Stop Server Hoppers

@expsnailer said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@cpt-sockmonster Conversation? I've heard alot of moot complaints. "There not enought PvP" "I wanna do specific things" it's a PvPvE game where you are not guaranteed anything at anytime. Moot.

No clue what Moot means.

You keep forcing this idea that they are complaints, when they are not.
And everyone wants to do specific things, its a sandbox game & people can play how ever they want.

I keep explaining over and over why server hopping exsists. Servers tend to die pretty quickly after some PvP encounters, and then it dies out quite fast. I never said it is right or wrong, i'm saying it exsists so PvPers can get into the action faster, because staying in one server is for the majority of the time not worth it sadly.

Either because of:

• There is nobody to be found.
• People arent doing anything in the servers.
• You encounter new players, and dont want to ruin their experience.
• People give up after one fight and quit the server.
• Unocupied events sitting there.

My whole arguement is that the people in this topic keep complaining about this being an issue, when this so called issue cannot be solved right now because of server stability.

And again.
If Rare came with a good solution im up for it.
I too sail around quite often if i cannot find anything, and we just hope for the best or do other stuff.

@cpt-sockmonster said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@combatxkitty said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@cpt-sockmonster said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@combatxkitty said in Stop Server Hoppers:
Maybe Rare can test out having a anti server hopper feature where you just cant hop more than 3-4 times within thirty minutes? I dont think that is too outrageous. Why would anyone need to hop more than that?

@expsnailer Yup, something is better than nothing.

How about no.

Like i said in my previous post.
As long as Rare does not fix the issue of keeping a server active, like the increase of player ships. Or atleast have new ships join the server faster in some way.
Server hopping should not be going anywere.

Why do we need to hop more then 4 times you ask?
Because there isnt anything much happening in 70% or so, of these servers that is worth while staying for.
With only 6 ships per server (and not every server is fully filled), people tend to leave the server quickly after a fight. Sometimes you encounter a lot of people doing a whole lot of nothing. Events sometimes sit there with hardly anyone doing them.

It is frustrating as a PvPer to hop this often, but if we want to get good action, we have to.

As a PvP'er on SOT and this is a real genuine question for you how can you know if a server has a decent fight available to you in under ten minutes after you load in? Four server hops within thirty minutes is less than ten minutes between hops.How can you possibly know how many ships are on and what they are all doing in so little time? How can you know everyone on the server is doing a whole lot of nothing? If you are hopping that much sounds like you are the one doing a whole lot of nothing and maybe Rare needs to look into that issue as to why people feel need to hop that much. Geez, with such little time on each server I am surprised you even encounter anyone at all.

I either look for a FOTD in the sky. Reapers 5, and if i see neither i look on the tables for emmisaries and then sail around. And when i do encounter people, its usualy newer players with no quests on them.

I feel like you arnt server hopping. You are simply sailing around and not finding anything engaging. I dont think what I proposed would affect someone who likes to play the game as you do. I do not want to punish people like you, I just feel regulating excessive server hoppers, particularly ones doing it for alliance server reasons or to finds servers with no Reapers on them which I see people complain about who play as Reapers, may not be a bad idea but its ultimately up to Rare. Im not losing sleep over it either way.

Im not going to sit here and tell you how to play, you know its a PvPvE game so constantly being on the hunt of pure PvP will not always work out but if thats what you like its what you like. Do you just not like to start of FOTD's or doing PvE content? Have you become bored of it? I just ask because maybe if entice people it can help?

I been playing for a long time and I will say back in the day forts were hopping. I feel like you cant get that kinda action anymore. I do FOTD's every now and then and sometimes someone will roll up but not like back in the old days. Maybe Rare can do something to encourage more epic PvPvE battles? I dont know. I mainly PvE on this game because the PvP is not fast pace enough and style of it just not for me. When I PvP I want to kill kill kill and cant do that in a game like this, just not made to be like that.

@combatxkitty said in Stop Server Hoppers:

I feel like you arnt server hopping. You are simply sailing around and not finding anything engaging. I dont think what I proposed would affect someone who like to play the game as you do. I do not want to punish people like you, I just feel regulating excessive server hoppers, particularly ones doing it for alliance server reasons or to finds servers with no Reapers on them which I see people who complain about who play as Reapers, may not be a bad idea but its ultimately up to Rare. Im not losing sleep over it either way.

It's different every day.
Sometimes we sail around, and are to exhausted to server hop, and just do our thing.
And another day we do, and see what good interaction we get.

Im not going to sit here and tell you how to play, you know its a PvPvE game so constantly being on the hunt of pure PvP will not always work out but if thats what you like its what you like. Do you just not like to start of FOTD's or doing PvE content? Have you become bored of it? I just ask because maybe if entice people it can help?

