I have a solution to the long standing want by the pirates of the Sea of Thieves to do two things in particular (there is more they want, but these are being solved by this). These are to sail with all of their friends, not just 4, and to make a fleet that won't backstab and argue over selling treasure. This is my solution:
In the menu screen, you will have the option to start a fleet by spawning in another ship alongside you, which will effectively be treated as part of your crew. You cannot damage the other players on these ships (unless duels between crewmates become a thing, but that's for another time), and they will get the same amount of reputation, money, and commendation credit (also please make the things sold by players in an alliance give you the commendations, I get into so many misunderstood fights for that stronghold skull commendation), and get the same quests (you can place multiple down). You have the option to do this at any time, as long as you are at an outpost and any enemy crews in the vicinity have agreed to allow it (to prevent spawning in reinforcements during a fight). You can also join the flotilla if the majority of all involved crews agree. You would go to the shipwright and ask for a new ship in your fleet, then choose what type of ship it is. The ship would spawn and people would join it from the main menu, which would show another ship in the fleet. You can also change it on the fly by going into the menu and changing your spawn point. The next time you die you would respawn on that ship (presumably just telling the ferryman where to go instead of your previous ship). This would also prevent you from randomly warping to a different ship in the middle of a fight. Any crew members who attempt to join a full ship in the fleet will be automatically shown the menus for the other ships, which they can then choose instead. If all are full, you can simply spawn another (provided someone is at an outpost). The ships in your fleet would be shown on the map as ships (maybe implementing some kind of flag system as well, perhaps on the pole at the stern [they would need to add that on the other ships]? or draping from the yards [the crossbeams on the masts]). The alliance system would remain the same, and any fleet is automatically placed into an alliance as a whole, however a majority of the ships need to agree to leave (a method of communication such as the popular bird idea would be useful for this in particular).
Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations (Flotillas)
@ultmateragnarok What you proposed here has been suggested before, the issue you are not adressing here is that this would lead to overpowered alliance and a PvE farming server as the PvP is organic in nature as it is not confined with in a set structure. If you had a group of 8 player with between 2 to 4 ships between them they can simply get more stuff done quicker even if they shared the same maps cause there not confined to an area. No ships will want to engage with a well cordinated team of multiple ship thus elimating PvP.
If you have organized fight between your freinds it won't be the same experiance as a random encounter cause you will be expecting it.
@enf0rcer That wouldn't be any different from what happens now. People go around buying ships from people and filling entire servers with their friends. I have had an alliance where eventually all ships were filled with my friends and we organized a player team fight, just two crews fighting. That was fun, because it was with friends. Random encounters has it's place, and maybe one day when the map is huge this type of system can be implemented without that happening, but that is already part of the game. So this may make it a bit easier to fill a server or whatever people do, but that won't change the fact that they do it.
@ultmateragnarok With the implementation of alliances they might as well make pve servers with the ability to have up to 8 people or something(maybe 2 ships idk). IMO alliances should be removed, but if they are gonna say that alliances are fine then they might as well open up PvE servers. 2 crews on one server alone is not even close to as farming efficient as full server alliances.
@betsill Normal servers being overtaken will probably always happen, maybe some person being bored, or something else, and some are even used as businesses (people can buy in to it and make cinematics and things like that). The alliance system should be tweaked, but preferably not removed entirely. It does have it's place, there are just issues with it.
@ultmateragnarok said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@enf0rcer That wouldn't be any different from what happens now. People go around buying ships from people and filling entire servers with their friends. I have had an alliance where eventually all ships were filled with my friends and we organized a player team fight, just two crews fighting. That was fun, because it was with friends. Random encounters has it's place, and maybe one day when the map is huge this type of system can be implemented without that happening, but that is already part of the game. So this may make it a bit easier to fill a server or whatever people do, but that won't change the fact that they do it.
Pirates do not have to relinquish control of their ship(s). If you want to sail with more than 4 friends, it is possible already... but you're going to have to play with other people first, and it still won't be a "sure-thing."
Simply put: If you want the advantages of playing with more than 4 players, then work for it.
@ultmateragnarok said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@enf0rcer That wouldn't be any different from what happens now. People go around buying ships from people and filling entire servers with their friends. I have had an alliance where eventually all ships were filled with my friends and we organized a player team fight, just two crews fighting. That was fun, because it was with friends. Random encounters has it's place, and maybe one day when the map is huge this type of system can be implemented without that happening, but that is already part of the game. So this may make it a bit easier to fill a server or whatever people do, but that won't change the fact that they do it.
Just because it's somthing player can do now doesn't mean it should be encoraged by game mechnics. This is something a dedicated and well organized group of player can achive but it is going agians't the sprite of the game and is undermining game systems. I not against players doing this but allowing anyone to easily do this will break the game and will make the majority of servers Farming servers instead of just a few.
