Custom Server Update Discussion

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @genuine-heather said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @genuine-heather

    Yes, now players in those safe worlds can now practice any number of scenarios on how to better attack other players, or defend better against other players, be it with a ship or hand to hand. This is a disadvantage to everyone else in the real game world who will have to learn all of this over time with experience with real time players.

    That's not really what this is for, but okay. Let's say they eventually open up custom servers to the general public, for a fee in the Pirate Emporium. Everybody will have the same access to this "training ground." If a bunch of friends want to get together and practice their combat skills, I don't have a problem with that. There would be no progression at all, so it would it would be on their own time. People who are already great at PvP wouldn't bother. It's only people who really need the practice who would benefit. I think that's fine. Maybe it would help quiet some of the folks who show up in the forums complaining about getting ganked all the time. If they had a way to practice a bit, it might be more fun for them.

    I don't see a problem here.

    It is the start of the slippery slope towards pay to win.
    Something we never thought we would be seeing.

    Sorry but I couldn’t disagree more. Pay-to-Win generally involves a mechanical advantage. There’s no such advantage here. We already have a PvP training ground in Arena. And there’s nothing stopping people from practicing all they want in Adventure. Getting in a bit of practice in a controlled setting would mostly help those who struggle with PvP. Not a big deal. I think it’s absurd to suggest it’s a “slippery slope” to Pay-to-Win. Besides, we don’t even know how or if this might eventually be implemented. If during testing Rare sees that this idea is not working out for whatever reason, I’m sure they’ll make the appropriate adjustments. Their stated purpose is clear. This isn’t intended to give anyone any kind of advantage. It’s so players can host events and activities that aren’t currently possible in the live game.

    The sky is not falling, Chicken Little. 🙂

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    @genuine-heather

    Whilst PVP training as you call it, is in the Arena, your opponents are not hand picked there like they will be on these pay to play servers.
    So no, you can't really practice PVP scenarios in the arena like you could buying private servers. Also, many items aren't available in the arena to use/practice with.

    And once Rare start to get a taste of the revenue generated from these servers, you can't help but expect full scale PVE servers to also arrive someday at a cost..
    Something many request and would happily pay for.. So yes. It does feel like the start of a slippery slope. Time will tell.

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @genuine-heather

    And once Rare start to get a taste of the revenue generated from these servers, you can't help but expect full scale PVE servers to also arrive someday at a cost..

    Rare has never given any reason to believe this. They've made it clear there will be no PvE servers. This announcement supports that assertion 100%. They will not ruin the entire game for a few extra bucks. Give them some credit.

  • Venomous Sloth7
    Commander
    Insider

    @musicmee said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @faceyourdemon Ahoy matey!

    Progression in commendations will also not be a thing on these servers.

    These servers will be completely progressionless.

    Hope that helps :)

    Joe Neate said in his post, "They are not intended to be used as a PvE server, hence the removal of ability to earn gold and rep."

    So happy for this announcement. Thank you so much! Hope to see some great things from a very creative community!

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    @genuine-heather

    Long ago, Joe once said during one of those Dev updates, they will only continue to update this game whilst it remains financially viable to do so, it's getting old now, soon to be also last gen on Xbox, (it might get a performance update to keep it relevant, but zero information about that yet)
    Private servers are massively in demand from many who are willing to pay. Its a big possible source of revenue that might have to be explored someday.
    Because let's face it, how many emotes, ship skins or useless pets do we all really need to keep buying?

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    soon to be also last gen on Xbox

    There is no 'last gen' on PC, and the game has exploded on Steam. 60+k new users to spend money in the emporium (in addition to the 60K game sales). I don't think there will be a viability problem for a long time.

    You continually bring this up but it holds no water.

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    @d3adst1ck said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    soon to be also last gen on Xbox

    There is no 'last gen' on PC, and the game has exploded on Steam. 60+k new users to spend money in the emporium. I don't think there will be a viability problem for a long time.

    You continually bring this up but it holds no water.

