Private servers are needed

@clearision the problem is that the risk of PvP is what makes this game exciting, it's not exactly pleasant always being on guard, but it is exciting. That's the game that Rare wanted to make, one where you cooperate with your crew against a world filled with challenges and other players who are doing the same.

If you allow people to opt-out of the anxiety, you might convince some people who didn't like the game to play, but they won't be playing with other people which is ruinous for the ecosystem.

You'll also lose every player who feels the way you do to private servers. Right now you play the game in Adventure, but from what you're saying, only because you have no other choice. If you had a choice, you and everyone like you would be off in private servers and Rare's vision for a shared world adventure game would be dead in the water. I really don't see it happening.

@bloodybil

Yeah basically you open SeaoFThieves.exe with the notepad, add the line "enable singleplayer=true" and boom, done. Once in game, press R2, R2, L1, R2, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up and you unlock every cosmetics.

Will you need all those weapons unlocked when their is no other players to fight though?

@clearision

and that is what i call "sellfish" - just not letting someone do whatever they want because of your personal preferences.

You know what really sounds selfish? Those people who make demands of a company to make an entirely different mode to cater specifically to their needs. Some even try to threaten jumping ship if they don't get their way. You may not be the latter, but that isn't out of character to the posts that pop up here. PvP players are content with what they got, for the most part. You don't see posts of them threatening to leave when they don't get their way, now do you?

@clearision
Your forum account isn't even a day old, you have yet to see the posts that pop up here. To reiterate, I'm not talking about this specific post, just give it time, one is bound to show up within a day or so. If not, just search the forum with the subject PvE Server or Private Server. Those jump ship posts are all over.

@clearision

@nabberwar i would call that a sign but who f cares

A sign of selfishness certainly. I just feel the need to point this out, you claim that its selfish of the PvP crowd to argue against them. However, I don't see them making threats like toddler if they don't get their way. If we are going to call people selfish, lets point to the right people.

I haven't read the entire thread so forgive me if this is a repeat if something already said.

Private servers would be great so long as you cant earn rep or gold. Things like the pirate games would be a blast to play and private servers will allow this to happen much more frequently.

If they allow rep to be made I would suggest it be from bottle quests only. Not voyages on the table. No forts.

@schwammlgott
Arena was an addition, a change.
But Adventure still exists?

Has every addition or change since launch ruined the game?

@clearision said in Private servers are needed:

people who are tending to "hide away in private mode" - they don't have a wish to go into the PvP anyway.

When you don't like PVP, you don't buy a game that is 50% PVP.

That's what the analogies have been all about, people buy a product they know they will not 100% enjoy, and instead of getting the right thing for them, they ask to have it modified to fit their desires at the expense of customers who bought exactly what they wanted and enjoy it as is.

Think of something you really enjoy. Now imagine someone who just kinda likes it, wants to have it changed so they 100% like it their way, but it will be modified into something totally different you won't nearly enjoy as much anymore.

Insult to the injury, that person could have gone for something else they 100% enjoy from the start, without ruining what you enjoy in the first place.

@Boxcar-Squidy
Private Server does not just mean a single player, all by themself, in the world.
A Private Server could still be totally 'open' so that anyone could join; or, a certain list could join; or, specific players could join; or, by invites only.

The bigger benefit of this idea is to give the players on the server the freedom to play together EASILY without jumping through the ridiculous hoops that are required in the current builds.

Currently:
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...ain't happening!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...ain't happening!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...ain't happening!!!
You can only be the pirate you want to be with only 3 of your friends....NO MORE!!!!

BUT, with Private Servers,
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...NO PROBLEM!!!

@nabberwar said in Private servers are needed:

@clearision

and that is what i call "sellfish" - just not letting someone do whatever they want because of your personal preferences.

You know what really sounds selfish? Those people who make demands of a company to make an entirely different mode to cater specifically to their needs. Some even try to threaten jumping ship if they don't get their way. You may not be the latter, but that isn't out of character to the posts that pop up here. PvP players are content with what they got, for the most part. You don't see posts of them threatening to leave when they don't get their way, now do you?

Of course we do. Summit is a perfect example. His rants have become practically famous.

I'm still confused how an addition of a private server option is 'selfish'?
If it's something that everyone can do, how is it selfish?

If you find that they've added a new ship hull cosmetic, are you forced to select it, apply it to your ship and never use the other hulls that you enjoy...ever again?
If you loaded the game tomorrow and there was an option for "Start a Private Server" sitting right next to "Adventure" and "Arena"....are you forced to never play Adventure or Arena...ever again?

@lil-fokker yeah all of that is fine.

No progression though.

If you want to level up your character you need to do it in the unpredictable ecosystem that is live.

If you want to just mess around in a sandbox then it's fine.

