@el-cute I think by not giving strangers a chance you are losing out on some of the magic of Sea of Thieves.
I met all my crew mates because of this game I'm either in open crew or discord servers. They have become some of my best friends. You should give it a try, you might find some people woth similar views.
Definitely as someone else already suggested, the greatest sessions comes out when you interact with other crews as a solo, either by joining them on board as an extra crewmate, or by letting them onboard. Sometimes you may encounter trolls or toxic people, but you may also encounter funny people that bring you nice adventures. If your objective is just the chest of fortune as a solo, you have to act smart and capitilize on less experienced crews or go there with a rowboat, supplies and tridents and either finish the fort sneakily to not letting other crews know that you are there, or just go for the tuck play and steal the chest at the end.
I think this is an issue of perspective and not an issue with skill. Fort of Fortunes are the hot ticket item right now. New chest, new commendation, lots of attention. The official Discord is awash with "server hopping for FoF/FotD" ads. They are being used as an adventure mode PVP finder. So just remember when you go do a Fort of Fortune or a Fort of the Damned, you know you are signing up for PVP.
Secondly, I like to explain this game as though it were a single-player game. Sea of Thieves is a "shared world sandbox pirate adventure game," and you do not control the other players who join your server. If you think of it as a single-player game, the game would spawn in and out various ships sized to represent different levels of difficulty—galleons would be harder than brigantines would be harder than sloops in a single player paradigm. (This is currently demonstrated well via emergent skeleton ships.) This paradigm enables the player to make the strategic decision of "fight or flight" based on what they are doing and what they have at the time, based on their own skill and the ship they see over there. Similarly, players can choose to be in a sloop, a brigantine, or a galleon based on the difficulty they want to play: galleons have more actions than brigantines have more actions than sloops and in that regard galleons could be considered "more powerful" than brigantines are more powerful than sloops.
The truth is that Sea of Thieves is a shared world, so instead of the game engine picking the ships that spawn in the other players do. Otherwise it is essentially the same. When you choose to solo sloop, you are choosing "hard" mode. I am sorry you cannot find or do not want to find more pirates to play with, but solo sloop players I advise to stay away from Forts of Fortune and Forts of the Damned; you will get attacked by larger crews doing those events, period, and unless you are quite skilled you will lose, period. You are choosing to play hard mode.
Otherwise, Rare is adamant about not separating the player base. It dilutes the experience. That's why you won't see PVE servers or solo sloop servers: all ships and all crews sharing the same world is essential to the game. The other players are the challenge because, as you've pointed out, the World Events no longer pose a challenge to even solo sloop pirates. Yes, playing alone on a sloop is very common play style; I say common because I don't believe it is preferred. Most solo sloop topics say things like "can't assemble my crew often" or "open crew is terrible." Very few state "solo is my preferred play style." It's usually a concession and not a preference.
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@captain-coel Hey ! Yes, I've had a discord with +/- 2200 people on it before I give it to "new generations", it was fun for a moment, now I enjoy my time without having to talk (the older I get, silence gains value :D). Also, people come and go with SoT, I enjoy having my own little clan for when we can play together and the rest of my time, just enjoying solitude...
I get that I do. I play with the same 10-15 people on a regular basis. I'm also 38, married with a family. So it was important to find people who share similar values.
I would hazard a guess that this game as well as many games have gone solo majority, as in there are far more solo (and/or "casual") players than not playing currently. Now this being the case I can see the minority of 2+ crews playing this game not wanting it to change and erode any advantages they have or to add any more incentive(s) for solo player pirate ships to play this game and edge them out or decrease their perceived power over games outcome . Let me be clear, I love the crew (2+) aspect of this game and think it adds many games with multiplayer teams allowed in them more depth on a personal (civil?) level that simply playing solo lacks. Be prepared OP for the comments:
I know I has missed some and may need to edit a few back in as the excuse list is long.
Good luck OP in your quest for balance I am sailing beside you on this one.
-Oops forgot one: If the game becomes more solo friendly it is breaking the balance of the game or that it will dilute the already low amount of multi pirate-crews playing the game on the server and the game will become a PvE/PvP dead world and ships will start sailing of the edge of the world formed as the seas have broken and will end in a draining waterfall that will suck all the pirates over the side plunging to their DOOM! (sorry got carried away there , but you get the point(s). )
Again, sail on solo champion!
You're playing the hard mode within the hard mode
The most difficult way to play this game is as a solo and carrying the higher production of the server. This is how I play so I am very familiar with it.
It makes it the harder mode because you are not only taking all the risk, you are going to face more difficult opponents because you are fighting less pvers and more pvpers.
Imo you would find more success by adapting to a different solo strategy which is what many solos/crews do in this game, steal it from crews. If you as a solo try to steal it from those that are doing it, you'll find a higher chance of success. If the time isn't right it isn't right, don't be in a hurry just take the opportunities that arise.
