Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game")

@largesarge3255 if they shut down the servers then they can make private servers no reason to do so now until the servers go down but this wont happen anytime

@largesarge3255 I hate to break it to you, but the devs have directly said no to Pve/private servers. (There is talk of private servers for special events)

Watch the live steam with Peeve from a few weeks ago. Jon answered this question

Welcome to the forums!

I must admit I find it funny to start a thread saying "hear me out b4 so and so", when you didn't look up the myriad of existing threads discussing this topic.

In brief, "Look it up b4 "the game is dying".

@largesarge3255 said in Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game"):

Private servers, I see that request get tossed around a lot and get shot down immediately by a toxic community who isn't seeing how it would actually help the game. Look I get this is an ONLINE ONLY game I get that, BUT what happens when those servers shut down? This game is still like $40, are you telling me you're ok with just THROWING away $40? A Private server option can help the game YEARS from now be resurrected! Remember when GTA V started to dwindle? People were getting tired of it right?What saved it? The private servers of course! How? This allowed modders to access the ability to host by host have custom made servers and thus FiveM was born. That not only kept the game going but increased twitch streams and views. Not only that but this would allow third party software on PC (like Gameranger) to access the game files and create private public servers for clans or just games (ala SWAT 4 and Battlefield 2 on PC) Heck even RUST has private servers and that game is FAR from dead. Now i know on Xbox (I am on PC) you probably wont be able to access a modded server or custom game server so THIS is also why private servers ALSO help the CONSOLE community. Say it's the year 2025. Rare shuts down the official servers and no more updates. Well let me tell you about Ghost Recon Future Solider. That game's servers are long dead and the leveling system means basically nothing now, how ever if you host a private game you and your friends cans till connect. Why? Cos the game is hosting off YOUR connection (or the hosts connection) This keeps the game alive in private circuits or among friends who genuinely enjoyed the game and want to keep playing it together years later. If SOT did the same I could see people on twitch throwing together elaborate competitions with their friends or clans. Heck there could even be some good potential RP situations here if there was a simple "Community Servers" update as well (ala Battlefield 3 and 4)! All i am saying is so many people want the game to stay PVE only and THAT is how you kill a game. The current rating for this game is 3 stars. 3 STARS! IDK about you but that would make me not want to bother with even looking at the game, but I gave it a chance and I really enjoy it. The point is I get it is fun to grief and just mess about, but it also causes the game to loose player base since no one wants to actually try to play any of the islands ect. i can see both sides of the coin here but in the long run the private servers would help increase not only the player base but it could increase the game's general popularity. Think about it, if you want a relaxing game or just to mess about with friends you can load up a private server and set sail! Then if you want a challenge (or just to stream snipe cos what else am I going to do on a Friday night) Just switch it over from a "Calm Seas Voyage (Private)" to an "Adventurers Voyage (Public)" simple as that, this way people aren't raging and uninstalling the game never to touch it again thus killing the game. They can wash the salt out of their mouths on a nice quite private game, or say they had a long day and wanna enjoy the sounds in the game (cos the sound design is amazing) n just sail n fish bam they now have that option.

All I am saying is consider it cos I really want this game to live on as long as possible. It is a ton of fun, when you can communicate people can be friendly. It's just a few people making it toxic and I feel like this could help not only fix the dwindling player base but also give people more of a reason to keep playing it (considering the pirate you make is saved to the game file and NOT an online server i think you could still level up you guy even if you were offline making this game one that could survive past a server shut down)

What do you guys think though? Please open a civil discussion about this.

Also can you add some like Cthulhu inspired stuff to the game or like Voodoo stuff? Thnx

See you on the Seven Seas yall.

it won't happen ever until people stop playing the game witch will be never

@largesarge3255 said in Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game"):

@bloodybil most of what I was saying is for when the game hits that final note and server outages are gonna happen,

Neat, let's cross that bridge when we get there

the other stuff is just other points i have seen brought up in the argument for Private.

Cool, I guess people will reply with rebuttals they have seen brought up against it as well. I'll let the pleasure to someone else though.

See you on the very alive seas.

@largesarge3255 said in Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game"):

