Change to alliances

@iii-porker-iii I've thought about a cap of 3 boats, not too. Also if you lower the value of the loot from 100 to 75 I doubt anyone would want to be in an alliance.

edit. I would love to be able to invite 1 other boat to a server. however if that is the case that alliance cant be broken. otherwise

Build alliance, break alliance, invite build new alliance, break alliance. till the server is full

@captain-coel I think alliances should shouldn't be insentivised by making loot worth more. Thats a slap in the face to those who dont have a desire to make alliances. Why is an alliance chest worth more than a solo boats chest?

There would have to be some measures in place to keep from inviting a sever of friends for sure.

Nothing wrong with a full server alliance and no solution needed. The mechanic is quite simple and allows for a very wide range of possibilities to happen in the game, even more so as the alliance grows. A full server alliance takes a bit of communication and diplomacy to get arranged and working. Many of them devolve into chaos after a time. No adjustments to the mechanic needed in my opinion. Works pretty well.

@gutterangel I can agree that it takes communication and usually ends in chaos. That doesnt change the fact it's broken. A chest worth 1k essentially becomes a 3.5k chest in an alliance server. Either the payout needs to be adjusted or the number of boats in an alliance. I say change both.

Thought id add my two cents to this.

Alliance severs are definitely a thing in SoT and anytime I see a post or comment about them it is usually about trying to stop these server wide alliances from happening.

SoT is a game that offers PVE and PVP, and those to things fluctuate depending on the sever. This game is not PVE and not PVP its PVEVP. However, there will be times where one will be more prevalent on a server.

Server wide alliances are not that common, usually because of how hard they are to set up (I have been in my fair share). Getting a whole server alliances can takes hours and all it takes is for one ship, or one crew to ruin that entire alliance. There is still a risk in doing these servers and anyone who has been in them will tell you horror stories about them.

However, not everyone uses those type of severs to grind the game. Some use it for streams, special events, editing videos with scenarios for their channels. Its not all PVE'rs taking advantage of no pvp.

The great thing about SoT is that you can do anything, the game caters to all types of players. You want a 5 ship alliance, go, you want to take on a five ship alliance, here ya go.

Why exactly do you think its wrong? Because you want them to play the game as you think they should? Why don't you play the game the way they want to play? The answer is because we all play differently and our community values that diversity. Thats how we get interesting interactions.

When you limit alliances because of those pesky pve'ers you are now also cutting all the content your top dog pvp'ers have when they take on those five ship alliances and create some of the greatest recorded gameplay the game has seen.

Alliance servers will be a thing, but they are so few and far between its not really a big a deal. My take, is play how you want to play and let others do the same. Plenty of other servers on the seas to sail in.

@bigtorvol the problem with them is the payout of loot. These alliances are giving bigger payouts to players allowing them to level up quickly. It is giving incentives to create them. As I said. For every ship added to the alliance the loot becomes 50% more in payout and rep. Thats not right. Many of the original players had to reach legend with a single ship. With the doible gold and the fotd I have seen many posts on social media about alliances making 400k gold in just a few hours. Thats not right. they are cheesing the rep and gold.

Dont get me wrong I loved the pirate games and id love to see private servers given to cdn so we can have those back. What im not ok with is the discord geoups looking to farm rep. A simple change to the alliances would prevent that. It will also allow the addition of a second ship of friends to a server without disturbing the balance of the server.

Why should a 6 ship alliance get a payout of 250% more than what one ship can bring in? Because there are six ships handing in loot. Could argue more hands make more money and this is one of the benefits of working together with people. Got to bare in mind that while it is Sea of Thieves that doesnt mean everyone plans to steal. Alliances were put in this game to give incentive for players working together as well as stealing. You could argue that the work of putting an alliance like that together is a fair price to pay for a large payout just as a pvper can sink one ship and gain 3 hours worth of their time in gold.

If they decide to list top money winners then yes that does become a "stat" advantage and it would need to be addressed at that time. Something I would need to think a little more on if im being honest.

I honestly don't see a balance issue at all. 16 pirates working together is always going to make more than 4 pirates looking to steal someones hard earned loot. If pvp players can make big sums of cash and do no work for it (other than sinking the ship) why should alliance players not be able to reap a benefit also? I think its fair enough as it is.

When it comes to stats though you are right. I think perhaps we should have tracking for pvp stats and I will admit I think that SoT needs to recognize their pvp players more than what they do currently. And I genuinely believe they will do so.

