Define Fun PvP

I think it would be helpful to the devs if people stated what they think fun PvP would be, compared to what we have now.

We have, they have. But...only they know what is good for the game.

@xshirahx said in Define Fun PvP:

Ah.. disabling friendly fire immunity so that trolls can now not only set fire to their crews ship but also spawncamp their crew....

At the very least, "friendly cannon fire" needs to be a thing. On Ships where cannonballs actively bounce players off defensive points and can prevent repairing, allowing a boarder to run roughshod all over the deck is too imbalanced. Defenders are at a severe disadvantage due to a boarder's immunity to their own friendly cannonfire.

It really depends.

For me the most fun PVP I ever had in Sea of Thieves so far was the original PVEVP with risk/reward factor involved, before double gunning became a thing. So fighting of half a server after finishing FotD and things like that. Perhaps an idea for Devs - FotD Team Death match?

The teams would be without ships, they would be anchored on opposite sides, capstans disabled,cannons disabled, ships invincible to damage, barrels locked. until game is over or someone invades the match, upon death you would spawn within the fort for the time the TDM is active.

One team would spawn outside of the fort, another one inside. No reviving. Also no indication in the sky as the fort is not actually active. The gamemode would consist of for example 10 rounds, 5 attacking 5 defending or until a team reaches 7-8 round wins. If there is a draw then it goes to overtime and whoever wins it, gets the FOTD key to open the vault. The looser changes server.

If talking about match making pvp - Sea of Bones

The most fun PVP for me would be - competitive environment, same amount of resources leaving the skill do the talking, quick matchmaking without the need to resupply. This obviously does not exist, but would by on my Wishlist. From there you could expand on different settings, or maps.

Would be interesting to see both ships diving and emerging in different parts of the map. From the calm seas west side of the map, to the stormy wilds and the hectic and hazardous ashen region, but both ships would need to be on equal footing for this to make sense. You could still have attacker and defender.

Another idea that would push players into committing to naval instead of boarding - shark infested waters. Perhaps if the ships can't decide a winner a megalodon would come to attack both.

Another idea - Post match statistics, with an MVP of the match and nicknames, who was the best doing what during the match (successful cannon hits/most player kills/utility usage etc) . Positive side - extra dopamine for the winning team, ability to report toxic behavior's / cheating. The negative - influx of false reports making it difficult for devs to sort out good from bad without an automatic system.

@personalc0ffee the more I play lately, the more I agree that double gunning is just absurd.
I’m an Xbox player who is now forced to play on Pc servers for the higher player count in Hour glass.

I’m winning the majority of fights latey, but stopping boarders is my number one concern.
The moment a double gunning Pc sweat gets on, that is often the match over. Sometimes I can knock them off with a lucky sword lunge. And a few good slashes. But the discrepancy is beyond the pail.

I’ve adjusted and now I have to be PERFECT at listening for boarders. Which is way easier in solo… because if you put pressure on them with cannons they can’t board at a certain point anyway.

Double gunning really doesn’t impress me because it’s just not feasible for an Xbox player versus a Pc. It’s like 2 different games at that point.
It will probably never happen, but boy it would be nice if cutlasses were always a pre-requisite.

I see defending boards as fun. The fact is the advantage is with defenders its just people have gotten so good at boarding they make it look easy. I've seen some epic boarders who against lower skilled crews can go out before fight starts have them anchored and wipe crew.
But then a semi competent crew can realistically guard these same players and force them into naval. Diff players have diff strong suits, it's about trying to force your opponent into situation that is optimal for you not them (assuming there's not a massive skill difference to point of it not mattering).
This applies to whether its double gun, gun choice, naval over close quarter combat preference etc.

My cqc isn't great, so I often don't take the fight, I knock them off rather than trying to secure kill as my naval is my best part.

Fact is you can't nerf boarding without buffing naval as ships just wouldn't sink, people have perfected bilging watch some of the high level duo sloop fights.
The problem is there's such a skill range in the game so it's not an easy feat balancing that has positive effect for entire community

I love it when 2 ships are fighting off in the distance...that's the funnest pvp lol

@xshirahx that's such a lame excuse for this not being in game. I'm sick and tired of a cannonball landing at my feet while I'm guarding the ladder and the boarder I had previously stopped coming right up.

