Design Ideas for Promoting Good Play and Reducing Toxicity + Respawn Mechanic Suggestion

  • BodhiSlam

    Hello! I posted this over on Reddit but numerous commenters suggested I post it here as well (makes sense!) You can click on the actual thread or read the entire post below. It initially started as ideas for good play and reducing toxicity, but someone inquired about my thoughts regarding the respawn mechanics so I've included that at the bottom as well! Some of these ideas have great counter-arguments over on the Reddit thread that I encourage you to read if interested!
    Reddit Thread

    Hello! I had some general design thoughts about ways to increase friendliness amongst the player base and reduce toxicity. Thankfully Sea of Thieves is already off to a great start in this regard as I have experienced little of either both on this forum or in-game - but come launch this will become a more important issue.

    tl;dr

    1. Feature to add solo-players to your crew
    2. Add resource scarcity to increase the impact of sea-battles
    3. Change Brig to be time-based with increasing returns
    4. Have a way to flag mic/no mic before match-making
    5. Have titles that reward solid gameplay, both good and bad
    6. King-of-the-Hill or Capture-and-Hold Respawn Mechanics

    #1. Feature to add solo-players to your crew

    It would be fantastic to have a feature where I'm able to invite solo players to my crew. Example: I was out solo-slooping and rolled into port to drop off some chests. I ran into another player who was also running solo and we had a nice little chat, played some music, and basically had a good time discussing our solo adventures. At that moment it would have been fantastic if I could have invited that player to join my crew (so that we would have been a duo) so we could sail together. This could easily work for a crew of 2-3 who find solo players that want to scoop up as well.

    I feel like this would encourage solo players to be more friendly to each other and potentially let larger crews not instantly pick off small ships - if you are down a player it would be to your advantage to seek out solo players and try to recruit them to strengthen your crew.

    UPDATE
    Turns out if you use the "make friends" emote on another player and they use it back, it'll bring up a window to add them as a friend! Not exactly adding them to your crew, but it's a start! (thanks @guardianapple for the tip!)
    Source: https://twitter.com/steinekin/status/957112227844141056

    #2. Resource Scarcity

    Currently, there are barrels -everywhere- full of planks, cannons, bananas - whatever you need it's not far away. It's far too easy for players to just blow all their resources on battles between islands simply because of how easy it is to restock. If there was more scarcity of resources, crews would be far more hesitant to fire willy-nilly on other ships. It would make engagements more planned and every battle more decisive, deliberate, and important. As a note, I don't think barrels actually spawn from ships you sink currently - if resources were to spawn anywhere I feel this is where it would happen!

    It would also allow players to become "traders" of sorts by carrying lots of resources and sailing around to other ships trying to hock their wares in exchange for chests. Sure these trades could result in gun-fire, but such is the game! It would enable emergent gameplay and a player-based economy (since there is no "trading" between players right now, this would be a welcomed addition).

    #3. Change Brig to be Time Based

    Rare has said the point of the Brig is to put people in time-out but as of right now it feels more like jail. If the brig was time-based rather then "you're in there for good" and it had increasing returns, I feel it would hopefully be used as intended. Example:

    • 1st Time in Brig: 30 seconds
    • 2nd Time in Brig: 2.5 minutes
    • 3rd Time in Brig: 5 minutes
    • 4th Time in Brig: Kicked from group

    There could be a cooldown on putting someone in the brig to prevent abuse (i.e. you could only put the same person in the brig once every 5 minutes or what-not). Also, if after putting someone in the brig 3 times they are still acting up, you and your crew probably don't want them on your crew anyways - a three strikes and you are out policy. Inversely it would make it so the player put in the brig would know there is a harsher penalty eventually for misbehaving. I feel in general this would be more in line with what Rare intended.

    #4. Mic / No Mic

    It would be fantastic if you could flag "looking for a group with mics" or "don't care" before matchmaking. Often I want to join a crew full of lively individuals or at least people who talk. I hate to be 'that guy' who joins and leaves crews over and over until I find one of my liking - one where people are talking.

