Ending server hopping/Giving players choices

serverhopping should be disallowed - make 3 hops possible to be able to get away from players that camp you, then disallow any further hopping for 60 minute at minimum.

The way people cheese their pirate adventure is bad in many ways.

reaper logging, pve alliance servers, event hopping....

All of this has nothing to do with having a pirate adventure, but cheese the system to get a more predictable outcome.

@foxdodge well to me the best sessions are the ones when things happen you didnt expect to happen, when you planned to do this, but ended up doing that and it was fun anyway.

people who cheese and hop servers is the same like giving people PvE Servers so they arent in the pool anymore for more various adventures.
Alliance Servers are only possible because people can hop server to no end.

active FoTD gets attacked for 99% because people constantly hop servers to find an active one.
I dont mind beeing attacked at the FotD, but there is nearly to no question about it if it happens, it happens for sure, because people hop servers!

people also hop servers to no end until they found a server without any active Reaper Ship - what is btw completely ineffective, because 5 minutes later there can be one.

the rng character of the shared world with 6 crews per server is cheesed imho.

played every day since update, haven't seen the Ashen Wind Event until - so be it.

@Bugaboo-Bill

I agree that some times, an unexpected adventure is great.
However,
Wasted time is not fun for a game trying to grow or keep its player base. People want to see the new content that’s advertised and play the game how they want to play it, not everyone has the “if I never find the ashen lords event, so be it” mentality, and I assure you A players don’t believe server hoping is “cheesing their pirate adventure”, their pirate adventure is for them to have and theirs to pursue, but giving them nothing is absolutely not fun

Imo, server hopping isn’t fluid, natural, and wanted to be performed by anyone, but occurs out of necessity of empty servers.
I would like to never have to server hop again to find a pursued activity, and I’m not a fan of wasting time to complete an objective or activity because “rng” isn’t on my side.

@mrbadabing said in Ending server hopping:

Server Hopping has been here since Day 1, and nobody can change that. This game is not what it used to be 2 years ago, so people adapt to the changes.

There is nothing wrong with Server Hopping, and does not personally affect anyone or your "Pirate Journey" so why does anyone really care if people Server Hop? Play the game however you want to, that's what makes this game amazing, you can play however you want.

Personally, I am a PvP Player. I started this game on Xbox and was a PvE Lord and did not know what PvP even really was....and never knew half of what I know now 2 years later.

Now being on PC being a Content Creator and strictly a PvP player and was a Partnered Streamer on Mixer and now on Twitch, I server hop for Content for my Community.

I don't care who you are, everybody has server hopped for things to do....

People want action... (FOTDs, Grade 5 Reapers, Active Skull Forts, Athena Emissary Boats.. Ect,) So, If I choose to Hop a Server to find something that fits what I am looking for to entertain my Community & Business, then that is my choice and should not effect anyone else.

I Understand the need to sever hoping to “find content” but I would rather there be an in game feature to find the content I’m looking for, server hopping doesn’t feel intuitive and can take a long time to find the content I’m looking for.

@captain-coel sagte in Ending server hopping:

...but don't tell me to have fun playing your way.

Where did i tell you that or said you cannot serverhop?

I shared my opinion about it in general and if you feel triggered and relate that to yourself than this is you, not me telling you that.
You read my comment, rely it to yourself, then feel attacked about it and defend your way to play.
Because why?
Because i told you not to do it?
Where? How? When?

@captain-coel

yea it's cheesing of course.
You login as long as you meet what you want and not just sail and have that unpredictable pirate adventure.
You do that to make it not 100% but more predictable.
I play and i dont know what kind of event i will have, if there is a Reaper i can hunt or not, if there is an active FotD or not.

You hop servers until you meet what you want.

Let me say it this way.
If the game would give you a choice it would have a menu where you can say i want this and that to happen, then yes.
But you hop servers 3,5,10 times to get what you want.
I dont think it's intended.
Else we would have a choice implemented.
I will make a thread suggesting this and all will say nooooo.

Why not have PvE Servers then?
Are you ok with PvE Servers?

