Feedback regarding solo vs the world

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

Solo play is now less viable than it was before. It’s hilarious. Before season 9 I could do an entire fleet and almost never be bothered. I could easily do an ashen winds without dying once and not be bothered.

Now?

Not possible.

Terrible for solos. Adventure is arguably ruined for new and casual solo players.

Season 9 is a day old. There isn't a deep pool of encounters yet to overall make a call on this.

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush

I feel stupid for dumping 400+ dollars into their product when they always dump all over my preferred style of play. They refuse to provide me and all other solo players an adventure mode tailor made for solos.

Throughout SoT's history they have aimed for larger crews and larger boats but have consistently catered to solo and sloop play because of the demand. It's not about separating people it's about improving quality of life for people and the quality of life for solo play in the game has significantly improved for most.

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush

I couldn’t even enjoy a single session yesterday. So no improvements for me. All the QoL fixes are insignificant compared to a sweatier adventure mode with more ships, the vast majority being fully crewed.

Gotta let the dust settle and see how it looks in a couple of weeks, a month, a couple of months, 6 months, etc, day 1 of a new season is just a day.

More solos will produce and sell more treasure over time as things settle, which is a win for the environment and for the individual.

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush

I have to force myself to stop financially supporting a game that refuses to support my playstyle even though I’m a collector at heart.

Can not continue to support Rare.

You gotta do what you gotta do but this is about more than just me or you. It's about the future, the solos that want to stay, that want their experience improved, that want to share the seas with others of varying ship sizes. A necessary part of the future and of the game and of the community. What we help to support now is what becomes a resource for them later.

Wait, you can sell tridents now?

I found like 6 last night and just logged off with them on my ship like usual

@wolfmanbush said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush

I couldn’t even enjoy a single session yesterday. So no improvements for me. All the QoL fixes are insignificant compared to a sweatier adventure mode with more ships, the vast majority being fully crewed.

Gotta let the dust settle and see how it looks in a couple of weeks, a month, a couple of months, 6 months, etc, day 1 of a new season is just a day.

More solos will produce and sell more treasure over time as things settle, which is a win for the environment and for the individual.

I don't think solo's will produce more. The time to complete a world event might be less, but the chance to get into a battle with another ship has increased (not only for world events, also for voyages). And that was the whole problem. Solo's don't like to 'waist' time just so that someone else can profit from it. The time needed to complete events might have been less, but the chance of handing it in has probably decreased since there are more ships around now. This doesn't make it better for them.

The problem was not the time it took, the problem was the unbalanced fights. So if you increase those fights, they are only getting in a worse playground. The balancing issues are on multiple levels. Solo slooping means you are always outgunned and outmanned, and the sloop is also by far the slowest ship (it's not even close), so trying to stay out of battle is also impossible, as soon as someone sees you, you are 'forced' into battle. On top of that you issue have the skill issues. The players doing the events (PvE'ers) are often (way) less skill then the people hunting (PvP'ers), creating another uneven siuation.

This all creates that the battles for the fast majority of solo sloopers will just end in losses. So it's nice that the events now costs a bit less time, however since the number of encounters has increased, they probably have less chance of actually handing in the loot.

You could argue that that is probably because it's relatively new, so the 'hunters' are now more active (also to get their season pass completed), however those solo sloopers could by that time already turned off and 'bullied' away from doing events. The real problem that made most people not doing events has not been adressed and arguably has only gotten worse.

I think the FoF will be the worst. I think for most crews that is now an event that is impossible to complete due to the extremely skilled players who are just server hopping the entire time to find a FoF and steal the Chest of Fortune. And i don't think that will stop, since that will be THE chest to hunt for now, so even if they complete their commendation most will probably keep hunting for it for the meme's and content (youtube vids and streaming). I think FoF's have been made way more difficult to complete, even for a full galleon crew. I wouldn't be surprise if the 'PvP lords' (as some like to call them) halfway into the season complain about fighting the same crews the entire time, because the rest will already stopped even trying to do them.

@super87ghost said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@ailingfish33866 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush

I couldn’t even enjoy a single session yesterday. So no improvements for me. All the QoL fixes are insignificant compared to a sweatier adventure mode with more ships, the vast majority being fully crewed.

