Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion)

  • What are your opinions on the Man 'o' War? How would you make it balanced? Would you even want it at all?

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  • It would probably never be balanced and should not be implemented.

    Also the few people that could consistently gather like 8 friends to play on it would be minimal (most people are sloopers) so probably not a good use of the devs time. Lets not even think about the open crew chaos on that thing.

  • I could see it being a cool addition, but under some serious alterations:

    Launching the Man o War would put you in a server with no other players, and it can host 10 or even 15 players on the ship. Managing the ship is serious work that needs a bunch of people, and you need to climb ladders to manage the sails that are higher up. There's an increase in skeleton ships sailing around, maybe even a few skeleton Man o Wars that also have a small chance of spawning on normal servers, and have loads of loot and supplies.

    I can see this being beneficial in a few ways, people get their Man o War, people get their PvE server without cheesing alliance servers, and regular play remains balanced without Man o Wars in them (which wouldn't work anyway since the server would be too stressed).

  • I would love it because of my group size, but from what I hear the server wouldn't be able to handle it existing.

    I would also like a rundown of the mechanics of it besides "big galley" as far as how the crew will have to work.
    My experience with the galley itself, and again with the group size, is that while it has the most potential with a good crew, it also is the least forgiving on having inexperienced crew members.
    There's a massive difference in how our gallies perform depending on who's crewing them. I would imagine a man o war would be even more pronounced.

  • I wouldn't want it. No point having literally 50-75% of the server on one ship.

  • I have always thought that the game is wasted for the console group size of 4. Having additional ship sizes and larger crews would be fun. Balance is of low concern, it's no e-sport.

  • IF such a ship would be implemented, it should be treated as what it really was. A floating artillery platform. It would be extremely slow, both in speed and turning. It could not catch any of the other ships, not even in good wind. It would turn half the speed of the current galleon with sails up. The only thing it could do is slowly park by a fort or any stationary target and bomb it a massive artillery barrage. THAT would be the balance of such a ship, and that was the sole purpose of such a ship.

    A slow ship that is easily out sailed by all other ships in the game, does not sound like a fun thing. Then such a ship would further limit the amount of other ships on the server, not to mention all the other balancing issues. Maybe on SoT 2, were we can have 64 players on a server this type of ship would work. It could then have smaller escort ships to protect it, and so on. But in SoT as it is today, it would simply not work.

    This has been discussed many times before, and it is usually a big no because of all the balancing issues and server performance.

  • @arch-ideall balance is of the highest concern. A lot of people stop playing if they are set against impossible odds a couple of times.

  • I'd like to see it as a reward locked behind a quest chain (like Wraithballs were with Flameheart).

    It would require at least two crews working together to unlock, and they would have to give up their ships to board it, (theoretically) reducing server strain.

    It should be super slow to sail, be visible to all other ships on the server, and have a single, detachable sailing dingy with 1 harpoon and 1 canon that's faster than the other ships. This little ship can be dispatched to slow down other ships until the Man O' War arrives.

  • @hefty-henri

    This would honestly make sense except for the fact that Rare actually wants the threat of other players to be a key part of the vibe and difficulty of Sea of Thieves.

  • @animeowl0807
    I really like AShinyRay's idea of turning the Man O' War into a world event (here's his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICbBRaeQEIA). I would change a few things though. When the world event starts, you can chose to engage the Man O' War and have a naval battle with. You would need to get aboard the ship and take it over, like what Ray says. However, I think all you should need to do is to clear the Man O' War of its crew. (Ray's Skeleton Lord idea seems a little to complicated for my liking). After you have gained control of the ship, you and your crew would need to defend it from other player ships until a certain point in time. (Ray mentions that the Man O' War has a 'pre-determined' path, which I think is a good idea. It would be like the game mode 'Patrol' in Call of Duty)

    I think this could be a good compromise for adding the Man O' War into the game. It would also have the added benefit of creating a new event into the game that I think would be fun to participate in.

  • Galleons are already extremely strong if a decent crew is on it. Almost impossible to sink if you aren't a Galleon yourself. I can't even imagine a even bigger ship sailing around.

    Being a solo player and have to go 1v5/6 sounds fun.

  • I say nay. Solo slooping would become even more terrifying...

    Howver, a Man-O-War would make a lovely explosion with a few kegs...hmmmm...

  • Either have one per server that players can spawn on if they light a lantern in the captains cabin. Or have 2 per server that are pitted against one another like arena but an actual decent gamemode

  • @prescafatty said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    I'd like to see it as a reward locked behind a quest chain (like Wraithballs were with Flameheart).

    It would require at least two crews working together to unlock, and they would have to give up their ships to board it, (theoretically) reducing server strain.