Let people play the game how they want you say.
They hop servers to create full Alliance (PvE) servers.

Are you ok with that too?
With full rewards!!!

We suggest a mechanic ok?

At start you have a menu:

Active Event: choose
Roaming Ai: yes, no, only Meg...
Kraken: on /off
Invite Alliance ship 2-6

Now everybody can play like he want to.

Fine?

@captain-coel

You are cheesing:

Here is another example:

You play cards.
The Hand you got is not ideal.
You ask for a new Hand until you think this is good and fun to play with.

Got it?

Do i say you shouldnt do that?
No i didnt.
I just sayed it's cheesing the game to your favors.

@stillvill said in Ending server hopping:

as of right now, there is a great number of players that hop servers for a couple of reasons

And whats the problem here? How does this negitivoy effect you or anyone?

1. To find pvp
2. To find a specific PVE event
3. To get away from a server they are getting dominated on.

I believe there are solutions to each of these that would absolutely take time to implement, but would make for a more consistant/fun

A social hub in a sepreate instance would be much better at this task.

For those wanting to go after reapers, talk to someone in the athena's hideout to be placed in an active server with reaper level 5s by walking through a portal as a crew.
For those wanting to go after others, Talk to someone at the reapers hideout as a group to be placed in an active server with athena's level 5 or other level 5s. This should only be for level 50+ players and legends.

Reason: TTA in this game can put off many players from pvp and arena isnt the same

So you want a way to find a specific experience. Not really what the game was designed for but i understand your feelings.

1. To find pvp
   Current: players are hopping to find active servers, or if streaming, having their community hop for them to find an active server.
   Solution: enact or modify an existing faction to place you into an active PVP server.

This unfornate will not work as the servers don't track the intention of crews. In other words there know such thing as a Pure PvP server. You can argue about arena and on that i could agree they could of added a way to enter arena server thru adventure but findin emmisaries won't work.

Reason ship exist in there instance tied to a lobby. The looby runs on a stack if the lobby changes servers there boat and all there stuff would be gone. The merge system allows you a small packet of data to be merge when a server starts to wind down that only happens when the stack collapses when only 1 crew lobby remains allowing for gyere data to be tranfered to another active server that has space.

If ships where to keep ramdoming in and out of instances thr merging system would fail and all servers would crash due to memory overflow.

What your asking for is more akin to and overworld which is basically a ingame version of a server browser/matchmaking looby.

2. To find a specific PVE event
   Current: players are hopping to find active servers, or if streaming, having their community hop for them to find an active server with the specific event
   Solution: Have ways to activate specific event on the server by completing a task or paying for gold, or teleport players through a circle after paying gold to an active server with the specific PVE event
   Reason: spending 1-2 hours on a server to activate an ashen lord spawn or other even that is needed will put off players from wanting to perform the actions

I would definitly like more player intiated world events Like the FTOD the problem they have to be designed in a way that only one unique event could be activated at a time cause to many crews activating a world event faces 2 major issues.

1. Chance of Server crashing cause to much stuff happening.

2. Crew will not fight over it as they could simply start their own thus defeatihg the purpose.

3. To get away from a server they are getting dominated on.
   no changes needed, this works well, but perhaps a method of the universe putting sympathy on these players by putting them in a kinder server would be good.

No such thing as kinder servers. Game doesn't filter player crew personalities.

@enf0rcer (not going to quote as it would be 2 pgs long lol)

• Other's server hopping doesnt effect me personally, however, many people including myself server hop to find events or action that best suits us and while it takes less time than just staying on an empty server, it still takes quite a bit of time that i would rather be full of action.
• I would love a social hub, i dont know if its possible as its another server that might need to be spooled up
• I would ask for a an ingame server browser based on in events is basically 99% of my suggestions, only because a lobby system im not sure is possible
• "kind servers" can be enumerated by the data collected by rare to see if the servers they go to are full of people that alliance more, or those who kill more.

