So this is a topic I've always found interesting when talking about sea of thieves, but never actually saw a discussion about it nor I feel like this is highly discussin within the community.
The goal here is not necessarily to propose the changes I've in mind, I'm just curious what people think about this. I would love to see your opinion on the topic in general, not necessarily your opinion on MY opinion.
Just to give some background, this is my experience with the game: I started playing with 3 friends on a Galleon only, then played A LOT solo since I bought the game and my friend were on gamepass (I got from about lvl 35 on the three main companies to PL alone, before the emissaries update. Probably over 80% of my playtime is on the sloop, either soloing or duoing), then found somone to play duo on a sloop with, then we stopped playing together and I was solo again. Rn I either play when alone, but mostly on the brig.
SO, with my experience playing solo/duo has always been the harder and time consuming way of playing the game (even tho the maneuverability of the sloop is so sexy, still my fav ship to play on), Galleon, on the other hand, has always been the easiest with some exceptions: Tall Tale's Skeleton Lords before balancing (Not really hard but time consuming). In fact, when I started playing solo for the first time I was confused by the fact that I would get the same money, during my first adventures I've always taken for granted that we were sharing the treasure by 4, it made sense to both gameplaywise and by logic.
So, as somone who played solo a lot, getting the loot on your ship and selling it is one of the things that really make you feel the disparity. I used to solo forts when forts were basically the only endgame thing to do, and getting the loot onboard and then selling it would always take so much time even with all the effort I put into making it more efficient (like putting all the tresure in a place that is both in harpoons reach and close to the vault). It literally takes about 4 times it takes to do it on a galleon, and the more the loot the more you feel it.
For PvP the advantages of bigger ships are quite obvius, with a sloop you obviusly can't stand a fight side to side vs bigger ships obviusly, but talking about a fight with 2 competent crews boarding is the META rn. Having a lot of resources helps in sustained fights, your positioning can make you waste less wood and your aim with cannons can make you waste less cannonballs (while your opponent will waste more wood), but at the end of the day one succesfull board done properly and the game is over. Boarding a sloop is quite simple, requires little to no distraction and you have the smallest disadvantage being 1v1/1v2. When boarding a Galleon you're probably 1v3/1v4, which is exponentially harder, it just takes 2 of the 4 people to hit you with a pistol/EoR and you're instantly dead. Here distraction, causing heavy damage to the hull is necessary in order to board and skill disparity between the boarder and the galleon crews is needed for the boarding to be successfull.
The only things that I can think of that are quite balanced for Galleons are: Flame Heart's ghost ships (on the sloop they seriusly never hit you), Karken (which is just a bigger waste of resources/time on bigger ships) and Meg (same as the Kraken). Not even Ashen Lords scale for bigger ships, 4 player spamming sword on the boss is so fast.
So, since bigger crews waste less time and have (mostly) an easier time sailing the seas, why don't crews get money based on the quantity of player they are made of?
1 player gets 100%; 2 players 50% each; 3 33% and 4 25% (this is how play should realistically split themoney, but even a minor reduction would make sense, like -10% for 2, -15% for 3, -20% for 4; focus on the concept here not the math).
This to me feels logic and balanced, as a player that mostly plays on a brig lately I wouldn't really complain about getting 1/3 of the loot because it makes sense to me and I don't feel entitled by having always gotten 100% of it (also because I don't really need money.
This change would also lower the amount of gold the player base produces every day by a good amount, since most grindy players usually do not play alone, helping, even if a little, to fix the hyperinflation.
What do you guys think about this topic?
How do you think the playerbase would react to a change like this if it were implemented? (reduced gold for bigger crews)
Would it be fine for you?