People who are PL/A10 today didn't have the luxury of playing on servers where we had any control over who we were there with, if people can level up in private servers where they can make things easier for themselves it will have a negative impact on the current Adventure ecosystem.

We use the term ecosystem because that's what it is. It's like how the flowers will die if the bees go extinct, in this analogy the players flocking to private servers to level up with their friends are the bees and Adventure mode is the flowers.

If they can't level up or make progress in Private servers then fine. Let people have whatever fun they want to as long as there are still reasons to play the game the way the developers intended.

@boxcar-squidy
Progression could still exist on Private Servers...just simply not carry over.

I like your bee analogy.
But here's a twist....if another planet in another galaxy kills all of its flowers, what is the effect on the bees here on earth?

You'll probably reply that the "bees" are analogous of players and Private Servers would pull those players away from Adventure which will make less players currently playing in the ecosystem....but those "bees" can simply fly back to Adventure any time that they want.

No matter, the focus of private servers isn't on progression...It's wholly unrelated.

We could have different looking pirates on a private server (what many people have wanted since day 1).
We could even change the look of our pirate any time we want on a private server because it would have nothing to do with or effect on the 'current ecosystem'.

But if there were to be no progression on Private Servers is totally fine.
Progression isn't really a thing anyway. SoT has only a facade of progression as nothing changes because your hull is blue vs. brown.

When I see a set of sails on the horizon; at no point do I ponder, "I wonder how many doubloons they've earned?"
Progression Smogression!
🤣

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

@Boxcar-Squidy
Private Server does not just mean a single player, all by themself, in the world.

Yet that possibility would exist, and shouldn't.

A Private Server could still be totally 'open' so that anyone could join; or, a certain list could join; or, specific players could join; or, by invites only.

The bigger benefit of this idea is to give the players on the server the freedom to play together EASILY without jumping through the ridiculous hoops that are required in the current builds.

Currently:
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...ain't happening!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...ain't happening!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...ain't happening!!!
You can only be the pirate you want to be with only 3 of your friends....NO MORE!!!!

BUT, with Private Servers,
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...NO PROBLEM!!!

All that can be already done, the tools already exist. How come community groups are able to organize fleet games and events?

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

@boxcar-squidy
Progression could still exist on Private Servers...just simply not carry over.

I like your bee analogy.
But here's a twist....if another planet in another galaxy kills all of its flowers, what is the effect on the bees here on earth?

You'll probably reply that the "bees" are analogous of players and Private Servers would pull those players away from Adventure which will make less players currently playing in the ecosystem....but those "bees" can simply fly back to Adventure any time that they want.

No matter, the focus of private servers isn't on progression...It's wholly unrelated.

We could have different looking pirates on a private server (what many people have wanted since day 1).
We could even change the look of our pirate any time we want on a private server because it would have nothing to do with or effect on the 'current ecosystem'.

But if there were to be no progression on Private Servers is totally fine.
Progression isn't really a thing anyway. SoT has only a facade of progression as nothing changes because your hull is blue vs. brown.

When I see a set of sails on the horizon; at no point do I ponder, "I wonder how many doubloons they've earned?"
Progression Smogression!
🤣

Or you could use the cosmetics you earned in public and have your progression locked in private.

It would give a reason for people to get back in public to get cool cosmetics and get out of their comfort zone.

What would people care about a separate progression anyways if they don't ever plan to play public anymore anyways?

@lil-fokker

I like your bee analogy.

But here's a twist....if another planet in another galaxy kills all of its flowers, what is the effect on the bees here on earth?

The birds and the bees talk must have been awkward for you, I regret to inform you bee's don't kill flowers.

@devils-titan80 it's not really needed more than it is just wanted.

I've seen so many posts about these and not once has any of these posts provided a good enough reason for these "private servers" being actually "needed" more than just wanted really badly.

@bloodybil said in Private servers are needed:

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

Or you could use the cosmetics you earned in public and have your progression locked in private.

yeah sure....why not!! The private side would/should/could never affect the public side. No matter what you do on the private side, the public is wholly separate.

It would give a reason for people to get back in public to get cool cosmetics and get out of their comfort zone.

Yep. no issues with "hey you didn't earn that the way I earned that!!"

What would people care about a separate progression anyways if they don't ever plan to play public anymore anyways?

That's to assume that once a player goes onto a Private Server, that they'll never come back to the public side.

Also, why is there no progression in this "progression system"?
It's to keep everything balanced.
In a private server, balance doesn't have to be so important.
The private server could be tweaked to make FUN the focus rather than the purity of "balance".

Imagine a galleon with 8 players on it, all on the same crew, while the rest of the server is broken up into solo sloops and they're working together to take down the OP Gally!!!