@stillvill said in Ending server hopping:

@enf0rcer (not going to quote as it would be 2 pgs long lol)

• Other's server hopping doesnt effect me personally, however, many people including myself server hop to find events or action that best suits us and while it takes less time than just staying on an empty server, it still takes quite a bit of time that i would rather be full of action.

I'll admit it's annoying getting stuck on empty servers but this is a issue with the server migration function as well as alot of ship idlers.

• I would love a social hub, i dont know if its possible as its another server that might need to be spooled up.

Definite posible to make spreat world instance it be like maiden voyage only it be full of player that can crew up then headout into a new instance. With no boats and a small map they could have a bunch of player poplate it which would save alot of space on server holding lobbies with less then full crews or ships idling.

• I would ask for a an ingame server browser based on in events is basically 99% of my suggestions, only because a lobby system im not sure is possible

It's possible but it would break the game as large groups of friends could easily find eachother and make alliance farming servers. World event are made to be PvP flashpoints so making a way to farm those events exclusively would defeat their purpose.

• "kind servers" can be enumerated by the data collected by rare to see if the servers they go to are full of people that alliance more, or those who kill more.

They could be but thats not what Rare set out to do they want all playstyles to be present in the server and random.

If they want to they could easily mad the main map into an overworld that could sherperd players into sperate instances, but they didn't not their vision.

@bugaboo-bill said in Ending server hopping:

@captain-coel

You are cheesing:

Here is another example:

You play cards.
The Hand you got is not ideal.
You ask for a new Hand until you think this is good and fun to play with.

no, you fold and wait for the next turn. Server hopping is folding, because in cards you dont just say "well im gonna stick this out and keep losing money"

Got it?

Do i say you shouldnt do that?
No i didnt.
I just sayed it's cheesing the game to your favors.

Again, its not cheesing. Its quitting due to dissatisfaction. Just like folding in a card game. In sea of thieves, going to play the other world events to have a CHANCE of the ashen lords spawning is like playing a game of cards and not folding even though you know you are gonna lose.

the whole point in having an in-game solution to this is to prevent folding or just sailing around doing things you DON'T want to do.

Play the game how you want to, but don't call people using in game systems to make their adventures more enjoyable "cheesing"

@stillvill sagte in Ending server hopping:

the whole point in having an in-game solution to this is to prevent folding or just sailing around doing things you DON'T want to do.

Play the game how you want to, but don't call people using in game systems to make their adventures more enjoyable "cheesing"

Made my day.

Why need anything if your already using intended ingame systems?

Why stop at events?
Fully customizable servers.

Oh wait, custom servers are coming, i guess you can adjust what event is active and do it the whole day.

@foxdodge sagte in Ending server hopping:

@bugaboo-bill You're right in many areas, but I feel as though the most important factor is player choice. If we so wish to hop server to "find something better", I think we should be able to do that.

If the most important factor would be player choice, we would have fully customizable servers.
We then can choose what we want.
Kraken, yes or no.
Event: choose
Pvp: choose
Storm: choose

People want control, but adventure happens when you dont control anything and unpredictable things happen.

They will just work and grind off the event they choose and then....
Nothing to do minimi.

It's cheesing the game.
Gaming the system.
People dont accept they have no control about this.
Other people complain they dont have control about mermaids, multiple Ai attacks, PvP....

Give them control and the game changes in general.

@bugaboo-bill said in Ending server hopping:

@stillvill sagte in Ending server hopping:

the whole point in having an in-game solution to this is to prevent folding or just sailing around doing things you DON'T want to do.

Play the game how you want to, but don't call people using in game systems to make their adventures more enjoyable "cheesing"

Made my day.

Why need anything if your already using intended ingame systems?

Why stop at events?
Fully customizable servers.

Oh wait, custom servers are coming, i guess you can adjust what event is active and do it the whole day.

Right, custom servers that you have to pay to use that don’t track progress. Which I’m fine with as that’s pay to win

The whole point is to make in game systems to make the adventures more fun and less tedious. Time to action is a thing and you can ignore it, but it helps with the success of games.

I don’t understand why you are against the idea of making the games world events More accessible to new and existing players, but if you want everyone to have as much dissatisfaction while searching for events/activities, I can’t change your mind.

