Larger Crews and/or Ships

I am looking forward to having a mode later with like a Man Of War type ship with multiple decks with cannons on them. A ship that size would definitely make for some epic fights.

@overlord1006 said in Larger Crews and/or Ships:

So I have this game preordered, and I’m excited for it, however, some of my friends have decided not to get it due to the 4 player crew limit.

Same here, 2 buddies of mine are on the fence about SoT and this is the biggest contributing factor to their hesitance, after all, no one wants to fork over $60 for a game with a heavy emphasis on co-op only to wind up having to play solo or with randos if they're the last to show up on game night.

I think that if you had a higher crew limit, it would make the game a bit more enjoyable as you can have all your friends on there at once, and not be completely separated. Of course with a 6 or 8 man it might make more sense to have a larger ship (larger than the galleon), but that might also be a bit hard to balance.

Yeah, I think it could be more enjoyable if the ship's mechanics felt rewarding for the whole crew but like you said, it would be pretty tricky to pull off balance-wise without making it either waay overpowered or overly dependent on micromanagement to be effective.

So my suggestion for balancing a ship like this is to make it a giant powerhouse, but have the lower end of the hull farther down in the water, that way it’s easier for small crews to get good shots in.

IMO, It definitely should have more raw firepower than a galleon but I'm not too sure how I feel about it being seated lower in the water. On the one hand, it will certainly make it easier to sink but on the other hand the ship will have an easier time than the other ships at hitting their targets low as well.

Then have it be a poor maneuverability ship, so you wouldn’t want to get close to shore with it otherwise you may either run aground, or get completely trapped due to bad turning (making players have to utilize the cannons to get closer).

I agree, I feel that as a rule the bigger the ship is the harder to maneuver it ought to be.

It could also have two anchors (a smaller one, between the size of a sloop and galleon that’s a bit easier to turn, and a galleon anchor). An 8 man could be similar, but even less maneuverability and 3 anchors (two galleon and a smaller one somewhere between sloop and galleon).

While the idea of multiple anchors seems interesting and something Rare should explore, I think what would ultimately happen in the case you're describing is the players would only ever interact with the anchor that was faster to drop/raise and ignore the other one.

But all around I agree completely that a larger ship design would be a welcome edition to the game provided it were properly balanced and fun to use.

Only if they increased the amount of people in a server. From what I understand it isn't very many.

The limit should be ships, not players.

@solemagician506 I'd like to see Rare release a figure on how many congruent players there are in any given server on average, or even better than that, someway to tell how many players are on the seas with me in game. Thematically maybe they could show this in the form of a "soul manifest" on the ferry of the dammed?

But anyway yeah, IMO if they go through with a larger ship, instead of raising the player count they should create a matchmaking system that prioritizes ships of the same type together in the name of balance so that no solo player sloop player has to suddenly contend with 8 bloodthirsty pirates camping his merchant voyage destination outpost lol

@overlord1006 said in Larger Crews and/or Ships:

So I have this game preordered, and I’m excited for it, however, some of my friends have decided not to get it due to the 4 player crew limit. I think that if you had a higher crew limit, it would make the game a bit more enjoyable as you can have all your friends on there at once, and not be completely separated.

Of course with a 6 or 8 man it might make more sense to have a larger ship (larger than the galleon), but that might also be a bit hard to balance. So my suggestion for balancing a ship like this is to make it a giant powerhouse, but have the lower end of the hull farther down in the water, that way it’s easier for small crews to get good shots in. Then have it be a poor maneuverability ship, so you wouldn’t want to get close to shore with it otherwise you may either run aground, or get completely trapped due to bad turning (making players have to utilize the cannons to get closer). It could also have two anchors (a smaller one, between the size of a sloop and galleon that’s a bit easier to turn, and a galleon anchor). An 8 man could be similar, but even less maneuverability and 3 anchors (two galleon and a smaller one somewhere between sloop and galleon).

Those are my suggestions to have a good balance of crew size to ship balancing. I think the game definitely needs a bigger crew, but ship balancing would be a bit harder, so I threw my two cents in with that too.

I can definitely see that as a possibility in between the first update (3 months) and the second update (6 months). Wouldn’t mind it then. It is good there is no time to do it after launch thought

16 player servers, 6-8 crews no one left to fight

@overlord1006
I think it's asking a lot of them to introduce and try to balance a larger ship, instead just let us have like 6 person crews on a galleon. That's 4 gunners, a helmsman, and a repair/water bailing guy.

@griefer-tactics said in Larger Crews and/or Ships:

@overlord1006
I think it's asking a lot of them to introduce and try to balance a larger ship, instead just let us have like 6 person crews on a galleon. That's 4 gunners, a helmsman, and a repair/water bailing guy.

I feel like that would be even stronger

@overlord1006
How so? You don't have higher health or more firepower.

@griefer-tactics said in Larger Crews and/or Ships:

@overlord1006
How so? You don't have higher health or more firepower.

Well, equally strong to my idea and much more stronger than the average crew is what I meant by that. Anyhow, if you have an eight man crew on a 4 man ship, that means you have every role filled out, plus better maneuverability than what an 8 man would normally have. Having three guys on the cannons, one on the wheel (sometimes not necessary), and two bailing/repairing would be pretty strong in a more agile ship than a native 8 man.

@griefer-tactics said in Larger Crews and/or Ships:

@overlord1006
How so? You don't have higher health or more firepower.

I’d be fine with it either way, just so long as there is an increase. Me and my one friend were in a sloop fighting over a fort during the final beta, and there was four other galleons there and with wit and skill, we smoked em and got the loot. I think if you play it right, you should do fine.