Top Feedback Points Article Discussion

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    Executive Joe Neate takes you through the top feedback points in our Top Feedback Points Article.

    As with everything on Sea of Thieves, we will make changes, get them out to players and assess how effective they are, using feedback and data to decide whether we need to take more steps. Our priority is always to work out what can we do to address issues quickly, and then if we need to spend more time on them for a more involved fix, we will invest that time and effort.

    Check out the article to read what our plans are on the biggest feedback points you as a community have raised.

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  • A key change we are working on is to allow players to select whether they want their ship to be open to others being matchmade with them, or closed so that it's invite-only. This will allow players to manage how many people they want on their ship, invite friends and decide whether or not to allow other players to join them. We hope this mitigates one of the key reasons for people misusing the brig. It also has the added benefit of allowing players to sail the galleon with a smaller crew if they desire, or the sloop with a larger crew. We've had a lot of feedback and requests for this so we'll be very happy to deliver this functionality.

    Large sloop crews confirmed?!

  • @khaleesibot Nice!
    Thank you for keeping us informed! :)

  • @solemagician506 it appears so. This could be the death of the Galleon though......

    @khaleesibot thanks or the update! Glad to hear the Rare team are working so hard! Keep up the good work guys!

  • We need some type of social hub or physical game lobby to show off our pirate and clothes and to form groups maybe.

  • @thewolfman321 said in Top Feedback Points Article Discussion:

    @solemagician506 it appears so. This could be the death of the Galleon though......

    It certainly kills the 3 man galleon. Maybe they'll allow 5-6 man crews at some point? They do seem to be listening!

  • @khaleesibot Your link to the "Top Feedback Points Article" links to a picture and not the article

  • Good catch @danidipp, I've updated it! :)

  • @solemagician506 well how he game has changed so far proves they are listening. Only problem is that it makes me want to list all my ideas for the game xD

    Would be great if they did offer 5-6 man galleons though.

  • I'm not sure how I feel about sloops having four crew members tbh.

  • Please, no 4-man sloops! The numbers are fine the way they are. A decent 4-man crew on a sloop would wreck havoc with ease.

  • The best fixs for all the major problems right now is a non-PVP session option, and a vote to kick from crew button.

  • @psych0-knightro I like to play solo at times. I like it now when I see a sloop, I know it only “should” have 2 at most. But putting 4 on it will probably make me run from any sloop as I won’t know how many are on it.

    This is why we need a “Brig” type ship that is for 2-3 players, Galleon is fine, add another ship that can hold 5 (maybe 6). Then tweak it all from there.

    Edit: I like to do battles but solo vs a 4 man sloop is just suicide

  • @akbar37 The Galleon for its time was one of the largest ships for pirates to have within reason, there are smaller classes of ship between the sloop and galleon.

  • @khaleesibot about the "Finding a suitable crew" issue

    This isn't enough: «Work in progress: We are working on automatically matchmaking by microphone status. The game already detects if you have a microphone plugged in, and matchmaking will now prioritise matching you via your mic status.»

    Because, at least on PCs, the Mic might be connected (or reported as connected and not being even a Mic) and could be muted or even not working at all, audio-wise.

    «Investigating: We will be adding the option to filter by language for matchmaking so players can find other players who speak the same language to crew up with. »

    So, the same way the Language issue will need an option selection, the Mic should also have at least a 3 state toggle/selection:

    1. Only play with others with Mic.
    2. Only play with others without a Mic.
    3. Play with anyone regardless of Mic/Mic'less state.

    This would matchmake 3 groups:

    1. All with Mic
    2. All without Mic
    3. mixed, where nobody cares if the others have or don't a Mic. Anyone that has, can use it though, no issue with that.
  • @masterspectre-x that’s why I said a Brig type ship.

    Manowar would be the bigger one

  • It will only take on extra person on a sloop to make it extremely hard to sink.
    3 man sloops makes me nervous.

  • I like the idea of having private crews and allowing people to join even if you have a 1 man sloop, nothing worse than having to quit to get another player to join, especially if they need to wait as you are mid-voyage.