We usualy do them if there is an event for it.
But ofcourse it is more exciting stealing them. But dont tuck at all anymore, we just wait and then roll in and attack head on.

I have been here since the open Beta, ive done every event plenty of times (tough i still need to get the 50 captain skulls of the damned, for the ghost captain sails).

I been playing for a long time and I will say back in the day forts were hopping. I feel like you cant get that kinda action anymore. I do FOTD's every now and then and sometimes someone will roll up but not like back in the old days. Maybe Rare can do something to encourage more epic PvPvE battles? I dont know. I mainly PvE on this game because the PvP is not fast pace enough and style of it just not for me. When I PvP I want to kill kill kill and cant do that in a game like this, just not made to be like that.

Yeah, sadly the good old skull fort days are over.

If Rare comes up with a good solution to come up with something to make servers more alive, im all for it. Im pretty stoked for next year anyway!

@expsnailer Thats fair inough.
I get tired of it too at times, thats why we just sail around at days.

But that still is not an arguement, as if why this is an issue.
Because PvPers find what they want, suddenly it becomes an issue?

All i can hope for is that Rare comes with the right answer to this, instead of punish this way of playing.

@glannigan said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@amendelwyr said in Stop Server Hoppers:

@cpt-sockmonster
So then, if we saw Rare implement things that would progressively lead server-hopping away and simultaneously work to improve server activity between players in a number of ways; would this then be something you would support?

Because the fact we're pressing in on is the huge PvP action-oriented playstyle that hoppers have overwhelmingly created. It's not organic enough to feel like "good" fights, especially when you come to do that fight without having any risk other than a bit of time wasted both loading and sailing and looking at a table before you get "your" fun. Everyone wants to feel rewarded for successfully winning a battle, of course, but its always so distasteful to just... not be rewarded. "Congratulations, you spent all your supplies. They're coming back. Again..."

---

Today's experience:

Today, we activated Fort of The Damned after we figured out the majority of our server's crews and their general dispositions. We'd defeated an Ashen Wind's event, and also a megalodon, so we had a bit of loot on our Merchant Level 3 ship. Two other crews decided to contest it, (the FOTD). We even had a skeleton galleon roll up on the brig which we all banded together to kill. Then we got right back to it of course. We sunk the brig and then had a decent sloop take down our mast after they hit us with a nice anchorball. It didn't look good, but we managed to survive, repair, and eventually start our combat again. We boarded them again and started to win, starting to sink our last enemy. NICE!

But while we were winning, a default skinned galleon with skilled players hopped into the server. I only checked because we'd finally taken all the loot from our enemies and am rightly paranoid about doing the FOTD. It wasn't a merger because they had basic outpost supplies, no loot, and no battle-scars. It was fresh off the dry-dock, coming from galleon's grave, full speed, with a reaper's mark and emissary flag. They had black-dyed PJs too. Glorious! And just when we had used a majority of our supplies on the other two ships and an emergent skeleton galleon!

Everyone else (our other enemies) just left us alone then. I had hoped they would've allied against this threat, but perhaps they were an open-crew brig and sloop who weren't that invested in it. However, my buddy and I aren't maxed with Athena at all. We had loot we wanted to save too for commendations, and Greymarrow was already hurt somewhat. We had to win... We had to stay... We had skin in the game.

The whole battle, defeating them; and trying to keep our heads while we fought divided between Greymarrow and the hoppers, jumping back to islands to get more supplies, trying over and over to sink them safely, extended our session a whole two hours longer than we'd anticipated. And it wasn't fun, it was exasperating.

Even though we eventually won; it was ridiculous that the only reward we would have time for was the Athena chest. Because as soon as we sunk them for the second time and finished the fort, we were too tired and fatigued to care about most anything else...

And they were coming for us, again.

That's not content. That's not good PvP or good action. That was server-hopping butting in on everyone else's adventure, which was getting good PvP from normal PvEvP players with risks on both sides.

That is exactly what I’m saying. You just said it gooder!

This will be the last one from me.

Let me ask this.

What is the difference between a Server hopping ship joining you're server & A ship already sailing the same server for 2 hours or so, And in both scenarios they encounter you and decide to attack you over and over again, untill they either sink you, or you sell in time?

All im getting from this in the end is, they have no loot and therefore they have the advantage (wich they don't), and its not good PvP because they are presistently herassing me, and they have nothing to lose!

It is only good PvP if both ships have something at stakes? I strongly disagree.

Presistent people exsist, if it is server hoppers, or someone already sailing for hours, and i have seen the same people coming at me numorous times.
And some people just don't seem to know how to handle these situations, but it is still PvP. No PvP battle wil go as you hoped it would be, that doesnt mean its all the fault of server hoppers, its presistent people that are confident in taking you're loot.

