Purchasing Supplies

@nayfe-pacewell I've noticed that as well. I sure hope so, cause I mean come on, you're telling me none of those dang NPCs need cannons, planks, or even bananas! Lazy sons of guns.

@nayfe-pacewell I hope so.

@killer-jay17 love the idea actually suggested it this morning. Its on here. Glad to see im not the only one

@Nabberwar

This would create a horrible imbalance between newer players and those who have merely been playing a while.

@BecauseSCIENCE1 @Killer-Jay17 @Nayfe-Pacewell. I like the idea please check out my thread too maybe leave and opinion [mod edited] if you like the idea
https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/70482/supplies/21

@crash4654 not really. Newest players would just have to go find it. I think it would actually bridge the gap between those who want to spend half their playtime gathering, and those who just want to play the game.

@crash4654 I'm not saying it wouldn't create an imbalance, (and lets be honest, it wouldn't be "horrible") but that's why I suggest making it a high priced item. Make players think twice before they make the purchase because of the high cost. Make it more of a "I need supplies now" type deal, but something you can only do on special occasions/events.

KillerJay17
(Also known as the best pirate)

@ever-reddy (Sorry for double post) Agreed, it would give a slight advantage over newer players, that's why i saying make it a high price of gold to pay, so its not something people can do every time they respawn. (But lets be honest, WE WORKED FOR OUR GOLD!) I'm simply trying to find a solution to reduce the grind we all have to do gathering supplies. For the groups who want to hop on for a quick sail, gather some loot, then hop off. It just sucks sometimes having to take an hour gathering supplies to do a fort/skelly ship.

As for the half resupply and a cooldown every hour or so, I like it.

KillerJay17
(The Best Sailor Around)

@crimsonraziel This is why I keep you around.

KillerJay17
(Also known as the best looking pirate)

@hynieth I completely agree! A well prepared crew definitely has an advantage, and I don't want to take the resource gathering aspect of the game away, and I love that aspect of "You gotta work if you wanna play/win"
It can just be so boring sometimes to have to gather resources when all you wanna do is hop on real quick and shoot some stuff. I totally understand peoples opinions of it being "unfair" or "unbalanced", and one of the solutions I can see is to just make the supplies stupid expensive. Make it something like "I'm willing to spend this much because this battle/session means that much to me."

Again, I don't hate the current set up, just sometimes I get tired of the grind.

KillerJay17
(Known to never have been sunk)

@killer-jay17 exactly! I'm GRINDING when I'm fighting skeletons (ect..) I'm BORED when I'm gathering things. A restock option would make us all happy. I can spend my time gathering skulls like I want, and they can still spend their time gathering bananas like they want. Its not meant to be an advantage. Its meant to make one of the worst aspects of the game better, and get all these people picking up planks playing the game. Not everyone has 2 or 3 hours to play.

if we were really sailors, these things would be payed for at the dock. Why make something that should be as simple as reality so difficult? Why do I a pirate want to waste my play time picking up sticks? I want to go shoot stuff and dig up treasure. And I have the hard earned gold to pay for it so let me!?

@tuukkatl
The problem here is people want to hoard the fort rewards to themselves. No one considers co-operation when it comes to forts.

The ideal situation is some other pirates come along and you don't waste supplies fighting them off, but rather they add their supplies to your own to help take down the fort.

Sure it means you need to split the loot but it also means the fort becomes much easier and quicker to do.

But in the "shoot first, all loot is mine" mentality this just doesn't happen. So maybe allowing quick resupplies will make co-operation viable.

@crimsonraziel
Forts are only pvp beacons because of the shoot first mentality. Rare always talked about co-operation in forts leading up to release and often went on about how they expected uneasy alliances to form to overcome the fort and then see how things hold out when dividing the loot.

Obviously that plan didn't pan out at all.

Imo they shouldn't be pvp beacons. Pvp doesn't need any encouragement. They should ramp up the difficulty of forts to push for cooperation and challenge, and then add some real pvp arena or games or something to which they can attach proper pvp rewards and commendations (without forcing pvp out into the entire world).

