Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?

@atistang
I don't think being able to choose servers would be a good idea!!
A group of 'friends' in 2 or 3 ships could quite easily take control of a server, causing issues for the other players not in that group.
If you had a big enough group of friends, you could basically fully populate a server, eliminating all player threats & enabling all crews an easy way of gaining gold / rep without any threats from enemy players.

@logansdadtoo I mean, the game does say "form bonds with other pirates and amass your very own hoard..." Which sounds like its asking for players to group together and become powerful. I believe the server and the map will be much larger than we think it will be, which will allow for many more players and subsequently more ships. I believe its always been Rares intentions to make the game playable in many ways with your friends, and making a small fleet of ships with you and your buddies sounds like a great idea to me.

An option to leave your crew but stay on the same server would be awesome. You could disband to continue your voyage as a solo player when your friends go offline.

so what would you say, if you join a server, where a 10 man premade group is. They would just kill you over and over again. Do you think this is fair?

@absorbedgecko90 Again, I don't believe that will be a big issue. I am sure Rare is working on some form of system to keep port areas safer than the open sea, I am also quite sure the maps will be much larger than expected or experienced, making the ability to camp someone rather impossible if they simply re-spawn back at a random port. I also suspect their will be some form of bounty or reputation system, that will basically limit your ability to go to port if you're known as a player killer.

I am sure there will be many ways outside of what we've seen thus far that will keep players in check. Plus, this just isn't the kind of game that highly rewards killing other players. The lack of profits and the high risk are simply not worth the time and subsequently very inefficient.

@ethnine On the contrary, they have said many times that there will be no safe zones.

@erikinthebakery safer areas, not safe zones. Whether that safer area is simply more remote or possibly more difficult to get to is the question. Regardless I am sure Rare will make the ability to grief or camp players balanced. And again, killing a player over and over again doesn't actually get you anything or benefit you in any way. I just do not see this becoming an issue, no matter how large a players party is or is not.

I think it would be awesome, if PUBG can have 100 players in a game then why wouldn’t it be ok to have 6 man crews or even more. Even if you did 10 man crews, which would get hectic, you could still have 10 crews of 10 so I don’t see the issue.

@absorbedgecko90 And I'm sure that would happen from time to time, but there can be ways to combat this.

Passive mode

An option to pic a spawn point on the map after being killed by the same crew within a certain time frame.

Servers for a crew of 5-8 only

ETC...

Also it doesn't need to be as high as 10. I was thinking 8 max, that's 2 Galleons.

@logansdadtoo said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

@atistang
I don't think being able to choose servers would be a good idea!!
A group of 'friends' in 2 or 3 ships could quite easily take control of a server, causing issues for the other players not in that group.
If you had a big enough group of friends, you could basically fully populate a server, eliminating all player threats & enabling all crews an easy way of gaining gold / rep without any threats from enemy players.

What about a party of 6 max. I do think there should be a cap on how many from a party can be in a server. Or even 8 max, but you can only have one Galleon. Would it be an advantage over a crew of 4 in a Galleon? Yes, but the main idea of the game isn't PVP.

Also who cares if you have no threats getting loot and gaining gold. 99% of the stuff you get with said loot is cosmetic, it will not give you any advantage over other players.

@jonn-havoc said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

What are these "friends" you speak of? Seems like the older I get the less friends I acquire. Most people I've been friends with have gotten married, don't play games anymore or lost contact with. It'll be interesting in trying to find other players to play with in this game.

These are mainly friends I've made from forums over the last 10+ years.

Sadly what you're suggesting speaks to a much bigger scale than anything we've seen confirmed for Sea of Thieves. Even the incentive to play as a 4 man group other than fun with friends isn't there a lot of times. Personally I think the glaring lack of options on this front speaks volumes to how little Rare understands what gamers want from an online multiplayer game. You could literally form bigger groups in arena shooters on the OG Xbox.

The talk around PVP balance in this thread is amusing. Oh no! Those guys teamed up to earn a sparkly coat faster than everyone else?! How will I ever enjoy the game? Given how centered around cosmetics the progression shown off has been I can't possibly understand why so many of you think you need to enforce how others play the game. Unless we get some major unforeseen changes, and actual penalties/consequence for losing, the risk/reward factor is already next to zero. This game is as casual as they get.

Besides my regular crew has been press-ganging random crews to team up on the server for months. Bigger groups just means we won't have to tell our 5th who showed up 5 minutes late to start server hopping or [mod removed] for the next few hours. If we want to talk performance issues with bigger crews that's one thing, but if you want to talk balance as Rare works to add a sniper to the game... Lol okay.

