I realise there is another thread relating to red seaing, however that is a very specific suggestion and I don't want to derail it further. Instead this is more hoping to understand people's opinons on why red seaing is/isn't a positive feature in this game.
So here's my point of view:
Definitions:
Winning - in the context of PvP, I define winning as being the party that sells the loot (or the controlling percentage of the loot)
Skill - How good you are at fighting/sailing - how you make decisions on where to go. Angling sails and knowing optimal directions for your ship type falls under skill, but there is a hard limit on how skilled someone can be at it.
Determination - How willing you are to keep a fight/chase going
Luck - random variations caused by the game world/hitreg/any other thing which is down to chance
My argument
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In a perfect(or at least better) SoT there are only 3 fundamental factors that should decide who wins a PvP interaction: higher skill, higher determination, and greater luck.
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Red seaing does not necessarily require higher skill (assuming both parties know how to angle sails/optimal directions) - you can just point in your ship's optimal direction and run until you despawn - no decision making actually needs to be made.
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Red seaing does not require higher determination - both parties are continuing the chase for the same period of time, therefore one cannot be more determined that the other
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Red seaing does not necessarily require greater luck - red seaing can be achieved when there are no emergent encounters, noone is in cannon range etc. - both parties are equally lucky
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This means that there are cases where red seaing does not fall under the first premise, yet can decide the outcome of who wins - in this case nobody. This is a contradiction, therefore red seaing cannot exist within a perfect SoT. (aka it's cringe, but that's a bit sensational).
Ways you can convince me I'm wrong
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Show me that one of my definitions is incorrect/lacking. (The main one is convince me that angling sails/knowing the optimal direction is something that you can keep getting better at and doesn't have a hard "cap", so that one party is always more skilled at than the other)
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Convince me that another fundamental factor should affect who "wins". Note that "does someone red sea"? doesn't really seem like a fundamental factor - it can be made of many other components (such as spite/desire for the other team to loose out), although you could try to convince me of this first.
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Show me how points 2-4 are incorrect - I imagine skill would be the easiest to do so, and that will probably be related to the definition.
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Come up with something completely different, although I hope I've been rigorous enough that there isn't much scope for that.
Congrats for getting to the end lol
