Flares for Better Communication!

@galactic-geek Why not both? What if I don't have any bullets left? What if I'm trying to communicate different things? Also bullets are way harder too see, especially while sailing. If someone isn't already looking at my direction, they will definitely miss the shot.

I’m down with a flare. Have it replace a weapon giving it five shots, maybe even give it a bit of damage and blinding effect if hit by it.

Because a pirate with a flare gun was a common sight during the age of sail? NAUGHT
Someone care to invent a bullet first?

I can imagine Mike saying: "I'm not getting much of a pirate feel from this.

I can imagine Joe looking into the camera and saying: "See what I have to work with."

Use your flintlock, like everyone else.

@barnabas-seadog 100% agree. People need to understand that we need to keep to historical pirates tech and stuff. Like back in the late 1700s where pirates would use cannon balls that would cause their enemies to dance uncontrollably, or how pirates would load themselves into cannons and fire themselves at enemy ships to board them or that one period where magic skeletons took over the seas, etc. If we don't pay attention to history we will take this game off course and lose it's authenticity to real world historical piracy.

@thor-von-blitz The first use of flares dates back to the 13th century. When was the the grogball invented? It not fitting is entirely your opinion and nothing more. This game has floating skull and ship clouds as well as GPS tracking on maps... Adding a flare would not in any way jeopardize the themes of this game.

Let's talk about PvP balance for an instant
How do you prevent this from being a main "meta" feature when attacking a ship ?
This would be used 100% of the time as a smoke granade when boarding ships....
I cannot think of a worse situation were 2 galeons with 8 ppl everyone has 3-4 smoke granades and every fight would be a complete cluster of smoke flares....
Honestly i don't like the mechanic being a main feature of the game. understand ?
There are so many things to figure out and balance....

The cloud should not stay on top of a moving ship...but should stay if launched inside the ship for a brief time...

if it does becomes a thing it should be farmable or you can only fill you flare gun with a maximum of 1 flare (with option of color at launch) and maybe flare recharges should consume explosive barrels so it's not overused creating a cluster situtation like described above.

It has some potential to be intresting, fun and useful but it has a lot of down sides if not managed carefully...

@galactic-geek Redundant but better. The chat wheel is not that great, and the less we need to use it the better IMO. It's cool how it changes based on what you are interacting with, but having to pull up a chat wheel to try and communicate is very much against SoT's minimal UI design. A flare for instance could say everything without a single instance of UI. It would engage players more into the world. Most of the time it would still be easier to call out the direction(if we assume that easy player will be able to carry 1 or 2 flares max.) not to mention safer(you signal your allies, but also enemies to your location). The flare could allow for some really cool tactics such as tucking away on a ship and signaling it's position when you are ready to attack, or being stuck in a rowboat and signaling your crew to pick you up, etc.

It's like pirates with fishing poles.

Always comes to mind right?

So flares, because pirates always have access to cutting edge technology at sea.

I dont buy it, but make enough noise and Rare may implement it.

@thor-von-blitz If it goes much higher than mermaid smoke then sure. If you need to make a fireplace, light it, and wait for the smoke to rise it will end up being useless though. A flare would be much more useful and cost much less in designing.

@thor-von-blitz Oh yeah. My mind went to camp fire smoke signals for some reason lol you wouldn't be able to do a lot of cool stuff that a flare could do though.

@barnabas-seadog said in Flares for Better Communication!:

It's like pirates with fishing poles.

Always comes to mind right?

So flares, because pirates always have access to cutting edge technology at sea.

I dont buy it, but make enough noise and Rare may implement it.

The game is about teamwork and coordination, for which communication is required. Anything that can help with that is something worth considering.

How is a flare exactly cutting edge technology... we have gunpowder already, which by far is the most high end technology that is required to create a flare. Therefore cutting edge technology? We already use the technology required every single day on the seas in our guns and with our barrels.

In reality flares have been around for at least 800ish years when the Chinese started using gunpowder to signal their troops.

@galactic-geek the fact that you use a flint lock to signal kind of shows the need for a flare gun or something else, no?

It is like taking away the spy glass because you can use an Eye of Reach.

