Greetings, Sea of Thieves development team! It’s hard to believe that Sea of Thieves has been sailing strong for five years now, and I have enjoyed almost every second of the ride to this milestone. My appreciation for all the time and effort you put into this game cannot be overstated, and I can’t wait to see what lies over the horizon in the future! That said, there is a significant issue that I (and a lot of other pirates, I’m sure) have struggled with for a long time now: spawn-killing. There are few things more frustrating than completing a World Event or seeking a worthy foe to battle via the Hourglass of Fate, only to have an enemy crew board your vessel and repeatedly send you to the Ferry Of The Damned until you sink. This is especially problematic as a solo or duo sloop, as larger ships can spare crew members for boarding without sacrificing too much of their functionality. I understand that boarding is a valid strategy for fighting other crews, but I speak for many players of all skill levels when I say that player-vs-player combat feels too dependent on who can board the enemy ship and kill its crew first. In addition, the act of repeatedly killing enemy pirates on their vessel to win feels cheap and underhanded, particularly for those on the receiving end.
To help remedy this infuriating set of circumstances, I would like to humbly request the implementation of mechanics that give pirates (particularly those who aren’t as proficient at hand-to-hand combat) a better chance to fight back against spawn-killing. I realize that adding such mechanics without destabilizing ship combat as a whole would be a delicate task, but I do have a suggestion for how this could work. When a pirate is killed on their ship by an enemy pirate, they could have a few seconds of invincibility upon returning from the Ferry. That way, the enemy couldn’t kill them again so quickly, giving the victim a precious moment to fend off or kill the boarder. This effect could even stack if the boarder kills the victim multiple times in succession, with the period of invincibility increasing the longer the spawn-killing occurs. Such a mechanic would put boarders on the clock for how long they can lock down an enemy ship, and it would alleviate some of the frustration that results from losing treasure or an Hourglass fight as a result of spawn-killing.
Of course, some fine-tuning would likely have to be done in order to account for different crew sizes (shorter invincibility periods and/or the period of invincibility doesn’t stack as fast for members of larger crews, as an example), but I feel confident that such a mechanic would help make it easier to combat boarding and spawn-killing without undermining the tactic of boarding as a whole. I love this game, as do thousands of buccaneers around the world, but at the same time I and many others feel cheated and angry when we lose an engagement because someone boarded our ship and spawn-killed us until we sink.
The fairest of winds to you all,
-RagingInferno10, Captain of The Eternal Phoenix