Gotta let the dust settle and see how it looks in a couple of weeks, a month, a couple of months, 6 months, etc, day 1 of a new season is just a day.

More solos will produce and sell more treasure over time as things settle, which is a win for the environment and for the individual.

I don't think solo's will produce more. The time to complete a world event might be less, but the chance to get into a battle with another ship has increased (not only for world events, also for voyages). And that was the whole problem. Solo's don't like to 'waist' time just so that someone else can profit from it. The time needed to complete events might have been less, but the chance of handing it in has probably decreased since there are more ships around now. This doesn't make it better for them.

The problem was not the time it took, the problem was the unbalanced fights. So if you increase those fights, they are only getting in a worse playground. The balancing issues are on multiple levels. Solo slooping means you are always outgunned and outmanned, and the sloop is also by far the slowest ship (it's not even close), so trying to stay out of battle is also impossible, as soon as someone sees you, you are 'forced' into battle. On top of that you issue have the skill issues. The players doing the events (PvE'ers) are often (way) less skill then the people hunting (PvP'ers), creating another uneven siuation.

This all creates that the battles for the fast majority of solo sloopers will just end in losses. So it's nice that the events now costs a bit less time, however since the number of encounters has increased, they probably have less chance of actually handing in the loot.

You could argue that that is probably because it's relatively new, so the 'hunters' are now more active (also to get their season pass completed), however those solo sloopers could by that time already turned off and 'bullied' away from doing events. The real problem that made most people not doing events has not been adressed and arguably has only gotten worse.

I think the FoF will be the worst. I think for most crews that is now an event that is impossible to complete due to the extremely skilled players who are just server hopping the entire time to find a FoF and steal the Chest of Fortune. And i don't think that will stop, since that will be THE chest to hunt for now, so even if they complete their commendation most will probably keep hunting for it for the meme's and content (youtube vids and streaming). I think FoF's have been made way more difficult to complete, even for a full galleon crew. I wouldn't be surprise if the 'PvP lords' (as some like to call them) halfway into the season complain about fighting the same crews the entire time, because the rest will already stopped even trying to do them.

I think people are examining this short term when this is something that is to be examined as long term potential.

Inexperienced players lose loot, we've all been here. The consequences of this have been reduced because time is the most precious commodity.

Unlucky happenstance sufferers lose loot, we've all been here. Less time is less risk, it's higher chance of success overall and less time for hoppers to find the server and make their move.

The experienced solo (which all solos have the potential to be) will factor in risk/reward and make smart plays based on their experience. Less unpleasant, lower time requirement, more pleasant pve interaction will factor into many experienced solos calculations.

This is an investment that will pay off because it comes at no cost, this costs solos nothing, this is free opportunity. Even if hopping goes back to how it was there will still be experienced solos taking some risks because of the changes, there will be some driven solos working their way up. This is overall an improvement to pve and the organic environment like HG overall improved the organic environment and removed some weight from those that invest.

Who knows if 6 ships will even last, there is a lot of rubberbanding out there, if that's related there might be another change on that in the future.

@wolfmanbush I feel like you're not ready my whole post, since i have argued about the long term. Because what happens in short term also has an impact on the long term.

And you also don't seem to factor in the increased chance of encounters since there are more ships now. In your reply you completely ignore that important factor.

So yes, there are some improvements, but also significant negatives (one that i haven't even mentioned is that server hopping is now easier and quicker with the option to scuttle and change server)

If they kept it to 5 ships, i would say it would be an overal plus (except for the FoF, wich is a severe negative). But with the increased number of ships, i think it might not be a plus and perhaps even a minus.

@super87ghost said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush I feel like you're not ready my whole post, since i have argued about the long term. Because what happens in short term also has an impact on the long term.

And you also don't seem to factor in the increased chance of encounters since there are more ships now. In your reply you completely ignore that important factor.

So yes, there are some improvements, but also significant negatives (one that i haven't even mentioned is that server hopping is now easier and quicker with the option to scuttle and change server.

Have you done a solo fof yet? an inexperienced/experienced solo is going to be able to survive that with 5 and 6 ship capacity FAR more often than pre season 9. It's a massive difference in time requirement and difficulty.

Even if a solo just takes 5 of the best items and comes back later for the rest it's a huge difference is survival odds.