But that's a major change. Adding an option to buy supplies, imo, shouldn't be blocked by fort pvp. The game desperately needs quality of life improvements and gold sinks, and this provides both.

If you are gathering supplies as a main activity you're doing it wrong.
Just do whatever you want to do, and gather supplies on the side. Your crew should be cannoning themselves to every island, wreckage and supply barrel in range and then mermaid back to the ship. You'll have enough supplies when you arrive at your destination.

@tuukkatl
You seem to miss the bit where I suggest a pvp alternative that can actually focus on pvp. I agree. With no additional work the forst will remain a pvp focus. I just think that's a waste.

There should be a pvp arena for pvp focus where rewards and commendations can be given for more structured pvp with actual progression. There's a definite faction of the playerbase that wants more meaningful pvp and adding something like that would allow this without pushing pvp into the rest of the world more than it does.

The only reason forts are pvp beacons is because that's the only real outlet for it at the moment.

And I don't think everyone will be friends at all. If pvp is an option there will always be people who exercise that option even without any gain. I just don't see a "resupply for gold" option doing particularly much for or against pvp.

but that's besides the case. I do see your point about gathering supplies making them seem more valuable and not wanting to waste them. It's a balancing act though. How much is resource management a part of the game? And is it a fun part? There's already resource management in your inventory (you can only carry a limited amount). What if they introduced a "pay for resources" option but also reduced the number of resources your ship can carry? This allows people to hop into the "fun" quicker, while also making resources valuable as they are more limited now?

I don't think anyone really cares about losing resources. And by paying for them you're still losing something (money spent on resources) when you get sunk.

It comes down to whether you think gathering supplies is fun and worth doing. I don't think the gathering part is fun. I want to head out and play the actual game, not spend half an hour prepping to head out. That part isn't fun for me. That's my opinion.

EDIT:
I'd like to see some sort of interaction on the islands with resources... like feeding planks into a steam engine to get a cart moving that you need to push across an island while fighting off skeletons or something... that would put resource management on an inventory level under stress and would be an actual fun use of resource management. (this is just a poorly thought out example of the sort of interactivity I wish were on the otherwise empty islands)

@tuukkatl
I think we're looking at this from 2 very different perspectives. You seem to be looking at this from a very pvp point of view and I'm looking at this from a more pve point of view.

I don't pvp much so I'll concede to your viewpoints in that regard. Obviously I may be overlooking the importance there.

However, from my point of view I'm not trying to outresource another player. I want to jump in and start voyages. In one sence, yes, it's instant gratification because I don't want to do 30 minutes of work just to start having fun playing a game. I want to start on my voyage quickly.

And this is a pretty straw man argument here: "I don't know why so many people whine first about having nothing to do and then they whine because there is something to do in the game."
If they added some tax forms for you to fill out in the game I would definitely complain about having to do that. It's not about "adding stuff to do" it's about adding fun things that engage players. If they add something unfun / boring then obviously it's going to garner complaints because the game is meant to be about having fun. Imagine if you had to sharpen all your swords for 15 minutes before setting out... fun? no. something to do? yes. fitting to the setting? yes. fitting for a game? not really.

As I say, I guess there's a larger impact on pvp than I see. I don't think this is "the age old, I don't want to be sunk by other players topic wrapped up in the lets supply with gold". It very much isn't from me. I think the different mindsets to approaching the game give very different impressions of this, so be wary of presuming someone's reasons for asking something. Just because you can't see why they'd want it or disagree with it doesn't mean they don't have a good reason that isn't just trying to avoid pvp.

Most people who don't want to be sunk by other players probably don't think having more resources is going to stop that. If it unbalances pvp significantly then cool, that's a valid reason to say no, but I really don't think it's a defence against pvp from people who prefer pve or don't want to be sunk. I honestly think it's people who want to get out rolling on doing things (skelly ships or voyages) without doing 30 minutes of up front boring work.