    Coming from Overwatch I enjoy the Competitive Mode much more than QuickPlay - it's not because of the type of people playing, or because of the "hardcore-ness" of it - it's because more people talk in Competitive than QuickPlay. Nothing is more disappointing to me than when I join a game where no one has mics and nothing feels better than when my entire team is vocal. I feel in Overwatch it generates positivity and team comradery when everyone is talking, where-as if you get someone yelling at everyone else because they don't have mics it makes everyone feel crummy. But that's just my preference and that's exactly my point - a way to let people find others who want the same things would go far in forming solid groups.

    #5. Titles

    I noticed in-game and have read Rare plans to add titles to the game. I really hope there are titles that you can gain and lose. For example, if I sail around and put bananas in other ships banana-barrels, I would earn progress towards a "Patron" title which would let other players know I am there to help. Inversely, if I go around taking from other ships banana-barrels, I would lose progress on the Patron title and gain progress on the "Sticky Fingers" title. Progress on both these titles could reduce over time making them activities you actively have to participate in to keep it.

    I would love to see more titles like this that encourage solid play - both good and bad. Allowing players to advertise they are "good guys" or "bad guys" is welcomed in any game where you can actively fight everyone. Ideally, the servers and community would be tight-knit enough to say "Oh that's BodhiSlam, he's known to be so-and-so, we should act accordingly" - but the servers are generally small and you may never see the same person twice. Having ways of advertising what type of pirate you are will go far.

    #6. Respawns

    The current problem with respawns is that when a player in a crew dies during ship-to-ship combat, they are able to respawn back into the game world quickly and fights can drag on. Additionally, since crews can continue to respawn on their ship it removes the excitement of taking a ship and makes the idea of "taking a ship and stealing their treasure" an arduous task that isn't fun and at most involves "drive-by theft".

    To address this, there here are two ideas of how this could change to support better ship-to-ship fights:

    IDEA 1 - King of the Hill

    Here's how I see this working:

    1. Crew A is on their Ship (Ship A) and Crew B boards.
    2. While Crew A still has players alive ON BOARD (i.e. feet on the ship), their crew is able to respawn with diminishing returns on respawn time.
    3. If at any time all players are Crew A are not ON BOARD (i.e. they are dead or in the water), respawns on Ship A cease and Crew A now respawns on an island far away from their ship.
    4. Crew B, now victorious over Crew A, can now raid Ship A of all treasure.
    5. After a set amount of time, Ship A sinks into the ocean.

    What the game would gain from this:

    1. Fights between crews would still have all the excitement of battles, and the respawn mechanic of being able to appear back on your ship would add to the "illusion" that ship-to-ship battles are conflicts of epic proportions.
    2. It would encourage gameplay regarding eliminating crews as fast as possible and preventing the other team from being on their boat. This could be by knocking them into the ocean with explosions or doing sneaky assassinations on their boat (taking them all out at once).
    3. It allows players that are victorious time to loot their boat and feel a sense of accomplishment.
    4. There is no downside for Crew A in the above example other than losing their loot. They still get a new ship, they still get to continue as a crew - all the aspects of the game that are most important are still intact.
    5. This idea of a "feet on the ship" mechanic is clear and concise and easy for players to understand.

    IDEA 2 - Capture and Hold

    1. Crew A is on their Ship (Ship A) and Crew B boards.
    2. Crew A defends against Crew B but suffers casualties which lead to somewhat staggered deaths.
    3. Crew B initiates a "capture" The "capture" involves channeling an object for a set amount of time (say 10-15 seconds) uninterrupted.
    4. During Crew B's attempt at "capturing" Crew A manages to interrupt them a few times, but eventually, their Crew A's respawn timers become long enough that Crew B is able to finish the capture without interruption. Any further respawns from the opposing crew are redirected to a distant island.
    5. The pirate on Crew B who was channeling the "flag" now has the object in their hands. As long as this is held by Crew B, Crew A's respawns direct them toward an island.

