What might a "medium seas" look like?

  • Tybald
    Marauder
    Insider

    Another thread asked for "Medium Seas" (MS) as something between Safer Seas (SS) and High Seas (HS). That ask seems to have been a request for a PVE server in disguise. However, before it had become clear that's what was being asked for, and instead we were just left with a lack of details on "medium seas", I took a crack at what a "Medium Seas" MIGHT look like. I wanted to share this write up for discussion purposes. (I'm also aware of the amount of coding effort that would be needed to implement this.)

    In general, If we went down this route, MS would be part of the extended tutorial pipeline. I would Cap SS at level 20, and expect people to move into MS from there. The goal is to introduce PVP through Emissaries, but leave PVP exclusive to emissaries. This would let players dip their toes into the PVEVP environment and world events, but still provide that safety net for some play. There's still a hefty amount of restrictions, and the goal would be to have everyone graduate into HS.

    FINALLY:
    Note: This is NOT an endorsement of the idea, just brainstorming. What would a middle ground between Safer Seas and High Seas actually look like?

    1. You sail with other pirates on the ocean.
    2. The SS nerf on loot value remains.
    3. The level cap is limited to 40, but can only be raised above 30 via the emissary system.
    4. No alliances
    5. Commendations restrictions from SS carry over, even with the return of the emissaries.
    6. PVP under most circumstances is unless running as an Emissary (See below)
      -- No player may interact with loot that has been touched by another crew.
      -- No player may interact with another crews ship (this includes via harpoon)
      -- Items like firebombs, blunder bombs, ashen skulls, etc. do not impact other players ships
      -- Weapons do not affect other players
      -- Ramming/impacts do not damage other ship. (They may, at best, cause a ship to change course)
      -- Kegs may be found, and shot/detonated, but may not be picked up or interacted with by pirates. Kegs will not damage ships. (this means keg skeletons are still a thing, but the kegs are no longer a PVP weapon.
      -- Finally, the intent here is to STOP PVP, and reduce the chance of griefing. If I have missed something, it is an oversight and not intentional. Please do not bring up 100 other "But you forgot about X" here. Assume that if it's a problem that is easily disallowed, then it is disallowed.

    Emissaries:
    Emissaries serve as the PVP opt-in for MS. Only those players who have raised an emissary flag may engage in PVP. (Note. Any emissary can attack any emissary, it's not limited to reapers). Guild Emissaries are still not allowed. When selling loot as an emissary you may raise you level up to 40.

    World events:
    World events drop unique world event treasures. There are 3 types, a GH, OOS, and Merchant variant. The amount that drops varies by world event, and have a set value (the total value will be lower than that of a high seas world event).
    Only emissaries may compete for world events. Non Emissaries are not able to interact with world event treasures in any way.
    Sunk emissaries must re-raise the flag before trying to get loot back.

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  • D3ADST1CK
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    I don't think we needed a new thread about it tbh. The idea doesn't have any legs, requires a lot of dev work for likely very low return, and will impact either High Seas or Safer Seas depending on implementation.

    DOA

  • Valor Omega
    Legend
    Insider

    I just don't honestly feel there's a need for it, tbh. High Seas was, is, and always will be the main attraction, so to speak. Safer Seas, while it can be played indefinitely, is meant to be an onboarding experience - a supplement to new players. Not a complete replacement of High Seas.

  • Tybald
    Marauder
    Insider

    @d3adst1ck
    Probably. But, I felt an actual examination of the idea as opposed to a PVE server might be more useful.

  • WolfManbush
    Lord

    In my opinion I think that over-nerfing the experience is as detrimental to adventure as over-hunting was.

    As someone that talked about the overhunting for years (the extreme server hopping, server sharing, flooding of supplies without pve requirement, etc) I believe that they over-corrected (pretty common in SoT) and now rather than just addressing the unnecessary harshness they have been catering to people that just don't want to sink. Pve and Pvp but specifically pve recently.

    The megs being irrelevant in combat, the skelly ships not repairing, these are nerfs on top of entire seasons built around nerfs. And on top of that is the excessive reward and the exploiting that goes on for months at a time.

    In my opinion the game needs to get back to sinking being a part of the experience, not a flaw of design. Back to implementing feedback that adds fun and thrill, not just making things less likely to sink players. Back to interference, not making interference irrelevant or non existent.

    That's why I think medium seas is very unnecessary.

    When people don't regularly face the threat of sinking they develop the mentality that pvp is wrong, that pvpers are "bad" and all this drama breaks out all the time. Pvp is not wrong, pvpers are not "bad" it's a part of the environment, just as pve should be a risk. The outcome should be random, this is not supposed to be a linear experience. We are supposed to sink regularly as long as the risk/reward is balanced and the environment maintained well.

  • Tybald
    Marauder
    Insider

    @wolfmanbush
    I'm pretty sure the skelly fleet/Meg thing is not a deliberate nerf, but a glitch. I'm guessing we'll see in about a week or so.

    I agree you are right. Many of my ideas that I put up are really about trying to create interactions.

    The OP was more to spur conversation. As I said. I don't endorse the "medium seas" idea. But, if there was to be some sort of intermediate step between SS and HS, I would go with something like the above.

  • Badger
    Lord
    Insider
    Moderator

    As this is essentially a duplicate thread from here and this is basically just an extra topic thread for the same, we'll go ahead and drop anchor on it here. Thank you.

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