    It should be super slow to sail, be visible to all other ships on the server, and have a single, detachable sailing dingy with 1 harpoon and 1 canon that's faster than the other ships. This little ship can be dispatched to slow down other ships until the Man O' War arrives.

    I like the general idea, though I would prefer it just having a normal rowboat that has to be loaded via a crane (like seaforts have) instead of attaching normally. The rowboat would sit in the middle of the deck like they did on real sailing ships, and getting too much speed while the rowboat isn't all the way inside would drop it.

  • @jumbie7311 There's currently no way to implement a 10+ player ship while having any other players on the server, so it's either no Man o War or one on a empty server.

  • @lafrules said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    It would probably never be balanced and should not be implemented.

    Also the few people that could consistently gather like 8 friends to play on it would be minimal (most people are sloopers) so probably not a good use of the devs time. Lets not even think about the open crew chaos on that thing.

    I agree with everything except open crew, which would be nonexistent. The mode died since captaincy.

  • I don't see how we could manage to make it fun to sail with and Balanced to fight against/with while allowing for the Shared World experience, without making the Galleon obsolete.

  • @themadlad94 Good idea, but think how annoyed about 20-30% of the community would be at this.

  • @prescafatty said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):
    and have a single, detachable sailing dingy with 1 harpoon and 1 canon that's faster than the other ships. This little ship can be dispatched to slow down other ships until the Man O' War arrives.

    Seriously, I want a dinghy more than I want a Man 'o' War. I might make another discussion post on this.

  • @arch-ideall said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    I have always thought that the game is wasted for the console group size of 4. Having additional ship sizes and larger crews would be fun. Balance is of low concern, it's no e-sport.

    Actually, balance is of concern. I wouldn't want the Man 'o' war to be the meta.

  • @animeowl0807 said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    Actually, balance is of concern. I wouldn't want the Man 'o' war to be the meta.

    Look at how much players hate the Galleon. Brigantine is the best meta choice, and yet there are still solo Sloopers sailing around. It's always gonna be the easy choice to be Sloop, because people hate social interactions, and these would lose about the same to Man-O-War or Galleon so not much of negative difference. Galleons could have some issues against Man tho, but it has always been "larger fish eats smaller one". But if we really want to have some sort of balance, might also add the option to let players start in pre-made alliances of smaller ships and then place the Man-O-War only in servers with these.

  • @arch-ideall I think it would need 2 people to steer and half the cannons would be concealed and be not very effective unless at close range. I saw an idea that it would be depressingly slow, and I agree with that, too.

  • The only way I'd be okay with a man of war being added is if it's something players can come across in the world and take but when it's sunk it is sunk and they don't get another. I'm absolutely against adding a man of war as a new ship type players can spawn into a server with as I think it would ruin the balance of the game. I think it would be fun if players could come across a beached man of war on an island. It should require more than 4 crewmates to successfully sail which would encourage alliances. But again, when it is sunk it is sunk and players respawn on their normal ships and font get another man of war. I think that would make seeing one/being attacked by a man of war a unique experience cause you know you're possibly in for a rough fight but if you win it feels like an accomplishment. On the flip side if you're on a man of war you wouldn't want to lose because then you lose that special ship.

  • @fizicalpresence said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    The only way I'd be okay with a man of war being added is if it's something players can come across in the world and take but when it's sunk it is sunk and they don't get another. I'm absolutely against adding a man of war as a new ship type players can spawn into a server with as I think it would ruin the balance of the game. I think it would be fun if players could come across a beached man of war on an island. It should require more than 4 crewmates to successfully sail which would encourage alliances. But again, when it is sunk it is sunk and players respawn on their normal ships and font get another man of war. I think that would make seeing one/being attacked by a man of war a unique experience cause you know you're possibly in for a rough fight but if you win it feels like an accomplishment. On the flip side if you're on a man of war you wouldn't want to lose because then you lose that special ship.

    Take my upvote.

  • @animeowl0807 said in Opinions on the Man 'o' War? (discussion):

    @arch-ideall I think it would need 2 people to steer and half the cannons would be concealed and be not very effective unless at close range. I saw an idea that it would be depressingly slow, and I agree with that, too.

    Well irl with fixed cannons, commanders would try to fight in a crosswind so that the wind tilts their ship either to aim higher for longer range, or to protect the lower deck and aim the cannons lower for low hits.

    However despite the reality that might be too weak in practice and there's no way it could sink a half-competent ship.

  • @animeowl0807 Ahoy!

    There have been many threads on the forum regarding larger ships
    Please remember to use the search facility before adding a new thread on the same or similar subjects :)

    Popping the words Man ‘o’ War in the search brings up over 6 pages of threads/posts regarding the subject and why it won’t be happening soon.

    Here’s a few from the list…

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/post/964423
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/post/414516
    https://www.seaofthieves.com/community/forums/post/1135175

    Cheers!

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