Private Chat is Cheating and Alliances Have Become Detrimental

...since when could pirates fire themselves out of cannon's 500 feet in the air and survive?
...since when could rowboats sized for 3 people hold 100+ captain's chests plus supplies?

You have to realize that games are games for a reason. There is a fine line between being real, too real, and unreal. Most people will not play/like games that are too real. Even games that are hyper-realistic like "Arma" and "Escape from Tarkov" could be argued that they're not real enough, so where do you draw the line to still have a playerbase who enjoys and wants to play your game. I think what they have for this game works great.

Regarding the voice chat specifically, we live in a day where people can call each others cell phones, use Apps like TeamSpeak and Discord, Skype, and about 10 other ways to communicate during any game and on any platform on the market right now. There is no way to regulate that; so by them making it harder to communicate in game would just make people mad and less likely to play.

Yet, in the same instance where you speak of how unrealistic it is to hold conversations with their crew while on the other side of the map, you then advocate having player gamertags appear in different colors once allied so you can distinguish friend from foe...? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?

In the end, I disagree with the vocal communication limitations you suggest, but I would be open to seeing the gamertag change colors or something relevant once allied.

There is nothing Rare can do about private chat. You can't force millions of people to use the same VC platform. Even if you did, people would find a way around it using third party platforms. Private chat is here to stay, you'll have to learn to adapt.

The alliance name tags and friendly fire has been discussed at length on these forums. Technically, Rare COULD turn friendly fire off and change the name tags of alliance members, but would that really be good for the game? Alliances are supposed to be an uneasy relationship and you could be backstabbed at any moment. I personally like that element of choice and surprise in the game. I like it that alliance members can attack me without notice, however more times than not if you just talk to your alliance members, you can sense when an alliance might go sour and be prepared for it.

What you say is logical but this is a video game. Interesting idea to your first point. Now as far as the second, Joe Neate has said he personally gets a kick out of having trouble identifying your alliance. I have been in these situations and it is sooo confusing and funny. It does hinder the ability to win but the point is for people to run around like idiots not knowing who to fire at. I think it works and is funny as well.

@secretprojectx said in Private Chat is Cheating and Alliances Have Become Detrimental:

Since when did pirates have access to walkie talkie's? The idea that a pirate can be on the other side of the map or tucked away on someones ship and still hold conversations with their crew makes no sense to me.

They can't stop people from using Discord or Xbox parties and force them to only use the in game chat. This is just a part of the game and you have to deal with it.

Also, once an alliance is formed all members should have the same green ID above their head, or have their name show up in the alliance color to help identify them.

Big no to this. The benefits of having an alliance also have to come with an increased risk. That risk is possibly having your trust betrayed or even having someone infiltrate the Alliance.

The fact that names are still white for alliances is important to creating more interesting situations, like having infiltrators and such.

Alliances are ridiculous and create far too many advantages with minimal disadvantages (gold/ reputation multiplying instead of splitting). If your alliance is too big for you to recognize the members in it (because you may never have even met them) then your alliance is too big. Don’t abuse the system and then complain that there is minimal risk...

I agree chats aren’t ideal. It’s also true that rare can’t block them though. I wish there were things they could do by using select audio cues etc using the game chat channel, to force people out of party’s. That being said it would only stop Xbox party chats as PC players can hear in game and Xbox party chats at the same time. Using vocal commands would require everyone to have mic’s which isn’t going to happen

@sexyjeep said in Private Chat is Cheating and Alliances Have Become Detrimental:

...since when could pirates fire themselves out of cannon's 500 feet in the air and survive?
...since when could rowboats sized for 3 people hold 100+ captain's chests plus supplies?

You have to realize that games are games for a reason. There is a fine line between being real, too real, and unreal. Most people will not play/like games that are too real. Even games that are hyper-realistic like "Arma" and "Escape from Tarkov" could be argued that they're not real enough, so where do you draw the line to still have a playerbase who enjoys and wants to play your game. I think what they have for this game works great.

Regarding the voice chat specifically, we live in a day where people can call each others cell phones, use Apps like TeamSpeak and Discord, Skype, and about 10 other ways to communicate during any game and on any platform on the market right now. There is no way to regulate that; so by them making it harder to communicate in game would just make people mad and less likely to play.

Yet, in the same instance where you speak of how unrealistic it is to hold conversations with their crew while on the other side of the map, you then advocate having player gamertags appear in different colors once allied so you can distinguish friend from foe...? Isn't that a bit hypocritical?

In the end, I disagree with the vocal communication limitations you suggest, but I would be open to seeing the gamertag change colors or something relevant once allied.

what you are referring to is fantasy and reality. this has to do with fairness and balance.

some of the game's communication aspects were created taking into account that all players are able to communicate with each other without any complications or roadblocks. everyone should be able to hear and talk to one another. it is very inconvenient to join a crew only to find out that they are not responsive because most of them are on discord and cannot hear you. or, it is unfortunate to find a random crew you want to negotiate with only to realize they cannot hear you.

players isolated and separate themselves from the game because of this. rare would want us all to communicate and negotiate within their own game, friend and foe.

@secretprojectx I didn't say you couldn't dislike cross map chat, and you're right, the forum is here for you to make suggestions. It's also here for me to reply to, to counter-argue and/or disagree with you, and offer my own perspective. I am not disagreeing with you just to be contrary.

Its a nay from me on Alliance name colors, all these do is just remove whatever potential infiltration one can do. I have quite a few personal experiences that were a blast by pretending to be in an Alliance when I wasn't. End result was them attacking each other while we swooped in and cleaned house.

If your Alliances are so big that you can't even remember a name vaguely or even remember how they are dressed then its clear that Alliance had little thought put into it to begin with. Most likely made just for easy money farming. Alliances already have much going for them, someone having to put at least a little effort to remember who is in it seems reasonable.