Solo play in sea of thieves

  • After having played sea of thieves with both friends and on my own, I have noticed a large difference in the quality of gameplay. To put it plainly, playing solo is pretty unfair. You are at the mercy of any other ship, be it simply a duo sloop or a four man galleon, which mean you are always at a large disadvantage when it comes to combat, world events and voyages. I think the game and a large amount of its players could benefit from servers dedicated to only solo players being added. A player would load in to the server in a closed crew that allows only one and the only other players in the server would also be solo sloop players. I think that this would make the game more fair when it comes to combat, world events and it may even make things like the alliance system more popular. It also could inspire more people to get the game if they were on the fence before.

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  • No. Solo only servers are practically PvE servers.

  • It is true that Solo Slooping has always been SoT hard mode. But that's alright. Finding a buddy to play with you isn't that hard nowadays. I made plenty of friends through Discord that way. :)

  • @bongosell
    "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger", and you can't die irl from playing Sea Of Thieves- meaning true solo players are the strongest out there.

  • @bongosell

    Yes, solo slooping is hard mode.

    No, solo slooping is not impossible.

    Actually, for me, there's nothing as exciting in this game as being solo in a sloop. No crew based gameplay gives me the same rush, or sense of satisfaction as managing to come out on top as a solo slooper against the odds.

    Yes, you will get sunk a lot. Yes, you will get dumpstered and trash talked by larger crews. Yes, you'll lose your loot, a lot.

    But...

    Those times when you turn the tables on a larger crew and make them run away from what they thought would be an easy sink. When you take their loot and send them to the ferry. Those moments are some of the best moments in gaming, and as a solo, you'll know that it was all you, nobody carried you to victory, you snatched your life from the ferryman's cold dead hands with nothing but the knowledge in your head, skills under your belt and your sheer force of will.

    That feeling is worth all of the stress, pain and heartbreak. For me anyway. Your mileage may vary.

  • @scurvywoof Not really, if anything it would inspire people to test their skills in a fair 1v1. Then a fight wouldn’t be determined on crew and ship size, it would be determined on both players skill. Plus PvE would be completely optional. If people want to play like that, let them play like that. It is an intended feature after all.

  • Clearly solo play is the way Rare want us to play with this latest update. After 4.5 years of encouragement of sailing with others for a better experience.

  • @grog-minto Some people simply just don’t have that option. Maybe friends they already play with are not online, they don’t have a mic or even something like introverted insecurity's can stop people from trying. Solo servers being added could help people in these situations.

  • @boxcar-squidy The cons definitely out way the pros at least in my opinion. Sure there are those cool moments where you shake people chasing you, sink them or teach a team a lesson but they are really hard to come by when the odds are so heavily stacked against you. Even then they can always comeback and hit you twice as hard making the feeling of victory fade.

  • @methetron-mkii They dropped the act of "togetherness" a long time ago. I mean look how far they will go for the streamers but their majority player base it shut down in a forum from even discussing the options of specific server types.

  • @hrhboudii said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    @methetron-mkii They dropped the act of "togetherness" a long time ago. I mean look how far they will go for the streamers but their majority player base it shut down in a forum from even discussing the options of specific server types.

    The topic is not shut down, it's been discussed under every angle and the devs have bit crystal clear about their intentions with server types. It's actually a stubborn minority who refuses to accept their decision and play deaf and victims instead.

  • @bloodybil The mods shut down a topic regarding the matter of server types maybe an hour or so....

    If it is the minority, why not let them be heard? I'm not an anti-pvp player but I'm also not opposed to seeing how other are experiencing the game.

  • @hrhboudii said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    @bloodybil The mods shut down a topic regarding the matter of server types maybe an hour or so....

    Re-read my post.

    Again, the discussion isn't being shut down, it's already past and over. You are simply late to the party, but feel free to use the search function to look up all the threads about the topic and how they all ended.

    Anyways, shortly a mod will post a summary (once more) about how the devs feel about the topic and how/why they reached their decision, in their podcast and other threads, but god knows you won't care about any of it since it's not the answer you want from them.

  • @bongosell I can understand that. At the same time they also should understand what they are going into and the game should definitely do a better job at that. The game was meant to be played with friends, the solo option was definitely an afterthought.

    They've recently buffed the solo sloop experience (and by a lot imo) with decreased respawn timer, decreased push from cannonball, stronger mast and more diverse spawn points. That's definitely going in the right direction (a highly skilled solo is no joke at the moment, even against a Galion).

    Personally I'm not for splitting the player base but it's definitely better than creating pve servers.

  • @bloodybil The topic has not been discussed in every angel if the game is ever evolving. My point was the mods are shutting down the topic, which they are. They also are open to providing a safe place for their streams but not the overall player base, but you didn't have a response to that?

    What people are experiencing out on the seas is real and largely unchecked.

  • This update had a few major changes for solo play that truly did balance it out.

    The main one being sovereigns

    Solos could adapt in every way but they still had to run loot back and forth.

    Ask pretty much any of us with a lot of experience and success as solos and we will all say the same thing, the selling was the worst part.

