I'm sure I will get some hate for even asking this, but I really want to understand the thought process behind trying so hard to stop people from getting what they want. I have played on a few alliance servers and it was the most fun I've had playing the game. Being part of a fleet of ships and sailing together with a large group of friends is what I bought the game for, but to get it, I have to spend hours server hopping and scuttling . Or making posts to find people. Or bully people into inviting my crew to theirs and then ask them to leave. Its such a hassle but its worth it to me. Can I pay for my own server? I have many friends that say they would at least try this game, but because I can't guarantee we will avoid encounters against real players, they have no interest. All this balancing for what, some days I sail for 6 hours straight, stack vaults, and never see another player the whole time. I just don't get it.
Whats wrong with alliance servers?
The issue isn't the alliance it's not the coordination it's not the freedom to alliance
it's the wildly imbalanced rewarding for alliances that makes zero sense and has zero consistency compared to everything else.
People should be able to flood a server with peacefulness and cooperation/coordination. They should not get more reward for less risk.
The rewards are a complete contradiction to the foundation of the game.
At some point in the future, Rare will release Custom Servers where you can play with all of your friends in an instance where you cannot make money or progression, or purchase anything.
Alliance servers mainly have a bad reputation because it allows players to essentially cheat their stats on the ledger, cheese commendations that would otherwise be difficult to earn under normal means, and somehow be the source of a lot of genuinely bad attitudes no one wants on the seas. The process being tough and annoying to get working is part of the reason Rare isn't doing much for or against it. Organic player encounters are better than isolated ones, and with a game that has so much grindy PvE in it, doing only the PvE will kill the game completely, as everyone will complete everything and there's nothing left to do or any reason to log back on.
@nex-stargaze
Why is it ok for me to get gold and xp with strangers i just met on the server, but not with my friends that I already know and want to spend time with?@wolfmanbush
If anyone on any server can alliance at any time, why not let people just start in an alliance to save time if that's what they want?@lagg-dragon said in Whats wrong with alliance servers?:
@wolfmanbush
If anyone on any server can alliance at any time, why not let people just start in an alliance to save time if that's what they want?There is a difference between giving the freedom in an environment and incentivizing it and/or enabling it
The foundation of the game is risk/reward with loot circulation to both steal and to succeed in selling
Server health requires activity on both ends. Risk and reward.
Enabling alliances is interference in that to offer something that makes the organic experience less appealing
Allowing alliances and peaceful server takeovers is fine but they need to coordinate it themselves so it does less damage to the servers for the rest of the players that play differently
@lagg-dragon said in Whats wrong with alliance servers?:
@nex-stargaze
Why is it ok for me to get gold and xp with strangers i just met on the server, but not with my friends that I already know and want to spend time with?With strangers you have no idea what the hell they're thinking or going to do. Assuming the situation is "anything goes", they can easily trick and backstab you with no strings attached.
As for why can't you easily be in the same server with friends from a different crew? It's one of those "same difference" deals unfortunately. Strangers do it via organized discord servers and Xbox parties, the same can happen with you and your friends, and in either case this scenario is vilified because you lot will be earning gold and clearing commendations with an extra safety net that is your alliance.
@wolfmanbush
Even on the alliance servers I have been on, people eventually leave the alliance, betray and kill eachother, its still the same game, with the same people. Its trying to control something that dosnt need to be controlled. Its a waste of everyone's time.@lagg-dragon said in Whats wrong with alliance servers?:
All this balancing for what, some days I sail for 6 hours straight, stack vaults, and never see another player the whole time. I just don't get it.
You pretty much answered your own question there - you cheesed the game to avoid the threats and make it much easier. You are getting increased rewards with no threat. You would be less likely to have that sort of haul had you played the game as designed and intended, at least not without a little effort whether it be through diplomacy, avoidance, stealth, strategy or battle savvy.
You may say, "so what, its all cosmetics anyway" but that is EXACTLY the point. These commendations and cosmetics are supposed to be a badge of honor showing your player's accomplishment - alliance servers cheapen the sets due to the players cheesing/boosting it in safety. Also this is not the way the developer meant for the game to be played, the central tenet behind the game was player interactions and was decided upon long before the pirate theme of the game.
Now we could have let a lot of the above slide, but then Rare introduced Emissary leaderboards with rewards tied to them. Now these "cheesers" are filling up the top spots of the leaderboards and in doing so in their safe little bubble and achieving gains they would likely never had gotten close to if they played the game as intended on real servers. This in turn denies some players their rightful place among the top tier of the ledgers - this is a problem. Granted I have had no issue getting any of my ledger awards with not much effort each month I try for them, but it is undoubtably denying some by the inflation of the values on those same boards caused by alliance/cheese servers.
Another issue is the way that it is accomplished. No one has an issue when a server develops into a full alliance under natural, organic circumstances - that takes communication and effort, which is what Rare is looking for. But players do have issue with certain groups holding servers hostage (basically holding all spots in that server for just that purpose, not allowing random joins) for that purpose or forcing newcomers to "join or else". Some have issue with those that server hop continually until they find what they are looking for because of the possible impact to the servers' performance (enough people doing it at once can possibly act like a DDOS attack, regardless of the reason they are hopping). Then you have some Discord groups that try to make money off people by offering access to the servers they lock down for a price (I strongly feel this is against the Terms of Service) and others that require you to post on these forums and demand/request PvE servers before they will let you join. Thankfully Rare made their view quite clear on that and now shuts down any attempt to bring up the settled topic.
@lagg-dragon Ahoy, going to be dropping anchor on this thread as there is a post about Rare's thoughts on PvPvE (including a link to the Sea of Thieves Podcast that discusses it) here: https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/topic/136693/pvpve-the-team-s-thoughts/1
You can read an article by Joe here in regards to Private/Custom Servers.
Thank you.
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