Just a friendly reminder that servers ONLY hold 4 ships / 16 players

  • Gamaguado
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    Please correct me if I'm wrong but the last I heard on the subject, sea of thieves servers only hold about 16 players. This is a very disappointing number and frankly it reflects the 3 seperate play sessions I've had where I've seen 0 players. I thought and wanted to believe it was bugged but I guess that is just not the case.

    I have been trying to sell my wow/destiny/overwatch crew on this game since I saw the first trailer several years ago. They seem to be pretty much on board but skeptical about whether the game can having a lasting community. (as is just about everyone else) The problem is that I have to tell them that servers ONLY hold 16 people when their concern is about community. I dont want to because this game will be shot down even harder and I actually think we can have a lot of fun with this. Please tell me I'm wrong.

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  • dark shadow9056
    Captain

    @gamaguado this is only beta my friend. Full game will have 99 players I’m pretty sure

    It says on the MC store

  • Kruqnut

    no 16 is the number, i think it needs to be upped to 20-24 personally

  • Ricoswuave38
    Marauder

    I think 6-8 crews, 24-30 players could be the sweet spot, but we also don’t know the final map size. Too many players on a small map could get too crowded and vice versa.

  • Radzz the drunk
    Marauder
    Founder

    @kruqnut I guess when the map gets bigger the amount of crews joining one server will increase as well. So the odds of meeting another crew will remain the same.

    Just a guess tho. Don't take my word for it. It just makes sense in my head

  • Garish59

    the game dont have a "server", it is instance like, if you are in the same "area" as another player, you two can meet each other.the more people in the same area,its more likely they came across each other.

  • Gamaguado
    Commander
    Insider
    Founder

    @sternaltrack963

    I believe I've heard this before and I believe this would alleviate the problem but I would love a better, more specific explanation of this instancing from the team.

  • Garish59

    @gamaguado some podcast in they channel could help you

  • AddBristol
    Ship Mate
    Insider
    Founder

    There's not enough players when everyone is in a different section of the map, but if everyone is one corner it's chaos lol in terms of trying to accomplish Voyages anyway.

  • WhenKoalasattak
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    @gamaguado Ahoy there, everyone! Please be aware that the official number of ships and players per instance has not been revealed as Rare work on tweaking the specs to get to their target of occasional run-ins with other players. They constantly alter it to reach a good balance. There have been other threads that seem to think it is # of outposts - 1 (With this, in beta, it would've been 7 outposts -1 = 6 ships/between 6-24 players per instance) Of course, I remind you again this is speculation as no one truly knows besides Rare at this time. :D Fair winds to ye!

  • Garish59

    @sour-patch-mcoy nope if 9 crew are in the same area(just speculating) the game will divide the "area" in 3 groups of 3, and only 3 crew can be seen

  • Lawdarkerr
    Insider

    When i was playing on a full server i felt the server needed more ships, the danger will be stronger, i know, but when i was looking through the horizon, all other ships was very away from me, didnt feel that danger at all

  • ShadowStrider 7

    @dark-shadow9056 pretty sure that's a placeholder...

  • dark shadow9056
    Captain

    @shadowstrider-7 why would it be? All the other info is correct.

  • ShadowStrider 7

    @dark-shadow9056 it's typically either a placeholder, or a way to designate an MMO. Other games have done the same in the past.

  • dark shadow9056
    Captain

    @shadowstrider-7 oh, Well in that case, Im sure the size will increase from 16

  • Subsplay
    Seafarer

    @gamaguado It's just a closed beta, they are trying to give the best experience possible.

  • LightWindow3331

    @gamaguado There's a lot of things i want Rare to explain, but they keep everything so close, and i get that they don't wanna spoil the game and reveal all the cool things, but just the fact that they scaled back on content from the Alpha to the Beta, makes me more worried than excited about the release.

  • Jangles87
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @gamaguado The open Beta i saw Ship Loads!!! of Ships with many encounters.. next ill be seeing posts when its fully released " Too many ships on the servers"

    I feel like we should trust rare and see how things pan out, they do adjust this setting and many others each play test

  • Tiddlewig
    Sailor

    I think they are doing one ship per outpost. If they add more outposts in the final version of the game they would probably increase the player count

  • THE ZACKDADDY
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    Craig Duncan himself said on twitter that it will not be 100 man servers. I dobt think any number had been confirmed and I think the number has been changing constantly throughout alpha and beta testing to be able to hone in on the sweet spot of not seeing ships all the time but not going forever without encounter.

