I admittedly have only played this game a short time compared to many here, however I have noticed a trend . The trend is calls for solo playing over crewing. Without getting a longwinded discussion on society norms and things outside the games' control I would like to instead focus on what this game can do about players edged/forced into solo play. Now I know forced may be a bit much as you can always just select solo play, but this of course comes at a gameplay cost.
The issue I see coming up often is troll players making open crew an undesirable settings for many if not most pirates. The content from what I have seen is tailored at least in part with an eye on crew play (not solo) and a major advantage in having more hands on deck or off deck as the case may be in combat. So this begs the question why would anyone aside from added challenge want to play solo and this comes around again to players not acting as an enemy instead of an ally when they agree to join a crew. I know you can brig players, but is this enough? And before anyone asks, no this this NOT a call to ban players as I am certain Rare has that as an option at their disposal. So I guess my question again is what can be done to encourage the use of the open crew setting ? Maybe a shadow banning system that won't let a trolling player join a crew with non trolls for a time and instead be crew with others of their playstyle ? Maybe there is more explore from an in game perspective and I have a few ideas I would like if I may share:
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The Pirate Lord/ Servant of Flame have special punishments for uncrew like behavior (system controlled). Now the thresholds for this uncrew like behavior would need to be adjusted periodically to keep abusers from gaming the system and this being the case I would see this one as difficult and costly.
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Using blunders and firebombs on your own ship during a certain amount of time after joining and open crewed ship would be impossible (not throwable within a certain distance from your ship).
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Trolling behavior as stated above (clue me in to other types please if I missed some, sincerely) enables the ability to tie the offending player to front of the bow (front) of the ship or the side or any of a number of chosen hangable or tie off areas .
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Billboarded list controlled by the system that would keep silent track of trolling behavior (decided again by Rare) and after a threshold those players names are listed on the board and as such made known also to players and if on that list you can not without direct permission by crews to join their open crew.
Anymore ideas? Issues with my ideas? I am all ears.
