I know the point of the game is to play in groups, but the fact that a gally with a 4 man crew has the same respawn time as a 1 man sloop just feels bad. I solo sloop a lot and knowing that if I get 1 balled its an instant gg makes me want to avoid most pvp interactions instead of participate in them. I think it would increase the amount of pvp and interaction if spawn times were adjusted to crew size and it would make sloopers much more likely to engage and try riskier maneuvers than sailing against the wind any time there are sails on the horizon. Plus more pvp time equals more fun. No one likes sitting on the ferry.
Respawn timer based on crew size.
Not a bad idea. Could honestly work, but expect a lot of resistance from the community on this one. People tend to value "literal" balance over perceived balance, except when it comes to ship v ship for some reason.
Then facts like: the sloop has less cannons, less crew, less masts, slower speed don't seem to matter on paper anymore. Now the more abstract factors like ease of sailing, maneuverability somehow have more weight again. To me, it has always been a bit hypocritical to be dismissive of changes that would differentiate based on crew size / ship size simply because it wouldn't be "consistent" anymore, when in truth, there are a lot of things that already differ between ships such as time to raise sails, turn the wheel, anchor, and the layout in general. And these ships should be different, but what OP is arguing, is that maybe the crew respawns should be too.
Respawn time as a balancing "lever" is an interesting one because you can justify changing this from both from a literal sense and a perceived sense of balance.
Literal because you can normalize the respawn time to a 4 man galleon for example, then cut the sloop by 4 for a solo sloop, or 2 for a duo. This may be a bit too quick a respawn, but it is hard to say without testing, so it could be capped at a minimal death time, but even so, it is a lever worth considering. In a perceptual sense, even a slight reduction to respawn time can have large implications because now, other nuanced imbalances such as the sloop riding lower in the water than galleons, and therefore, being easier to kill players with cannonballs, are somewhat mitigated.
I'm not outright in support of the idea, but I think it is a fairly unobstructive solution to a lot of balancing concerns in that it doesn't require changes to much any systems that people already know, and would be fairly easily to implement. As for criticisms that it would break the game, or would force players to play a certain way, I ask naysayers to elaborate on how that is all that different than how players are currently forced to play a certain way when they are outnumbered?
I would expect counterarguments which would suggest that a sloop player's life is worth more in terms of ship-to-ship combat. Since a sloop is easier to sail, you can accomplish more with your "life" than a galleon player, and I agree! Where this breaks down however, is whether this matters when it comes to PvP. Can a sloop player accomplish 2x what a galleon player can when it comes to PvP-centric activities (firing cannons, boarding, chainshotting, etc)? And here, I would say no, which is why OPs idea isn't actually a bad one. It doesn't affect the sloops balance when they are winning (and not dying), only losing.
It is akin to the shovel dig speed changing based on crew size, so I think it is a pretty good bet that it is in alignment with Rare's philosophy. Whether it is the best balancing "lever" is up for debate, but I think I could get behind this with the right implementation.
This would be fine tbh. The difference would need to be small, but noticeable.
A full galleon that rocks up on a sloop and opens fire is generally unbalanced. The only way to survive the encounter is to escape a few minutes before. This can happen, but if you die, there is no hope. You have to wait a minute, maybe, by then your boat has sank.
You might take out 2 members of the opposition and the others will just spam repair.
I think the respawns should be bound by ship type. A galleon have the advantage of being able to revive. A sloop generally does not. A duo sloop maybe.
My times?
Sloop - current time
Brig - +20 seconds
Galleon - +30 seconds
@nitroxien And the only way for a sloop to stop a galleon from running is to chain 3 times, board and kill all four players. But that doesn't come up as much as a scenario because why would a gally run from a sloop since they are so much better?
Just saying, it isn't as binary as "this helps sloops run by punishing counterplay." Rather it adds more counterplay for the sloop vs larger ships to make the above actually seem like a possible scenario, and not just a laughably unlikely event. It also helps address some of the underlying reasons sloops run, which is that they generally know from experience that it will be an uphill battle, and are often right to think that!
I'm also just not sure either if this is the best balancing tactic until I see specifics, but I can get behind the fundamentals of it.