    Ending 1
    6. There is one pirate left on Crew A - the rest of their Crew is either on the Boat of the Damned or an island. The pirate from Crew A attacks the pirate holding the "flag" and kills them, which causes them to drop the "flag". He quickly recovers it which re-enables the ship-spawn.
    7. A mermaid spawns near Crew A on the island allowing the distant crew to respawn on the ship. All members of Crew A that are dead now respawn directly on the ship.
    8. Crew A is able to return to their now reclaimed ship and make a last-ditch effort to escape or turn the tables on Crew B.

    Ending 2
    6. The remaining pirate on Crew A confronts Crew B and dies, failing his very last chance to save his ship and be a hero to his crew, shortly respawning on the island with the rest of them.
    7. Crew B takes all the goods and a minute or two later the ship scuttles itself.
    8. Crew A, now on an island far away from the previous battle has a new ship spawn as soon as their previous ship is sunk.

    As a note - the object that Crew B "captured" could be sold for gold (or rep, or whatever works best in future gameplay) - this would allow them to get something out of raiding ships even if there are no treasure chests!

    Thanks for reading!

    My apologies if these suggestions have been made before or there are obvious technical limitations preventing these from happening. Also if any of these ideas are already planned for the game - even better! I had these thoughts rolling around in my head these past couple of Stress Tests and had to get them out! ❤

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  • avecrux
    Captain
    Insider

    @bodhislam

    1. great idea, got almost same in my topic
    2. i don;t think it is so easy. There is always too small amount of cannonballs
    3. i am with you!
    4. it won't work. i can plug in mic but won't use it
    5. there would be titles
    6. didn't read
  • Natsu v2
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @bodhislam I basically came up with a very similar Hill-type solution to spawning, just with slightly different mechanics. The one thing you left out is that, with the current mechanics, spawning on an island would still allow those players to mermaid back onto their ship.

    My solution involved black barriers covering the ferry's door while enemy players were on your ship. In the event that all of your crew is on the ferry staring at this black barrier, the barrier would shatter and allow you all to go through at once for a new ship. As this happens, your old ship still persists in the world for the winning team to raid. There will be a flag that slowly lowers in order to signal that they will not need to worry about further respawns if they decide to leap off.

  • BodhiSlam

    @natsu-v2 Players would only respawn on the island if their ship was "taken", and in this event, there would be no mermaid for them to use as they would spawn with a new ship.

    I had a similar thought as well about not letting the players spawn until all of them were on the ghost ship but the main issue I ran across was your crew could potentially wait for-ev-vur for your last crew-person to die. The last person on a crew could basically hide on a ship while it was being raided and prevent the rest of their team from playing the game. It seemed grief-able and generally not fun (in that your ability to play would be based on the whims of another person - basically like being in the brig!). However, I guess even in my solution all the players would eventually end up on the ghost ship together so it really comes down to how this is handled. Either way, I agree with you that the king-of-the-hill solution at face value seems like a good way to go.

    I totally like the idea of having a flag or some indication to players raiding the ship that they have "claimed it" and it's safe to raid.

  • Natsu v2
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @bodhislam Hmm, so you're basically saying your fourth player could be sitting down behind a barrel or something in the lower decks, and the opposing crew just leaves them there or doesn't see them? I never really thought about that as I just assumed the boarding crew would just search and savage everything. You could potentially solve it with a vote to spawn your next ship and begin the "salvage timer" on the old one, but there would always be the issue where you are on a duo sloop and the enemy crew is just letting the other guy stay alive with them, locking you on the ferry. Another possible solution to this extremely rare circumstance might just be to start the salvage timer once a player has been on the ferry with the barrier present for over two minutes or so. That would force the last remaining stowaway(s) on the home ship to make a move.