Private servers, I see that request get tossed around a lot and get shot down immediately by a toxic community who isn't seeing how it would actually help the game. Look I get this is an ONLINE ONLY game I get that, BUT what happens when those servers shut down? This game is still like $40, are you telling me you're ok with just THROWING away $40? A Private server option can help the game YEARS from now be resurrected! Remember when GTA V started to dwindle? People were getting tired of it right?What saved it? The private servers of course! How? This allowed modders to access the ability to host by host have custom made servers and thus FiveM was born. That not only kept the game going but increased twitch streams and views. Not only that but this would allow third party software on PC (like Gameranger) to access the game files and create private public servers for clans or just games (ala SWAT 4 and Battlefield 2 on PC) Heck even RUST has private servers and that game is FAR from dead. Now i know on Xbox (I am on PC) you probably wont be able to access a modded server or custom game server so THIS is also why private servers ALSO help the CONSOLE community. Say it's the year 2025. Rare shuts down the official servers and no more updates. Well let me tell you about Ghost Recon Future Solider. That game's servers are long dead and the leveling system means basically nothing now, how ever if you host a private game you and your friends cans till connect. Why? Cos the game is hosting off YOUR connection (or the hosts connection) This keeps the game alive in private circuits or among friends who genuinely enjoyed the game and want to keep playing it together years later. If SOT did the same I could see people on twitch throwing together elaborate competitions with their friends or clans. Heck there could even be some good potential RP situations here if there was a simple "Community Servers" update as well (ala Battlefield 3 and 4)! All i am saying is so many people want the game to stay PVE only and THAT is how you kill a game. The current rating for this game is 3 stars. 3 STARS! IDK about you but that would make me not want to bother with even looking at the game, but I gave it a chance and I really enjoy it. The point is I get it is fun to grief and just mess about, but it also causes the game to loose player base since no one wants to actually try to play any of the islands ect. i can see both sides of the coin here but in the long run the private servers would help increase not only the player base but it could increase the game's general popularity. Think about it, if you want a relaxing game or just to mess about with friends you can load up a private server and set sail! Then if you want a challenge (or just to stream snipe cos what else am I going to do on a Friday night) Just switch it over from a "Calm Seas Voyage (Private)" to an "Adventurers Voyage (Public)" simple as that, this way people aren't raging and uninstalling the game never to touch it again thus killing the game. They can wash the salt out of their mouths on a nice quite private game, or say they had a long day and wanna enjoy the sounds in the game (cos the sound design is amazing) n just sail n fish bam they now have that option.

All I am saying is consider it cos I really want this game to live on as long as possible. It is a ton of fun, when you can communicate people can be friendly. It's just a few people making it toxic and I feel like this could help not only fix the dwindling player base but also give people more of a reason to keep playing it (considering the pirate you make is saved to the game file and NOT an online server i think you could still level up you guy even if you were offline making this game one that could survive past a server shut down)

What do you guys think though? Please open a civil discussion about this.

Also can you add some like Cthulhu inspired stuff to the game or like Voodoo stuff? Thnx

See you on the Seven Seas yall.

To begin with you aren't going to score many points by automatically referring to anyone who disagrees with your idea as "toxic", do you and others like yourself even know the meaning of the word? Just throwing that around casually like you and others do for anyone who has a differing opinion causes the word to lose meaning.

You have a lot of misconceptions going on here as well. For one, this game operates completely different than your example GR: Future Soldier or even the Battlefield games. That game is a peer to peer game, meaning that one person hosts the client and others join that "server". The ranking system was hosted by Ubisoft and not needed for the game to play, just used to keep ranking and stats. This game is hosted on Rare's Servers, meaning you have to connect to those in order to play - it is not peer to peer. Furthermore the server side software is completely different than what the client side software is and does far more calculations (such as waves, wind and item location). The One would not be powerful enough to do all that on its own. This game is more akin to World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars The Old Republic or Star Trek Online (as a few examples). In order for "private servers" as you imagine to exist you would need a dedicated server as well as the server-side software to run it - you wouldn't be able to play on the same machine that you are running it on. And I doubt Rare or Microsoft will be releasing the server side software to the public, as few to none of the other defunct MMO or online only games have either. Sure there are a few games that have small communities running private servers for games that have been abandoned by the developers (Phantasy Star Online is one example, I've played on those myself with my GameCube) but they are few and far between, most getting cease and desist orders from the owners of the IPs.

The game is hardly dying from not having PVE only options, in fact it has been holding very steady in the most played games on Xbox for well over a year now, consistently ranking 20-25th on the board. So can the doomsday talk that without PVE or private servers for this the game will die as that is total hogwash, you are in the minority of players asking for this. Those who actually "get" what the game is about are what are keeping it alive and at a steady population, not the ones trying to change it.

Rare has said Private Servers will be coming, but guess what? Just like your example of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier you won't be able to progress/rank up (or likely earn achievements, as it should be) as Rare has repeatedly said they do not want farming servers for the game. These are intended for content creators or people hosting specific events such as races, fishing derbies, all out battles, or similar events. But you won't be able to progress your pirate, earn commendations, or (hopefully) earn achievements as that is not what the game is about. And then if the servers do go down from low player counts or Microsoft decides to end support, those will ALSO be shut down. And for all we know these may be rental servers, just like the Battlefield ones you referenced earlier (and I personally hope they go that route, but perhaps be a little more economical than those as they are pretty expensive to rent for a month).

So no, private servers will not extend the life of the game as you imagine it would because you fail to understand how it works. This is game is not like Quake III or any other peer to peer game that will let you create your own private server and it is very doubtful that Microsoft or Rare will release the backend software to allow that to happen, and I don't blame them as they wouldn't want to give away such proprietary software to the public or competitors to see how they accomplished what they did.