    What I think needs to be added is if the sloop has 2 crew members and a new player is then invited to make a 3 or 4 man crew. A warning comes up saying that if a 3rd member or more joins, the ship will automatically be scuttled and a Galleon will be spawned on return. Are you sure you want to do this?
    If a player is in the middle of a voyage they can cancel that invite and drop off their items before adding the player in. If they choose to ignore it then the ship scuttles and then they will have to wait with any loot for the new galleon to arrive and continue from there.

    Probably would need to add the invite crew member to the client for that to work though.

  • @khaleesibot

    Hi!

    Obsessed with the game. I would love to see some more underwater content and some sort of pvp exp. points for sinking other boats so it is a bit more rewarding to take down enemy crews.

  • So pleased at the promise of a two man Galleon.
    Extra Challenge = Extra Fun!

  • One thing about matchmaking I can add, I sometimes have a bad internet drop and the game immediately kicks me out for what is like 8 seconds of being disconnected. A feature of locking a ship from matchmaking when a disconnect happens to allow me a chance to reconnect, prioritising that ship for me to rejoin would be much appreciated.

    There has been far too many times when the game has disconnected for a few seconds, kicked me and then I lose every piece of loot on board with no way to attempt to reconnect.

  • Is anyone sure this is what Rare said? I feel like the phrasing could’ve meant you can start either a sloop or galleon with just one person and then add more up to the max. Because currently if you start as a three man galleon or solo sloop you can’t add the last person, you have to start over with the proper ship size, right?

  • @grabahjahbah said in Top Feedback Points Article Discussion:

    Is anyone sure this is what Rare said? I feel like the phrasing could’ve meant you can start either a sloop or galleon with just one person and then add more up to the max. Because currently if you start as a three man galleon or solo sloop you can’t add the last person, you have to start over with the proper ship size, right?

    Yeah I'm thinking it could be taken as that.

  • Hi there pirates,

    I really think that private groups was the second most important fix after the respawn distance, now that the respawn mechanic is fine i really think must be the next thing to be fixed. Too many times (multiple times every day) i have to restart from scratch because new friends are logging in and/or out and i'm sure most of us sail in the same waters.

    Now, what Mr. Joe propose will fix the issue but i think will bring also a lot of new problems (imagine a single man sloop against a four man sloop, also i think that a four man sloop will be stronger than a four man galleon) so in my opinion will be a step forward and two backward.

    I guess we can have a short term fix ASAP and when a slightly better one is ready change it again.

    So let me explain what i think will be the best move to make every one happy (well that's impossible, let's say most of us)

    Short therm fix (please Rare, quick as possible)
    Introduce the private group system but RESPECTING THE ACTUAL SHIP SIZE, so sloop 1-2 players, galleon 3-4 players. So for example, if i'm starting a sloop i can set the second slot on friend/invite only, same for a 4th slot on a 3 man galleon. Then, if we are 4 on a galleon and one leave give me the chance to close that slot, so we avoid to get a potential random troll, same goes for a 2 man sloop.

    The long term and final fix (according to how hard will be to code) will be the same as the short term one with a difference. The option to change the ship size in game switching beetween the sloop and galleon and vice versa. Let me explain how i see that. The ladies that sell the ship customizations at the outposts already recognize if your ship is close enough to the dock to apply the decorations, so she will be the perfect npc for my idea. Add an option to her that give an option to switch the ship if it is close enough to the dock, and another option to transfer the exceed resources on the new ship (the resources that exceed the base spawn stock, meaby paying a fix rate for that or based on the number of resources moved) Any chest, treasure, gunpowder barrels, ecc. left on board will be dropped in the water (like when you scuttle the ship and you still have chest on board)

    I really think this is really the only way to do it and keep most of the player base happy.

    Let me know guys what you think about it.

  • @khaleesibot this is good the transparence..

  • Sometimes - perhaps it's to do with server connection, not sure - I'll be at an island or outpost and my ship will suddenly scuttle itself. Happened on an island and I thought another crew had sunk me without hearing them. Then it happened again at an outpost and both mine and another player's sloop both scuttled suddenly. Would hate for this to happen with a bounty of booty onboard. To lose all that treasure after some hard grinding would suck!

  • So optional crossplay isn't a high priority? @The3SheetsNeate @Teddy-25 @MikeTheMutinous @khaleesibot

  • @solemagician506 3 man max is my guess.

