Fun, but respawning is all wrong!

  • Danglin22

    I have been playing for a few days now and in my opinion you have a simple flaw in the way you are handling death. If a ship is sunk all the players from the sunken vessel can continually re-spawn right back at that spot where they just sunk allowing them effectively harass the winning team or worse, destroy all their opponents progress by throwing there treasure in the water or sinking their ship. I am not sure I understand why you would have this set up to work like this. Simple fix would be to have players re-spawn with their ship once it is sunk or at a minimum increase the re-spawn timer. I have yet to be in a battle that did not end with both ships sinking. Shouldn't the primary goal be to keep your ship afloat?

    Additionally, when i spend and hour or two hunting treasure I expect to see some reward/progression in return. When every battle ends in a loss for both teams it makes it pretty difficult to see how that is going to happen. Unless you are one of those players who is not hunting treasure and seeking only to engage in combat with other players and have no interest in progression. Which is ultimately what leads to all the harassment.

    I get the overall concept, but there needs to be a winner and a loser in the battles. Both teams losing every time doesn't make much sense.

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  • TrackerRoo
    Ship Mate

    Never had a loss for both teams. Had plenty where our ship sank, where their ship sank, where we fled to repair, where the fled to repair and even some where neither of us could line up for shots so we both just gave up and sailed away. Did have a four man crew attack our two man ship yesterday out of nowhere. We sank because one of their guys suicide bombed us with a powder keg after they rammed us. So when we spawned back in the mission became grab a chest and swim as far away in a random direction to ensure that they didn't get them before the sharks got us. Of the three chests we had they got one, we made sure the other two were lost at sea

  • Kobetastrophy

    I've never had it where both ships sank.

  • A Cranky Eskimo
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    After you sink a ship just have two people repair and two guard ladders, then once repaired have those 2 swim out to the mermaid from the enemy, and take their chests. The sharks and enemy players can harrass you, but they lost the advantage of a movable and safe spawn point with cannons or an ammo crate on it. They are now fish in a barrel, kill them once decisively when they are in the water and theyll just take the mermaid and leave.

    I agree that spawning now just makes a "fair win" turn into a spawn camp, same as if you board and kill the entire crew, they just spawn back if you dont sink it. The barrels are probably what is making both ships sink, they need to make them smaller and less prone to cannonball splash damage, and maybe reduce the blast radius a bit.

  • Perfect Code
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Oh yes. :) The respawning (and spawning) is poorly designed. For players and sharks. Skeleton spawning is okay, though could use improvement.

  • arnavmode248164
    Founder

    Yes I know!! Spawning is so bad in this game, it's an endless circle of combat. I went onto a guy's ship and my teammate and I killed them all, we kept on thinking about how to "win" the exchange, they didn't have treasure chests so I wanted to kinda inflict some damage on them, but I didn't know how. I held off the enemies once more, this time really wondering on how to destroy them but well the next time they respawned we died, I got back to my ship feeling defeated even though I beat the team 2v4 TWICE. It just feels pointless, there has to be a way to end this endless respawning.

  • A Cranky Eskimo
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @arnavmode248164 yeah its really annoying... ive taken a ship by myself a bunch of times, one day i killed the same crew 3 times in one boarding, Now that sounds fun and was fun for me, but i can tell you they werent happy.. and i always give players a second to get their bearings, but it really shouldnt be the "endgame" like it currently is to basically just go for pvp for fun. There needs to be reasons and purpose behind decision making in the game. As of now that consists of the choices to be friendly or not. There is still a lot that can happen based on either choice, but neither has purpose. The game has amazing potential to be filled with purpose i just hope they figure out a better balance of hardcore and casual mechanics. This game is such a unique mix of the two and i really hope they can figure it out so that it can be a "hop on and play" casual game but also have the depth to facilitate longer sessions with more variety and purpose.

  • nixx0red

    @kobetastrophy @NaoShadowpaws cool anecdotes but I've seen it happen a ton, especially when I solo fight 4 man crews and sink their ships-- this almost always involves my ship also sinking.

  • Aquatic X
    Marauder
    Founder

    While waiting to respawn, it should be something like a puzzle, a task or etc. onboard that ghost ship, that would have a effect on how long you would be dead. Or maybe after defeating the other players, be able to take them hostage for a short period (5-10 min). The winning players can decide to make the loosing players "jump from the plank", that would make the defeated pirates respawn at the nearest outpost.

  • Zatanos

    I couldn't agree more. Essentially you have two options to be "victorious" in an engagement with another ship. You can use cannons to try to sink the ship, or you can board the enemy ship and attempt to defeat the opposing pirates on their own ship. Any crew that's at least half decent can easily repair cannon damage to the hull quickly enough to prevent sinking, and if you board a ship and kill the pirates they just respawn infinitely until they eventually kill you back. This leads to far too many stalemates, or situations where both ships sink and no one wins. I think there are a few ways that can potentially make ship battles a bit more decisive.

    1. You can increase the time that it takes to repair the hull with planks making it more difficult to easily switch between repair and combat, this way you have to decide whether you'll keep the ship from sinking or contribute to damaging the enemy
    2. Utilize a revive system. Instead of players dying and being sent to the ferry of the damned it can be that they are "downed" until revived by a teammate or they bleed out. This will prevent it from being a revolving door of respawns that makes battles last almost infinitely. When an entire team is downed they are wiped and respawn at a random island.
    3. It can be that you can only respawn if you have teammates who are still alive. Increase the respawn timer but make it that if the last man standing can stay alive for a while his/her teammates will eventually come back, but NOT if the entire crew has been taken out.
      These are all suggestions to make it feel more like a victory or defeat after combat instead of just an endurance test to see who wants to grief for a longer time. I think it should actually feel like you've won and that it should also really suck if you lose.
  • Zatanos

    @aquatic-x I like the idea of the winners making the losers walk the plank. I've noticed that the bigger ships have them but they don't have a purpose other than being cosmetic.

  • nixx0red

    @zatanos yes to 2 or 3.

  • o h g r i n g o
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @danglin22 I think a "Crew-Wipe" mechanic should be used (much like in the Battlefield saga). Once a ship is successfully boarded and all (and I mean ALL) of its members have been killed, that crew should be considered "wiped out" and they should respawn on an outpost somewhere as they have legitimately lost their ship and any rights to its treasure haul. They shouldn't be able to infinitely spawn on their ship in order to try to eliminate the enemies or regain any captured chests; this makes things too chaotic. Instead, this system woud be in place to emphasize teamwork as shipmates must communicate and organize themselves to have at least one member of their crew stay alive in order for them to be able to spawn on said "alive crewmember". I believe this would put a stop to the greif-ridden situations stemming from respawning after a battle shoud be considered finished.

  • o h g r i n g o
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    When an entire team is downed they are wiped and respawn at a random island.

    1. It can be that you can only respawn if you have teammates who are still alive. Increase the respawn timer but make it that if the last man standing can stay alive for a while his/her teammates will eventually come back, but NOT if the entire crew has been taken out.
      These are all suggestions to make it feel more like a victory or defeat after combat instead of just an endurance test to see who wants to grief for a longer time. I think it should actually feel like you've won and that it should also really suck if you lose.

    THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL.

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