@betsill said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@ultmateragnarok With the implementation of alliances they might as well make pve servers with the ability to have up to 8 people or something(maybe 2 ships idk). IMO alliances should be removed, but if they are gonna say that alliances are fine then they might as well open up PvE servers. 2 crews on one server alone is not even close to as farming efficient as full server alliances.
The Alliance wasn't a bad idea but it was poorly implemented cause it did not impose a limit to the number of ships nor did they limit the gold that could be farmed. Honestly if they simply capped the number of ship in a fleet to 3 and removed the addition 50% gold for every ship in the fleet instead actually split the gold that each ship recived it would have been fine. But they didn't do that.
@enf0rcer I don't know about having a limit in alliances or fleets, at least not permanently. Eventually, once the map has been significantly expanded, they may actually increase the ships in a server and even remove the limit. But not many people have 24 players ready to go simultaneously, at least for this game. The alliance system needs to have some serious work. Perhaps everyone gets 50% gold and full reputation? That could work.
@wodyo That is what I said they do. Either someone plays and places some of their friends in another crew to bring more when the original one leaves (sometimes without the end goal), or they arrive with treasure and offer the other crew the treasure in return for filling their ship with other people and having the old crew restart their journeys somewhere else.
@ultmateragnarok said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@enf0rcer I don't know about having a limit in alliances or fleets, at least not permanently. Eventually, once the map has been significantly expanded, they may actually increase the ships in a server and even remove the limit. But not many people have 24 players ready to go simultaneously, at least for this game. The alliance system needs to have some serious work. Perhaps everyone gets 50% gold and full reputation? That could work.
I think you miss the point. It actualy Requires only 6 Players to control a server as it is tied to the ships not the Players. Since it only Takes 1 Player to Hold any kind of Ship and the Max is 6 ship then the min number of Max Player is 6. It has not yet been Confirmed if Rare will add more Ships or if the Game could actually handle more ships. This Game was not Designed as an MMO infact the only number i can realistic see them ideally Achivening is a 62 player game session which would translate to 18 ships or 3 times the current count and if you keep with the trend 1 outpost per ship you would need a map large enough for 16 outpost. This However is an ideal which would closely match games Like Battlefeild but I don't ever epect this to happen or even come close. Infact I'll be Shocked if they Raised the Cap up 2 Ships.
@enf0rcer Sure but not nearly as many people would take over a server with just six people. That would be boring, and you wouldn't even be able to farm reputation, commendations, gold, or whatever anyways. The only people continuing that would be the people who run businesses off of it.
@ultmateragnarok said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@enf0rcer Sure but not nearly as many people would take over a server with just six people. That would be boring, and you wouldn't even be able to farm reputation, commendations, gold, or whatever anyways. The only people continuing that would be the people who run businesses off of it.
Ah i agree it is boring but players have done this. And they be a set group of players that will continue to do this. Rember fun is subjective what we may find boring others will find fun. The problem is does this affect the core of gamplay? This is designed to be a PvEvP Environment. If everyone is freindly then it effectively becomes a PvE environment this needs to be avoided. The dev have already failed to a certian degree and is why most PvPer left and is now why we are getting the Arena. Althou this may end up fulling seperating the server having a dedicated PvP Mode and a Dedicated PvE Mode which otterly destroys the main concept of this game.
@enf0rcer Well no matter what people will always take over servers. As for the game failing the devs are trying to fix it, but there are always issues with any game.
@ultmateragnarok said in Idea to solve alliance issues and crew size limitations:
@enf0rcer Well no matter what people will always take over servers. As for the game failing the devs are trying to fix it, but there are always issues with any game.
True there are some issue that will be present in any game in which player will take advantage of. The issue here thou is a conception and philosophical failure as the core of the Gameplay being a non competive PvEvP enviroment inwhich PvP would be Centered around theift and PvE would be focused on enticing players to Hunt for Loot to which could then be Stolen. This Was to be the Sea of THEIVES experiance, one which i came to enjoy. However the test was can they Maintian the PvEvP Enviroment and Keep it casual. Could they Produce enough working Content to keep PvE'er engaged so that PvP can occur and would PvP goal stay focused on stealing Loot. These are the aspects to which they Objectively Failed. As we are Now going to be reciving The Arena which is a PvP dedicated competitive Mode and it was clear they could produce Quility updates Fast enough as they went from Weekly Events to Bi Week to near Mounthly each update introducing new bugs and very low quaility Content. They may have improved but the Damage has been done and the test Failed. Even though the game itself might be alive and well the Spirit of the game and what it had unquely offered is now Dead and Buried. Maybe they could revive it but at this point it would require a miricle.
Not to mention Open Crew which was a complete and otter failure from the start and is now mostly Close Crews. But thats a whole other can of worms including the brig.
@enf0rcer The game was once very different, yes, but it is still very good and somewhat unique. There are some issues with certain parts, but it wouldn't be fun if you could dig up the treasure and be safe from theft. As for open crew, that is sometimes good but most experienced players know not to use it, and you probably need a timer when you join which prevents you from being brigged until later.