    But with your solution, where the player that walks through the ferry is placed on a new island, you essentially are making it to where the first person to die while someone is on your ship will force you to have a new ship (if they take the mermaid), right? That either ruins the ability to have a comeback, or forces the dead players to wait on the island because the mermaid would start the salvage timer and create a new vessel. With my black barrier idea, you could make it so that players still can leave the ferry through the barrier, but that barrier signifies that they will be making a new ship and essentially scuttling the old ship for their old crew for them. But that's the thing that worries me most: That a random player could ruin your ship by stepping through even though the rest of you had the situation handled. I'm thinking the two-three minute timer to get rid of them seems to be the best solution.

    Edit: Nevermind, kind of misread your solution to spawn systems. So basically you are making the simultaneous wipe of a crew while another crew is on board your ship to be what starts the salvage timer. And to push things along you are causing respawns to take longer and longer if they are successive. That's a pretty smart way to go about it actually.

  • BodhiSlam

    @natsu-v2 Yup! You have it correct! I really appreciate all your feedback - it's the only way ideas get massaged into place! :)

  • Natsu v2
    Lord
    Insider
    Founder

    @scheefinator No one in this thread mentioned stealing ships.

  • UVG Reign
    Founder

    I like these respawn kill of the hill style ideas.

    A solo player might have a hard time if theyre the ones getting attacked.

    But gives hope if the solo player is the ones attacking knowing once theyve wiped an enemy crew out, theyll actually be given time to offload the enemies chests back to their ship.

  • BodhiSlam

    @uvg-reign @Natsu-v2

    I was discussing the respawn mechanic over on the Reddit post about how there was a potential that having all your crew leave your ship and attack the other ship would cause the attacking teams ship to sink, and how Mutually Assured Destruction is likely for both crews. In regards to this we came up with this addendum to the respawn idea, I'd like to know your thoughts:

    1. You go with your crew and fight their crew. Their crew continues to respawn albeit with increases on respawn times (up to a max cap).
    2. You initiate some sort of channeled action in which you "capture" a "flag" - maybe it's taking a plaque, maybe it's stealing something in the captain's chamber, maybe it's literally capturing the flag from the crows nest. This channeled action must be uninterrupted, otherwise, it starts again.
    3. Once the ship is "captured" it initiates the King-of-the-Hill mechanics in which the crew will continue to spawn until there are "no feet on the ship". Only when both these conditions are met do crew respawns cease.

    @scheefinator There's no ship stealing involved in this idea - it simply allows crews who attack another ship time to loot it and prevents infinite respawns of the losing crew. It's more or less the design intention of the game right now.

    Also, thanks for linking that thread, I will 100% post relevant ideas there to keep things neat. Thanks! :)

  • UVG Reign
    Founder

    IMO instead of complicated king of hill ideas, when a ship sinks, the crew no longer can spawn on it anyway, and their items of value float to the surface.

    So all thats needed is a way to sabotage an enemy ship if you manage to get below their decks that does a similar thing of when you scuttle your own ship.

    A simpler idea with pretty much the same results, as long as that pointless mermaid that lets the enemy crew respawn in the middle of the ocean gets removed.

  • BodhiSlam

    @uvg-reign That could work as well but what happens if the crew who "takes your ship" doesn't sink your ship, and chooses to just camp on it, killing you everytime you respawn.

  • UVG Reign
    Founder

    @bodhislam Then scuttle it yourself and get a new one

    Edit: from the menu while youre in the ferry of the damned, your ship is lost anyway. Ill tag you again as I elaborated, I think that is what you meant when you asked?
    @BodhiSlam

  • Ironuzuka
    Master
    Insider

    @uvg-reign Ahoy there!
    Ye technically can already sabotage another crew's ship, using good ol' gun powder barrels. But ye have to be prepared so this may not be what ye have in mind.

  • UVG Reign
    Founder

    @scheefinator I wondering if youve misread something, becuase if youve killed the enemy off their own deck and made it below their ship, then youve won effectively. but at the moment, they just endlessly respawn which is the problem

  • CaveManCronch

    @bodhislam some nice ideas there

  • UVG Reign
    Founder

    Anyway I was just throwing some ideas out there, non of this ideas will be read by devs even if they are good ones

  • DaftStatue80201
    Founder

    @uvg-reign i feel that solo players would be in the same boat they are in now. Usually if a crew kills you. They board your ship and spawn camp you until you scuttle your ship. This would just simplify the process so you wouldn’t feel cheated or griefed. Also as you mentioned it would make it easier for a solo player to take on a galleon. One well placed explosive barrel and there ship and loot is yours.

