Rare and all Pirates. Read. Spawn Change!

Another idea, what about making it so that when you spawn back from the Ferry of the Damned, have a small timer where you can't lose health, just for a short moment in case of camping, you'd have a bigger chance at killing your enemy? Could be like a buff for about 10 seconds or so from respawning, should be enough time to defend yourself without getting spawn killed. Again, just an idea though. Not saying spawning far away is a bad idea, just a harmless suggestion.

@canadianmuscle3 I largely disagree with this. I think if you die once your treasure should be theirs for the taking with no struggle. I hate comeback mechanics like this where you aren't sufficiently punished for being outplayed the first time.

The larger problem with Rare's "scuttle" solution is that it doesn't work with human psychology. You get your sloop boarded and you have some chests. You get killed and are waiting to come back. No one is going to just scuttle their ship because there is a perception that you have at least some semblance of a chance to kill the boarders and escape with something. Even if there are four players running up and down your sloop, there is still that 0.001% chance in your head that you might be able to spawn in, blunderbuss one, knock another off with the sword, and outplay the last two. So in practice no one really ever scuttles while they have treasure on board, which leads to frustration when you spawn in and get killed immediately while the other crew is still offloading.

From a psychological standpoint, I don't think people want to make a choice about something like this. If death was more punishing upfront, if you simply knew that dying once was a big deal and that you weren't going to get any second chances, the game would feel a lot more fair (paradoxically) because it would be more consistent. As it is now, you can get killed by a cannonball, respawn on your sloop and find one hole that you can easily patch up. Or, you could respawn on your sloop and find you have been boarded and have 5 holes. If the simple act of dying was game over to begin with, you would at least know what to expect on a more consistent level.

@capn-multi Oh derp, my bad.. Flew right over my head, my mistake, sorry!

@canadianmuscle3 I'm curious what you would think of my respawn overhaul idea.

I would leave the ferry as is, but the white barrier would be blocked off by a black barrier while enemies are on or immediately next to your ship. The black barrier goes away instantly as soon as they all leave or die. So you can come back to life if your other teammates drive them off the ship.

In the event you are solo or your whole team is dead, you vote to scuttle (because otherwise they would keep the ship forever as long as someone was on it), or maybe have an auto-scuttle once the black barrier is there while the whole crew is dead. But scuttling would be changed. The losing crew gets to immediately respawn on a new ship (that spawns very far away), while the other ship exists for about 3-5 minutes. There can be a flag dropping down slowly with a noise to indicate that the ship will scuttle in a few minutes. The winning crew now knows that no respawns will occur and can work on getting stuff off the ship before it sinks.

The only issue I have with such a system is that it would be tedious to team up with other crews. You would have to have someone ask them to leave your ship so you can respawn on it. If you could turn them to a green-named player organically, that would be cool. Though they should still be able to "default back to original crew" so that the feeling of the uneasy alliance never goes away.

@canadianmuscle3 Right, I've never been for "teleporting" everyone directly to the new ship once the first sinks. They can choose to still go there off a mermaid if they just don't want anything to do with the situation, but they could also try to take the other ship with them by forcing a scuttle if they can get on board and kill everyone.

@natsu-v2 change the looting timer to a longer 8-10 min or more salvage timer. You can then take their ship to an outpost and salvage for gold. This way you could even salvage your own ship and keep the customized ship you captured that you may not have the same cosmetics unlocked, aswell as making it one more risky decision to split your crew to attempt to salvage the ship, which would possibly give rep for a pvp npc or group, or just be sold for gold to the shipwright. To prevent to many ships being spawned the losing crew has to spawn on an island until that 10 minutes is up or a ship salvaged.

I also think things like the artifacts shouldn’t float which would provide another reason to risk boarding and taking a ship rather than just sinking it.

Maybe if a ship is salvaged that forces the losing crew to another server, or atleast gives the option to do so on the ferry with some sort of system that moves consistently winning crews up servers and consistent losers down servers, merging and closing servers as needed to keep the encounter frequency stable.

You have the option to spawn elsewhere if your ship has been sunk. Having that option made for you would not be a good one as some people would like to be giving the chance to take revenge.