And everyone is a friend that you easily invited or left slots open for.
No randos popping in to ruin the fun.
No server hopping.
No begging other crews to invite your friends onto their ships.
No coordinating with LFGs

Create the server, tweak the server, send out invites and get right to the FUN!!

@nabberwar 🤣
You quoted me and misquoted me at the same time.
Dude, you should get extra points and lose extra points for that one.

I didn't say the bees killed the flowers, I said the planet killed the flowers....could have been the 30 foot Nabberwars on that planet...who knows?!

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

@bloodybil said in Private servers are needed:

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

Or you could use the cosmetics you earned in public and have your progression locked in private.

yeah sure....why not!! The private side would/should/could never affect the public side. No matter what you do on the private side, the public is wholly separate.

It would give a reason for people to get back in public to get cool cosmetics and get out of their comfort zone.

Yep. no issues with "hey you didn't earn that the way I earned that!!"

See, we can agree on this. If there is an incentive that will entice players to come back to public, I see nothing wrong with a "training server" where you can mess around without ability to cheese the system and grind endlessly. As a matter of fact, this is what I believe devs might be thinking when talking about implementing those servers. Log with a couple crews for a community event of skull ball, duels, or whatever, with no other objective/reward than having fun. Great streaming material I'm sure.

What would people care about a separate progression anyways if they don't ever plan to play public anymore anyways?

That's to assume that once a player goes onto a Private Server, that they'll never come back to the public side.

If it's a possibility, it will happen. If you can do everything in private, earning rep, commendations, gold, without the risk of PVP, why would people bother with public? Hence the compromise of having an incentive to take some risk in public, and relax without worries of loot in private.

Also, why is there no progression in this "progression system"?
It's to keep everything balanced.
In a private server, balance doesn't have to be so important.
The private server could be tweaked to make FUN the focus rather than the purity of "balance".

Ok, if fun is the goal there, loot is not important then no? If you can do voyages and events with friends, following your own rules, great fun and memories are the treasure here.

Imagine a galleon with 8 players on it, all on the same crew, while the rest of the server is broken up into solo sloops and they're working together to take down the OP Gally!!!

And everyone is a friend that you easily invited or left slots open for.
No randos popping in to ruin the fun.
No server hopping.
No begging other crews to invite your friends onto their ships.
No coordinating with LFGs

Create the server, tweak the server, send out invites and get right to the FUN!!

Why not? I'm not against people having fun, on the contrary, just advocating keeping public servers as full as possible and rewarding people that take the risk to play in them.

One one hand, imagine having private servers at all, to do whatever you want at the cost of progression, and on the other you have a more risky and competitive public server that rewards currency and lets you buy cool cosmetics, if you even care about them.

Isn't that a good compromise?

I really do not understand the call for private server. SOT is a social game. FOTD, Arena, Tall Tales at the same Islands, alliances...all of this calls for possible (probable) interactions between pirates. Rare does not want us to sit by ourselves and play the game, that has never been their intention and that’s not how the game is structured. You can get away with solo slooping around but the call to be alone on a sever because you’re afraid another pirate will take your loot or you want to do the FOTD by yourself is just silly. The ONLY exception to this is I do think they should have have private servers for the shores of gold when that first dropped because my crew had made it through the obstacles and got stuck waiting at the drawbridge for like an hour for another crew to finish.

@bloodybil said in Private servers are needed:

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

@bloodybil said in Private servers are needed:
Ok, if fun is the goal there, loot is not important then no? If you can do voyages and events with friends, following your own rules, great fun and memories are the treasure here.

I totally agree.
It's been such a long time since I cashed anything in.
Most of the gold and doubloons I've "earned" in probably 6 months has come from participating in the Insider's. And I've spent none of it!!

I usually fill my ship with whatever I find from sunken ships and then crash my ship into some random rock as I play music and then sign off.
Right now...there's some treasure wrapped around a rock....somewhere!!

One one hand, imagine having private servers at all, to do whatever you want at the cost of progression, and on the other you have a more risky and competitive public server that rewards currency and lets you buy cool cosmetics, if you even care about them.

Isn't that a good compromise?

Yeah, sure! I'm all about compromise.
I've no choice!
I haven't been invited to one single meeting at Rare. LOL 😜

These are just ideas, thoughts, interests, concerns.....ya know....FEEDBACK!!

The very same reason people type, "swordplay is trash"...or..."i keep glitchin through the hull".

If I never participated in these forums, I'd still be exactly where I am....waiting for Rare to click update and see what they've done.

@lil-fokker The thing with certain topics like this, is that intentions and desires aren't always clear.

When it comes to private servers threads, there are 2 types of people requesting them:

• People who want servers to goof around (don't care about loot)
• People who want to avoid PVP altogether and play the game by themselves (want to grind without risk)

Forums are there to post feedback, you are quite right. It's also to give feedback on feedback :P

@bloodybil I totally agree....sorta. 😉

Yes, intentions are hard to glean out of forum posts. Especially when posts are neither fully read nor understood and the inclination to argue on these here intertubes is just too tempting.