  • DaftStatue80201
    Founder

    @bodhislam i like the quick and dirty idea of semi-perma death. Meaning if all members leave a ship and die then the salvage timer begins and they respawn at a new ship. However if one man stays alive until the end of the respawn timer your crew can respawn. Basicly you dont respawn because of the ship, but more like you respawn on the players. This would make pve significantly more challenging.

  • BodhiSlam

    @daftstatue80201 I totally support a streamlined, less messy solution that is more cut-and-dry. The only issue with something like this (and an issue with my original idea) is that what happens if all your crew leave your boat to attack another? Is there a high chance your boat would sink while you're on the other one? If it's only for deaths, what happens if one of the enemy crew jumps overboard and just swims forever to allow respawns to happen?

    Not poking holes, sincerely interested in your thoughts! :)

  • FlowerOfCarnage

    #4 I would like to add, we should be able to select our language as well and prioritize matching us with people who speak the same language as us. I was in one game where one guy was speaking French, one guy Portugese, and one guy Russian. No idea what they were actually saying or if they could understand each other, but what is the point of mics if I don't speak their language?

  • CaveManCronch

    @flowerofcarnage said in Design Ideas for Promoting Good Play and Reducing Toxicity + Respawn Mechanic Suggestion:

    #4 I would like to add, we should be able to select our language as well and prioritize matching us with people who speak the same language as us. I was in one game where one guy was speaking French, one guy Portugese, and one guy Russian. No idea what they were actually saying or if they could understand each other, but what is the point of mics if I don't speak their language?

    i had a similar issue, had one game where they all spoke french, i got brigged left the game tried again and had people speaking dutch, i left before i got brigged again lol,

  • BodhiSlam

    Based on some discussion on the Reddit thread I've added a second scenario to the above post having to do with Respawning Mechanics. Here's the updated second idea:

    IDEA 2 - Capture and Hold

    1. Crew A is on their Ship (Ship A) and Crew B boards.
    2. Crew A defends against Crew B but suffers casualties which lead to somewhat staggered deaths.
    3. Crew B initiates a "capture" The "capture" involves channeling an object for a set amount of time (say 10-15 seconds) uninterrupted.
    4. During Crew B's attempt at "capturing" Crew A manages to interrupt them a few times, but eventually, their Crew A's respawn timers become long enough that Crew B is able to finish the capture without interruption. Any further respawns from the opposing crew are redirected to a distant island.
    5. The pirate on Crew B who was channeling the "flag" now has the object in their hands. As long as this is held by Crew B, Crew A's respawns direct them toward an island.

    Ending 1
    6. There is one pirate left on Crew A - the rest of their Crew is either on the Boat of the Damned or an island. The pirate from Crew A attacks the pirate holding the "flag" and kills them, which causes them to drop the "flag". He quickly recovers it which re-enables the ship-spawn.
    7. A mermaid spawns near Crew A on the island allowing the distant crew to respawn on the ship. All members of Crew A that are dead now respawn directly on the ship.
    8. Crew A is able to return to their now reclaimed ship and make a last-ditch effort to escape or turn the tables on Crew B.

    Ending 2
    6. The remaining pirate on Crew A confronts Crew B and dies, failing his very last chance to save his ship and be a hero to his crew, shortly respawning on the island with the rest of them.
    7. Crew B takes all the goods and a minute or two later the ship scuttles itself.
    8. Crew A, now on an island far away from the previous battle has a new ship spawn as soon as their previous ship is sunk.

    As a note - the object that Crew B "captured" could be sold for gold (or rep, or whatever works best in future gameplay) - this would allow them to get something out of raiding ships even if there are no treasure chests!