Our weapons can be utilized in other manners, but they shouldn't be required to be equipped for their utility.

Between the mic. and the text, there IS "better communication" already.

@instatikz Thank you for the feedback! Thinking about it, in a situation where everyone has a flare gun, even when limited to one shot each, in a PVP situation, every location, be it an island or a ship, can very easily become a nightmare full of rainbow coloured smoke.
I think that upon firing a flare in the air it should start a timer, 5 or 6 seconds or so, and then the flare would fade away. But when touching the ground, another timer would take place, replacing the first, starting from 1 to 2 seconds I think. So the flare would quickly disappear. Thoughts?

@offic3rravioli use your pistol that's how I do that

@dislex-fx Some people can't speak English, others are too shy to speak over a mic. Xbox players can't type. Even on PC it takes time, so in fighting or high stress situation typing is not the best option.

I play on PC and speak a decent English, but I've met countless players who have these problems and asked if a flare would help, all agreed.

@cotu42 The Eye of Reach example is perfect! It's exactly how I wanted to explain why flares would be a good feature! Just because something would almost work doesn't mean you can't have a tool for said purpose, especially if it would work better.

Sorry but i dont think flares are practical in the SoT theme. As flares are considered things that came with modern technology. But i do like the idea of signaling so maybe it could be raising a small color flag instead of a flare? Who knows. Its just a suggestion.

#findingShroud

@cotu42 With all the discussion about how flares wouldn't fit in the game. Remember that we already have flares in the game. Mermaids use them all the time. It's coloured smoke, be it magic or not doesn't matter. If that's in the game, then I think a weaponsmith can make a gun that shoots it without much trouble.

@offic3rravioli the size and thickness of the smoke needs to be balanced and not be abused in PvP for a huge smoke screen.

Any type of tool to help with communication is worth a discussion and considered for me.

I am for flares or something similar. I think it would be great, you communicate to your crew, but other pirates can als respond.

@offic3rravioli Do take what I am about to say with pinch of salt. I feel like what the mermaids are holding are more like smoke that flares as it more like a continues stream than something that shoots out and goes boom in the sky. But yea that could be considered as well but i think there should be downsides to it like it takes awhile to ignite and if you swap over to your weapon the smoke breaks off like the mermaid.

@thor-von-blitz Well said.

I think that there needs to be some historical accuracy, even though this is a pirate fantasy game. Perhaps sky bound fireworks would be the best solution, but would obviously bring unwanted attention from unintended vessels.

I have suggested in the past that a messaging system via pets might fit the bill too. Attaching a note to your parrot and sending to an alliance ship for help might be a viable option too.

@xlambx maybe place it down instead of shoot it?

A stick we ignite and can toss maybe like two steps away? Would that be better than a flare gun?

@cotu42 ooh? Now we are talking. I totally love where this is going. I agree that would be alot better than a flare gun. And maybe put a limit to it where a flare of one team has to be a certain distance away from a flare from the same team. This would prevent people abusing it as a smokescreen.

#findingShroud

I'd like to add a bit from a discussion with my friends/crew about the flare topic.
So the main inspiration about the addition to flares was the anime Attack on Titan, which if you know it or even watched it you probably know that it's set in a medieval fantasy. Without going too much in depth about the context of the show just know that the 'knights' go on expetitions outside the walls of the city and communicate through flares shot in the air when going out in large group formations. There are much more advanced technologies there but they all fit in the show, and they fit BECAUSE of its fantasy elements, people developed those technologies because of need, using what was available.
SO, going back to Sea of Thieves, in a game with forts and ship controlled by skeletons, megalodons, a Kraken, magic cannonballs, a faction that uses magical skulls for.. reasons, mermaids that can teleport you to your ship, the ferry, magic lanterns, I could go on and on. With this context in mind, it's not that hard to imagine that the people of the Sea of Thieves would develop a tool to better communicate at sea.

@xlambx Oh I didn't mean like a firework! Imagine something like launching a smoke grenade in the air. It leaves a continuous stream of smoke originating from the same source.

@offic3rravioli I guess that could work... Since SoT is fantasy themed in a way so im pretty sure there are things that can be bent here and there but who knows. That is up for the devs to decide.