    I wonder though 🤔 just how many of those steam users rushed away from the windows store?

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    I wonder though 🤔 just how many of those steam users rushed away from the windows store?

    Your new conspiracy is that the majority of Steam users are double purchasers now?

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    Yeah. I read the forums both here and on steam.. Many jumped ship.. And rightly so, many more gained access to this new game to them. But all of the reviews after release there were from very familiar names. So it was speedily boosted up the charts by double buyers.
    You know that's right.

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    You know that's right.

    It's not, but you keep right on hoping.

  • CaptBeefhart936
    Marauder
    Insider

    This is a great announcement.

    And also hammering the nails in the coffin that PvE servers will not be a thing.

    No risk no reward.

    RIP PvE

    alt text

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    @d3adst1ck

    Sea of Thieves was perhaps the only reason many people even subscribed to the windows store to begin with, I guess we'll find out when it gets shut down how many didn't jump ship to steam and do keep it operational won't we.
    Hope I'm wrong though, otherwise they'll all never get access to Xbox exclusive titles again when they launch. Thankfully none of you posted on the steam launch threads grateful to see the back of the MS store hey!
    STML

  • Xultanis Dragon
    Sailor

    @d3adst1ck

    Not just 60k new players. The charts hit 50k peak daily and have been for a solid month. Which means players in the hundreds of thousands if not millions.

    The game is super healthy with the steam release.

    This is purely conjecture but lets play out the scenario's.

    Rare has been wanting to do private servers but didn't for a long time. New servers take time, money, and a large player base. They release the game on steam and after a month put out a statement that they are working on private servers. I know new players that have already bought all the cosmetics in the pirate emporium, so players are shelling out the money.

    Me thinks this steam release turned out better than they hoped. I believe the steam release gave them just what they needed to make this happen and I think there are players out there that are worried that the leverage they had as the majority population is in danger :):). With the steam release, I'm wondering if PC players are the new majority :):).

    @NeedSmokes

    Dude seriously? Incredibly trolling. lol. Kudos to you. Keep up that thug life lol.

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    @genuine-heather

    Rare has never given any reason to believe this. They've made it clear there will be no PvE servers.

    Like they made it clear for Crossplay? I hear what you are saying, but Rare does have history of saying one thing but still breaking ranks.

  • Xultanis Dragon
    Sailor

    @nabberwar

    That was when the players from the community that was the majority screamed for it. Now they might not be the majority anymore.

  • CaptBeefhart936
    Marauder
    Insider

    @nabberwar said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @genuine-heather

    Rare has never given any reason to believe this. They've made it clear there will be no PvE servers.

    Like they made it clear for Crossplay? I hear what you are saying, but Rare does have history of saying one thing but still breaking ranks.

    alt text

  • BurnBacon
    Champion
    Insider

    Noticed it "may cost" to run a custom server.
    Why not just make the servers run off the Host own machine, Pc or Console and once they turn off the game the server shuts off. :/ (Course there are exploits im sure)

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @needsmokes said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    Should also remove all cannon balls, explosives, and all weapons, as players will now be able to practice PVP scenarios in a safe space at a disadvantage of players in the shared world.

    Who would pay for that though? How can you have fun creating content in a pirate game with all that removed.

    Anyways I think this is a great step and yay to no rep or gold!

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @burnbacon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    Noticed it "may cost" to run a custom server.
    Why not just make the servers run off the Host own machine, Pc or Console and once they turn off the game the server shuts off. :/ (Course there are exploits im sure)

    Licensing could be one issue - they may not have a license to distribute technology that the servers use.

    Another one could be that it opens up security issues or would require way too much support for the end user. They would need to be able to authenticate users on the Microsoft servers to ensure they own the game, otherwise pirate copies could just connect and play. They'd need to have access to an Azure server and the databases that store player account information (reputation, cosmetics, etc...) or have the ability to install their own replacement and configure their server to work with it.

    It's a lot of added support, especially if the game wasn't designed to be run this way in the first place.

