Playstyle Selection and Matchmaking Preferences

  • The community in Sea of Thieves is struggling with the problem of everyone being forced to a similar playstyle and it is ruining player retention, and is more or less ruining the reputation of this game, because new players are sunk and their experience is ruined by players far more skilled than them.

    I am suggesting that Sea of thieves include some sort of prioritized matchmaking, where players with similar styles get matched in the same servers, and have it set up like xbox LFG tags, where the game will prioritize matching you with players with similar "tags". And there should be a penalty for changing your tags, so people don't go and sink servers with ease to boost their ego, or so PvE tagged players don't go flexing their titles and cosmetics in other servers. Maybe the penalty could be resetting your pirate (this would only apply to changing between PvP, PvE, and PvPvE).

    This way there is still randomness to matchmaking, it just ensures that people keep coming back to the game, instead of new players getting sunk by sweats, and sweats hating the game because nobody wants to fight them. other tags could include Roleplay, Skilled, New, Extremely Skilled, Casual, etc. If you have a pvp tag, but really want to play in a game with pve tagged players, they can join a friend's crew or join a crew over LFG

    You would probably have to separate playstyle (pvp, pve, etc.) from matchmaking preferences (roleplay, casual, etc.)

    To make this clear, this isn't my proposal for pve servers, private servers, or anything of a sort, It is simply a suggestion that I think could help bring the game back to it's roots, where you can be the pirate you want to be, and have fun interactions with other crews, whether that's having an amazing battle between two ships, a roleplay story created in game, two people meeting and forming a friendship, or a fun session of carnage.

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  • It is simply a suggestion that I think could help bring the game back to it's roots,

    glory days are glorified but the roots of this game range from bare bones content to a gritty reality of getting piratically mauled over and over again for a fort and low pay.

    Content wise this game has never been better. Opportunity wise, never better. More freedom than ever.

    Penalties are punishments for not conforming and imo that goes against the foundation of the experience. It's a risk/reward environment where people make choices and react to the randomness of the environment. It's not built for penalties and punishment.

  • The community in Sea of Thieves is struggling with the problem of everyone being forced to a similar playstyle and it is ruining player retention

    How so? It one playstyle. PvPvE but everyone just doesnt wanna play it and only half it. Nobody is really Forced tho.

    because new players are sunk and their experience is ruined by players far more skilled than them.

    Skilled? so when new players jump into say Halo for first time and get dominated...they gonna quit because they dont win or click "Next Match"?

    prioritized matchmaking, where players with similar styles get matched in the same servers

    Go on...

    And there should be a penalty for changing your tags, so people don't go and sink servers with ease to boost their ego, or so PvE tagged players don't go flexing their titles and cosmetics in other servers.

    what...What?...Huh?

    Maybe the penalty could be resetting your pirate

    ....No thanks.

    This way there is still randomness to matchmaking

    No there wont be. You will be in a server with like minded people, thus..it wont be random or unexpected.

    it just ensures that people keep coming back to the game

    Or the New content they keep adding will also do this.

    instead of new players getting sunk by sweats,

    Or Sunk by "Pirates" who are playing the game.

    sweats hating the game because nobody wants to fight them

    Player problem, not game.

    To make this clear, this isn't my proposal for pve servers

    Way you wish to have this setup, it pretty much does. If you want the Penalty added for "breaking the rules"

    help bring the game back to it's roots

    There be the problem, The Roots is the game is built around, PvPvE and adventuring with unknown threats of online players.

    where you can be the pirate you want to be, and have fun interactions with other crews

    You can do this already tho :/

  • Sounds like a veiled request for pve servers. If you add a form of preference you're managing expectations negatively, esp if it's not a hard and strict rule it just means people complain more when confronted with playstyle they don't like and they end up demanding pve servers.

  • Under pirate code article 6:
    May the old legends help to forge new ones
    If this happens, who do you think will show the ropes? Youtube? lol
    Under pirate code article 3:
    Let every engagement be settled by sword, pistol and good seamanship.
    If pro and noob separated, if another noob attacks a noob, will we create a micro server for them?

  • Welcome to Sea of Thieves

  • Dear goodness...

    Matchmaking in Sea of Thieves feels like it should be a sin because there are better alternatives... but man it would be nice if the pure randomness didn't lead to sessions that don't go anywhere. Yeah it's a personality issue that I and many other possess. A major issue with Open Crew is that because you don't know what you're getting into, you don't know what you're doing until it's either too late, as the ship has already sunk, or all of the crew leave shortly after you join, or it's logically not going anywhere as no one is trying to communicate anything either before you leave the tavern, or join in the middle of the sea with no understandable goal within the first 3 minutes of joining.