Running severs days at a time is a bit of a stretch. I have heard (so I cannot confirm personally) from people I have sailed with in the past they have had servers give them a notification they are shutting down in ten mins. Iv seen server health go real bad after extended periods of time. Really big lag spikes, stuttering, rendering issues and its not a case of iv played to long in the session. People join and right away boom, server is potato. So days at a time is a rare occasion id wager, but yes it probably does happen. I do however think its fine. If people are going to invest that much effort into it why shouldn't they get a good payout for it? Takes a lot of work to keep something like that running.

We are talking about balance yet I don't see any issues with the balance. Solo player getting 350% would be a huge advantage. But 16 people getting tons of cash for lumping in together and banging out voyages. They do the work they get paid.

If pvp ships can make money quickly and in big amounts and not do the work, why shouldn't pve players be able to lump together, work together and benefit?

Thats my take.

I will also end here by throwing in my own play style here, thought it might add in some context.

I tend to gravitate towards PVP in SoT but I also do a lot of pve as im a completionist. But pvp is where my fun comes in. I have done my fair share of alliance breaking. Mega keg on an alliance ship and watching them all blame each other is some of the best fun I will ever have in this game.

But I also do love the pve and being able to team with other people and have a good ole laugh.

Great thing with this game as it can go both ways and often to the far extreme. Casual pve, casual pvp, then theres lets go die hard pve or lets sink everything with a sail on it. There is something for everyone.

@bigtorvol I think you are missinh the point. Its not that we are opposed to the ampunt of loot 6 ships can gather compared to one. Its that each piece of loot is essentially more valuable. One ship cashes in a chest worth 1k. A six ship alliance turning in the same chest gets 1k for the ship turning in. Then each other ship gets 500. This means that thw cheat is now worth 3500. Thats where the problem lies. Along with the ability to create pve farm servers.

There needs to be a change.

The same treasure is worth 4 times more to a galleon crew than a solo pirate. Is the math really the issue?

I do understand the feedback, but asking alliances to be limited is the same as asking the sinking of player ships to be limited.

We should probably all stop worrying about what other players do or don't do (so long as it fits within the intended design of the game - as put forth by the developers). They clearly have no issue with the alliance system.
And what is really the problem with people earning gold and rep in this game without us being able to sink and steal from them anyway? So long as they're not invulnerable when we encounter them - so what? Right?
It's no skin off of my back. And I don't believe the server populations are any worse due to alliance servers than they are due to players being tired of being out-played and sank. I'm under the opinion that everything is fine.

Wouldn't change anything. Players would just adapt to new limits and rotate crews. Alliances are fine. Server alliances are fine. I'd draw the line at prolonged (8hrs+) Server grind monopolies arranged through social media. I don't see anyway to moderate it though. Server buy-outs were happening before Alliances.

While unintended it's out in the wild now. Anyone who's ran a table-top RPG knows that players will always find (and use) unanticipated ways to *#^% up your game.
I view the phenomena as a natural evolution of the extremes of a PvEvP system. Generally speaking, the PvPr's owned the PvEr's, both complained, Alliances came out, both complained, PvPr's got distracted with Arena, PvEr's got relaxed in Adventure, Alliances flourish, PvPr's have ground through Arena and are now coming back to Adventure, both complain.

Like these ideas, alliances definitely need changed. Sick of seeing discord servers go out and lock down servers just so they can endlessly farm PvE, such a cheap way of playing the game in my opinion. It's a fun mechanic as I can see why ships may want to work together, also adds that 'who's gonna betray first' fear however in its current format it's just getting abused.

If people want to farm a server and put all this work into it and they have 100 million gold and 20k dubs then what?
I dont care?

They buy some skins and a beard?
Unlock some weird commendations?

There is no progress and nothing competitive in this game.. just time spend and eventually you get and unlock everything.

Its just a sandbox to have some fun and a 100 ways to make fun the way you like.

I just play it my way and ignore people who do stuff i dont like.

@ruigtand-nl as you said there are limited progressions in this game. Its more about the rep than the gold. Pirate Legend used to have meaning. With the way the game is now and the ability to farm rep with alliances legend means nothing now. Sure its a sandbox game with only cosmetics to earn. Its basically a slap in the face to the orriginal players who had to grind to get to pirate legend. Alliances are making it even easier.

Maybe a better solution would be to stop giving rep for loot another boat turns in. The gold is fine ita the cheesing of rep that i really have a problem with.

I think that most of you need to realise that its not going to change as it makes NO difference to anyone. I currently have a few million and have purchased most things in game... do i have anything that gives me advantage over someone who logs in for the first time?? NO

So who cares and what difference does it actually make to anyone?