    That was solved, it's cheesey, but it was solved for the outposts

    fortifying the sloop was alright but the major combat related change was the no revive on the ship thing. This is a BIG deal as now solos that actually perform decently have positive effects for the times they get those kills to break camps.

    Solo is in a real positive place right now when it comes to being a realistic option for people in the environment. There is a lot of loot to get in all different types of gameplay and risk levels and it is very very easy to sell it as a solo now.

    They said they would address solo play and they did, quite well.

    Something they can't do that a pirate has to do for themselves is not view themselves as a victim of the environment. If they adapt and become efficient they will succeed in their own way, they will get a lot done and make a lot of gold.

  • @mintharp184509 Look I'm not advocating for anti-pvp or conflict or even breaking up the server types, but to tell them their experiences don't account for anything is pretty ridiculous. It's not just because they are solo, it is also the interactions they are having while solo that lead them to that request. (and no its not always because they don't like pvp) People have brought forth some pretty horrendous experiences that happen more commonly then people want to acknowledge and just because you don't acknowledge them doesn't mean they are not happening.

  • @mintharp184509 People need to remember that this would be an additional feature.

  • @bongosell said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    @boxcar-squidy The cons definitely out way the pros at least in my opinion. Sure there are those cool moments where you shake people chasing you, sink them or teach a team a lesson but they are really hard to come by when the odds are so heavily stacked against you. Even then they can always comeback and hit you twice as hard making the feeling of victory fade.

    Yeah, but your own personal skill, game sense and map knowledge is growing every time you play.

    Right now the cons outweigh the pros for you. In 2 months from now? Who knows?

    I didn't enjoy solo slooping when I started playing back in 2018. After some time, I got to where you are now, enjoying being solo, right up until I met another crew. Some time after that I found myself in a place where I wanted something more challenging and suddenly solo slooping was the only thing that gave me the buzz I was looking for.

    The most important thing is to do what you enjoy right now, but keep an eye on the horizon, because the more skilled you become the bigger the challenge you'll need to find things exciting. Some day you might just find yourself seeking out the danger that scares you today.

  • Ahoy!

    Solo slooping has always been recognised as being playing the game on hard mode. Sea of Thieves is a communal game and is better with friends. We're aware of the challenges this faces for some and although we do offer a variety of places to find people to play with (including our Looking For Crew channels on our official Discord server) we have also taken on board the feedback regarding gameplay and if you check the latest release notes you'll see a variety of changes have been made to improve the life of the solo slooper.

    These include:

    • Sloop Mast Damage Rebalance - A Sloop’s mast is now more resilient than other ship types, taking two chainshot strikes or three cannonballs before being toppled.

    • Disabling Sloop Mast Friendly Fire - Chainshots will no longer damage the masts of players’ own ships when fired upwards from a cannon on the deck.

    • Additional Sloop Respawn Locations - New respawn locations have been added around the Sloop, providing more variety in where crew members will return from the Ferry of the Damned.

    These changes have been made in order to improve the quality of life on the seas for solo sloopers so they stand a fair chance against bigger crews.

    We have no intention of splitting up our playerbase by implementing solo servers but will continue to listen to feedback and make changes in order to balance gameplay for all of our players.

  • @mintharp184509 said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    Most solo players would have a better experience if they faced an equal crew size aka another solo player. If it was a matchmaking option then solos who get tired of always winning against other solos can switch the toggle and join servers with full crews again. What’s the harm in having the feature?

    Interfering with the shared adventure environment that is not only about combat and not only about winning/losing.

    Interaction is necessary and separating people to cater to combat related concerns at the sacrifice of adventure based randomness is counter productive to tavern tale creation.

    It's the potential for all to randomly interact that is the special ingredient. We all lose fights, every solo that can log in can succeed to some degree, even with losses to larger crews. Larger crews don't stop a solo from playing efficiently, to their strengths. Larger crews don't stop solos from gaining experience over time to minimize their losses and maximize their profits through consistency and well placed strategy.

  • @mintharp184509 said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    Well there you have it folks. The official message is don't solo sloop if you can't accept the learning curve or can't handle defeat.

    Fixed it.

  • @boxcar-squidy From having played solo a lot, I have been in a fair few fights and some of them I win, some I lose. Well mostly lose since unfortunately pure skill cannot account for gameplay features like managing repairs all over your ship, whilst trying to steer, whilst taking even more dmg from enemy ships and enemy’s from said ships are constantly attempting to board you. It’s simply just not possible. It’s borderline unfair. I really don’t see an issue with lobby’s filled with only solo players being added. The fights, world events, voyages and alliances would all be more fair due to eliminating the one big issue of crew size. People could choose how they want to play, not forced by being underpowered. Be it’s PvP or PvE, it would be in the hands of the player, as it should be.

  • @mintharp184509 said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    @bloodybil

    You added your version. My version stands.

    Indeed, your opinion stands.

  • @mintharp184509 Ahoy matey!

    That's not the message at all here...

    It has always been the case that Sea of Thieves at its core has been a social game, one better played with multiple people in a shared world adventure game and you get more out of it when you sail with more people and with that the game also becomes easier with the work load shared.