Producing at high risk and then fighting off the more skilled players on the server isn't going to be for everyone.
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@captain-coel Hey ! Yes, I've had a discord with +/- 2200 people on it before I give it to "new generations", it was fun for a moment, now I enjoy my time without having to talk (the older I get, silence gains value :D). Also, people come and go with SoT, I enjoy having my own little clan for when we can play together and the rest of my time, just enjoying solitude...
I'm the opposite. I crave the chit-chat that comes with playing the game in a crew, even if it's a crew of 2 on a sloop.
Having said that... there are certain things that being solo on a sloop will never be able to be fixed.
You are always alone, and there is nobody to share roles or labor with. You'll move treasure slower. You HAVE to abandon your ship to do anything on land, leaving it vulnerable to all sorts of mischief. Interactions with others will almost always leave you at a disadvantage.
I don't think there is a fix for that that isn't contrary to the game's vision.
@ajm123 said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
Don't play a multiplayer game solo
Ding ding one has arrived OP there will be more. Sail on.
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@lordqulex
As a solo player, I'm expected to play PVP and as they already built this mecanic for hourglass, I suggest it to be balanced, fair instead of frustrating even when you have the high ground for an hour long fight against multiple crews. When I mentionned the FoF, it's just an example, I'm having the same situations with Ashen lords or even regular forts (I did not expect people to still be interested by them, that was a surprise ^^). So yes, we could say that "this is the way it is" or we could make the game enoyable for everyone. If solo servers are not a solution, I can hear this, then something else. A ghost-ly jack sparrow helping at the canons like in talltales ? Whatever, my point is to share feedback to find suitable solutions to everyone, instead of condemning that part of the playerbase because it's easier to tell them they are wrong to play solo. I think the arguments made earlier don't need to be repeated, I still don't consider to have a solid answer to them but thank you for answering ^^
The issue with world events is that they are going to attract attention. That's their job. They put a giant beacon up, into the sky, for everyone to sea. Their purpose is to attract attention, and draw disparate crews together. While they have made the PvE easier, there's not much they can do on the PvP interactions. You have chosen to go alone in a world where teams are more efficient. There's not much that can be done for you there.
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
I know we tend to imagine SoT as an adventure game, but as long as there is matchmaking, it should be balanced.
Sounds reasonable, but no. You're asking for action at FOF. I'm amazed you got 6 spawn in one day!
This is one of those choose-your-own-adventure conundrums.
As a solo slooper, you can't engage in the same type of risk taking as a larger crew, without accepting you'll likely be more exposed, more likely to be caught off guard & outgunned, and/or that you're more at risk of a tucker boarding you without sighting them. You can accept these risks, and cop whatever the server throws at you, or you can choose a task that has less exposure.
@foambreaker Oh definitely. Season 9 made solo slooping way less viable.
But depending on the region it also made the PvE way less. On EU-servers i have seen the amount of emmissaries significantly decrease from about 2-3 out of 4 per server to mostly 1 out of 5 (i am excluding myself obviously). Also the ships i do encounter that aren't doing PvP (wich are already getting rare...) don't do voyages anymore, but mostly just hop to closeby islands to grab 1-2 pieces of loot and hand it in. Only on saturdays and sundays you will see some more PvE going on.
Most of this comes from two things:
So it depends a bit on the region, but that 6th ship is absolutely wrecking the gameplay on EU-servers and ruined the whole purpose Rare had with the update for S9. They wanted to make the world events easier for smaller crews so they would be done more and there would be more loot on the servers. On it's own that was a good idea. However by added an extra ship it completely countered it and didn't make world events easier (because smaller crews often need to do them without being seen, but with extra ships that chance is smaller) and made voyages significantly harder. The loot production went down. On the East-US servers this problem is not that noticable, because those servers are way more casual and there you do find friendly encounters (on EU-servers i haven't seen a single friendly encounter in S9).
I think Rare had good intentions, but miscalculated. The biggest problem with the world events was not per se the time needed to complete (although that was also a factor), but the chance of actually handing in the loot. That has only decreased for casual players, especially on 'sweaty' servers like the EU ones.
@foambreaker said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
It was better before S9, when there were only 5 ships on the water, 6 really changed the dynamic and as a solo sloop person I spend too much time fighting and getting sunk. The prime time loot bonus used to be a thing, now I don't bother trying.
Honestly, the only way I see balancing this is Rare being able to have even more crews (ships) on the same server as this would add more risk in attacking you would have more chance by and join in to your counted slaughter.