I will admit i have played on a full server alliance multiple times and its not even about the loot, It's about the fun and having a laugh, doing things like ship races and contests.

Rare have even acknowledged this and said that private servers might be something they do in the future

It is a game and designed so that players cant buy advantage over others so what other people are doing in alliance regards has no impact on others. I have also attacked a 3 ship alliance and taken their loot so being in an alliance does not give you safe haven either.

Play your way and stop complaining about how others are playing and leave them to it.

Happy Sailing

@iii-porker-iii

Well i personally dont mind to get some stats to show off but its not in the game now.. its just some commendations you can work on so you have something to do.

I would love to have like session based stats to show. So many loot, so many fish, piles of dead pirates, boats sunk.

But yeah its just your own story and how you like it.
Some play pirate and only steal loot, others only pve, some only forts,others farm servers, solooped it or afk on a galleon. Whatever we like i guess

@iii-porker-iii

The Current Design of Alliances Makes Absolutely No Sense

How Alliances Are Supposed to be:

A fun social mechanic that encourages player interaction by formalizing a system of cooperation at the higher risk of betrayal. Crews can team up for a larger task and enjoy sharing the rewards.

Is this how it is actually used? Nope!

It's a glorified boosting mechanic in it's current state, which just makes the alliance mechanic super shallow. Instead of driving players together, it rewards antisocial behavior from "Fly-by Alliancers" who pop the flag up and all of a sudden earn some imaginary profits from voyages that they contribute absolutely nothing to.

This is all alliance servers are - players going about their anti-social business, but they're getting profits from things that are being accomplished in a completely different part of the map that they aren't working toward...

They need to find another way to entice alliances other than just making it as simple as boosting... Or they need to make it so that the alliance bonuses are only rewarded if you are near your ally that is turning in the loot.

Whatever they do, alliances should serve their intended purpose of driving players together instead of existing as a nonsensical boosting system like it currently is.

@galactic-geek

I mean yes, but that still just rewards farming behavior.

All it takes is

Crew 1: "I wanna boost, do you?"

Crew 2: "Yeah let's do it!"

Both crews form alliance, and go about playing the game no differently than they were before, except now they're earning magical profits from the other crew all the way across the map

The crew split is a tough one. If they nerfed it then players would start refusing to play with newer players. Its for inclusion.

Alliances are different. Its to encourage people to work together. More often then not these crews aren't working together at all. Imo alliances have been the worst introduction the developers have come up with and is a large contributor to the sea of weak legends we see today.

I would love to see a proper split of loot.

1 - 100
2 - 75/25
3 - 60/20/20
4 - 55/15/15/15
5 - 50/12.5/12.5/12.5/12.5
6 - 50/10/10/10/10/10

if this is felt to be too much then maybe target the alliance boats

1- 100
2 - 100/50
3 - 100/25/25
4 - 100/20/20/20
5 - 100/15/15/15/15
6- 100/10/10/10/10/10

this would at least reduce the server alliance cheesing.

So what if pirates decide to form an alliance fleet? Isn’t that how the mechanic was designed? They are playing the game they paid for the way they want. Why do we all care how someone chooses to spend their time? It’s their time, not ours and vice-versa. Complaining about alliances is almost the same as a sloop complaining about 4 man galleon picking on them or the same as adventurers complaining about PvP in general.

It’s not fair? They are farming gold?
So what? Everyone bought this game for a reason, to have fun. Go have fun, and let others have theirs. If someone is able to convince multiple ships to form an alliance and help each other out that doesn’t take anything from your experience. Some of the best times I’ve had in this game has been within an alliance. I’ve also had great times solo, fully stocking my ship then after selling for the night, dumping everything I have into storage crates at the end of a session and leaving it on the dock. The other night my crew mate and I left 2 storage crates filled with over 200 cannonballs and planks each, plus cooked fish, Meg and cursed cannonballs. Do you think it’s unfair that whoever spawned in at Golden Sands afterwards had a huge advantage over everyone else? It was their lucky day I guess, or no one spawned in and it all de-spawned and all the time we spent transferring the items was wasted for nothing.

My point is, why should any of us care? Time is the only commodity we can’t get more of. If you spend it playing this game, then you should spend it playing your game and leave others to play theirs. When I log on and it’s a bad session and I feel like I’m wasting my time, I just go spend my time doing something else. Don’t ask the developers to limit options on how others spend theirs.