Taken from my comment regarding previous discussion on the same topic:

Turning off PvP to exclusively grind content would make the game dull. Consider that the most threatening thing is other sailors. A good sailor can 1v4 a Galleon, take all their loot, and cash it in, which means that on the seas, anything you have is at risk of being taken from you, and this is a good thing.

Now, why is that good?

1. This is a pirate game with PvP. If the biggest threat is other sailors and you are a sailor yourself, it presents the opportunity for growth and honing your skills. Without PvP you would never improve besides the linear and rather predictable PvE content.
2. PvP and looting other ships allows you to advance faster because you get the same reward for a fraction of the time in exchange for a bigger risk.
3. The constant threat of PvP keeps you on your toes to be prepared for anything, which in turns hones your decision-making both in-combat and out-of-combat.
4. PvP provides a way to spice things up outside of the aforementioned predictable PvE content. What's unpredictable? Sailors. What's very unpredictable? Good and bad sailors. Learning how to react to them helps you stay alive longer and win more fights.

Ask anyone who grinds only PvE content and avoids PvP like a plague: they either do not play the game any longer or do not enjoy the long grind.

In the seas, you will sink, you will lose, you will be robbed, and you will be beaten. It's all a matter of fixing the mast and setting sail once more into the tides.

ADDENDUM TO MAKE POST RELEVANT: When the servers shut down, the game will die out rapidly due to the above topics. As someone with a background in game development and someone who adores this game with their heart and soul as well as the fantasy, romanticized pirate image the game portrays, I still fully believe PvE servers or shutting down the current servers as is would kill the game.

Also, I'm begging you sailors to please stop with comparing the game to GTA V and thinking what works there would work here. The games aren't even the same genre.

Probably in 5 years. They can't work on private servers for a game that still needs so many more content updates. They can't bring both content and server updates at the same time.

@talriaen Do you know when in the stream they talked about it?

@chronodusk I do not, i just remember watching it, and he definatively said No. I will try to go through it and see if i can find exact time.

@chronodusk Found it. He says it at 55:20 in the stream with Peeves

@largesarge3255 said in Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game"):

The current state of the game is very imposing to new comers ect and this hurts the game

if people has gotten used to the game without private servers before they can do it now hell when i started i got placed in the tavern with a goodluck sign slapped upon my forehead there wasn't even a tutorial and im doing just fine point is newcomers cant get used to pvp without pvp it will still be relentless it wont help the interaction because some people will stay mainly in private and do voyages in peace it just doesn't work and the game is doing fine

Bad thing about your idea of when they will shut the servers down. Is indeed "When"

But this game is built on a sandbox. Heck maybe in 2 years some major event will take place where the sea and islands themselves change drastically and pave way for a new world. As long people play and they can expand ideas to build, it wont be dying for a few years.

There is a distinction to made here between most people are talking about when they call for “private servers” (aka PvE only servers) and what the OP is talking about.

For most people, they mean a server still running on Rare/MS owned hardware that only they, and their invited friends, can connect to.

What the OP is talking about is downloading the server software itself and running that on privately owned hardware: such as your own (pretty powerful) PC; or a rented cloud service, such as AWS.

Some may even think of a completely standalone, single player version of the game.

These are all quite distinct things. Rare have spoken about the first being a possibility; but not the second.

@largesarge3255

Why are you busy for when the game stops getting support in multiple years?

They should be focused on the gameplay, updates and providing new and exciting ways to keep the pirates playing. They shouldn't be busy with their final goodbye patch.

Private servers might be added, but it will be focused on content creators and more of a creative world, seperate from the public domain.

Btw. Toxic community ... great starting argument and way to get people on board. Oh and I would love to see the 400 ping and the smell of your burning local machine running the physics engine. Pirate saved locally and the xbox play anywhere service is dead.

"What do you guys think though? Please open a civil discussion about this."
"Private servers, I see that request get tossed around a lot and get shot down immediately by a toxic community who isn't seeing how it would actually help the game."

You want civil discussion yet you start with insulting the community because it may not agree with your views?
Thank you for letting me know I am toxic. I would never have realized it before.

@octopus-lime By then we'll have Sea of Thieves 2: Pirate Boogaloo.

@talriaen

Awesome. Good to hear Rare standing firm on this, too.

I'm hoping they officially confirm no gold or rep in private servers soon.

@schwammlgott said in Private Servers (hear me out b4 "that's gonna kill the game"):

@largesarge3255 watch this:

PRIVATE / PVE SERVERS // SEA OF THIEVES - Private realms coming!

I love Falcore's take on this.

In the video he pretty confidently says "There will be no gold and rep in Private Servers"

I think we all assumed that but I didn't think it had been officially confirmed yet. Does he know something we don't?

@schwammlgott

Probably a good idea. PvE servers are never gonna happen so there's no sense wasting the energy on an explanation any more!