@el-cute
I have had many conversations about the "us vs. them" mentality of the forums, but as your sample set gets large enough everything begins to fit into a bell curve; there are definitely "vocal minorities" on both extremes of the PVP/PVE spectrum and I kind of agree with it. Hardcore PVE'ers will always be at philosophical odds with the hardcore PVP'ers. So I hate to bring this up in the first place as it is contentious but, as you've pointed out, there is a stark difference in the difficulty of PVE versus PVE.
But recent Rare videos on youtube suggest that Rare doesn't want solo play to be the hard mode anymore...
For PVE, this is correct. They have made PVE much easier. But you also said,
I'm not suggesting a PVE server, it would be boring and pointless.
This is true. I subscribe to Bernard Suits' definition of a game as "the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles."
Sea of Thieves is actually two games in one play area. The PVE game that is doing voyages and world events and turning in treasure. This is the game Rare has recently made easier via nerfing world events. Then there is the PVP game of cat-and-mouse, risk-and-reward, skill-versus-skill. Rare has never, nor has any plans to ever, "balance" this game at all (in terms of crews). You are put in a sandbox with random crews of random sizes in your region. This is what makes sailing a sloop alone "hard mode." PVE has never been hard, PVP is the game, other players are the unnecessary obstacle you are voluntarily attempting to overcome. Being in a server with other ships you have no control over the size of is what creates the risk/reward paradigm. You have just finished a skeleton fleet, you have a sloop full of loot:
The different ship sizes compared to your ship size helps make every session different. It keeps the game fresh and interesting by changing the circumstance every session thus forcing you to change your strategy every session. Same goes for the storm, and the kraken: do I sail through the storm to go to the nearest outpost so risk being on the seas longer sailing to one further away? Do I bee-line for the outpost now before another world event pops up and risk sailing my loot through the dreaded kraken?
This is the strategy that would be harmed if there were sloop-only servers. I would no longer be able to see a sloop at Golden Sands if I were in a brigantine or a galleon. It would increase the odds of me seeing no ship there, and:
it would be boring and pointless.
😁
I do enjoy solo play but I would avoid FoF's and FotD's, they're high hazard for any crew, nevermind a solo who has to complete the event while watching the horizon. Try changing your tactics up, if you want a chest of fortune, you're advantage as a solo is that you are one person able to control your own actions, tuck, rowboat over, don't be so focused on your sloop. Use the tools available is what I'm saying, ship vs ship combat, you start at a disadvantage so don't play by there rules.
@a10dr4651 said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
I do enjoy solo play but I would avoid FoF's and FotD's, they're high hazard for any crew, nevermind a solo who has to complete the event while watching the horizon. Try changing your tactics up, if you want a chest of fortune, you're advantage as a solo is that you are one person able to control your own actions, tuck, rowboat over, don't be so focused on your sloop. Use the tools available is what I'm saying, ship vs ship combat, you start at a disadvantage so don't play by there rules.
Some good and great advise here not just for FoF and FotD.
Its an unknown rule of thumb, New Update? Stay away from them.
Wait until the next update comes out so when everyone is focused on that one, you can go back and do the other stuff.
Like with S8, everyone was doing Hour Glass, I was able to clear out 20 forts in a 6 hour play session with No attacks. (before even all the changes in S9) every couple of days/weeks until near the end. I got some commendations done I never got to do :D
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@sairdontis4317 I somehow didn't see your comment, you made my day :D You forgot mentionning the answers that will only concentrate on the example of the FoF instead of the real issue about the unbalanced crews threat. Much love !
Thank you! I think personally that Rare is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to crew balance. One hand they try to keep the gameplay light and simple (I like this by the way for the most part for the record),but on the other side they need there to be also downsides to having a larger crew to balance the obvious advantages. If this game was to be more realistic (gasp that word the forbidden word in gaming nowadays) larger crew would come with the disadvantage of sleep and watches not to mention needs for more food and fresh water for a larger crew, though this would remove some of the light and simple gameplay Rare seems to be striving for.
It comes down to risk vs reward and advantage vs disadvantage. A larger crew risks less in a fight and has more hands to work with and thus more margin for error. Yes, Yes , yes I know larger ship more to worry about and ground to cover, but again this is only if you are taking damage by an equal sized crew if not you simple send a few members of the crew over to the opposing ship and disrupt or kill the crew and thus aid in the quicker sinking of their ship. Simple done and done. This is the case of course for the larger crew, but not so for the small or solo crew ship as there is no advantage for you unless you are up against a very inexperienced crew and get some good mast hits before they send you ship to the bottom with more fire power or killing with boarding.
The only real answer is to add a disadvantage to larger crew ships that equals the disadvantage to a solo or lower number crew ship and presently this is clearly not the case.
Much luck to Rare with this thorny issue and the crew(s) suffering through till they come up with an answer to this balance issue.