It is all about adapting and looking ahead

• will they come back?
• should we stock up quickly if they do?
• should we use another strategy if they adapt?

Couple of months ago i head a guy coming at me because i was doing a athena quest solo. I sunk him, and he came back and was sure to let me know, I have all the time in the world so we will be back.

Everytime i sunk him i used different tactics, or reverted to old ones to catch him offguard, and i stocked up everytime he sunk, until he gave up. And he was no server hopper, as i saw his ship an 20-30 mins prior in the distance doing other stuff before attacking me.

Sure some PvP encounters are better then the others.

But just because both ships need to have something at stake to have good PvP is nonsense. My best PvP encounters were i had something to lose and the enemy ship didnt, and we outplayed and outsmarted them over and over, and it felt great.

That is all for me on this topic.

@galactic-geek haha unless you are german, i think not.

As this guy sounded somewhat frustrated that i sunk him, and i don't think you match that description. :)

My point that I drove for was that ships should not be disposable weapons. Server-hoppers and people who specifically do not care that they have their ship sink.

Of course we're people who learn, change, adapt. Again, this past weekend; another hopper crew located us as we were sailing Athena. We had been sailing for four hours, they'd sailed for five minutes. We sunk, they profit.

We give chase to redeem ourselves, but as we sink again on the outpost they all left the game and scuttled. This was after the loot was sold. - Literally. That is their goal. Murder, steal, hop server, repeat. They do not add to the game. They don't build wealth for organic players, new players, decent players, or even Reapers to steal. They are POISON.

both ships need to have something at stake to have good PvP

You can tell when they've got skin in the game, and not a mindless bloodthirst for Athena loot. (Of which, yes, we had none, we were doing world events for levels.)

If you guys actually want a balanced way to stop server hopping, you could implement a system somewhat like this.

Identification
If a player leaves a server within 15 minutes of joining, they are issued an account-specific "warning" of sorts. Think of it as a tally system

Warnings
Each warning acts as a "tally" of how many times that player has left a server upon starting a journey recently. (Warnings reset within a 1-3 hour period after the last one was issued, ranging on the frequency of issued punishments) Once a player has been issued 3 warnings within the allotted time, they are given a 1/2 - 2 hour cooldown also ranging on the frequency of punishments.

Punishment specifics
In no way would any of these punishments range longer than 3-5 hours, and none will be permanent
The main purpose is to discourage the action of server hopping for fear of having to wait, however, this system is not full-proof, as a group of people could easily have each person hop servers until one finds a good candidate.

Final notes
The times within this idea are subject to change depending on how well the system works, the biggest change I can see being needed is how long the warnings last upon being issued.

@Ocean-Santa5827
First of all, my idea was simply me brainstorming.
Second, the reason server hopping shouldn't be a thing is it goes against the very foundation of exploration and adventure the game is so fundamentally built on, yet for some reason, kids like you are so dead-set on switching servers until you see someone doing something fun and attempting to ruin their afternoon for the sweet number in the top right of your hud.

If you want PVP constantly, go play Arena, otherwise, why don't you just play the game like the rest of us, and enjoy the fights and squabbles that happen randomly.

And as a last note, I personally have never been sunk by a server hopper, I just personally find the types that do it are toxic brats.

@ocean-santa5827
No wonder you rely on server hopping so much, 30 minutes must feel like a whole day to you, gotta hop around till you find something you feel is worth your fragile ego's time

@ocean-santa5827
You're one to talk about being "Above things" when your first argument is to scream "Don't tell me what to do" when all you do is tell people they can't run a fort of the damned for fear of people like you joining the server

@ocean-santa5827

PVP isn't what my suggestion is aimed at, if you'd take a second to think through that thick skull of yours you'd realize it.

My suggestion was to eliminate those that ONLY want PVP from projecting that mindset into the adventure community, and keeping it isolated to the arena so that it doesn't fester and make the community as toxic as people like you tend to be.

@ocean-santa5827 said in Stop Server Hoppers:

Oh wait could it just be, that some ppl are douches, like you?

Lol

What about making the wake-up animation a few seconds longer every time you're on a new server within a day.

Or is that too mean ?

@lem0n-curry
They'd still find a way to cry about that

@xultanis-dragon
I honestly agree with your point on server alliances, it really just goes against the pirate nature of the game.

Though I will say about the server hopping, it's really just a way for people to constantly do one action within the game, whether that be fighting an ashen winds boss, or the real only reason people server hop, countering FOTD.

Personally, though, the place where you find the worst of the worst when it comes to server hopping is Twitch.

@hooohoocoach
Exaggerating my words to act like I'm inciting violence against those that despise PVP is kinda disingenuous.

My point was that if all you care about is PVP, there's Arena for that.