    Just a simple matchmaking in general interest would be enough to work on filtering how blank of a canvas that Open Crew gives, I'll take all of the other stuff that comes with it if it means I can find people that I can just simply help for a Gold Hoarder voyage or two.

    Also OP your entire suggestion is an attempt to filter players so harshly that you create a PvE server purely through Open Crew. That's not happening, ever. Don't even try.

  • @hiradc I would never ask for a pve server. I absolutely love the thrill of fighting other ships, it just gets dull when players scuttle. It is also demoralizing when all players do is say "take our loot, we don't want to fight" or sling slurs at you for attacking them. There have been very few times when playing this game where I fought a ship, and it was a fun, fair fight.

  • I'd like to have these tags, but just for getting an open crew. I don't really see the point of having a global matchmaking for entire servers.
    For me it usually takes up to 10 attempts until I find an open crew that are not some weird afk and that are doing something I want. It would be great to have a simple priority setting like "Doing voyages", or "Doing Tall Tales", or "Doing PvP".

  • @captngaspar said in Playstyle Selection and Matchmaking Preferences:

    The community in Sea of Thieves is struggling with the problem of everyone being forced to a similar playstyle and it is ruining player retention, and is more or less ruining the reputation of this game, because new players are sunk and their experience is ruined by players far more skilled than them.

    Everything in this opening statement is patently false. There is no problem other than some people failing to realize what the purpose/design of the game is, no issues with player retention as it remains among the most 20 played games on Live week after week, and no issues with reputation (proven by the continued success, overall positive reviews, and steady weekly play statistics).

    Everything you list as an "improvement" would destroy the world that the developers have chosen to promote, that is one of uncertainty of what players might do when encountered. It would make encounters bland and unoriginal if you were placed in servers with only like minded players and no longer be Sea of Thieves as imagined by Rare. You say "return the game to its roots" without even realizing what those are. Rare has kept true to their "roots" of the game, in that it will remain a PvPvE game with unexpected encounters as it has been since day 1. This was the design LONG before they even settled on the pirate theme.

  • @dlchief58 there absolutely is a problem with player retention, otherwise Rare themselves would advertise their number of regular players rather than literally posting the number of people who have tried the game, even just once. And even then it's only like ~30 million players.

    Like idk if these suggestions would change the trajectory this game is on, but there's no need to spread misinformation about this game. I mean, there was a post recently where almost every commenter mentioned how they don't even suggest this game to their friends.. Presumably people who already have shared interests with them.

  • @thagoochiestman said in Playstyle Selection and Matchmaking Preferences:

    @dlchief58 there absolutely is a problem with player retention, otherwise Rare themselves would advertise their number of regular players rather than literally posting the number of people who have tried the game, even just once. And even then it's only like ~30 million players.

    Like idk if these suggestions would change the trajectory this game is on, but there's no need to spread misinformation about this game. I mean, there was a post recently where almost every commenter mentioned how they don't even suggest this game to their friends.. Presumably people who already have shared interests with them.

    Nothing I wrote was disinformation but rather FACTS that you don't like because they don't support your position. As I said the weekly most played games on Live CONSISTENTLY has Sea of Thieves ranking about #20 on the list and has held steady for over 3 years and counting. The misinformation was in the OPs post as I pointed out.

  • @dlchief58 the "root" i was referring to is that players could interact in fun ways in an open world. that what their idea for sea of thieves.

  • @dlchief58 Current rank for the past 30 days is Most watched #63, most streamed #44 and most avg viewers #176

  • Hi all, here are the teams thoughts on PVE/PVP: Given the debate surrounding PvE vs PvP has been going for some time, the team wanted to address it, laying out our vision and the design intent of the game. Sea of Thieves at its heart has and always will be a shared-world adventure game, and this is something that is not planned to change in the future.

    In Episode 2 of the Sea of Thieves Official Podcast, a nuanced discussion surrounding the community debate took place with a number of the senior team involved in the creation of the game. With our position on this topic now clear, the discussion surrounding PvPvE is no longer relevant to the Steam Discussions.

    Having closely followed the discussions that have taken place surrounding this topic, we feel that it no longer has a place within this forum as it has, at times, led to unwarranted hostility between members of the community. To prevent this, we will be locking all past threads discussing this and will keep a close eye out for any emerging threads that revive the subject. We ask that users do not repeat post about this topic as any following this thread will be removed and may result in action being taken against offending accounts. If future developments in the game warrant new discussions, then we will of course open this up for the community to freely discuss. If this happens then any such conversations will be closely monitored to gather feedback, but will in no means be an opening for personal attacks to take place again. That being said, we will be dropping anchor here.

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