Suggestion on how to encourage sea battles and improve the PvP aspect

  • UltraSweetened

    I find the epic ship battles to be the best part of this game, and the part that makes the PvP so unique and interesting. However, more often than not people ruin the experience by just climbing on your ship and shooting you in the back when you are trying to steer. I am not saying that this is unfair, but in a lot of ways it takes away from the experience I think the developers intended to provide.

    I do believe there is a relatively easy way to fix this however. I think that the ladders to the ships should be retractable to prevent people from easily climbing aboard and ruining an otherwise epic ship battle. It would still be possible to board enemy ships with the cannons or jump over to them when they draw close enough, which would make the game play much more interesting and require more skill and planning than just jumping into the water and climbing a ladder.

    With the introduction of rowboats they could also make it so that if you take a rowboat you could throw up your own ladder from the boat and climb inside that way, which would also take more planning and improve game play.

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  • Captain Coel
    Commander
    Insider

    @ultrasweetened another retractable ladder thread. .. I hope you get stranded off your own boat.

  • UltraSweetened

    @captain-coel
    I wouldn't mind honestly, it pretty much happens anyway.
    I did not realize there were other threads to this. I find it unfortunate that it seems to not be considered if it is such a common suggestion.

  • Captain Coel
    Commander
    Insider

    @ultrasweetened the thing is. You are given all the tools you need to have for when someone boards. You can hear swimming and hear when they come up the ladder. It is a pretty quick process of hitting them into the ocean

  • Ve111a
    Ship Mate

    It has been discussed numerous times. Personally I like how it is and think it would be one more micromanagement thing to handle and I like the aspect of being able to board from the water. It is SUPER easy to counter you just need to pay attention to your surroundings and the audio cues (someone coming out of water or a splash)

  • DrunkPunk138
    Master
    Founder

    I disagree completely. People complain quite a bit because the battles tend to last too long, with no ships sinking, and that's because they tend to be too adverse to boarding. Proper PvP is not using one or two mechanics to win a fight, it's using everything you've got. Boarding is just an important of a factor in this as being able to land cannon shots. Being able to raise ladders would provide less options in what is already a high risk vs reward scenario, especially considering the sound queues available to catch people boarding. Those sound queues are a very large disadvantage to attempting to board a ship, and are quite easy to hear.

    I also think it's a little absurd to say "require more skill than jumping in the water and climbing a ladder", because properly boarding and making it worthwhile takes way more than that. You not only have to get onboard without being noticed, but you also have to be able to kill everything on board, which can be no easy feat depending on who you're fighting.

    Ultimately boarding is just an important component of PvP than being able to steer and fire cannonballs. Retractable ladders would result in more stalemates than anything in PvP battles, and only serve as a handicap for those incapable of listening for the sound queue.

  • UltraSweetened

    I am not saying completely remove boarding, but I would like to see the mechanics of it tweaked in some way. I personally can not hear the sound queues and always sail in a sloop, and when even one person gets on board in a sloop it is often the end of that battle because one of the two players is on the wheel and the other is either on the cannon or repairing. If retractable ladders is unreasonable I hope there is another solution that can encourage sea battles without making them impossible to win.

    I would be open to ideas other than the ladders that would accomplish this if there are any out there.

  • KiethBlackLion
    Master
    Insider

    I would just like to have the ladder for the sloop moved to the lower deck (like the galleon) as opposed to having the ladder come up next to the helmsman. Sometimes in the heat of battle you might miss the audio cue for the ladder climbing and you're dead before you can let go of the wheel.

  • UltraSweetened

    @kiethblacklion That would help a lot too. It is a small tweak but I do think it would make a big difference.

  • UltraSweetened

    @kiethblacklion I would probably suggest that in a different thread if you haven't already. Since the first post is about ladders it is unlikely people will read far enough to consider your idea.

  • EngineFEAR
    Insider

    @ultrasweetened said in Suggestion on how to encourage sea battles and improve the PvP aspect:

    I find the epic ship battles to be the best part of this game, and the part that makes the PvP so unique and interesting. However, more often than not people ruin the experience by just climbing on your ship and shooting you in the back when you are trying to steer. I am not saying that this is unfair, but in a lot of ways it takes away from the experience I think the developers intended to provide.

    I do believe there is a relatively easy way to fix this however. I think that the ladders to the ships should be retractable to prevent people from easily climbing aboard and ruining an otherwise epic ship battle. It would still be possible to board enemy ships with the cannons or jump over to them when they draw close enough, which would make the game play much more interesting and require more skill and planning than just jumping into the water and climbing a ladder.

    With the introduction of rowboats they could also make it so that if you take a rowboat you could throw up your own ladder from the boat and climb inside that way, which would also take more planning and improve game play.

    See my Thread. Ship Reinforcements, which would encourage players to fight with the ship longer before they can board. It doesn't remove boarding, but I think it will help to make the ship battle more lasting and fun before you have to go repair or have the option to board the enemy ship. Since you would have to hit the enemy ship more times first.

    https://www.seaofthieves.com/forum/topic/66030/ship-reinforcements-prep-for-battle

  • UltraSweetened

    @dutchyankee I just joined the forum today, and wasn't all that aware of how common of an idea this was. I would still like to see something that changes the boarding mechanic for sloops like Kieth said, even if it isn't retractable ladders.

  • xCALYPT0x
    Master
    Insider
    Boatswain

    @kiethblacklion said in Suggestion on how to encourage sea battles and improve the PvP aspect:

    I would just like to have the ladder for the sloop moved to the lower deck (like the galleon) as opposed to having the ladder come up next to the helmsman. Sometimes in the heat of battle you might miss the audio cue for the ladder climbing and you're dead before you can let go of the wheel.

    This is a great suggestion. I have thought about it before but never mentioned it. I think it would really help out solo sloopers.

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