  • COMBATxKITTY
    Commander
    Insider

    @xultanis-dragon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @nabberwar

    That was when the players from the community that was the majority screamed for it. Now they might not be the majority anymore.

    I thought the main reason why they added crossplay was because of the addition of arena? Plus cross play isnt as drastic as a change of vision as a PvE server would be. Cross plays still keeps risk and reward alive and still you are with other players who you do not know are naughty or nice.

    I just think the two arent comparable.

  • Thor von Blitz
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Boatswain
    Founder

    @xultanis-dragon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    [...]
    Me thinks this steam release turned out better than they hoped. I believe the steam release gave them just what they needed to make this happen [...]

    The Steam Release surely gave them a monetary boost, but - without spilling too much info - conceptualization of Custom Servers goes back as far as before/around EGX 2019. 👀

  • Xultanis Dragon
    Sailor

    @combatxkitty

    When they announced arena they got a lot of tweets, messages, and posts that discussed the implications of adding a heavily battle centered type arena against PC players. About a few weeks after they announced arena, they discussed that they heard the worries from everyone and were looking into adding opt out for the arena as they didn't want any one side to have any unfair advantages. However they also stated in that same video that they it would only be implemented for Arena.

    Even if the number of players screaming is low, if the screaming is coming from the more populated group, dev's tend to cave sometimes under the pressure.

    @Thor-von-Blitz

    I could be completely wrong and way off on my deductions, but they've held off on doing this for a long time, which leads to believe they were waiting on something. Either their road map finally landed on private servers or the huge number of new players from PC gave them the confirmation they needed to go ahead with this idea.

    SIDE NOTE Another reason I believe that steam helped them with this is because that most content creation is from PC players. I haven't done the research per-say so this is completely unproven statement, but PC players are the majority of streamers right? So it only goes to show that they would leave private servers out of the drawing board until they got enough PC players to capitalize on it for more revenue.

  • BloodyBil
    Legend
    Insider

    I know I have never brought it up before, but I for one think private servers without progression are an excellent idea. Kudos Rare!

  • TheArgonaut144
    Ship Mate

    @xultanis-dragon

    This is a very valid point about PC players. There are massive amounts of free programs for PC's to produce high quality content fast, and PC's do appear to be the majority of streamers.

  • FoxyWithTheMoxy
    Lord
    Insider

    Everyones talking about PVP practise and so what but what about using the custom servers to create a Sea of Thieves movie?

  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @xultanis-dragon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    I could be completely wrong and way off on my deductions, but they've held off on doing this for a long time, which leads to believe they were waiting on something. Either their road map finally landed on private servers or the huge number of new players from PC gave them the confirmation they needed to go ahead with this idea.

    They were likely waiting on time in the schedule to assign this task to be worked on. These servers are likely not going to be any different than what we currently play on - everything is just an instance run on an actual server. There are likely hundreds of server instances running on a single server computer and they get spun up and shut down as demand requires.

    They needed to figure out how they were going to assign these servers to people, how they would password protect them, what options to allow users to change, and the user interface changes needed to support these features. The design time, research and appropriate schedule window are likely the reasons it's taken so long and very little to do with current sales numbers from either platform.

  • ool KRATOS loo
    Castaway

    guys are yous for real XD why do you care if people make progress in a private server that they pay for? what does it do to. theres literally no point of having a private server if it doesnt progress to anything. absolute nerdy freaks on here like

  • x JonnyT o
    Castaway

    @ool-kratos-loo said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    guys are yous for real XD why do you care if people make progress in a private server that they pay for? what does it do to
    you. absolute nerdy freaks on here like

    Cheers to that haha

    Imagine subscribing to a Fallout 1st Server on Fallout 76 and have no progression. Absolute joke. Hopefully will be changed in the future.

  • SunBro95
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Good job rare, a good way for make everybody happy

  • FaceYourDemon
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    @xultanis-dragon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @nabberwar

    That was when the players from the community that was the majority screamed for it. Now they might not be the majority anymore.