@sairdontis4317 said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@el-cute said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@sairdontis4317 I somehow didn't see your comment, you made my day :D You forgot mentionning the answers that will only concentrate on the example of the FoF instead of the real issue about the unbalanced crews threat. Much love !
Thank you! I think personally that Rare is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to crew balance. One hand they try to keep the gameplay light and simple (I like this by the way for the most part for the record),but on the other side they need there to be also downsides to having a larger crew to balance the obvious advantages. If this game was to be more realistic (gasp that word the forbidden word in gaming nowadays) larger crew would come with the disadvantage of sleep and watches not to mention needs for more food and fresh water for a larger crew, though this would remove some of the light and simple gameplay Rare seems to be striving for.
It comes down to risk vs reward and advantage vs disadvantage. A larger crew risks less in a fight and has more hands to work with and thus more margin for error. Yes, Yes , yes I know larger ship more to worry about and ground to cover, but again this is only if you are taking damage by an equal sized crew if not you simple send a few members of the crew over to the opposing ship and disrupt or kill the crew and thus aid in the quicker sinking of their ship. Simple done and done. This is the case of course for the larger crew, but not so for the small or solo crew ship as there is no advantage for you unless you are up against a very inexperienced crew and get some good mast hits before they send you ship to the bottom with more fire power or killing with boarding.
The only real answer is to add a disadvantage to larger crew ships that equals the disadvantage to a solo or lower number crew ship and presently this is clearly not the case.
Much luck to Rare with this thorny issue and the crew(s) suffering through till they come up with an answer to this balance issue.
There already are disadvantages for many things on a galleon. More sails to handle, slower sail control, slower anchor control, etc, unless more than one person is using at the same time.
More importantly, there is a fundamental disagreement here. You are arguing that a solo-sloop should be on equal footing to a coordinated 4-man group on a galley, or coordinated 3-man group on a brig. I don't think that should be the case. You can narrow the gap some (see the above), but that gap is going to be there, and it should not be removed. Efficiency is the reward you get for coordination and cooperation.
This is the important part. Until you get agreement on this fundamental question, arguing about the details of your solution is merely talking past the other side, not engaging in a true discussion.
@Tybald "This is the important part. Until you get agreement on this fundamental question, arguing about the details of your solution is merely talking past the other side, not engaging in a true discussion."
I believe I replace the word here from agreement to answer and that would go along way to addressing the issue many players see with this game.
"but that gap is going to be there, and it should not be removed" Again, this a direct disregard for balance verbatim. No gap can be allowed in a balanced game, period. Or it is fundamentally imbalanced from the start.
Also, no one on the forum except the moderators , of course, has the floor to decide what is a "true discussion" for the forums as a whole.
Fast and slow . Nimble and cumbersome. More guns and less guns. These are the not totality of the gameplay in this game. It is not that simple, but those who would like to maintain the status quo would like to go on and on that it is to forestall any balancing actions from the developers of the game. Health of the game over health of egos seems to be what is plaguing many games that have any pvp aspects to them and it is a shame.
@sairdontis4317 said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@Tybald ">
"but that gap is going to be there, and it should not be removed" Again, this a direct disregard for balance verbatim. No gap can be allowed in a balanced game, period. Or it is fundamentally imbalanced from the start.
"Balance" is a vague word, similar to "fair" it can mean many things depending on context. You are arguing for balance between "teams", I (and others) are arguing that the balance is at the player level. Again, that is the fundamental difference you need to actually get agreement on before your individual details about how to fix the "issue" you have. You need to get people to agree that your "issue" IS an "issue".
Also, no one on the forum except the moderators , of course, has the floor to decide what is a "true discussion" for the forums as a whole.
ummm....no. You seemed to completely miss the point being made...
@tybald said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@sairdontis4317 said in Season 9 and the solo lie:
@Tybald ">
"but that gap is going to be there, and it should not be removed" Again, this a direct disregard for balance verbatim. No gap can be allowed in a balanced game, period. Or it is fundamentally imbalanced from the start."Balance" is a vague word, similar to "fair" it can mean many things depending on context. You are arguing for balance between "teams", I (and others) are arguing that the balance is at the player level. Again, that is the fundamental difference you need to actually get agreement on before your individual details about how to fix the "issue" you have. You need to get people to agree that your "issue" IS an "issue".
Also, no one on the forum except the moderators , of course, has the floor to decide what is a "true discussion" for the forums as a whole.
ummm....no. You seemed to completely miss the point being made...
And many have agreed again that there IS an issue. Read the forums very long and not just these ones or talk in the discords and you would get the real picture or simply ignore it as it seems you are prepared and willing to do and advocate for others to do the same. Fine . You do you and others will move forward.
I would say the same for you on missing the point being made, but we could go round and round and end at the same brick wall.
The first step at solving a problem is first admitting there is one.