  • GreyScissors
    Master
    Founder

    @bodhislam I would love to see all of these ideas implemented with a high priority on the respawn and resource revisal. I prefer the "King of the Hill" respawn idea though. Great ideas!

  • BodhiSlam

    UPDATE
    Turns out if you use the "make friends" emote on another player and they use it back, it'll bring up a window to add them as a friend! Not exactly adding them to your crew, but it's a start! (thanks @guardianapple for the tip!)
    Source: https://twitter.com/steinekin/status/957112227844141056

  • TriplePlayed
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    I like the idea of a matchmaking mic / no mic/ don't care toggle. I usually like to chat via keyboard so getting brigged when you don't use a mic is annoying. Can be just as effective with text chat.

  • BodhiSlam

    @tripleplayed Conversely, I feel bad every time I join a crew (wanting to voice chat) and no one has a mic, making me feel as if I have to leave the group to find another one - sometimes multiple times! It's not fair to the group (who could use another pirate), and it's just "time-invested" for me to find a group who works.

    Faster routes to find good play matches is good for everyone!

  • WokedUp
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @cpt-kazuto Some issues to consider for very persistent trolls.

    Last night I waited at least five minutes between landing on the ferry of the dead and then going through the doors. They had sunk my ship, so I was expecting a clear swim to the mermaid. I was wrong, because they were waiting for me and shot at me as I tried to swim to the mermaid.

    I eventually managed to get to the mermaid. After, a new ship and myself spawned at an adjacent island. I noticed that the trolls were quickly approaching the island. I decided to wait on shore instead of going to the ship. I hid. Sure enough, they rammed my ship, sank it, and instead of moving on to the next island, they hunted me down. I spawned next to the mermaid, luckily, and appeared on a new island.

    Sure enough, they spotted the new ship. I figured that it would be useless to engage in any way, sail, what have you. I decided to hide. I hid for about 10-15 minutes. They continued to ask "How would you rate this experience from 1-10?" and "Would you say that you're having fun?" and lastly, "You must be having fun because a smarter player would have left the server." This was the most egregious form of trolling I have experienced playing the game.

    If there was a spawn system that took this type of trolling into account, that would be great.

  • BodhiSlam

    @wokedup Wow. That sound's terrible - you have my condolences! Cases like this, if even edge cases, need to be absolutely considered in the respawn mechanics - no game should have systems that allow griefing like this!

    The game should somehow detect if your ship is sunk you won't respawn in the ocean - there legitimately no reason why you would want to respawn without a ship - you're unable to carry chests when using the mermaid to relocate and that's really the only reason you'd want to respawn where your ship sank - to grab your chests.

    Even spawning you in the next ocean biome would have been a more welcomed fix - at least then you would have been 10 minutes away from where you last died. It definitely shouldn't spawn you in such a way where they can quickly find where you spawned and grief you into oblivion.

    In my above solution you wouldn't respawn anywhere near your boat if it had been "captured" preventing you from being respawn-camped.

  • Saltyzar

    For the respawn suggestions, Suggestion 1 doesn't takes into account for the players of ship A to counter the attack of ship B because if they all counter attack and take the fight to ship B it's an automatic loss of their ship when they die because they ain't on there own shio anymore. Jumping in the water and resurfacing on the other side becomes also a bad tactic then.

    So that's a major flaw.

    Suggestion B sounds overcomplicated and focuses on taking flags instead of chests which should be the objective you came for in the first place.

    The most simplest fix I could think off is to have the crew lose the fight and spawn on an island when an entire crew is on the ferry of the dead simontaniously.

    So this means you have to kill an entire crew within 30 seconds if you want to own the ship for a short moment before it scuttled.

    They could also make it so that it extends the time on the ferry of the dead when the entire crew is there simontaniously. But long respawn times should be avoided because they aren't fun for anyone.

