect respawn system. This idea if done right would likely be positive for everyone in a pvp ship encounter. A more satisfying win for the victors and a less displeasing loss for the losers who would no longer be getting spawn camped. Add a timer to salvage taken ships instead of just letting crews permanently steal, and let the losers spawn a different ship after that timer is up if they dont have space to accommodate the physics of extra ships. The solution to all of these issues are in the details, and sadly the pioneers are kind of in the dark fumbling around for solutions. Makes it natural to accept a “wait and see” outlook so again i dont blame people for that. Still better to help flesh out any possible ideas on here is my point i guess.

@jackwestburg2 I couldn't agree more. I know a lot of people are crying "casual gaming plz" but when you skew too far left into casual it just promotes lazy gameplay/trolling. I think your system makes all the sense in the world, and would be a great way to introduce "pirating ships".