So with hit or miss communication with both sides of the conversation in the community; I wanted to try to bring a fresh discussion to the table.
PvP, it's a broken record at this point, you either love it or you hate it. Either way, I can see your point of view, while having my own frustrations about it.
As someone who participates regularly in competetive interactions in video-games, I like to engage in player-conflict often. However, this is only with the Incentive that the pay-off will be worth my while and that the other players are able to react equally and participate with little hesitation.
Currently, PvP in Sea of Thieves is quite aimless. Ships with cargo don't want to participate, bigger crews won't relent until they get'cha. While I know a statement like that may get some of you in a humble-bumble; take it with a grain of salt and continue reading.
While maybe you are having fun, to some of us, it feels like an unbalanced experience. Some concerns expressed are that, "It's impossible to sink a ship anyways, all they have to do is continue repair and deflood," "Cannons do nothing when all damage can be repaired with one board and one man," "Stunlock is definitely not pirate-esque at all," "There's no willingness to a ship with cargo to want to fight another, time to run!!!"
These are simple generalizations to the whole scope. But the point remains the same, PvP isn't more than an aesthetic and emotional tussle. Half the times you engage all you've done is just stop someone from getting to an island they just started the voyage for.
So, in an effort to bridge parties, the question is: What are some ways to incentivize PvP, with structure, to support healthy non-toxic playstyles.
Examples Given (Provided mostly from discussing with the community)
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- Make ships more delicate, or irreparable in some cases: This can turn the tide for smaller crews to engage larger ones with a chance to win the scuffle. Even if the large one's crew has devoted to repairing.
- PvP Points! or a similar notoriety system (provided by @MrG0m3R )**: A notoriety system with unique unlocks totally formulated around PvP. Balanced in such a way that you may recieve lesser, and lesser points from targetting the same crew, or continuously revenge killing. allowing players to engage in scuffles and move on.
- The Jolly Roger!: This one is relatively extreme and unlikely. Imaginatively, the sea would be a largely neutral zone, players wouldn't be engaging eachother, or able to damage eachothers' ship unless they sailed some distance around the ship and flew the Jolly Roger. This would not only alert the players, but give others a chance to join the fight and sink or join the attacker.
With ideas like so, the idea of a more fleshed-out PvP experience is certainly appealing. Maybe you don't want it to change, thats understandable, but not the intended purpose of this thread. This is too encourage those of you with concerns over the PvP to be able to share ideas, and get a concensus on what could be better!
