Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew

@juliusnl said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@ser-pineapples
Im okay with solo players getting a bit more money per chest, but i dont think it should be alot.

The amount earned by the players will be dependent on the crew size and the chest rarity. A captains chest e.g. is worth 300 coins and when sold:

• 4-pirate crews gets 300/4 = 75 per pirate
• 3-pirate crews gets 300/3 = 100 per pirate
• 2-pirate crews gets 300/2 = 150 per pirate
• 1-pirate crews gets 300/1 = 300 per pirate.

So pirates wouldn't get "a bit more" for playing with smaller crews, but it'll be adjusted. It'll be simple for Rare to mathematically randomly tweak these numbers with RNG (I'm not a mathematician, so I simply used my limited math terminology to request the idea) for it to be fair

Edit: fixed bad grammar & hopefully less ambiguous
Edit 2: This is a prototype bad idea. Do not upvote

@lumpaywk Wait,what?! You mean I can't shoot myself out of cannons in real life?? ;)

I just brought up the videos thing as a introduction and where I got the idea from. It's not the motive behind the idea

@lumpaywk No harm, no foul :)

@kigretheviking Hmm I think @JuliusNL was thinking of the same thing. I asked a friend and he said % would be fairer to use instead of cold divisions to minimize the splits in the community.

@lumpaywk the difference will make the player base not feel confined to 4-pirates galleons imo

@juliusnl you mind if I add your maths as a template in the original post^^^ ?

@kigretheviking said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@ser-pineapples

They have this system in Elite Dangerous. It sucks, HARD.
We never play togheter on the same ship exactly because of the split in earnings, we earn more going solo.

I've never played it but what happened sounds bad. I've changed the concept from using division to percentages. Hopefully it's a middle ground between that and SoT as it is now :)

@kigretheviking said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@ser-pineapples said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@kigretheviking Hmm I think @JuliusNL was thinking of the same thing. I asked a friend and he said % would be fairer to use instead of cold divisions to minimize the splits in the community.

I'd have it the other way around. More money if you are sailing with someone, less when alone. But thats me though. :) It doesnt really make sense but it does encourage play with others.

lol

I totally agree some adjustments should be made BUT also consider if solo rewards are given at a much higher rate players/friends will just make the adjustment and play solo and "team". I know it's a pirate game so anything goes and I'm fine with that just something to think about.

@ghostpaw you can deff get alot accomplished playing solo because like you said sometimes 3-4 player crews can have lots of issues getting players to actually play together. I think the gameplay will change alot after the full release though because during these betas/stress tests players are just starting to figure the game out and many are meeting new players to play with and the more they learn the game the more efficient they will become. A good 4 player crew that works together can be very efficent and also very hard to defeat in PVP.

@ghostpaw Sounds like you had it rough. I understand, in fact I did a lot better last night solo than I did the day before with 4 others; but I don't write off bigger crews just yet if you had. Galleons was featured in most of my greater moments in the game. Hop between random lobbies or even better try to get friends to play with you :)

@perfect-code Im not sure if this is a thing but I noticed it took more digs to get an chest out on higher ranks in the scale test. It could've been my imagination tho.

This is a give and take situation for their development team.

• If they do as you suggest? Then you're going to see far more players that play "solo", because the return on your time is greater. You all in all get more gold by playing solo, so it's going to hamper their goal of making this a social multiplayer game.

• If they don't slow down on the amount of money that 4 man crews can quickly accrue? They they are going to need to make sure they have a plan / are fast with updates for the end game, because you'll have players that grind it out together and can buy things "fast". Meaning either always adding more items to shoot for, or more endgame goals that may not need the money.

It's sort of a no win situation for them if you think about it. No matter which way you go, you're going to make someone unhappy. But to keep the spirit of the game? They're probably going to stick with the gold the way it is now, as that will promote working as a team.

@ser-pineapples said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

To fill the void of no Sea of Thieves for a month, I was watching videos on pirate life and found out pirates distributed their plunder among their crew equally. That gave me an idea.