@wolfmanbush Not solo, but i have done some FoF's already. All 3 times almost imidiately when you get there an insanely good crew shows up. So that a solo sloop can now do it more quickly doesn't matter, because other ships are already there before you can even complete it. And 2 of the 3 FoF spawned directly next to us. This is why it has become way harder.

@super87ghost said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@wolfmanbush Not solo, but i have done some FoF's already. All 3 times almost imidiately when you get there an insanely good crew shows up. So that a solo sloop can now do it more quickly doesn't matter, because other ships are already there before you can even complete it. And 2 of the 3 FoF spawned directly next to us. This is why it has become way harder.

I did one last night solo without pvp and with only base supplies/no tridents on servers where a large amount of the pvp hoppers bounce around.

The time requirement reduction is huge for solo play
the overall more pleasant experience fighting the pve is huge for solo play

Considering the loot it is amazing risk/reward for a solo as long as they don't tinker again and make it less appealing.

@ajm123 said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

I did a few different world events on a brig.

Fotd....way to easy.
fof was a joke
New ghost fleet about the same

My biggest complaint is the nerfing tbh but I'm sure solo players are happy. Making things easier tho isn't always a good thing imo

It is for actually getting loot circulating on the seas.

@zig-zag-ltu But most people didn't bother to go to a ashen winds at the other side of the map to sink a crew. With the extra ship on the map, there is way more chance that someone is not to far away or comes across you anyway and think "hey, a ship closeby to sink". This is why the chance of getting attacked is probably bigger now.

Besides: the long time the event is up didn't say that much, since if a ship sailed closeby the timer would reset, so if the event stayed up a little longer then the normal despawn time, it wasn't an indicator the event was being done.

edit:
@zig-zag-ltu said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@super87ghost But that's because FoF has a new piece of loot which gives commendations and cosmetics. Try Ashen lords or normal skelly fort I doubt you will get same interest from other players, unless they are farming FoF and finishing other events is just to get them out of the way.

That is what i also pointed out ;-) That is why i mentioned that the FoF is different then other events.

@zig-zag-ltu said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@super87ghost Oh my bad, perhaps I missed that.

No worries, that can happen ;-)

@zig-zag-ltu said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

Well but in general, if we separate the two facts, this is still a massive help to solo sloopers.

6 ships per server.

Easier world events.

We used to have 6 ships per server, so you doing a world event solo was not even an option. Now you have a window of opportunity as a solo slooper. It's not supposed to be easy, but I am really excited I can finally attempt Fotd on my own or with my girlfriend.

If you compare it to all the way back when servers had 6 ships, then it is definitely better. No argument there.
I was comparing it to season 8 when we had 5 ships though. Then it is already more nuanced.

The Fof has become worse. I think the other world events might be about neutral due to that extra ship, although i would make an exception for the fleet event, i think that is probably a plus. But for the voyages/quests i think it's probably a negative (compared to season 8), because of that extra ship on the server.

Ofcourse it's always a wait-and-see-situation and this is just my guess.

But i think @WolfManbush did point something out that might also affect the longer term (he edited that in after i reacted to him, so i didn't see it then), that servers are rubberbanding a lot now, so it's not certain if that 6th ship stays. If they would go back to 5 ships, then obviously it would be a definite plus.

@zig-zag-ltu said in Feedback regarding solo vs the world:

@super87ghost Well if it becomes a lot worse for solo sloopers, because of that extra ship...We still have the Ashen region to be left alone ^^ Just like in the olden days, I feel that prior to Season 9 solo sloopers have forgotten their old friend ^^

I don't even know if it'll last with some of the lag but if it does it's not too much of an issue yet because there is carry over varied interest from season 8 and there is the typical little bump from a new season/milestone in varied interest

The varied interest/experience is important because it means not all the boats are hoppers and they aren't all threats.

A lot of the all day extreme pvpers have naturally brought it down a few notches over time, some of them are 3-5 years in and are pretty burnt out which means less extreme SoT play and playing other games more often. This mixed with HG can provide an improved environment for organic solo and pve play.

At worst this season should be alright and at best there potentially could be a noticeable amount of varied interest/experience increase throughout the season.

I'm feeling good about the season's potential. I'm feeling alright about the organic environment compared to the last couple of years. I'm feeling good about qol for solos and for those that struggle and produce.