Lets start my reaction with the question if OP even knows what organic means...
Organic: "in a way that happens or develops naturally over time, without being forced or planned by anyone" (Cambridge Dictionary).
A bounty is a way to try to force PvP onto someone and is planned by the one who puts the bounty on that player. So per definition it isn't organic.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
I have been sailing since launch, back when the seas felt slower, heavier, and more deliberate. What hooked me in the early days of Sea of Thieves was the long game. The tension of spotting sails on the horizon. The uncertainty of whether an encounter would turn into an alliance, a betrayal, or a battle that lasted an hour.
And that doesn't happen anymore, because there is to little incentive NOT to PvP, especially since diving became a thing. Most people spend to little time on a server to make alliances profitable. On top of that, before diving it was already a problem that the fast majority of encounters were hostile. The tension of not knowing if another ship was hostile or friendly was already long gone before diving even existed, because players who didn't want to PvP already tried to stay away from other ships because the fast majority of encounters were hostile.
So if this is your goal, then you don't need more encouragement to PvP, you need more encouragement to ally up, since that is what is mostly missing on the seas today.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
Over time, systems like diving have made the world feel smaller and more optimized. It is efficient, but it reduces organic encounters and long pursuit stories. I understand why it exists, but I think we could use a system that pushes players back toward meaningful, player driven conflict.
I agree that diving is an issue. But i disagree that we needs systems that pushes conflict, that has been the problem so far. Rare have been adding a lot of voyages, events, etc. with map indicators etc. to show everybody were potential prey is, but it didn't work, because most players stayed away from it because they don't want a huge beacon on them. In fact: i think it's one of the huge reasons why players have left, because the 'friendly players' (PvE-players) saw nothing new for them and moved on to other games.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
If a captained ship sinks an emissary vessel, the defeated crew gains the option to place a bounty on that ship. This would generate a special voyage similar in structure to an Order of Souls contract, but instead of a skeleton captain, the target is a real pirate crew.
Read the Code of Conduct, the game rules:
"Never harass, bully, intimidate, threaten or encourage others to do harm. None of these behaviours will be tolerated. Any activity you engage in that is solely designed to target and upset another player or crew constitutes bullying. Repeated activity designed to ruin the experience of another player or crew constitutes harassment. Not only do we take these things very seriously, many law enforcement agencies recognise online abuse as an offence. If necessary, we will report incidents to the relevant authorities to take further action."
Your idea is an activity that is solely designed to target another player/crew, so the devs have already been clear that this isn't allowed in the game. It's even bannable to do it. So no, this idea would never come.
The rules also state:
"Always be a good sport. Sea of Thieves is a pirate game, and stealth, stealing and battles are all part of the fun. All pirates on the seas accept that, but be a good sportsman in both victory and loss."
This idea is literaly 'oh, that player sank me so now i want the whole server to go after him' and it's the definition of a bad sport. So it also goes against that rule.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
Only captained ships qualify
This makes no sense. Why can captained ships get punished for sinking another crew, but non-captained ships can't?
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
- Reinforce pirate identity. Seeing your pirate featured as a wanted target would feel meaningful.
Real life pirates didn't fight each other, but allied with each other. They stole from merchant vessels, not from other pirates. And they also didn't go after bounties, since the ones handing out bounties (governments) were the ones who wanted them dead.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
- Encourage organic PvP without forced matchmaking.
As said before, this is not organic PvP, because it's forced and planned. And i think it would DIScourage PvP, since most players wouldn't want a bounty placed on them.
Imagine that you are just trying to PvE and another ship comes after you: you are now in a lose-lose situation, since either you sink to that ship and lose, or you manage to sink him and now have a bounty on you, so the entire server might come after you. I image enough players would just imidiately log off (that server) as soon as someone seems to go after them, since it saves time, because there is not a win-situation left from them because of the herassement they will face if they manage to sink that first enemy.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
- Make revenge a structured but still emergent story.
Revenge literaly goes against the rules. As is quoted before:
"Always be a good sport. Sea of Thieves is a pirate game, and stealth, stealing and battles are all part of the fun. All pirates on the seas accept that, but be a good sportsman in both victory and loss."
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
- Increase the value and narrative weight of captaincy and logbooks.
It decreases the value, because that now means that you will be haressed by multiple ships on the server if you manage to sink someone who was trying to sink you. Non-captained ships would become more valuable since you won't get that bounty-herassment on you. But player will soon complain about not being able to sell to sovereigns OR either have to be herassed by potentially the whole server.
@miss-muse said in Player Bounty Voyages to Encourage Organic PvP and Pirate Storytelling:
- Reward players who enjoy hunting without removing the sandbox nature of the seas.
No, it rewards griefers. Because you can now potentially set up the whole server against another crew, just by letting them sink you. It has nothing to do with you hunting someone, but by setting up other to hunt a specific crew.
And for hunting you don't need a bounty, because you can already sail across the sail and try to find a crew. Any indicator where another crew is, takes away from that hunting (because you already know where to look) and makes for lazy PvP, not real hunting.