The intentions you list are a bit too simplistic and narrow for the wide and diverse scope of reasons that Private Servers could/should be used.
Disclaimer = not all reasons are listed as total scope of reasons may simply not be known at this time

People who want to goof around may also thoroughly enjoy loot.
People who want to use a Private Server may also enjoy PvP.

It doesn't always have to devolve to an 'all or nothing' perspective.

The assumption that a private server would have no PvP on it at all is just......wrong!!
I could start a Private Server and leave it totally open for anyone to join.

"Why would anyone do that? Just use a public server?" You're probably banging onto your keyboard.

1. A Private Server could be tweaked for whatever reasons.
   *Ships speeds could be messed with
   *Guns could be more/less powerful to encourage the use of swordplay.
   *weather could be made insane
   *The time of day could be messed with (slowed down / sped up)
   *The Skellies could be insanely difficult, multiplied, placed on outposts, who knows?!?!?!
2. A Private Server will ease the grouping of friends or even grouping of enemies.
   *I've already listed many but not all of these examples

I could start a Private Server and invite anyone for any reasons to play in any style of game.

Finally, Private Servers aren't to replace the risk in Adventure as those who seek such are totally open to do so. Even if they just came from a Private Server not 5 minutes ago.

And I definitely appreciate YOUR feedback as it's working towards understanding and agreement...not mired in disagreement for the sake of it.

Kudos to you mate!!!
😍👍

@lil-fokker yes all this is true but, do we really "NEED" it?

There aren't any reasons that we really "NEED" private servers as much as there aren't any reasons NOT to have em either. I'm totes neutral on the idea and think that it could at least be tried by ppl, I dont see any hurt in it at all.

It's not something that's really needed as much as it is just wanted. I know I said that before but I'm pretty sure thats what it all comes down to whenever it comes to this topic. It would be fun though to try with enough friends to have competitions between eachother.

@xix-zeno-xix
I see what you're saying, but.....
We could say that about cosmetics.
We could say that about Fishing.
We could say that about Brigantines.
We could say that about the entire game.
We could say that about games in general.
We could say that about central plumbing and HVAC and Q-tips.

But wouldn't it be nice?!

As for 'need'...if interest in the game were to just slowly burn out and eventually die to the waste bin of games nobody plays anymore: "if the addition of Private Servers extends the life of the game and creates a whole 'nother form of enjoyment from it; whilst increasing the revenue and notoriety for Rare, Microsoft."
Is it 'needed'?

@lil-fokker well, now you're just splitting hairs... but I asked you first, dont question my question with the same question dangit lol.

Either way, I'd love to see it so I could then invite friends to play with and screw around and test it all out and stuff, but it wouldnt bother me not being a thing either. :)

@lil-fokker said in Private servers are needed:

@Boxcar-Squidy
Private Server does not just mean a single player, all by themself, in the world.
A Private Server could still be totally 'open' so that anyone could join; or, a certain list could join; or, specific players could join; or, by invites only.

The bigger benefit of this idea is to give the players on the server the freedom to play together EASILY without jumping through the ridiculous hoops that are required in the current builds.

Currently:
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...ain't happening!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...ain't happening!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...ain't happening!!!
You can only be the pirate you want to be with only 3 of your friends....NO MORE!!!!

BUT, with Private Servers,
~Want to play with more than 3 of your friends...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want you and several of your friends to each have their own sloop and you're all on the same server...NO PROBLEM!!!
~Want to have several galleon crews made up of your friends to all be on the same server to chase and fight each other all over the map...NO PROBLEM!!!

Stop saying private server, you want a sandbox.

There still shouldn't be progression and the tweaks you're wanting to control stuff aren't going to happen as they'll push the hardware limitations. Rare has already designed the environment to the best of the console/engine's ability.

If Rare wants to create a sandbox/playground mode (taking that term from Fortnite) then they can however progression wouldn't exist and shouldn't. You don't want to separate the player base.

The servers only support 23 players/6 ships to my knowledge. 5 Galleons and one Brig. Once again, this is a hardware limitation.

The amount of people you're expecting to take advantage of this seems like such a small scale. Since there are so few people that would then take advantage of a sandbox, it would be a waste of resources for Rare to invest into development of.

The game wasn't sold as a 1-23 player game. It was sold as a 1-4 player as you aren't intended on queuing with more than 3 other players.

I wouldn't support creating crews with more than 4 even if they're on separate ships as they would simply server hop and 'dumpster' solo ships. It is different when you're forced to alliance other random ships.

@clearision said in Private servers are needed:

@nabberwar i would call that a sign but who f cares

I don’t.