  • Eam Samaraka
    Ship Mate

    it needs to be a lot more, or sunken ships need to go to another server entirely, otherwise you always fight the same guys over and over again, and nothing would matter again.

    a lot of grieving is to be had this way.

  • The Lion Turtle
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @the-zackdaddy We'll find out on February 13th. He said he did interviews about it for the press and the media embargo lifts February 13th.

  • l JAYRUN l
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    It would b good to have more ships, but keep in mind if u have to many and u have treasure you want to get back and you have a heap of ships that continuously sink you wouldnt be good either. Balancing this will b difficult

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    I always figured it was one ship per outpost. Anyway, if you're not seeing anyone, sail to the other outposts on the map. You'll run into someone.

  • Tedakin
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    @gamaguado No idea, but this is something they can definitely adjust if need be. I think you need enough other players to make the world feel alive and encounters always a threat, but not enough to where it's a constant war and you can't ever do your quests. A balance.

  • CR0N0D
    Master
    Insider

    I like the way it was in the beta, some very quiet sessions so we could focus on tresaure and other sessions pretty busy with 4 ships in sight.

    For the OP, just lie to your friends or tell them that no body knows how many player there are in one instance :P

  • SeniorWaffle14
    Insider

    The player count needs to be larger, 16 is just not going to cut it for me. I really do want that feeling the devs talked about with knowing there's lots of other people over the horizon having their own adventures, and not just 3 other ships besides my own crew. I feel that the map size should be increased as well, but not just with more islands. The islands should be further apart, and condensed in "chains". This means that pirates will collect more around these islands, offering interaction and combat. At the same time, island "chains" would be spread out from each other, giving you large swaths of open ocean without land in sight. That way, in one server you can have condensed areas with lots of action, and open areas where you could be totally alone, or sea a ship or two making the voyage across the ocean. These open areas could also be home to bigger sea creatures such as the Kraken, and have more frequent and more powerful storms. That way, crossing a huge expanse of ocean for a quest or to escape someone or just for fun won't be a minor journey. You'll need to be ready for an adventure.

  • BO05TER
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Per Craig via Twitter game uses dynamic matching, and always spawns two ships into the server at a time. Total number of ships undetermined at this time, but it will actively try to maintain it's optimal population the entire time you're playing, thus eliminating dead servers/players by themselves.

  • Joe Krakatoa
    Commander
    Insider

    This is the trick that Rare is still tweaking. I've read somewhere that they aim for an encounter every thirty minutes. Tech Alpha and Closed Beta hopefully gave them some numbers to work their magic.

  • Lostscotman
    Marauder
    Founder

    I think it's what they are trying to achieve. You want to have encounters every now and then, not running into other players / ships every minute or so.

  • Barnacle Remson
    Marauder
    Insider
    Founder

    @Gamaguado

    servers only hold about 16 players>

    @Kruqnut

    16 is the number

    @APOCACIDE

    no way 16 is the final number

    You Guys seam pretty confident on your statements. Can you show us some source for that Numbers?
    Otherwise I think you just trust some shady Youtubers speculation.

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @gamaguado

    Ahoy there, this is quite topical as Craig tweeted a response to a similar question yesterday and it's been picked up by the press in a couple of reports -

    Lots of #SeaOfThieves articles popping up, hard to keep up but noticing a few saying 100 players in the world – this is incorrect – we think of Sea of Thieves as a coop adventure where you encounter other players in the world, encounter frequency and variety is what is magic about Sea of Thieves.

    Our vision is you and your crew embarking on adventures together, seeing those ships on the horizon or in the world & knowing they are another crews of real players on their own adventure & not knowing their intent or if they have treasure on board, we dynamically matchmake.

    It’s variable, we add ships (not players) to each instance of the world, if ships leave we fill with new ones, if you end up being on your own we migrate you to another server – it’s all very clever – I’ve talked to press about this in a few interviews this week.

    Alessio Palumbo  /  Feb 3, 2018

    Rare Studio Head Clarifies How Dynamic Matchmaking Works in Sea of Thieves

    Rare Studio Head Clarifies How Dynamic Matchmaking Works in Sea of Thieves

    Rare Studio Head Craig Duncan clarified how dynamic matchmaking works in Sea of Thieves while denying reports that 100 players can be in the same world at once.

  • KaptenBloood

    The problem is that there will never be a living community no matter if there is 100 or 16 players in one server. It needs a LOT more. And it needs to be the same players.
    There will be no legends without a community. You will more or less never meet the same player twice in this game.
    If Rare don't want it to be the players that stream there game the most that becomes the legends. That would be lame.
    The recipe that this game is using right now just won't work. The sooner Rare gets it, the better for the game and the community.

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