If they have not sunk your ship, scuttle it and talk to the mermaid to spawn with a new one at a different location. I think the spawning system works perfectly the only grip i have with it is the white screen. Its blinding when i play on a 4k, 50 inch TV i have to look away. However its been said this will be removed anyways.

@cmdr-armored But everyone's natural reaction is to take revenge, and then you get spawnkilled instantly and it feels like it's the game's fault always. It's kind of the opposite of Battlefield's squad spawn system. I tend to blame myself if I spawn on a teammate and get killed immediately because he was in the open. But in this game, the natural reaction is to just always try to make a comeback, and then you have to deal with the terrible respawn mechanic, or if you're the winner of the fight you have to keep killing someone who already lost. It's not fun for anyone involved. You can get your revenge by being forced to a new ship and trying to find the enemy again on the other side of the map. Comeback mechanics are dumb. They're like the death streaks from older CoD games.

@natsu-v2

I get the point you are making, but how about this? You sail up to an island that has skele's on the cannons and they land that money shot that kills you. Would you want to restart with a new ship on a different island, losing any chests/supplies you had? Or would you want to spawn back on your ship and try to make a comeback?

We can't have different re-spawn mechanics for different situations.

@cmdr-armored Did you read the solution I provided a few posts up? I basically mentioned that the ferry's door is blocked by a black barrier while there are enemy players on your ship. If there is no other teammate alive, or you're solo, then this causes an auto-scuttle that let's the other team take your goods, but also removes the barrier and sends you to a new ship. Dying to PvE stuff wouldn't change unless someone snuck on your ship while you were battling skeletons or something, and frankly that would be hilarious.

@natsu-v2

I don't see how this would solve the problem. People would rage even harder if they are forced to stay on the Ferry of the Damned for longer periods. How would they solve the issue if a crew decides to camp out on your ship just for the giggles knowing you are stuck on the Ferry of the Damned?

A crew member from the other ship might even decide to die just to taunt you. I see this having many more issues then the current system has.

@moe-furbino

I think something like this might work. Its simple and effective.

@cmdr-armored You didn't understand my point then. Basically, you would get a new ship and the barrier would be lifted. As this happens, the old ship will still persist in the world, but on a small timer of a few minutes. Once that timer is up, it will sink so that the other crew won't have two ships. You aren't sitting around waiting for them to loot your ship so you can get a new one. You would get a new one immediately and the old ship will sink in a few minutes.

@natsu-v2

I get that part, but how would this solve anything for those who want to redeem themselves? I don't think you should have only one life.

You die, your crew member is still alive, so you can re-spawn this would be ok maybe with a 4 man crew as there is a higher chance for someone to always still be alive, for a two/three man crew there starts to have balancing issues.

I think so far the best idea i have seen is what @moe-furbino had mentioned. Longer re-spawns depending on the crew size.

@capn-multi

Yes, i agree 100% but i'm trying to think of the mechanic in a wide range of situations and finding something that would work across all situations.

1. You are at an island/outpost and another ship sails up on you. You should have the ability to grab your booty and hide it on the island at the very least if you can't save the ship.

You are currently able to do this.

2. You win a sea battle and sink the enemy ship. Their chests float to the surface, you have the upper hand as not only are you on a ship to stand on and pick them off you can simply wait for the sharks to help pick them off.

You can currently can do this. I do see the frustration as they can keep re-spawning over and over again. There is very little chance that this crew will ever get their chests back and if you are far enough away from the island there is no hope at all. Thus is where i start to favor some of the ideas you have were the crew simply spawns on a new island (further away then they currently do).

The thing is, i'm not sure how complex it would be to add in this type of complexity to have the re-spawn mechanic to respond differently to each situation. Sure it's easy to say well if crew X sinks, and there is no island withing X distance crew X will spawn with a new ship on island X. I don't claim to be a game developer but i feel that its far to much work to have the re-spawn mechanic behave differently depending on the factor.

I think the re-spawn timer increasing with each added crew member is very generic and would work across the board no matter the situation.

@capn-multi

Right, see i think we are pretty much in agreeance on how we'd like the system to work, for the most part. I'm just simply being objective on the matter is all.

=)