Sea of Thieves already has a system where all crew members get the same reward but it is not split equally and everyone gets the same full reward. Meaning whether you sailing alone or with others, you'll all receive the same amount upon selling your plunder. What I am proposing is that rewards for each chest/skull/(merchant cargo?) will be split among the entire crew equally; meaning larger the crew, the smaller reward per player while smaller the crew means more reward per player for the same loot.

I know this will be controversial as it disrupts the status quo, but just because the status quo works doesn't mean it can't get better. The more I thought about the idea, the more convincing it became.

Many in the community (and especially the new players), feel there is no real incentive to play solo because how outmatched and outnumbered you'll be in face of actual crews. Even the game's vanilla text describes solo sloops are recommended for experienced players only. But imagine how much more alluring it'll be if you get more coins if you sail solo since you don't need to split the reward? Pirating alone is high risk, so it's only fair if you also get higher reward for it.

I suspect this idea will be controversial because the sheer number of people who opts for 4-man galleons will left feeling at an loss from this idea, but please keep an open-mind since it's fair as galleon crews have an inherent numerical advantage (also let's not forget the true treasure is not in the booty but within your crew bonds; to anyone who disagrees, come @me).

Many of you might be thinking this will make the game unbalanced because now players have incentive to play solo, but I kindly want to remind you all that the game is already unbalanced in terms of player population choosing various crew sizes with the majority preferring 4-pirate galleons and 2-pirate sloops in close second. If anything, this will balance the population density imo as it'll incentivize people to diversify their play sessions into other crew sizes.

P.S
Judging from my past experiences on the forums, I should clarify that I've spent at least 100 hours in this game. Half of which was spent in a 2-manned sloop during the tech alpha and the other half in a 4-pirate galleon during the beta and scale test.

So I'm not proposing this idea as a greedy sleazy solo player who wants more rewards for himself while punishing others for having friends to play with. I'm writing this as someone who had been in both camps and simply want to improve the game for everyone. So don't attack the person (or his/her motives) behind the ideas, but rather debate the ideas itself in the comments.

EDIT:

I'm bad at maths and I realised how these splits can divide the playerbase. Think %-bonuses instead of divisions

EDIT 2:

@juliusnl said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@ser-pineapples
im fine with something like this
4 pirate crews get 300-30%=300-120=210 per pirate
3 get 300-20%=240 per pirate
2 get 300-10%=270 per pirate
1 get 300 per pirate.

using your way it would make playing solo so much more rewarding than playing 4man or even 2 man. which rare doesnt want like @LogansDadToo already said. still i like the idea of giving solo players more money.

Words from a man who understands maths^^. Use the values of the percentages as a template than set figures, tho I don't see anything wrong with these percentages imo

Yes Yes and Yes to all of the above.

@juliusnl said in Economy re-balancing: Split rewards among crew:

@ser-pineapples
im fine with something like this
4 pirate crews get 300-30%=300-120=210 per pirate
3 get 300-20%=240 per pirate
2 get 300-10%=270 per pirate
1 get 300 per pirate.

using your way it would make playing solo so much more rewarding than playing 4man or even 2 man. which rare doesnt want like @LogansDadToo already said. still i like the idea of giving solo players more money.

Yes yes and yes too that too

@katttruewalker Hmm I don't think that'll be a good idea because reputation actually can net you - if I've interpreted the articles from the embargo lift correctly - game-changing benefits like a different ship models and access to hideaways; while coins are mostly used for buying cosmetics. For a game in which earning rep is the goal to become a pirate legend, I can imagine playing solo would be an tempting exploit to speed up the process.

Though on the other hand, the community can nudge to encourage bigger crew to take on smaller crew I suppose but I doubt it'll sail smoothly through the community as the forums are already split on PvP vs PvE as it is.

Edit: ^My initial thoughts on it. I hadn't played Pirates online. So idk, maybe it can work ¯_(ツ)_/¯