    Sailing on a sloop by default is hard, not saying it's impossible... but it's not always for the faint hearted... But if it's your vessel of choice, go for it and set sail for that horizon!

  • @mintharp184509 said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    Well there you have it folks. The official message is don’t solo sloop.

    My message is believe in yourselves and stay focused on goals. Loss is inevitable, sometimes, nobody can stop it.

    We reap what we sow so put in the effort, tend to the crop of experience and learning, Never accept self doubt or doubt from others as truth. Harvest results.

    There will always be those that say it's not possible, it's not fair, it's not worth it, they encourage defeat. They are wrong. People are capable and will succeed as a solo if they go through the process of putting in the effort and adapting with strategy that makes sense for them and their goals.

  • @musicmee That shouldn’t mean that the solo player base is left in the dust with nothing but a few balance changes as a bandaid for the situation.

  • @mintharp184509 said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    So don’t solo when you want to PvP simple as that. Also don’t buy PE stuff when they refuse to level the playing field for solos by actually addressing the numbers advantage.

    Or approach it without influence from others

    Find out what is right for them, put in the time to gain the knowledge that they can use to make informed decisions for themselves. Buy what they want to buy, support what they want, how they want.

    It's their journey, they should figure it out for themselves so that they become the pirate of their potential rather than a mold of what another wants them to be.

  • @meroviel It’s a real shame to hear that there are no thoughts about solo servers being added. I 100% think that it would only be positive. It wouldn’t be splitting up the player base, it would be balancing it. I find it odd that solo sloops are even recognised as hard mode yet practically nothing is done. Keeping things the way there are force this side of the player base to be stuck with unfair battles that they have no chance of winning. Sloop on sloop would make practically everything fair for solo players. Voyages, ship fights, player fights, tall tales, world events, alliances and basic decisions would all be more fair. There are practically no downsides.

  • @bongosell said in Solo play in sea of thieves:

    @musicmee That shouldn’t mean that the solo player base is left in the dust with nothing but a few balance changes as a bandaid for the situation.

    Don't know what else to tell you guys, this is a shared world game that is meant to include under the same roof all matters of crews and people from various sizes, skill levels and intentions. You voluntarily choose to be potentially outmanned and/or outgunned. You can meet anyone on the seas, that is part of the game. But in the end you have to adapt to the choices you made.

  • Edit: oops, thought I was posting to a different thread, though my comments still stand, along with a “nope, don’t support segregated servers”. I expect the seas to calm down in a couple of weeks or so, seems like there’s always a ton of activity at the beginning of a season.

    I play solo for probably at least half my play time, partially because it’s at night in an environment where I can’t use a mic and partially because I enjoy the freedom and the challenge. Now this is only my experience (though I’m on the US East Coast so I suspect mine is not uncommon) but I spend many enjoyable hours sailing smart and doing whatever I want. I’ve had some fun PvP, some unpleasant PvP, some PvP that was over so quickly I never knew what hit me. I don’t do FoF or FotD because the time/risk/reward balance is way out of whack for my skill level but I pretty much do everything else.

    You’ll get a very strong opinion on the state of the seas here on the Forum, but I’d strongly encourage you to go in with an open mind and a positive attitude and form your own opinions about whether solo’ing is going to work for you.

    With that said, I also immensely enjoy sailing with my crew (which happens to be my two kids). I’d say that it’s a totally different game; not better, not worse, just a completely different experience. If you can, you should crew up sometime and give it a shot.

  • @bloodybil Yea the problem is that you don’t “voluntarily choose”, you’re forced. If you have no one to play with and don’t want to join an open crew (which is a whole other messy topic if afk farmers and toxic players) then you are forced to play solo. Simply saying “oh too bad then” isn’t a fix and it’s just leaving a large amount of players in an unfair and stupid situation even though there is a simple solution which benefits everyone. It’s really upsetting that this isn’t being acknowledged and even hand waived away by the devs.

  • thats what solo is for
    do you solo exams or do it together?

  • I usually solo sloop and if I see a brig coming after me, or a galleon, I try to use different tactics.

    I may get a lot of hate, but if I'm alone, and I'm just fishing, or tinkering with different islands (without an emissary), I tend to try to cheese a group of 2, 3, or 4 pirates that are trying to absolutely wreck my ship.

    I can usually just try to keg them, lead them through a skelly fleet, sail around an active ghost fort (war of supplies haha).

    There are options available if you're uncomfortable with a straight naval (which is my preferred means of attacking other ships), but I think solo slooping is currently in the best place we can get it at the moment. If we buff sloops, then duo sloopers will be even stronger (and they're already rather strong right now with how the holes/bucketing works), and if we nerf them then sloops won't be able to straight fight with a brig or a galley that's fully staffed (though it should be noted that galleys can be hard to keep up if you don't have a crew that knows what they're doing, which can't be said for the sloop).

    if you're playing the game alone and have no plans of changing that, treat it like a souls game. You're going to die over and over and over again until you figure out how to dodge/strike correctly against bosses with more health and more DPS than you.

    Hehe "Cease your Foolish Ambitions at once, Solo SLOOPER!

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