Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance

I understand that it sucks to not be able to play with a full group of friends, but unless server alliances are dealt with I doubt we'll be seeing any pre-made squad functions...

@ad0nis42
This would be very unfair to all the other crews you meet on the server.

People are always dismissive of this type of idea, but I do think there's a way that a "Fleet" could be done in a fair and balanced way. Keep in mind, we're trying to balance strength in numbers. You have a massive advantage with 2 preconfigured ships that are likely in the same discord or Xbox party. Whether you're all terrible at the game or not, you have a huge advantage because of your numbers. Here's some quick thoughts on ways that it could be balanced.

1). 2 ships (8 players) maximum per Fleet.

2). Ships would need to be maxed out in size and are predetermined before entering the server.
-Examples:
-5 players = you get 1 Brig + 1 sloop. You don't get to pick a Galleon and a Solo sloop.
-6 players = 1 Galleon + 1 Sloop...you don't get to pick 2 brigs
-7 players = 1 Galleon + 1 Brig
-8 players = 2 Galleons

3). Your loot is split equally amongst the ships. It does not work the same way that a traditional alliance works where you get an effective loot buff. Examples... you hand in a Ruby Mermaid Gem, everyone gets 1k gold. You hand in a Sapphire Mermaid Gem, everyone gets 500 gold.

4). No other ships can join your fleet and you cannot join an alliance with another ship that is on the server.

5). (And I think this one is critical) Both of your ships appear on the map of every other crew on the server just like a Reaper would.

I'm sure that there's some other finer details that would need to be worked out, but I do feel that there's a way to make "fleets" balanced.

@ad0nis42 said in Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance:

@lem0n-curry I get how that could be the case, but I'm not really a PVP person - I just want to be able to PVE with a larger crew and have a fun time in this very atmospheric world.

You might, but other people will also be able to use it and they might use it to take down much smaller crews.

impossible to get five or more people into the same instance

Time and patience, and anything is possible. Many have pulled it off.

allowing a group to form an alliance with multiple ships by joining the server their friends are on.

Thus making Server alliances much bigger thing, and also turning them in PVE servers.

No sir

@ad0nis42 said in Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance:

@burnbacon PVE servers sound ideal to me, personally. Sorry that's not your preference.

Ideal to some, not majority.
Think about the Cons of what you want. You be missing out on 90% of the game itself without player interactions.
If they had such servers, the mobs would have to be 2x harder to deal with just to make them worth fighting. Any "stolen" commendations you wont be able to do, Fort of the damned will be blocked off (no Pink light)
forget about it being a Pirate game, just a sailing simulator with skeletons/phantom/Sea creatures.

I paid for the game as it was sold to me. PvPvE, I expect and know players will come and big friend or foe.
Sorry you bought the game without this knowledge before hand.

@burnbacon I can't wait for Private (progression-less) Servers to be released to the community.

Want to have a chill session with your buddies with no risk of PvP? Great! Head over to the private servers.

Want to do a last ship standing event with your friends? Great! Head over to the private servers.

I'm personally SUPER excited for that second one.

Imagine if instead of a single galleon crew you went into every server as 4 solo sloops.
The problems that would cause would be insane.

@ad0nis42 said in Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance:

@sweetsandman I don't know that I'm a fan of not being able to progress, but private servers sound great otherwise.

Progression-less is what they'll be if/when they get released to the public. They're going to be awesome. I can't wait to be able to just have some last ship standing battles with my friends when they come out.

Unfortunately, it's been what? like...2 years+ since they last even mentioned private servers being made available to the public...such a shame that they're locked behind SOT partners right now.

@galactic-geek it's not about "punishing", it's about balancing. A coordinated 2 ship crew inherently has an advantage over even the most skilled crew. Balancing out that advantage would be necessary.

Totally fine if you think "fleets" can't be balanced. Maybe they can't be, but I'd rather try to get creative than outright dismiss the idea.

@ad0nis42 you are literally asking for server alliances to be easier to form. This is why no one respects the Dark Adventurer set. Everyone assumes if you have amassed a fortune fit for a pirate lord that you cheesed with server alliances. Server alliances are PVE servers with no risk and all reward which is causing gold inflation, meaning that anything you purchase with gold has lost all value because it can be exploited to gain millions of gold in a single play session due to server alliances.

@galactic-geek said in Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance:

"Getting creative" as loud put it could cost Rare a significant amount of time and resources. If it's to happen at all, it needs to be tested extensively internally 1st...

I won't speculate on the amount of work it'd take. Obviously, any new mechanic, especially something that would be as big of a change to the seas as this, requires testing and feedback around balancing.

@scheneighnay

I'm not sure how easy it would be to balance an EIGHT person galleon so that it can coexist on the same server as a solo sloop. I'm guessing that buckets would need to scoop way less water, planking and mast raising speeds would need to be reduced, rigging would need to operate slower, respawn times would need to be increased, and probably some other significant balancing measures.

@robby0316 it’s all aesthetic though, don’t see the problem with this. It’s a game, people have different ways of enjoying it.

They aren't going to introduce anything while the 'tools not rules' mantra exists, because for premade alliances to work, you need rules, and that's a big no no to rare.....

@ad0nis42 said in Request: Larger Party Size or ability to form Alliances prior to joining an instance:

I think there's already a lack of balance between 4 player galleons and sloops - Sloops win every time, which is clearly not balanced. I don't think adding more people to a slow ship that can't turn is going to break anything in our favor.

With equal skill and equal supplies, there should be almost no scenario where a Sloop beats a Galleon. That said, it's fair to say there are way more highly skilled and well oiled Sloop (and even Brig) crews on the seas than there are equivalent Galleon crews.

this is literally a tread asking for server alliance but phrased differently. im surprise it hasn’t been lock already.