You are ok with player dissatisfaction and think its ok to have, im not.

@stillvill

No it's not about players dissatifaction.
It's about control you dont have and playwrs shouldnt have.

Read the post above below the answer to you.

The game was always meant to have a unpredictable adventure, to have uncertainty about others playera and a social experience.
As long as i'm here people want to control their adventure and work stuff off.
That is what most do. They cheese it, game the system, work stuff off to then complain there is no content.
SoT is to a degree a sandbox game.
Rare implemented tons of stuff, bit it's all optional if we are honest.
I can play as a wreck diver or fishermen only.
I need not level any faction rep or whatever.

I have played everyday since the update and got my first Ashen Wind yesterday because my crew hopped servers.
I wouldnt bother, i dont do it, but i dont tell anybody what or how to play ;-)

As i said, people hopping servers take away from the unpredictable adventure spirit of the game and drive it more into a planable and fully controllable themepark game, when we originally come from a sandbox style game and still can play the game like a sandbox game, because it is designed the way it is.

What about players like me who came here during Alpha, exactly because it is the way it is, horizontal progression, events, PvPvE, etc....
And still playing regularly for 2.5 years.

I dont want to work it off, i dont want control and as we say we are in a shared world and also dont grant pve server demands or premade alliance requests that control we should stick to this and dont give control over events.
Plain simple.

The Shrouded Ghost is also luck based.
I got it.
Do i want to make it in any Form controllable, increase the chance?
Even if i dont would have it already i'd say no, like many others, this is what makes the adventure.
Ohhh look the Shrouded Ghost.
Ohhh look Ashen Winds, ohhh look this or that.....
Sure there are only 4 events and it's not that big surprise, but it is good it is not controllable.

Playing to me means a lot more than having controll, gaming the system, working it off.
To me this is a quality feature.
I like to let things happen by the way to feel no stress i have to do this or that, but let the game give me opportunities randomly.

@foxdodge switch a session is not.

Hop servers to no end to meet what you want when it's not intended, but random it's cheesing and trying to remove the rng factor.
And that's exactly what is done.
We dont like it's random, we dont accept it's random, although it is implemented this way by choice, a random Rotation!
Not acceptable to some, so people work around this and cheese it.

If it would be not intended to be random you would have a choice at the beginning or ingame.

FotD is not random, you can start it at your own.

Rare could have give us just a journey to activate it like we had with the ghost ships before Flamehearts Fleet.
It was more or less the same, you could start it by the journey.

So to me this is extra random.
So i take it and let it happen, dont work around an intended rng elements and cheese it.

Sorry this is my pov and it will be very hard to change my mind. :-)

@bugaboo-bill said in Ending server hopping/Giving players choices:

@stillvill

No it's not about players dissatifaction.
It's about control you dont have and playwrs shouldnt have.

You clearly arent aware of what brings players dissatisfaction

Read the post above below the answer to you.

The game was always meant to have a unpredictable adventure, to have uncertainty about others playera and a social experience.
As long as i'm here people want to control their adventure and work stuff off.
That is what most do. They cheese it, game the system, work stuff off to then complain there is no content.
SoT is to a degree a sandbox game.
Rare implemented tons of stuff, bit it's all optional if we are honest.

the entire game is optional

I can play as a wreck diver or fishermen only.
I need not level any faction rep or whatever.

I have played everyday since the update and got my first Ashen Wind yesterday because my crew hopped servers.
I wouldnt bother, i dont do it, but i dont tell anybody what or how to play ;-)
that is a problem, games shouldnt have to have you leave and rejoin to find content

As i said, people hopping servers take away from the unpredictable adventure spirit of the game and drive it more into a planable and fully controllable themepark game, when we originally come from a sandbox style game and still can play the game like a sandbox game, because it is designed the way it is.

its also designed to be fun, server hopping, is not fun nor is waiting for event to pop

What about players like me who came here during Alpha, exactly because it is the way it is, horizontal progression, events, PvPvE, etc....
And still playing regularly for 2.5 years.

ive been here since closed alpha, when they put in new content it was accessible to new players, this last one is not

I dont want to work it off, i dont want control and as we say we are in a shared world and also dont grant pve server demands or premade alliance requests that control we should stick to this and dont give control over events.
Plain simple.
thats good for you, others dont want to waste their time.