Why would people not play because the respawn time is 3-5 seconds shorter? People with smaller crews already suffer a massive handicap this would just help people engage in combat because they would have more of a chance. Currently many sloopers just run because they know they are outnumbered, outgunned and outsped. Their only advantage is to run to the wind. Having a faster respawn would make it at least plausible to attempt to be more aggressive without being spammed with deckshots from a galley or brig.
I don't think the times would need to be so drastic, just enough for a slooper to be able to get in an extra bucket or two if the ship has 3-4 holes.
I feel your pain, I always play the sloop and as soon as you get into combat with a brig or sloop you are most likely [Mod Edit].
If they hit 1 chainshot you are done for, while you need to hit 3 on a gal.
Then they have 4 people on your ship spawn killing you.Me and my friend always encounter this same issue. Open crews usually don’t work together that great and you can win from those. But a 4 man premade crew that have a intermediate experience in the game just overpowers a sloop, as soon as they board its usually over and out.
The biggest problem we see about this is if we go 2v4 and we manage to kill 3 before we both die, they just get revived… so they can camp your ship again before you even spawn.
I don’t know how to fix this, maybe different respawn timers isn’t that bad of an idea to this problem.
@nitroxien then remove the revive system, it’s broken for bigger crews.
A solo player can’t be revived, while you have to kill all 4. If you kill 3 they get revived instead and you are done for.
The revive was the worst update and made bigger crews even stronger.
@h0ppyhop
Reviving is actually beneficial for the solo guy. People just line up to be killed trying to revive teammates mid combat :D@TapBToBoost
Would it be beneficial for a sloop to have less respawn time? Yes. But make it too strong and you will make it harder and harder to sink a sloop without boarding. If there's one thing solo players hate, it's getting boarded. Do you really want to make boarding even more meta? I hate being on a tear and getting hit by one cannonball and losing the whole fight. So I partially agree with you. But no matter the respawn time, if you are even reasonably close to the enemy ship in battle, not even 15 seconds shaved off of your respawn time is going to change anything.But boarding is already the meta. If you're out of position you're out of position and you had the gg coming. I mean more for situations where you have 2 holes and get one balled from a distance and end up sinking from it. It just means that as a solo you can't let even a few holes go untreated so it makes sloopers even more likely to run from an engagement rather than stay and fight. If I hear 3 canon ball hits and know that if I get 1 balled I die I'm not going to continue to engage until I have the holes repaired, which means more running and less fun for both parties.
@scheneighnay I never said to increase other crews spawn times, but decrease spawn times based on crew size for ships, or maybe just decrease it for solos since they don't get to rez.
This could be a good thing but honestly I always run sloop and rarely have trouble from bigger crews, the most struggle I encounter is usually with another experienced sloop crew.
Remember, sloops advantages are, 1. Maneuverability and 2. Speed, you can outrun bigger ships if you stay against the wind with sail set forward. Also the bigger ships masts take longer to repair so always aim for the masts first if you’re going to fight them.
Also, I agree that bigger crews have a ridiculous advantage over the sloop, and I am not sure what could fix this, respawn time I don’t think would really fix the issue, if you have 3 guys on board your ship spawn camping you a faster respawn time really does nothing for you, you just would die faster.
I think the focus should be on the sloop itself, maybe a speed boost but that’s only good for running.
@calicorsaircat sagte in Respawn timer based on crew size.:
@nitroxien And the only way for a sloop to stop a galleon from running is to chain 3 times, board and kill all four players. But that doesn't come up as much as a scenario because why would a gally run from a sloop since they are so much better?
I had several galleons running from me and my sloop...
But to the topic...no, this idea isn't good
I got use to it, but I said it often in the "revive-beginning"...reviving at all shouldn't be a thing...but as I said, got use to itAs a solo player and who has long understood how hard it is to fight against brigantines and galleons, I completely agree with this topic. If you do this, then you need to adhere to the balance (which is not there) for each additional player, add ~ 10 seconds. , but for example, upon death from a mob, the revival would be classic (30 sec) But this function is unlikely to be implemented since everyone did not care about the balance
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