My top 3 features that would make PvP more "fun" are:

1. Make everything work consistently. That means fixing all or most forms of hit reg.

2. Get rid of and/or minimise the impact of cheats.

3. Make a wrinkle system for Open crew where you can choose gameplay preferences. For example, "Looking for: Sloop. Preferred game mode: Hour Glass PvP, Athena/Servants." - This added functionality would help with making the mode easier and faster to access just for a bit of fast on demand action. One of the best things about Arena for me was being able to do a bunch of Duo Sloop matches consistently.

@soloslooperr So people ask for aim assist on X-Box and it's ok, but when people on PC have aim assist - everyone looses their minds. You know in 2023 you can buy a mouse and a keyboard for consoles too right?

@soloslooperr You want aim assist on a multiplayer game against people who don't have it? Foggetaboutit.

At the same time, I am happy if you guys get it, but then you don't get to play on cross platform servers. Sounds fair?

@soloslooperr Well I guess what you wrote makes sense. I can honestly admit I don't know how they balanced it in 2023. When I played some CoD on my mates PS4 back in 2013, I can't recall having anything and I struggled to flick my aim like I was used to on FPS games on PC. So to compensate that I tried to play smarter and use crosshair placement and use environment to my advantage, pre aim corners etc.

Currently my crewmates are console players and they do it rather well. And no need to show me videos, I used to be really good with the sniper myself :P

So the term aim-assist perhaps is not perfectly clear. What for me that word means is if you remember GTA V mission where you (Franklin) go with Lamar to repo a bike. I could literally close my eyes, press aim, press shoot, press aim, press shot and all 10 of the enemies would be dead from headshots. That would literally be considered a hack on PC.

Would you be able to describe in more detail how does the aim assist work that it would be considered a crutch and not a cheat? You have to remember not all PC players are good at aim, some are quite frankly terrible. Would it be fair vs those type of players?

@jdge439 said in Define Fun PvP:

@xshirahx that's such a lame excuse for this not being in game. I'm sick and tired of a cannonball landing at my feet while I'm guarding the ladder and the boarder I had previously stopped coming right up.

That's happening because your boat became easier to aim at. When your mast is down or you've already been anchored in a battle, a boarder can easily make their way up because their team mate can shoot where you're guarding the ladder. Even with cannon friendly fire enabled, the boarder is just gonna stay in the water while the cannonballs of the enemy strike you down because you're too hyper focused on killing the boarder nearby. It's an unfortunate issue where a player can counter another player's strategies by pure skill, counter-strategy, and game sense. The solution to that is to shoot the enemy on the sides of the ladder via next to the cannonball barrel/railing to the wheel or through the sloop's window.

There's more than one way to approach an issue, and it can prove to be useful in those instances. Shake up how you fight! You never know how prepared your enemy will be for you.

This thread reeks of Expectations vs Reality, and since there aren't enough mature super-competent/professional PVP players to have their to say in this thread, it's going to feel like a complete echo chamber and doesn't feature every side effectively or fairly.

Fun PvP is subjective, it's really about how the way you want to battle being fun, regardless of how effective it is. Sure, you want to clash swords, but players continue to suffer issues with the usage of the weapon due to awful issues with ping, differing weapon choice/usage proving to be an uncomfortable mismatch, etc. Sure your favorite PvP can be hitting things with cannonballs, but you're going to have to hit very critical shots to find yourself winning a fight, and that's even considering that your opponent isn't aiming their cannons or EoRs at you on the cannon, which can kill you.

Fun PvP =/= winning PvP, and as a result, that's why many people at face value don't like it. You can play your way, until you have to fight someone that can fight just like or better than you, where it turns competitive because if you don't want to sink, you have to do everything in your power to prevent those scurvy dogs from giving your boat a watery grave. It's a lot of pressure and stress that not many came to Sea of Thieves for, and no matter how subjective one likes their game experience to be heavily stressed and pressured, it's a stark contrast to how the rest of the game can play out.

Direct combat has proven to be so buggy, janky, and in some ways, unbalanced based on one's skills in movement and maneuverability, that it just... can't be fun for some.