The Shrouded Ghost is also luck based.
I got it.
Do i want to make it in any Form controllable, increase the chance?
Even if i dont would have it already i'd say no, like many others, this is what makes the adventure.
Ohhh look the Shrouded Ghost.
Ohhh look Ashen Winds, ohhh look this or that.....
Sure there are only 4 events and it's not that big surprise, but it is good it is not controllable.

Playing to me means a lot more than having controll, gaming the system, working it off.

its not gaming the system, its working with an against a system that could push you down day after day. You and i are players that have played since before day 1, new players arent as fortunate as us to have put in the time that we have. The average player doesnt put in 100s if not thousands of hours like you us.

To me this is a quality feature.
I like to let things happen by the way to feel no stress i have to do this or that, but let the game give me opportunities randomly.

Thats good for you, many people dont have the time to sit around and have "opportunities" appear randomly.

I agree to disagree with you on this. Your idea of "fun" and a "good time". To me its playing a game with a task or mission in mind and trying to complete it while enjoying the company of my friends. For you, its whatever happens happens.

@stillvill sagte in Ending server hopping/Giving players choices:

I agree to disagree with you on this. Your idea of "fun" and a "good time". To me its playing a game with a task or mission in mind and trying to complete it while enjoying the company of my friends. For you, its whatever happens happens.

Exactly. You are a themepark player, i'm a sandbox player.

Now, this was allways more of a sandbox game and Forts in 2018 were random and sometimes you had no active fort for 3hrs.
This was by intention, to make them special to attract all players from the server.
People couldnt accept it. They hopped servers to find active Forts.
Rare need to change it because the masses hopping servers caused servers instability, matchmaking and servermege error etc...
Forts became available 99% of time.
Contest about Forts decreased and solo sloopers start doing group content, because not that much contested anymore.
Fleets dont have that problem, because most players dislike shipbattles and are more in for pirate to pirate stuff, especially for PvP or contested PvE.

I bet Rare will never make this controllable because it goes against a core idea of the game.

Megs, Skaleones and Kraken and many other things are also not controllable in this game.
The whole idea is to go out and have that unpredictable, uncontrollable "seabox" pirate adventure.
What you and many others want is a more controllable themepark to work off tasks without any rng.
I bet you would also like to have some Meg hunting ground and more commendations related to that.
But Rare also dont care for the pve server demands, what is also about having more control over your session or even full control.
I doubt they want the game to be more themepark style even if players like me are in the minority.
It's their vision of a game, not all, maybe not even most like, but some veterans for sure do!

I play it only because of that, because of it's sandbox / seabox character, because of random encounters, not all predictable, planable, no need to work off stuff etc...
I would like even more rng in the game. And my personal preference would be only random encounters and only messages in a bottle in the game, i'd remove all progression, but gold, make all cosmetics available from scratch for gold only and have a pure seabox. No tasks, just you and the Sea and a lot of random stuff including other players.

I agree the vocal majority in this forum has changed and wants to a degree something completely different.
Be it the PvP focussed crowd or the PvE demanding players or what not.
This Forum was allways full of suggestions and demands that imho go straight against the core idea and vision of Rare.

No offense, i see many want something else, but know there are also pirates who love the game because it is like it is and we dont like Rare adds more themepark elements or change the core idea of the game.

The games progression and tasks were always optional, not a priority to do or even neccessary.
I could have selled ir buyed nothing for 2.5 years and i would have only missed cosmetics and ok 2 types of journeys, what dont add so much to the experience.
I could have partaked in all events and refused to level anything up.
I would not miss anything important to have fun playing the game.

Because nothing is gated behind Amy progression, no task you have to do or else you miss out content or cannot partake and play with others.

This shows you this all is optional and on no way that important or a themepark concept.