  • Son of Estoras

    @bodhislam I really like the "King-of-the-Hill" ideas for capturing the ship. However, my concern is with solo players. If there is something that must be "held" in order to have "captured" the ship, then a solo player taking on a 4 player team has a very low chance of ever "capturing" a ship before the enemy players respawn. I suppose this could be fixed by simply making the "object" needed to capture the ship droppable, and allowing the "captured" status of the ship to remain until an enemy player has retrieved the item. If there were to be some type of item that you could sell from "capturing" a ship, it would be interesting if it were more expensive to have "captured" a Galleon than a Sloop.

  • BodhiSlam

    @exist0 Totally agree about #1 - it makes it easy for crews to insta-lose their own ship if they are not careful which is not ideal. #2 still focuses on taking chests, the "flag" is just a way to initiate the capture of the other ship. It makes the core flow of stealing from other ships (if you are not just sinking it):

    • Climb aboard the other ship
    • Quickly sneak around and grab the other teams chest and make a quick get-a-way
      OR
    • Secure the ship by eliminating the other crew, and without worrying about them respawning, claim the chests as your own

    The main downside of having to kill the entire other crew within 30 seconds is you could have forms of bad-play where one member of a crew hides in a strange spot to prevent the other crew from taking the ship / ever finding them. Or jumping in the water and swimming around the ship constantly to prevent it from being taken while their team just respawns. 30 seconds is not that long of a time to avoid being killed if you are quick and crafty - which circles back around to elongating encounters.

    @Son-of-Estoras Totally agreed to basically all your points. I would definitely like the captured item to be something you can hold and I would especially love if it was something players could then sell for some money. There are a few issues that would have to be ironed out (like what if you capture it and then flee? Does a new one spawn?).

    Either way, it makes sense that it is harder one 1 person to capture a 4 player galleon than 4 people capturing a 1 person sloop.

  • CaseSugar401098

    @bodhislam said in [Design Ideas for Promoting Good Play and Reducing Toxicity + Respawn

    1. Feature to add solo-players to your crew
    2. Add resource scarcity to increase the impact of sea-battles
    3. Change Brig to be time-based with increasing returns
    4. Have a way to flag mic/no mic before match-making
    5. Have titles that reward solid gameplay, both good and bad
    6. King-of-the-Hill or Capture-and-Hold Respawn Mechanics

    #1 Sounds perfectly okay to me

    #2 Personally, I'd be looting other ships more often for supplies.

    #3 I believe they're should be a way to kick people. However sometimes the brig is used in a lot of friendly shenanigans. Personally I think there needs to be a kick option separate from the brig.

    #4 Yes! Players should not have to constantly brig people without mics. Better to choose whether you require one or not. Save everyone some grief.

    #5 Sure

    #6 Respawns need a lot of work. It has to be done so it's not possible to camp the ones who lost too. I could easily see people not capturing so they can keep spawn camping.

    People need to respawn farther away.

    The mermaid should be for the use of one crew only and should be hostile and deadly to anyone else who comes near it.

  • BodhiSlam

    @casesugar401098 on #2 - I totally agree. I think I would actually care a lot more about those barrels floating in the water and robbing other ships if supplies were more infrequent.

    In regards to the mermaid, it might be hard to distinguish who's mermaid is who's during the heat o' battle. If you (as a player) would spawn in the ocean and your ship is gone, it should just spawn you straight to an island (where the mermaid would send you anyways) - no need to plop you in the ocean only to be griefed.

  • Saltyzar

    @bodhislam the problem with this is assuming that elongated fights are bad :p I think long fights are good and increases the chance to counter attack etc. By making the fights too easy to end quickly you give a huge advantage to larger crews.

    Want a quick and swift win then you gotta come in with a good tactic and a good team.

    Yes hiding and swimming around is a defensive tactic but hiding isn't easy and swimming around makes you bait for sharks and you can't protect the chest.

    Sounds like that leaves open a lot more variety in fights instead of an easy capture the hill mechanic.

    So for me it's a no for capture the hill mechanic and a yes for losing the fight is everyone is on the ferry of the dead.

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