  • @psych0-knightro I’m pretty sure it’ll be 3 man.

  • @khaleesibot Please max the Sloop at 3 members. 4 would defeat the purpose of a Galleon.

  • @soulless-rager seems like the people who want that option are enough to warrant it, but not enough that crossplay should suffer. Hopefully it’s in the works..

    As for the crewing up on sloops with larger crews, I imagine and hope that this simply means we can group and ungroup in game, and use the shipwright to switch our ships. Players would matchmake onto a server but only into a crew if they had grouped in the pregame lobby. That’s what I would hope for, or have a player hub with higher population and no ships, to be the new “matchmaking screen” so that atleast we group up in a physical setting with our character and cosmetics visible, and the game chat there would be pretty interesting, people recruiting and an mmo like chat stream from players without mics.

    Now that you guys officially stated that you own all the ideas on the forum let’s see some of them lol. We still haven’t seen any items like coconuts or the stuff for the potions etc.

    I’d prefer you get it done right, rather than right now, but I did expect more for launch than what we have.

    Another thing that could affect crew size and ship choice in the future, based on the quote, is that if they made chests cages and all the items physical and not able to be stacked inside each other, the sloop would not be able to hold much loot without being cluttered and interfering with ease of running back and forth repairing, etc. idk how much that would stress the server but I imagine a lot if you get people hoarding chests, but It would definitely be more satisfying and get rid of some unsatisfying tactics like powder kegs in the crows nest, and would make bigger hauls require some planning on cargo placement. This all goes back to
    My idea to be able to move all the barrels that are just on the ship for no reason, and to use them similar to the cannonball and plank and banana barrels, hopefully with a slew of new items to go in them, the barrels would be usable for any item not just the fixed spots we are used to. The barrels would be brown when empty and have a skin for whatever item you put in it once you put an item in.

  • @corrupt-fellow said in Top Feedback Points Article Discussion:

    @solemagician506 3 man max is my guess.

    I'd be 100% fine with this. My friends and i are usually in a situation where there are 5 or 6 of us on at once, meaning one sloop and one galleon. It will be nice to be able to have the large crew option.

  • For those highlighting a potential issue with having a murderous 4 man sloop running around:

    Don't forget that:

    1. The sloops are the same speed, no matter the the number of pirates aboard
      • This means that if you're in a sloop, seeing another one doesn't necessarily mean that you're in trouble unless they get too close
    2. A sloop only has 1 cannon per side
      • The attacking sloop, again regardless of the number of pirates aboard, can only face one cannon at you, of which only one pirate can shoot at a time
      • Additionally to be fired upon by cannon would mean that the attacker would need you at a 90 degree angle. Unless they're up beside you to fire upon you, they'll be perpendicular - meaning you'll be leaving them in your dust wake

    Both of the above mean that a defending sloop has just as much of a chance to get away from a 4-5 pirate sloop as they do from another 1 person sloop.


    Personally

    I can see the concern of being surprised by a sloop before it is too late, but I don't necessarily agree that it is a problem - at least not to the point that it should be restricted. I especially feel this way after having been run down by a faster, fully crewed galleon, on my 1 pirate sloop.

    I think that a group shouldn't be restricted to a Galleon because they have reached a certain number in their group as they'll have to outweigh if any gains are worth the smaller ship.

    I feel that the best direction on ship size for groups would be that a group can load in together on whatever size they'd like to start. If the group wants to switch it up mid-play, then a scuttle could be performed and the desired ship can be picked up as they normally are.

    This could be expanded on into a menu for the group where they have a setting for ship size and whenever the current ship is lost, the size from their setting is loaded.


  • I'm glad you share news with us. That way, we know what you're working on (well, at least part of it) and what to expect.

    The points you're focusing on are interesting, but I'm against the 4-man sloop. As Akbar37 suggested, I would prefer a middle-sized ship (a brig ? :)), so that I know what to expect from the ship in front of me.
    I wouldn't mind a 4-man sloop if the current atmosphere of the game was more friendly, but the ships we cross path with are (most of the game) hostile and we need to be cautious, so no 4-man sloop for me until there is hope for us to meet friendly pirates (there were some at the launch of the game, wonder where they went :'o).

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