Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?

Why are you bothered by this? Its a great way of bringing people together. Its not against the rules.

Meh, better this than official PVE servers IMO. Any player asking for the latter can be pointed to the discord and told to go look for those by themselves since they already exist. How many of those alliance servers really are out there and not just the few same ones coming over and over anyways?

Sounds like it could also be fun to go looking for those, should someone have perturbatory intents and wish to wreak havoc upon merchants...

@ultmateragnarok said in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

@bloodybil

There are many videos of players getting onto an alliance server and destroying it. Good times if you're into that kind of gameplay, but at least people can work to make a spot for themselves, albeit temporarily. It's definitely better than official PvE servers, since they require effort to set up so it isn't just any random player that can do it because some crew or another sunk them.

Yeah as much as I'm not crazy about the idea of those kinds of servers, it's still a creative use of the tools provided to us by Rare, and an accomplishment in itself to either parlay or coerce a whole server to work together. Want a PVE server? Work for it. Earn it.

The bot thing should be looked into though. Those servers shouldn't remain up forever if people aren't really playing. Want another alliance server? Start over.

@tahlaskerssen2

It would be an actual problem if it was happening on a large enough scale to actually create a divide in the player base, but I think the number of these sessions occurring is too small to do that.

The fact that these types of servers exist is a symptom of how poorly designed the alliance mechanic itself is.

What is the purpose of the Alliance Mechanic?: it exists to be a formalized way for players to get together and earn a high reward for teaming up with a high risk of betrayal. It came into the game right after the Hungering Deep, and during Cursed Sails. Both events tasked players with teaming up with other crews to take on the larger threat. At their best, alliances allow the best possible way for this sort of stuff to work.

How are Alliances actually being used?
They’re being used as a glorified boosting mechanic.

People fly by, put up the flag, and then they keep going about their own business. The only difference now is that they’re earning rewards for another player’s efforts. They’re earning rewards for something that’s happening on the other side of the map...

So let’s get this straight:

Two crews doing their own thing on separate ends of the map = normal rewards

BUT

Two crews doing their own thing on separate ends of the map + Special Flag = Working together, boosted rewards???

How???

Instead of bringing players together and incentivizing the close-knit high risk/high reward session that alliances should add to the game, you now have a system that just gives out higher rewards to people who are behaving in an antisocial way by using what is supposed to be a social mechanic.

That goes for alliance servers, too. These people say they’re cooperating and that’s why they’re earning the high rewards, but they’re simply not cooperating. Not by any definition of the word.

Then if you suggest that alliances need to be reworked to encourage more actual cooperation and discourage the antisocial boosting behavior, people get upset and claim that it won’t be worth it anymore.

If the mechanic relies on the nonsensical boosting stuff to be “worth it” then that means the mechanic is just not designed very well at all.

Tools not rules if I remember correctly.

How in the world does this affect you?

@lukiandarkblade
Yours may not, but I imagine you don't speak for all of the groups that do this. Have had others use bullying tactics to help take over the server. Personally, if people wish to make one naturally, I have no problems. However, it doesn't sit right with me when people hijack a server that they don't pay to maintain and try to enforce arbitrary rules when someone happens to stumble upon it.

All who participate will get to pirate legend faster. They will then learn it's a pointless achievement and get to athena 10 for another pointless achievement.

When I thought being a legend was unique, I cared. Now, I lost interest. Let others find creative ways to play the game. These takeovers also allow the playerbase to create minigames and competitions within the game. It's better than Arena....

@bugaboo-bill said in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

@archaell sagte in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

We could let people join servers with multiple ships. That would fix the issue.

I'd be fine for max 8 players and 2 ship premade Alliance.
So 2 - 8 players in 2 Ships of your choice.

I like this idea. My son and I could sloop while my daughter brigantine with randoms (she likes playing with randos and has a pretty good time...) Or I could solo while they Brig with one of his regular crew.

@ultmateragnarok

I see where you're coming from, but here's where it loses me:

Someone doing a fort is way over on the west side of the map, while the crew doing the Athena is all the way on the East side. To me it just seems odd that they would be rewarded for eachother's efforts when literally the only thing that is different is a flag and visibility of the other ship on the map.

In a lot of cases, the extent of the alliances is just put the flag up, move along, and suddenly earn boosted rewards while never interacting with that other crew again.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that there is a problem hurting the game that must be solved, I just think the mechanic lacks depth for the reasons I've mentioned, and I think it would be nice to eventually have the mechanic reworked in such a way that encourages players in an alliance to actually be working together on a larger task to earn their shared boosted rewards.

@ultmateragnarok
You could attempt to require that voyages are shared in order for loot to get boosted. An example would be that a player drops an Athena on the lead Galleon or any ship. Everyone in the Alliance needs to vote on that dropped voyage. The voyage will appear on all Alliance tables. Everyone, including the Alliance ships gets the same maps. I mean their is always traitor risks, but at least this requires an Alliance to actually work together. This would be a nerf in a sense, but actual make people work together and not cheat the system by having six separate voyages.

I agree with @Chronodusk its silly that people can just farm in isolation, the most antisocial thing an Alliance can do, and get rewarded for it. That is pretty much what the majority of these servers do. I would argue that this adds more depth to the system, especially with betrayal. All ships would know the final location of say an Athena. Players would need to ask themselves, should I have trusted that player? It could now become a race to see who can dig it up first.

@nabberwar said in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

@ultmateragnarok
You could attempt to require that voyages are shared in order for loot to get boosted. An example would be that a player drops an Athena on the lead Galleon or any ship. Everyone in the Alliance needs to vote on that dropped voyage. The voyage will appear on all Alliance tables. Everyone, including the Alliance ships gets the same maps. I mean their is always traitor risks, but at least this requires an Alliance to actually work together. This would be a nerf in a sense, but actual make people work together and not cheat the system by having six separate voyages.

I agree with @Chronodusk its silly that people can just farm in isolation, the most antisocial thing an Alliance can do, and get rewarded for it. That is pretty much what the majority of these servers do. I would argue that this adds more depth to the system, especially with betrayal. All ships would know the final location of say an Athena. Players would need to ask themselves, should I have trusted that player? It could now become a race to see who can dig it up first.

I totally agree with this.

It's a much better and much more purposeful system that actually says - "work together, earn better rewards" rather than the current system that allows players to pretend they're working together for boosted rewards.

Alliances need to be stripped down and re-created to function more like this. Take away the current benefits that can be boosted through anti-social behavior, and replace them with different facets that really reward actual cooperative interaction at a high risk of betrayal.

Make the player actually invest their trust and some risk into earning boosted alliance rewards - the current system absolutely does not do that, and just materializes extra income out of thin air for fake cooperation.

@bugaboo-bill said in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

@archaell sagte in Can we please do something about 24/7 closed server alliances?:

We could let people join servers with multiple ships. That would fix the issue.

I'd be fine for max 8 players and 2 ship premade Alliance.
So 2 - 8 players in 2 Ships of your choice.

That would be awful for the other 4 crews on the server.

Would be nice to have a more easy way to get a private alliance server or to rent one. Its a lot of effort this way.

@ultmateragnarok
Might I direct you to here.
https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/106799/rework-alliance-system/12

@cyberangel67 because its a shared world where the threat of other people keeps you on your toes. closed server alliances are basically the PvE only servers people keep whining about. they are essentially playing an easier version of the game with more rewards. that isn't fair to the other millions of people playing the game.