I love how things like the low encounter rate and even crossplay balance get so casually dismissed because Sea of Thieves isn't a PVP game, but then in the next discussion the competitive integrity of the game is all that matters when people want better group (or even PVE) options. I'd be willing to bet the applause around here would be pretty unanimous if Rare decided to add expanded group (matchmaking in general) options in the beta.

Going to be an interesting 3 months as this community continues to grow to say the least.

@ethnine said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

@absorbedgecko90 Again, I don't believe that will be a big issue. I am sure Rare is working on some form of system to keep port areas safer than the open sea, I am also quite sure the maps will be much larger than expected or experienced, making the ability to camp someone rather impossible if they simply re-spawn back at a random port. I also suspect their will be some form of bounty or reputation system, that will basically limit your ability to go to port if you're known as a player killer.

I am sure there will be many ways outside of what we've seen thus far that will keep players in check. Plus, this just isn't the kind of game that highly rewards killing other players. The lack of profits and the high risk are simply not worth the time and subsequently very inefficient.

That's a good idea. Maybe after so many player kills in a certain time frame your location is marked on the map for a set amount of time.

Then it could either be a bounty for that ship or just a warning to other players that they have the reputation for being vicious pirates that are likely to attack others.

@sithmasterdman the issue is a crew of 10 playing against a crew of one. Or a crew of 2, or what have you. The majority of people would play on a crew of around 5ish, which means 10 man crew have the advantage. And for solo or duo players, that just means getting your a**e whooped at any moment.

@inflickked said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

Sadly what you're suggesting speaks to a much bigger scale than anything we've seen confirmed for Sea of Thieves. Even the incentive to play as a 4 man group other than fun with friends isn't there a lot of times. Personally I think the glaring lack of options on this front speaks volumes to how little Rare understands what gamers want from an online multiplayer game. You could literally form bigger groups in arena shooters on the OG Xbox.

The talk around PVP balance in this thread is amusing. Oh no! Those guys teamed up to earn a sparkly coat faster than everyone else?! How will I ever enjoy the game? Given how centered around cosmetics the progression shown off has been I can't possibly understand why so many of you think you need to enforce how others play the game. Unless we get some major unforeseen changes, and actual penalties/consequence for losing, the risk/reward factor is already next to zero. This game is as casual as they get.

Besides my regular crew has been press-ganging random crews to team up on the server for months. Bigger groups just means we won't have to tell our 5th who showed up 5 minutes late to start server hopping or p**s off for the next few hours. If we want to talk performance issues with bigger crews that's one thing, but if you want to talk balance as Rare works to add a sniper to the game... Lol okay.

I love how things like the low encounter rate and even crossplay balance get so casually dismissed because Sea of Thieves isn't a PVP game, but then in the next discussion the competitive integrity of the game is all that matters when people want better group (or even PVE) options. I'd be willing to bet the applause around here would be pretty unanimous if Rare decided to add expanded group (matchmaking in general) options in the beta.

Going to be an interesting 3 months as this community continues to grow to say the least.
I like that seeing another player is somewhat rare. It makes it that much more exciting when you spot a ship off in the distance. Do we engage or keep our distance? Have they spotted us? We have one chest of low value, they may have 2 or more of high value. All these things get discussed when you spot that ship.

I agree that the majority would like more group options.

@mr-chance-pants said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

@sithmasterdman the issue is a crew of 10 playing against a crew of one. Or a crew of 2, or what have you. The majority of people would play on a crew of around 5ish, which means 10 man crew have the advantage. And for solo or duo players, that just means getting your a**e whooped at any moment.

So too realistic? Being out numbered is supposed to give you the upper hand?

I just think a game about pirating and exploring with friends would be more fun if you could play it with your friends

@sithmasterdman said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

I think it would be awesome, if PUBG can have 100 players in a game then why wouldn’t it be ok to have 6 man crews or even more. Even if you did 10 man crews, which would get hectic, you could still have 10 crews of 10 so I don’t see the issue.

The answer to this is that they are very different types of games. In PUBG, your only goal is to kill the other players before they kill you. SoT has a lot more to do, and while the PvP element is definitely part of the experience it is meant to be less frequent.

@atistang rare is doing their best to create this game with everyone in mind. That being said, when you have a very high number of solo players out there, and those solo players will not play with random people, getting bombarded constantly by ships 10 times your size would deter them from playing, meaning less players overall, meaning less fun for the 10 man crews. I'll admit, I think it would be fun to play on a crew that size once or twice. But the majority of my time will be spent solo or duo. Plus, I wouldn't feel as important or like I was doing a good job on a crew of 10, as opposed to being the deciding man on a 4 person crew.

