Queuing up as an Alliance (official multi-queue with friends)

  • Al Silverhook
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    I know that this has been suggested a number of times, and I've seen videos where the team has mentioned it 'may' be worked on 'at some point', but given the recent spike in the popularity and the attention the game is getting, is there any way that the devs can take another look at this feature to be implemented as a priority?

    I have at least 8 friends who would play SoT every day, but we want to play the game together as the crews of multiple galleons on the same server, rather than splitting up across multiple servers. We don't want to have to pick and choose between our friends when we play. I know we cannot be the only ones wanting something like this...

    I don't think a ready-made alliance of 2 ships would break the game - is there any 'game-breaking' differences between this and putting together a spontaneous 5- or 6-ship alliance on a server? Would love to hear people's thoughts and opinions on this one.

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  • DragnonHD
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    Your group currently would take up at least 1/3 of the available ships in a lobby so its understandable why we can't do that until at least they expand the server capacity.

  • NeedSmokes
    Commander

    This could only ever really be done with private servers.

    Just imagine being the poor soul slooping away solo with an armada of friends sailing towards them, it would be totally unfair.

    I hope private servers come some day, people should have the choice of how they want to play this game, it would make many more people play.

  • Octopus Lime
    Master
    Founder

    @al-silverhook Whilst I do agree that it would be fun, I also see the fact that it would be totally unbalanced to have two galleons of coordinated friends in one server.

  • TenebraeVIII
    Marauder

    @octopus-lime said in Queuing up as an Alliance (official multi-queue with friends):

    @al-silverhook Whilst I do agree that it would be fun, I also see the fact that it would be totally unbalanced to have two galleons of coordinated friends in one server.

    I disagree with the reasoning here. Yes, it would be unbalanced against another random player, granted. But the very nature of alliances is unbalanced. I don't know how many times I've started an alliance with another ship or two and we all hopped into party chat of our own accord. Alliances are supposed to motivate crews to work together, and the advantages therein when it comes to both PVP and PVE are rewards all on their own.

    I would love, love, love to see a multiqueue option introduced into the game. As it stands, I don't see server size as too much of an issue. Like I said before, two galleons teaming up and coordinating is already something you can do. However, if we are ever going to see a 6 man ship like the Man O War, I would definitely say increasing the server sizes would be necessary. A stationary galleon rotating defensively is already a huge threat to take down. Fighting an even larger ship would be nigh impossible without an allianced set of crews.

  • HaydnSym45
    Marauder
    Insider

    @killthulhu19k You’re making too many assumptions for my taste.

    1. that alliances are supposed to be cooperative on a task (they almost never are - especially at forts).
    2. that two random crews in an alliance is equal in strength of will and drive to do things as 8 friends spawned together (no way).
    3. that a 6-person ship would somehow be imbalanced in a way that would require two galleons (if that were so, it would make the sloop and brig unviable on the seas, so clearly Rare would put in a balancing mechanic - like walking three decks to bail for starters).

    Generally, leave the server system as is, as having large groups of friends has way more downside in potential abuse (easiest example is swapping Athena’s to cheese that commendation, and that’s not even a PvP abuse) than it has in upside.

  • Octopus Lime
    Master
    Founder

    @killthulhu19k said in Queuing up as an Alliance (official multi-queue with friends):

    @octopus-lime said in Queuing up as an Alliance (official multi-queue with friends):

    @al-silverhook Whilst I do agree that it would be fun, I also see the fact that it would be totally unbalanced to have two galleons of coordinated friends in one server.

    I disagree with the reasoning here. Yes, it would be unbalanced against another random player, granted. But the very nature of alliances is unbalanced. I don't know how many times I've started an alliance with another ship or two and we all hopped into party chat of our own accord. Alliances are supposed to motivate crews to work together, and the advantages therein when it comes to both PVP and PVE are rewards all on their own.

    I would love, love, love to see a multiqueue option introduced into the game. As it stands, I don't see server size as too much of an issue. Like I said before, two galleons teaming up and coordinating is already something you can do. However, if we are ever going to see a 6 man ship like the Man O War, I would definitely say increasing the server sizes would be necessary. A stationary galleon rotating defensively is already a huge threat to take down. Fighting an even larger ship would be nigh impossible without an allianced set of crews.

    I agree that it can be done now, however for it too happen requires co-ordination and trust between the crews and as such it doesn't occur that often (in my own experience). With the option of multi queue, it would be happening a lot as it would intrinsically be easier to do.

    My other argument against it already being possible with the alliance system is that with alliances, the two crews are random and do not know each other (how they play and the tactics) whereas two crews of well rehearsed crews that know each other strengths and weaknesses would be big threat.

  • Reedski
    Marauder
    Insider

    6 months ago I would have torn this idea apart, balancing, Sea of Friends, blah blah, too easy, etc... now however I feel differently, everyone and their mum seems to be PL Athena's 10 so who even cares anymore? There's way more fun to be had in allying up and creating your own games & races etc than there is in voyaging, I'd be well up for getting people in on different ships straight from the off, half my time in this game now is spent attempting to orchestrate a situation where we own plural ships in a server, not for any loot based reasons, just so we can fight each other or race each other or do grog chest races etc etc, I'd be quite happy if we could just jump in as a group from the start

  • Chronodusk
    Commander
    Insider

    @Al-Silverhook

    Joe Neate has said on stream a couple of times that this functionality will eventually be added in the form of private servers. We don't know what private servers will be like, if they will have the same progression, rewards, PvE threats, etc.... But I do think that spawning in a premade alliance with another crew would be out of place in the main public shared world that we have.

    While I can understand that people with many friends would want to bring in a big party so they can all play together, I still think alliances and armadas within the public adventure world should be things that are formed organically through random player run-ins in the world, built on the uneasy sense of trust between unfamiliar pirates. You don't get this when you spawn in with people you already know are going to work with you and never betray you.

    In a private server where conditions such as rewards or PvE threats are different than the main shared world, I could see this being a really awesome way to play for people who have lots of friends playing Sea of Thieves!

  • Wheelie O
    Master
    Insider

    I agree. A 2-3 ship alliance option would be nice, but idk how I feel about a full server option. I'm not necessarily opposed, I'm just approaching this from a pvp perspective. I'm a part of a pvp clan and we'll do war nights on weekends. The problem is finding people that will let us have their ship, let alone 2 ships.

  • Goedecke Michel
    Marauder

    @al-silverhook sagte in Queuing up as an Alliance (official multi-queue with friends):

    I don't think a ready-made alliance of 2 ships would break the game - is there any 'game-breaking' differences between this and putting together a spontaneous 5- or 6-ship alliance on a server?

    Yeah, there's a difference. Two strange crews ally, don't know each other, don't even speak the same language and act more individually. Your friend alliance, on the other hand, knows each other, has just opened a party chat and acts like an intelligent swarm.

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