    They were not the majority!
    9% is not the majority

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    @ool-kratos-loo said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    guys are yous for real XD why do you care if people make progress in a private server that they pay for? what does it do to. theres literally no point of having a private server if it doesnt progress to anything. absolute nerdy freaks on here like

    The reason we "nerdy freaks" care is because a PvE server with progression breaks the game. Everything in the Sea of Thieves is balanced with PvP in mind. Everything. If you're going to remove PvP, you might as well remove skeletons, too. Other pirates are the primary threats of the game, the unpredictable elements. The point of whole game is about seeing masts on the horizon and not knowing whether they're friend or foe. The PvE is not intended to be played without the ever-present danger of PvP. It is literally the main challenge of the game. Take it away and the entire balance is broken. I can't imagine why you'd expect to reap any rewards in such a game. It's a selfish and unreasonable expectation.

    @x-jonnyt-o said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    Imagine subscribing to a Fallout 1st Server on Fallout 76 and have no progression. Absolute joke. Hopefully will be changed in the future.

    Sea of Thieves is not Fallout '76. Sea of Thieves will never, ever have PvE-only servers with progression. The game is not balanced to be played that way. The only way private servers can be implemented is without progression. That's the best you're ever going to get, so be thankful and move on.

  • x JonnyT o
    Castaway

    @genuine-heather said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @ool-kratos-loo said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    guys are yous for real XD why do you care if people make progress in a private server that they pay for? what does it do to. theres literally no point of having a private server if it doesnt progress to anything. absolute nerdy freaks on here like

    The reason we "nerdy freaks" care is because a PvE server with progression breaks the game. Everything in the Sea of Thieves is balanced with PvP in mind. Everything. If you're going to remove PvP, you might as well remove skeletons, too. Other pirates are the primary threats of the game, the unpredictable elements. The point of whole game is about seeing masts on the horizon and not knowing whether they're friend or foe. The PvE is not intended to be played without the ever-present danger of PvP. It is literally the main challenge of the game. Take it away and the entire balance is broken. I can't imagine why you'd expect to reap any rewards in such a game. It's a selfish and unreasonable expectation.

    @x-jonnyt-o said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    Imagine subscribing to a Fallout 1st Server on Fallout 76 and have no progression. Absolute joke. Hopefully will be changed in the future.

    Sea of Thieves is not Fallout '76. Sea of Thieves will never, ever have PvE-only servers with progression. The game is not balanced to be played that way. The only way private servers can be implemented is without progression. That's the best you're ever going to get, so be thankful and move on.

    That's the best you're ever going to get, so be thankful and move on. How old are you? xD

  • Xultanis Dragon
    Sailor

    @faceyourdemon

    Misunderstood me. The 9% that were screaming for it were part of the majority population which is the Console community.

    Console = Majority

    They came from the console population. Even if only 9% wanted it, the fact that they are part of Console community means that they carried more weight.

    The population difference was 35% PC - 65% Console.

    9% of console player is a large number relatively compared to PC. Thats almost a 3rd of what our population used to be.

    So again, even if only its 9%. 9% from the majority still holds a lot of weight because Console was the main playing population.

    I don't believe Console is the majority anymore though.

  • Lem0n Curry
    Champion
    Insider

    @xultanis-dragon said in Custom Server Update Discussion:

    @faceyourdemon

    Misunderstood me. The 9% that were screaming for it were part of the majority population which is the Console community.

    Console = Majority

    They came from the console population. Even if only 9% wanted it, the fact that they are part of Console community means that they carried more weight.

    The population difference was 35% PC - 65% Console.

    9% of console player is a large number relatively compared to PC. Thats almost a 3rd of what our population used to be.

    So again, even if only its 9%. 9% from the majority still holds a lot of weight because Console was the main playing population.

    I don't believe Console is the majority anymore though.

    Your math is a bit off ... 9% of 65 % is less than 6% of total players ...

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