@mr-chance-pants said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

@atistang rare is doing their best to create this game with everyone in mind. That being said, when you have a very high number of solo players out there, and those solo players will not play with random people, getting bombarded constantly by ships 10 times your size would deter them from playing, meaning less players overall, meaning less fun for the 10 man crews. I'll admit, I think it would be fun to play on a crew that size once or twice. But the majority of my time will be spent solo or duo. Plus, I wouldn't feel as important or like I was doing a good job on a crew of 10, as opposed to being the deciding man on a 4 person crew.

Everyone keeps bringing up 10 player crews. I am talking 6-8 max.

And seriously what would be the point of taking on a sloop over and over again or at all most of the time. Chances are they are not going to have much.

I'm one of those said friends in @atistang group. It sucked splitting a crew of 4 because there were 5-6 of us online. The game is more enjoyable when we can all play together, rather than breaking up an already existing crew in order to get into the same server and on the same ship.

A crew of 6-8 would work if there's an option for a 6-8 crew lobby or if we can join the same server and then just meet up at an island.

Forgot to mention that one night we switched to overwatch instead because we couldn't all get into the same server/ship/crew.

@gabesapien85 said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

Forgot to mention that one night we switched to overwatch instead because we couldn't all get into the same server/ship/crew.

Yep, "c**p, someone else just got on, well lets play a game that allows all of your friends to play together then"

Yeah I understand the issue with players getting destroyed by bigger crews, but it is a pirate ship right? I mean most old ships held crews of 20 or more. Now I’m definitely not wanting a 20 man crew and to be honest a crew of 10 could get hectic, but like others have said before, if you have 5 or 6 friends who all want to play together, it really sucks to only be able to split up your crew. So far the galleons currently have 8 cannons, 3 sails to man, an anchor with 4 points to push from, a crows nest and a wheel for the captain. That’s 17 spots to fill on a ship. There is plenty of room on the ship for a ton of pirates, and also when we do sail up onto another galleon, how awesome would it be if the battle started like all those famous ship battles in our favorite swashbuckling movies!! All in all I think the option to play with up to 8 men in a crew would be cool.

Let’s also be honest with ourselves, the most fun we all had in this game during the technical alpha is when you see sails on the horizon. The guy in the crows nest screams, “ sails on the horizon” then everyone started making their way back to the ship from their treasure hunting. As the ship gets closer your crew lowers the sails and raises the anchor...Ramming Speed, your captain shouts... then the cannon balls begin to fly and pirates are jumping on your ship desperately searching for your hard earned loot.... this was my groups favotie time during the alpha. While treasure hunting and killing skeletons is great, there is just something about those ship battles.... and my rant is over haha! Happy sailing friends!

@sithmasterdman Absolutely! We rarely used the crows nest because everyone was pretty busy as is. Then during battles trying to trim sails, patch holes, bail water, reload, and shoot... It was very hectic and impossible to keep up, which is the way to sink a players ship, but even with 8 you will be very busy during a battle.

@sithmasterdman said in Will there be an option for a group of 4+ to join the same server?:

Let’s also be honest with ourselves, the most fun we all had in this game during the technical alpha is when you see sails on the horizon. The guy in the crows nest screams, “ sails on the horizon” then everyone started making their way back to the ship from their treasure hunting. As the ship gets closer your crew lowers the sails and raises the anchor...Ramming Speed, your captain shouts... then the cannon balls begin to fly and pirates are jumping on your ship desperately searching for your hard earned loot.... this was my groups favotie time during the alpha. While treasure hunting and killing skeletons is great, there is just something about those ship battles.... and my rant is over haha! Happy sailing friends!

Agreed. There was always a mad dash back to the ship when our crew mate would yell out that he saw a ship. More often than not we'd get caught with our pants down, get back to the ship, repair, and scurry away until we could fight back. It's a game about pirates, why complain about getting attacked and having your ship stolen?

If people want to play a solo Rare game they should buy a N64 and a copy of Banjo Kazooie.

@jonn-havoc, 95% of my crew I've never met. I just advertised and marketed my crew on the forum.
But I also would like to have 3 or 4 ships sailing at once on the same server, although the max of 10 players would allow for more flexibility in crewing each ship.

I understand the concern about if allow more than 4 players to join same server and band together, but I think there does need to be an option for more than 4 friends to join the same server - not only to play together, but perhaps also play against each other.

The more options and allowances for larger groups to play on same server just adds more invitability to the game to have fun.

That being said, would need to be an option when first trying to find server on which type you want to join, so you would have an option and know what you are getting yourself into.

Good Fortune

Marik