First of all, I'd like to say this is an excellent game with an excellent and unique Ship-VS-Ship combat system, this easily one of my all-time favorite games! I love shooting at other ships with cannons, closing with them and then boarding them for close-quarters combat and fighting other players on the decks of ships on the open seas! I am also enjoying the new Hourglass Ship-VS-Ship mechanic very much!
However, I believe the focus is far too naval-based and there should be more options, or more reasons for leaving your ship behind to go about fighting on land. The most exciting experiences for me in this game are when two groups of players for whatever reason decide to hunt each other down and fight it out on an island/outpost (however, this is far too rare of an occurrence!). I recall long ago in a game called Pirates of the Caribbean Online, there were options for both Ship-VS-Ship (SvS) and Player-VS-Player (PvP) matchmaking, which I absolutely adored.
SvS and PvP are two different methods of fighting that require two different skillsets, and some players are better at one than the other. In the game I mentioned above, those two methods were ranked separately with each one awarding you with very cool titles and badges. Some players lived for PvP and were absolute top dogs in the PvP arena while hardly ever going out to sea, and some lived solely for SvS and were masters in the domain of naval combat, but couldn't PvP very well.
I personally love them both, but with a slight preference for PvP, especially on open land! This appeals to me because:
- Solid ground - Fighting on solid ground is stable and refreshing (Refreshing due to its rarity)
- More Space - You have more space to fight in, allowing the use of the full spectrum of weaponry to be much more viable instead of the common blunderbuss meta. As it stands currently, you can use any weapon you want... as long as you also carry a blunderbuss, or are an absolute God-tier, quick-draw marksman with any gun up close and never miss a shot and all of your shots register.
- Dynamic Terrain - Fighting on islands/outposts is fascinating because it gives you the opportunity to utilize a wide assortment of terrain in interesting ways. Be it in the jungle, in the hills, on the beaches, on docks, in the streets while using buildings for cover, or in caves etc.
What I suggest for appealing to the PvP-geared players is a sort of 'Capture-The-Something' type game where two crews go off to fight to seize an item or objective on a random island in the Sea of Thieves. Once you are on the island, your spawn-point switches from being your ship to being a random spot on the outskirts of that particular island. Your spawn-point will switch back to your ship ONLY when you successfully seize the objective/item, or exit that game mode. Even if your ship sinks while you're fighting on that island, your spawn point will still stay on the island until one of the crews wins, one of the crews exits the game mode, or one of your ships leaves the radius of the island.
